Battle of the Writers

8/10 Surprisingly Enjoyable

8/10 Surprisingly Enjoyable
Honestly, I went into Battle of the Writers with pretty low expectations because of the low rating but I didn't bother reading the negative reviews. To my surprise, I actually ended up enjoying it! It's a light, easy-to-watch romance with a touch of comedy. If you're just looking to relax without getting emotionally wrecked, this is a great pick. It's heartwarming, cute, and has a calm vibe, not a complicated or heavy series at all.
I especially liked Shan and Ob-aun's backstory and how it ties into the main plot. Also, I really appreciated the scenes where they brought their own novel to life, short but creative, and their wuxia costumes were on point! Visually, the cinematography was beautiful and the OST was chef's kiss.
Tutor and Yim's chemistry? Still as strong as ever. If you've seen them in other series, you know what I mean. The side couples also had really good chemistry, which made the show even more fun to watch.
Ob-aun's flirty little daydreams were adorable, and once he and Shan became a couple, their non-stop flirting had me giggling like a crazy.
I watched the uncut version, and it was spicier than I expected. Too many kisses and NC. Speaking of NC, it felt natural and not cringey or forced at all, which I appreciated.
Don't let the bad reviews turn you off. Just try the first few episodes and decide for yourself. Sure, the writing isn't perfect, and yeah, there are some cheesy parts, but overall it kept me entertained.
That said this series has no big drama, no villains, no stressful or unnecessary plot twists-it's just a feel-good series. I enjoy action-packed dramas too, but sometimes, I'm just in the mood for something mellow and sweet like this. Maybe I'm just not a harsh critic, or maybe I'm easy to please, but for me, this was definitely watchable, way more than some shows I've rated 5 or below (feel free to check out my other reviews if you're curious 00).
However, there were a few things I noticed: some early episodes had unnecessary flashbacks, and there was this round table scene where the camera kept circling and made me dizzy-l had to skip it. Also, some of the makeup was a bit much but their outfits were stylish, so l'i let that slide.
The title is kind of misleading. I thought it would be an actual battle of the writers, or maybe an enemies-to-lovers plot, but nope, they're all working on the same BL novel. Still, it turned out to be a pretty solid watch.

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Some good ideas, but an absolute mess

Battle of the Writers was not a drama that particularly caught my attention. I’d even go as far as saying I had absolutely no interest in watching it. But after seeing TutorYim in Love Upon a Time, I wanted to discover them a little more. Unfortunately, while the pairing went far beyond my expectations, the story itself left me feeling pretty conflicted.

The first episode actually seemed extremely promising. We are introduced to a young writer juggling two jobs who, in the span of a single day, gets accused of plagiarism, loses his second job, and gets kicked out by his roommate. The tone felt fairly dramatic, and I genuinely thought the story would follow that path with a one-sided enemies-to-lovers setup. I expected O-baun to resent Shan for everything happening in his life before eventually falling for him after realizing Shan had always been supporting him. Add in a stalker, literary scandals on social media, career struggles, and you have something fairly classic but effective, with a romance naturally growing in the middle of all the chaos.

The problem is that while we definitely got plenty of events, coherence somehow got lost along the way. Everything feels fragmented and disconnected. I can’t even say the story itself is bad because honestly… it isn’t. It’s actually pretty engaging. But the storytelling is absolutely terrible.

I still struggle to understand how you can start with such amazing foundations and somehow end up with such a mess. The drama keeps throwing ideas at us nonstop, completely out of order, with little development and almost no payoff. We get a plagiarism storyline that lasts one episode without really knowing how it was resolved, a stalker who seems completely obsessed and disappears for nine episodes before randomly reappearing just to end up in prison, five writers who barely know each other suddenly becoming best friends while writing a novel together, and a protagonist moving into the ML’s house after meeting him twice… well, twice in real life anyway.

And on top of all that, the story is constantly interrupted by imaginary wuxia sequences from the novel being written, which somehow take up almost 80% of the drama.

As someone who absolutely loves this type of universe, it surprisingly did not work for me at all here. I would have much preferred a slow burn development for the main story and side couples without being interrupted every five minutes by scenes from an imaginary novel that, at some point, I honestly stopped caring about. The drama throws both time skips and imaginary jumps at us constantly, often during important moments. It becomes exhausting, especially with episode endings building up cliffhangers only for the next episode to suddenly throw us into the future instead. The story is already a walking narrative disaster, so taking away one of the few genuinely interesting elements certainly doesn’t help.

Because yes, the romance was very clearly the thing keeping me invested. Beyond the absurd comedy of certain situations, like the bathtub misunderstanding or that episode involving hallucination mushrooms that had me literally crying from laughter, my attachment mainly came from the characters and their relationships. The cast is adorable, likable, and has fantastic chemistry together. If we ignore the narrative train wreck happening around them, I ended up falling for almost every character, especially the main couple who gave us an incredibly green-flag relationship based on communication, softness, and mutual understanding.

Well… soft, at least until Tutor and Yim’s chemistry enters the room.

I already knew this was a Domundi production, but somehow they still manage to surprise me every time with their intimate scenes. Everything feels extremely choreographed and artistic while balancing sweetness and passion at the same time. So honestly, I definitely got my money’s worth because things got very hot very quickly, especially when Tutor and Mark apparently decided that clothing was optional. This production company truly refuses to leave us starving.

