Morgane

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific Historical Inspirations

[Historical Inspirations] Historical characters in Pacific

by Morgane 2017年7月24日

Who’s your favorite USN or WW2 person Morgane? You seem to like submarines a lot, so am I right in guessing Nimitz? Will they show up in Pacific?

Close. I hold a lot of admiration for a lot of our historical figures, and I tend to be more sympathetic than not for those that (I feel) got the short end of the stick – Jack Fletcher is a pretty good example. I also tend to defend (more so due to personal opinion, familial experiences (hard to hate your great uncle’s boss, for instance) or other impressions) individuals that may be controversial such as Mush Morton or Ted Sherman.

The latter I’ll answer first. Historical figures show up as either important background characters (E.G. Dwight Eisenhower, the KOG, and so on) or as “historical characters” in the form of ace fairies. The latter out of this group is infinitely easier for me to write, as according to Pacific lore, they are “locked” in time. That is to say, they possess only the knowledge and the “characteristics” up to that point, and the character is effectively frozen in time. So writing a Fuchida is easy because we know how he was during WW2. Writing the aging Fuchida as he appears, not as a fairy but himself in Pacific, is a bit more difficult.

As for the former group, in terms of background characters, you’ll notice that I tend to currently settle with descriptive elements only. After all, the only way to write them well is to read a lot of autobiographies, and you’ll be surprised to find that not two autobiographies are alike. Eisenhower is a prime example of this. I’ve gone through three separate autobiographies of him and combed his presidential library for personality tidbits before finally creating an “impression” of him as a character that I’d like to use. Each of those literally paint a different picture of the president, and I had to do a lot of thinking to synthesize all of those into one thing.

If I was to speak simply, Eisenhower’s a gentle giant. People trusted him. That was perhaps the more important out of all of his traits, and he took that trust seriously. He’s from a rural background, and reading up his experiences – both how he was raised and his experiences at West Point – convinced me that his folky farm-boy persona is both an act that he cultivates and something that is, well, him.

That being said, Eisenhower had an impeccable eye for policy. He is generally considered to be fairly good as a commanding officer in WW2. In real life he ended the Korean War after five months in his presidency and did not get us into another war. Nobody would know how many American and other lives he would have ultimately saved, but that part was particularly irrelevant when you consider that he was a man who stubbornly refused Congress, his advisors, and the Pentagon’s requests of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on countries such as China.

As such, a lot of the groundworks for how STEC grew in Pacific’s universe appeared because he made sense to me. This was after spending quite a bit of effort in trying to see what subtle tweaks can I make to his presidency to get America in Pacific to where I want – let’s just say that even now in 2017 I am ambivalent about the exact order of the presidents that would appear. This isn’t even about Clinton or Bush or Obama or Trump, but let’s just say that I’ve looked deeply into the timeline of Pacific, and I can totally see an America with no Kennedy or Reagan work.

But if you have to have me pick one historical figure to write that pertains to the USN it might come as a surprise to you.

Due to a series of fortunate incidents, I am happy to say that I’ve read more about this man than a twenty-something should. Read Maury’s profile and you’ll quickly see the connection. To me, Arleigh Burke is basically the ur-example of a brilliant USN Navy Admiral. His actions in both peace and war, from childhood to CNO, exemplifies what the Navy is about.

This is a man who not only innovated our destroyer tactics in WW2, but he helped shape the modern day US Navy, with his focus on carrier aviation, nuclear propulsion, and the Polaris missile. He served for six years as CNO – the longest of anyone to hold that office. But he was far more than just a hotshot DD commander, a capable CNO, or a living legend.

As a person? Burke is integrity personified. His work ethic is legendary, as is his drive and professionalism. He’s got a singleminded devotion to a few things in life – his country, the navy, his wife and little else. He spoke his mind and respected and expected others to do the same. Burke’s language can be surprisingly colorful at times.

It’s no wonder to anyone that he would leave but one word as his epitaph: Sailor.

We’re talking about a man who Secretary Tom Gates ordered to take time off because he was afraid that he would break down due to overwork. Sent to a luxury hotel resort in Virginia, Burke lasted a grand total of two days before fleeing back to Washington. He was just uncomfortable in that environment – after all, you’re talking about an admiral who didn’t golf or gamble (the only sport he was known to enjoy is Navy football which he follows religiously), and who sometimes work so hard that he forgets his own dinner parties.

