When I Win the World Ends [Pokémon]
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
Once a year, the world's best trainers compete for the title of World Champion. Toril, the favorite, has dedicated her life to battling. Aracely, the underdog, has not. In fact, she barely knows the rules. She didn't even build her own team. She's a mockery of the sacred bond between trainers and Pokémon, one Toril swears to eliminate.
But Aracely makes plays that shouldn't be possible. She reads opponents as though reading their minds, predicts exactly what they'll do. And now, she's made another prediction, one far more unsettling: "When I win, the world ends."
This story covers a tournament arc, features Smogon-style competitive Pokémon battles with real mechanics from the games, and includes both original and canon characters.
Information
- Status
- Completed
- Year
- 2024
- Author
- Bavitz
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.8/ 5.0
- Followers
- 122
- Views
- 56,516
Chapters(24 total)
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(10)
- Bingus From A Distant LandRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Honestly, an incredible piece. For a work set in a world with as much pre-established lore and worldbuilding as Pokemon, to be able to do something almost wholly unique within its framework is truly commendable. More than the pokemon, this is a story of humans, and of humanity, both what it means and what its worth, especially for women in male spaces. When a society values womanhood more than women, what becomes of it? Elements of romance and horror linger throughout its prose, eventually culminating in a message of bittersweet hope. I cannot recommend it enough on both a technical and thematic level. Nobody is doing it like this, and certainly not as well.
- ClevClearlyRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0As someone who knows very little about Pokemon and even less about the nuances of competitive Pokemon, I wouldn't have ever read this story if it weren't from Bavitz. I'm glad I did. Despite being such a heavily "rat-fic" kind of narrative, all about "How would the Pokemon setting REALLY work? What's the meta?", this story is so heartfelt that I was really moved by it and its characters.
Bavitz has often talked about the 'end of history', something I've thought about a lot in my life and my own writing. Stagnation, a feeling like life cannot improve or will only get worse. The Pokemon world presented is seemingly utopian in nature. All conflict is settled through Pokemon battling, and technology allows people to have a magically high standard of living. But that is all it can be. Everyone in this setting is confined by this cultural stasis, struggling to either survive in it or push it forward. I was always rooting for them to find a way out of the cage.
This is one of my favorite Bavitz stories (although I might like Cleveland Quixotic more) and I am very much looking forward to seeing what he does next. - ConquistadorRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This is high-quality. If you've been reading stories on RoyalRoad for a while, you're likely used to barebones prose, stock characters, and a plot that's been improvised on the go. None of these apply to When I Win the World Ends.
Here, the author deliberately crafts the language to be beautiful and effective, only rarely over-indulging in metaphor. Every character is distinct and interesting, believable without being too realistic to be appealing. And the story has clearly been pre-planned, written, and edited—a rarity in webfiction.
Don't expect anything near a self-indulgent power fantasy; this is a gripping sports drama, focused and tight. Inspiration is taken from real-life competitive Pokémon tactics; and while knowledge of the source material is definitely a bonus, I managed to enjoy the story without it. Battles are fought and lost, secrets are kept and revealed, and compelling characters grow and change, spurred on by one another. The story dwells on themes of fate and chance, of excellence and virtue; and this all set in a tournament with only one winner. Highly recommend if any of the above sounds interesting to you.
One caveat: the start is the weakest part—but once it gets going, it gets going. - CozyCrystalRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This story is a delight to read. It has great pacing, a beautiful almost poetic writing style and characters that feel like real broken people.
I'm writing this review right after finishing the final chapter and I already know that the story will remain on my mind for a long time. Please do yourself the favour of reading this, you wont regret it. - DrewLinkyRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I haven't followed pokemon actively since the fourth gen games came out and was singlehandedly put off of the series by the competitive scene, so I was somewhat convinced I would be unable to enjoy this story at all once it began coming out.
Within a few chapters I was more or less on board for the whole thing, which as a faux-genwunner is no mean feat. As far as the writing, a few things: there are certain pieces of prose that I find myself thinking about in my spare time just because of the descriptive power they have. I also am very impressed by the blending of original elements with canonical/established details through this competitive system; it's a weird combination when you step back and think about it, yet it all manages to fit together well and leaves ample room for thought. There's something for everyone here, no matter what kind of Pokemon fan they are. - MakinRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0What do you do when all wars have ended and all major problems have been solved? 17776 offers the solution: “play American Football”.
When I Win the World Ends, Bavitz’s last work, is set in the Pokemon universe, which thankfully offers preset answers. Just like in the games, you either try to become the champion among equals, or join an evil team and create problems for everyone else.
17776 studiously avoids focusing on anyone who’s not okay with the status quo. WIW only cares about those people. Mostly because Bavitz only cares about his “History Has Ended” meme, which he previously explored in Cockatiel x Chameleon, partially because he used to care a lot about the League of Legends competitive scene. But it’s a good lens to put on both Pokemon and utopian settings in general. The magnifying glass is pointed at a few characters located at the extremes of the bell curves, the sorry few for which the utopia isn’t really such.
It all takes place at the global Pokemon battling tournament IPL 64, kind of like the classic single elimination tournament we see in the Pokemon animes. We’re introduced to Aracely Sosa, a fashionable, seemingly carefree trainer who, despite being pretty bad at Pokemon battling, can seemingly predict the future to win anyway. She’s “bankrolled” by her dad, a failed ex-competitor, and the whole affair looks like a designed insult to the established trainers and their institutions. After all, psychic or not, she’s still revealing the dark truth that randomness is a big part of the outcome.
The other main viewpoint and narrative foil is Toril Lund, a no-nonsense obsessively perfect trainer who avoids interviews and calculates flawless damage percentages in her head. I call her obsessive, but Cely is too, in a way, laser focused on winning the championship, if for a different reason. Their relationship as opposites is pretty funny.
The supporting cast features very well used canon characters like Red, Bill and Iono, as well as some good originals - Overwhelming MinorityRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This story kept me hooked for most of it, with interesting characters and a gripping mystery- my only complaint is that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, without as much catharsis as I would like, and the battles were sometimes a bit too dense.
I also liked a Pokemon story with a protagonist that actually struggles to bond with their team, compared to most MCs that do it effortlessly. - WhenwereweRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I know nothing about Pokemon and wouldn't have read this if it weren't a Bavitz story, but holy God is it good. It managed to get me genuinely interested in the otherwise bizarre mechanics of battling, which I absolutely could not follow but which nonetheless managed to communicate all the drama and tension they needed to. The characters are excellently realised, sympathetic or contemptible or often both.
- lakeanonRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0The focus of the story is not on the pokemon, but the trainers. Pokemon battles are simply how the trainers express their philosophy. Thanks to the use of a Smogon-like system, the story reads as more of a sports drama, which is to its benefit, since the relationship between Aracely and Toril is the centerpiece, and nothing dramatizes relationships like sports.
To this end, the human characters are what shine the brightest, and and of their faults and flaws are thrown into terrifying relief. The tension between characters is well done, with every fraught interaction feeling like balancing on piano wire. Adding on to the excellent use of tension is the central mystery of the story, and how it unfolds only leads to more questions.
Definitely worth a read. I can't wait for Aracely and Toril to try and kill each other - nothingtoseeherRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Read this story first off-site so chapter is wrong. While it's billed as a pokemon fanfic, you don't really need to know the rules to follow the fic - it's mostly naturally explained through character thoughts. What remains is just a good tournament arc, complete and wrapped together nicely, with character arcs complete - or intentionally left hanging