I also thought it was pretty interesting how the drama only switched between worlds during intimate moments. The scenes in reality start off soft, sweet, and fairly restrained before transitioning into the imagined wuxia world where things suddenly become much more passionate and intense, with less music and much heavier breathing. Personally, I would have expected the opposite, but it creates a really interesting contrast between reality and fiction that I ended up enjoying a lot.

And honestly, Tutor and Yim completely won me over. It’s official. I’ve adopted them.

Overall, it would be a lie to say that watching this drama was painful because my viewing experience worked on two completely different levels. My analytical side found itself walking through an endless field of scattered Lego mines with absolutely nothing connecting them. Structurally, the drama is a complete disaster that somehow feels understandable only if your brain decides to split into multiple personalities for the day. Nothing feels properly connected or fully developed despite the fact that the story had enough potential to become one of my favorites.

Meanwhile, my emotional side was completely satisfied by the characters, the romances, and the explosive chemistry between the actors. So as usual, if a drama gives me a strong enough emotional experience to overpower an apocalyptic storyline, my overall feelings toward it will naturally end up more positive than negative.

Still, I can’t help feeling disappointed because seeing so much wasted potential hurts even more when the starting point was genuinely great.

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MERECIAM MELHOR ROTEIRO & EDIÇÃO

A série concluiu já de uma forma como eu pensava que iria ocorrer a partir do 11º episódio. Primeiro de tudo, eu tinha assistido ao trailer piloto ou algo assim e fiquei intrigado com o conceito, pois adoro histórias ligadas a escritores e talvez alguns elementos Wuxia com atores tailandeses...? No entanto, fiquei um pouco decepcionado com o enredo/roteiro em geral e estou bastante chocado por dar um 7, pensei que daria um 6, não estou brincando.
Acho que a maneira como eles editaram algumas cenas e até as executaram não foi bem feita, às vezes foi até exagerada, estranha e um pouco constrangedora. Não sei. Sinto que não estava tão animado, algo estava um pouco errado. Alguns personagens não eram tão importantes, eles tinham menos tempo de tela, é uma pena porque parece que eles estavam aqui apenas porque estão em um papel coadjuvante.
A atuação foi um pouco melhor, mesmo assim, conhecendo o potencial dos atores ainda ficou a desejar. Todas as OST foram super legais de ouvir, eu tenho que aplaudir o fato de que eles estavam cantando em mandarim, foi um bom esforço!!
No entanto, eu não vou lembrar muito dessa série (exceto o fato de que as cenas íntimas foram meio inesquecíveis, mas veja bem, eu não quero lembrar de uma série só por suas cenas NC) e eu não vou assistir de novo. Eu realmente espero ver TurtorYim e outros atores/pares com um novo enredo que possa realmente prender minha atenção.

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mucho papapa, poco plot salven a mis TutorYim de estas series

Como otra vez con Tutoryim, espere demasiado
El plot es de un equipo de escritores de distintos géneros de bl, unen fuerzas para hacer una mega novela. En el medio dos de los chaboncetes se van enamorando a causa de un error de que los fans pensaron que se plagiaron entre sí cuando ellos nunca se habían hablado (en realidad si se plagiaron pero eso es muy difícil de explicar). Cabe destacar que uno de estos escritores empezo a escribir por que era fan del otro
El plot?? me pareció normal y hasta dije “ay al fin una serie decente para tutor y yim” oh i was wrong
el romance entre ellos dos pasa DEMASIADO rápido, tipo es lo contrario a slow burn posta
y apenas termina la breve fase de coqueteo PAPAPA COGEN TRES VECES POR EP
pero dios esta serie parece de mame con la cantidad de veces innecesarias en las que cogen explícitamente sin ninguna correlación a la historia
fue pesada en partes por que sentias que el guion a partir de un punto ya estaba vacio jajaja ya no había plot
un ep me traumo un poquito por que me mostraron el ogt de uno de los chabones secundarios -10000000/10
esta serie del tutoryim no me dolió tanto terminarla y por eso se merece un mucho mejor puntaje solo por que esta si la pude terminar

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I thought it was kind of meh.

I swear, the TutorYim deserve SO much more than they are currently getting, it makes me angry. They are good actors, but it's basically their third job that they are the SAME THING.
Then because Yim is a helpless and silly being and Tutor is there to show that he deserves to be loved and accepted. Tell me another one.
The series has no problems, and everything is poorly explained. They have no problems, no arguments, and everything they do is easily resolved, there's not even time to stop and absorb the “problem” because PLIM it no longer exists.
How did they meet, why did they decide to write together, what led them to become friends?
Intouch declared his love for Shen for no reason, they spread rumors about his supposed relationship with the other guy for no reason.
The side stories were a thousand times more interesting than the main one. Because despite everything, they had problems and motivations. They were clichés, but they had SOMETHING.
The main story had nothing.

If someone told me they were the same couple as Middlesman and Cutie Pie, I would believe it.
It's very easy and convenient to put the two in the same character prompts, it's simple to make Tutor a worried person and Yim a slow person, because that's what everyone is “used” to seeing. But when it comes to putting them together for 7 minutes of sex on screen, “oh, why can't you stick to these stereotypes?”

The series is good, it had an investment, it had good quality art, and the cinematography leaves nothing to be desired. But what's the point if the script is terrible?

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