And accomplished he was. By the end of his second term as CNO, he had not only shaped American policy, but he had ensured America’s future investments. USS Long Beach was nearly finished. The Enterprise – the first nuclear carrier – was almost done as well. His Naval Leadership Program is starting to generate immense amounts of talent. He kept the Navy independent, dampened the massive-retaliation strategy, and gotten a lot of younger officers into places where they could do their jobs.

Then there’s Polaris. You didn’t know that Burke was the one who launched the program, got the money for it, promoted it, and ultimately guided it, right?

But did you know what happened to him?

Burke, I don’t want the United States involved in this.

Kennedy’s angry response to Burke’s suggestions of naval during the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Burke himself was opposed to the invasion plans, and he was briefed at the barest of minimums in which – according to his memoirs – that he did not know even how to offer constructive criticism, so little did he know of the organization.

And so, when the debacle unfolded, Burke offered several ways to turn the battle around. He had units ready – he was opposed to it, but he was determined to salvage a bad situation. Kennedy flippantly blocked him at every turn, concerned as he was about the appearance of things. Burke, ever the consummate professional, only had this to say in response.

Hell, Mr. President, but we ARE involved!

When I read about Burke’s anger, something touched me deeply. Here was a man who will serve the nation faithfully for forty-two years, having survived World War II, the Korean War, and watched the Cold War begin.

He achieved greatness and became an actual living legend, he did so much for his country, and yet his last two years as CNO were spent trying to save the navy he loved so much from meddling bureaucrats and politicians. The air force, which first tried to block the development of Polaris, now wanted to take it over. He and a handful of farsighted individuals tried to warn the US of the extraordinary implications behind the “military reforms” (which, I will remind you, resulted in Vietnam…) but their warnings fell on largely deaf ears.

My impression, from reading the correspondences and the historical sources and hearing about the admiral from those who knew him, was that his last two years in office were distressing. The Bay of Pigs incident deeply affected him. He was tired. He was discouraged. He refused re-appointments and lucrative appointments to other offices and finally retired. In short, it was a tragic and somewhat unfulfilling end to the career of one of the most brilliant naval officers of US history.

You know how I started off on Pacific wanting to do something to “save” America – as I stated in that 2016 piece where I laid out my personal politics? That I wanted to make a stand against historical revisionism and what I saw as the slow degradation of our country?

There are a few individuals in history whose ends I felt were simply not fair. It’s a little like how they scrapped CV-6. It’s just …

It hurts.

I want to see if I can do something to mend that.

There are a handful of key historical figures involved in the Special Task and Evaluation Command, and Arleigh Burke is one of them.

Let’s just say I’m working on how he is portrayed and leave it at that.

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 2017/07/22 – Abyssal “powerlevels”

by Morgane 2017年7月23日

I have a critique of sorts about the all-powerful Abyssals in your work. Specifically, I think it’s really dumb. This isn’t just criticism leveled at you but at the genre as a whole. Oftentimes a work will have a thing so powerful that only some other plot thing can beat it.

See, this is stupid. People write this sort of thing because they don’t know anything about the military or the police or anything about how wars are fought. It limits the work’s scope to a handful characters and it’s really a cheap way for the authors to not pay attention details in war.

So, speaking of KanColle as a whole, the lore ranges very widely from work to work. I’ve made this analogy before. Some light novels are like “real robots” where shipgirls are literally just ordinary girls picking up equipment. Others are all about the mysticism (purification is a common theme) where shipgirls are “super” beings.

Pacific straddles the two and really doesn’t fall squarely under either situation. For one thing, I’m pretty confident that my world building is as “hard” as they come. The Abyssals and shipgirls both possess highly advanced technology or powers that can be viewed as magic, but these technology and powers are entirely systematic and predictable in nature. For example, the Abyssals can teleport troops in from another “dimension,” for instance, but space is huge, and they need to know precise coordinates in order to actually do this with any degree of accuracy.

My point being is that first of all, the Abyssals currently appear to be limitless in power, but this is largely from an in-universe perspective. STEC’s reactions to new Abyssal capabilities aren’t very different from say, your random infantryman in WW1 first seeing a tank, or your random warrior in ancient times first seeing a chariot.

