Byzantine empire theme or despotates?

[PAnz3r]

After some struggling and a lot of civil war (that's byzantine) I managed to install photos as ruling dynasty (facing civil war at every new emperor but still byzantine ;) ).
Now I facing this dilemma: I mantained a theme structure with only a couple of ex-despotates created (mainly by error), however I can't figure out if would be better to have few "despotes" as vassal than a lot of theme guys....especially if I want to switch my dynasty to dominant...

Any hint?

[A Random Etruscan Noble]

You shouldn't you lose access to the duchy troops under those Despotates which they keep making them very dangerous if they rebel against you, I only had one in my last Byzantine playthrough and it was in Egypt which I always handed off to the family member I wanted to be my heir before elevating them to Co-Emperor as a failsafe in case he lost the election

[PAnz3r]

Understand....by the way I feel that to rise to dominant would be better with despots...maybe

[brownacs]

Originally posted by PAnz3r:

Understand....by the way I feel that to rise to dominant would be better with despots...maybe

You'll have to lose the empire if you want to do that. The imperial family can't be dominant it seems from my games at least.