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BL Compilations

swimming in the BL vortex

BL Compilations

swimming in the BL vortex
Battle of the Writers thai drama review
Completed
Battle of the Writers
19 people found this review helpful
by BL Compilations
Jul 29, 2024
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

excellent visuals, actors deserved better writing/editing (watch suggestions)

Overall: there was quite a bit of potential but the choppy storytelling/editing hurt the series a lot. The last few episodes were better so that week break seemed to help. Aired 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. YouTube cut version https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzTP1IMPICl6R_dsvgKnBAMp6htoQwswK (episode 1 uncut was 47 minutes 29 seconds which is what I added up the cut parts on YouTube minus the breaks between parts so there wasn't a difference in episode 1, later cut episodes removed NSFW) and iQIYI Thailand only uncut version with delayed English subtitles https://www.iq.com/play/battle-of-the-writers-episode-1-21ue1zzg12c?lang=en_us I rated the cut version a 7 and uncut 7.5.

Content Warnings: non con picture taking, threat, stalking, non con kissing, drugged, non con touching?, injured/clubbed, violence/blood, manipulation, sexism, homophobia

What I Liked
- aesthetics/visuals
- good/realistic that she wouldn't give out his phone number
- tropey falls but they were cute
- supportive group of friends
- sweet moments
- good intimacy/NSFW scenes were well done

Room For Improvement
- with dreams, flashbacks, fast jumps, re-telling scenes from a different perspective, etc the series feels extremely choppy both in modern day and in the Xianxia parts
- the writing felt very contrived, the characters didn't act like real people and what people would say/do, also inconsistent characterization with the guy in black who started by being self assured and then suddenly was nervous/anxious, a character who was multilingual chose to speak a language that no one else could understand in the beginning
- having the panda face paint/jammies on the Chinese character felt a bit iffy
- completely not needed to character assassinate an established queer couple, there were multiple other ways the writers could have achieved what they wanted
- comedy sound effects detracted from the humor, the magic mushrooms in episode 3 were cringey and not funny
- the manipulation/lying by a character in episode 9
- random marriage in episode 11
- wearing socks (on feet) in NSFW scene
- no international release for the uncut version, only available in Thailand (deducted a half point for this as the uncut was better)

Watch Suggestions (it was really challenging in the beginning episodes so I included the Xianxia parts and then also included some sweet/steamy scenes)
- episode 1 part 1 beginning to 2 minutes (zero explanation of why one was blindfolded...)
- episode 2 part 1 beginning to 2:15 (pinned against tree, sword won't harm soulmate)
- episode 3 part 1 beginning to 3:10 (got something in his eye), 6:43 to the end (seem to be in school???)
- episode 3 part 2 beginning to 3:05 (talking about a character, gets a royal decree to kill the other guy? then flash forward then flashback???), 4:13-4:45 (2 other random characters talking to the guy in white), 10:10-10:30 (short fight)
- episode 3 part 4 10:50 -13:12 (introduced a noble genius character who becomes the demon guy's master???)
- episode 4 part 1 beginning to 1:25 and then jump to episode 4 part 2 at 2:55-3:12 to see the end of this scene (flower from his hair)
- episode 4 part 1 8:10-end, roasting a chicken blew out dust from his eye (same scene as in episode 3 part 1)
- episode 5 part 1 1:50-4
- episode 5 part 3 beginning to 3 minutes, 5 min to end
- episode 5 part 4 6:17-6:32
- episode 6 part 1 3:30-6:45 and episode 6 part 3
- episode 7 has a random couple introduced but they kiss at 16:30
- watch episode 7 uncut 29:50-33:15 steamy scene and then 33:30-42:30 for Xianxia kissing
- watch episode 8 part 1 3:45-7
- watch episode 8 part 2 2:40-4, 6:15-end
- watch episode 8 part 3 6-7
- watch episode 8 part 4 4-5:50
- watch episode 8 uncut 16-18:55 for a steamy scene
- watch episode 9 uncut 27-36:20 for a very steamy scene and then 43-end
- watch episode 10: part 1, part 2, start part 3 at 7:45 and part 4 at 4:30 (watch ep 10 uncut around the steamy parts for more steam)
- watch episode 11: part 1, part 2 beg to 3:30 and 11:45-13, part 4 beg to 1:45 (the elevator kissing might be a bit longer in uncut)
- watch episode 12: part 1 (watch the uncut until 10:30, they cut 4 minutes of NSFW here), part 2 and part 4 5min to the end
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