Pacific’s always been open about how capable the Abyssals are, and the question of can X weapon hurt an Abyssal come up often. The truth of the matter here is that the Abyssals follow simple laws of physics. Heat an Abyssal up high enough and it will burn. Apply a force large enough and its armor will crack.

However, therein lies the issue. As I’ve mentioned, the Abyssals are tailored to fight and beat humanity. They possess in their arsenal multiple tools designed to defeat human weapons, ranging from an EMP-like weapon that throws off electronic targeting (plausible even in real life today), the ability to regenerate extremely rapidly (plausible given what we know of biology, but remember this “eats” away at the Abyssal’s own reserves in materials), extremely tough hides and armor (plausible, again – just too expensive to produce in large quantities), the ability to psychologically interfere with human attackers (plausible – just not in this form. Think to ancient warriors making battlecries for instance to throw off their opponents. Abyssal “terror aura” is functionally similar), and of course, their defensive “shielding” (explained in universe).

Out of these five things the only thing that’s more science fiction than future fiction are the latter two. STEC is working hard on figuring out how to disable the latter so the conventional military forces can join in the fight. There are prototypes being worked on, but Pacific really isn’t big on the “super prototype” thing. If anything, what would be useful and important would be something we can mass produce cheaply to trade effectively against the Abyssal fleet.

This is a necessary matter of survival. The ocean is a large place, and the Abyssals have gigantic numbers. Even if say, the entire USN materialized as shipgirls, you’re still looking at only a few thousand shipgirls at most. Just because the shipgirls are the most capable at fighting the Abyssals doesn’t mean that STEC and co. aren’t trying to figure out other ways to bring the fight to the enemy.

From another perspective, it’s about the story I want to tell. There’s a reason why the focus is on the shipgirl and not the ship. I enjoy telling stories about humanity. You might as well ask why the ancient epic writers focused on one or two key heroes when they know that in those days battles are won with masses of men, and not single champions. Same thing.

You know what, Mike? Here’s what I think. I think if the Abyssals could actually blanket the planet, we’d all be dead today. So I’m going to suggest something bold and foolish: that these monsters aren’t nearly as capable as our own intelligence have suggested. We’re overestimating them.

Granted, the above opinion comes from probably one of the most sanguine shipgirls we’ve ever created, but she might just have a point. From the perspective of the creator, if I were to de-construct this, I would argue that she’s largely right. I’ve already stated that the Abyssals are intelligent. It therefore stands to reason that an intelligent opponent would crush the enemy if it can.

Therefore, whether or not the Abyssals can literally swarm the planet is a bit like asking “could Hitler have made 150000 Toigas and won the war in 1943.” They can, but for some reason, they aren’t. Maybe the Abyssals are aware that whoever orders such a swarming attack is going to be vulnerable to retaliation, internally or externally. Maybe the cost-benefit isn’t worth it (this is just one damn planet, after all!)

Maybe the reason is indeed the one given by STEC in universe. The Abyssals do not attack unless they believe they are guaranteed to succeed. Until they map out the world’s oceans and know exactly what they’re facing, they aren’t sending their invading force. You wouldn’t D-Day on Normandy if you didn’t know what defenses are present and you didn’t know what the coastline is like, right?

Or maybe there’s a mysterious force out of the Pacific universe controlling their every move. 😉

So, while the Abyssals are overwhelmingly powerful, I’d say that they’re powerful for a reason. The shipgirls are what’s fighting them because that’s the story I’m writing, and it’s also the most effective way.

Plus, in all honesty, the war hasn’t started. What we’re seeing are the politics and the preparation and the build-up prior to the war. So I think you can afford to wait and see to see if I can actually create a competent conflict. x)

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

More Lori

by Morgane 2017年7月22日

We pretty much do this and a lot more behind the scenes for every shipgirl we make. Here’s something we put into Action Report.

You can see there’s a range of details here, ranging from her normal expression (neutral face) to pretending to pay attention while listening to Bismarck-nee rant about ein Volk & ein Reich to drinking cokes (she likes sweet stuff xD) to well, getting her target results back.

Or, well, this. xD Bless Baicai for taking the time years ago to draw this. I still giggle whenever I see this one.

This is my preferred way of world building. Rather than dumping exposition as it is commonly seen in a lot of character books (e.g. favorite foods, likes, dislikes and so on), I find it much more enjoyable to set things up and revisit them later. The purpose, after all, is to create impressions of characters such that the Pacific world comes alive in your head.

For instance, with that mini up there, maybe it makes more sense for why Lori wants more ammo. People didn’t get why she isn’t paying attention to Bismarck then, since I only vaguely hinted at Lori’s background. Now, given her own experiences, maybe it makes more sense then.

(As for why she ditched the catsuit for Silent Service? Well, let’s just say, also in AR2, there’s an answer for that. It might have something to do with that shopping trip Maury took Tasha on… xD)

But, over the years, if you look at any of our characters, you’ll find a literal treasure trove of random interactions with one another. Just for Lori alone, for instance, this is what’s been revealed (across three languages, through multiple mediums, via private and personal interactions) so far.

She’s actually quite good (performance-wise) in training. There’s that stereotypical German efficiency after all. Sometimes her stubborn nature gets to the best of her, however, and she tend to react emotionally to personal successes or failures. She’s also rather hapless at making steady progress – Lori gets it or she doesn’t.
Absolutely adores Narwhal (in an obviously heterosexual, no-yuri sort of way – it’s a girl thing. Trust me). Secretly her biggest fan but is generally too afraid to approach since she thinks Narwhal must be “super duper serious.” Ironically, tend to do worse when Narwhal’s around because of nerves.
The actual reason is that she’s basically Tautog-tier when it comes to submarine stuff, and Narwhal and Nautilus are basically “submarine legend” types when it comes to IRL history. Plus, in the Pacific universe, every single subgirl knows some kind of *touch* and make Abyssal go explode type of “martial art.” (I swear this is actually canon and there’s actually a reason for this) Lori didn’t realize this until Narwhal showed her.
Narwhal actually picked out the bikini pattern for her, since she noticed that Lori really likes to imitate her.
Is generally a “useful idiot” by some of the more mischievous shipgirls (O’bannon, Chester, Tambor, Zao) because of her fairly naive personality. At the same time, her openness generally makes her a volunteer of sorts (and an unofficial messenger to Mike).
Like Ari’s hat but decides against one since “cowboy hats aren’t waterproof.”
Has a complicated relationship with Ulla, who went over to the USSR rather than staying behind in Germany.
Avoids Pennsy and Sanny like the proverbial plague. Also tend to avoid European shipgirls for reasons she’s not quite sure herself. New York intimidates her and she thinks New Jersey’s always watching her every move. (The former simply finds her to be a mild nuisance and a curiosity and the latter is, well, a literal mind-reader so that’s not entirely off)
Pesters Sal for unauthorized ordnance upgrades to her gear much like Tambor. Likes explosions and watching things explode.
Reads Marby’s writings.
Enjoys bothering Lulu greatly.
Confuses Texas and Houston and Tennsy to no end because she keep on expecting to see horses for some reason.
Was previously unaware that fairy Topp could talk. For about a year she kept him in Sculpin’s fishtank thinking that was his natural environment since that’s literally where he appeared from. By Silent Service (approximate a year later) she finally learned that he didn’t understand why she wanted him to hang out there either. Some times later a fairy-sized submarine was made for him.
Generally she’s the “along for the ride” personality in that she doesn’t mind following the lead of others. She’ll laze about and derp if she’s spending the day with Sculpin, get studious and serious if she’s with Mahan or Trout, get ditzy and happy with Cal or Hornet and so on.
Argues constantly with Dracha over the nature and status of German technology in WW2.

So on and so forth.

A year and a half ago I mentioned about thinking about a wiki or some sort of project to document all of these and keep them in one place. I’m still thinking about how to do this, since I want something permanent but at the same time, easy to add to. Let’s just say the wiki format wasn’t very friendly at all xD

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific Lore

[Mail Call] 2017/07/20 – Fairies in Pacific

by Morgane 2017年7月21日

Hi Morgane! I think the fairies in Pacific are neat. They aren’t very cute like the KC ones but they have their own charm to it. Are those based on real people?

In short, yes. Any fairy fully illustrated tend to be referring to historical figures. (From an out of universe perspective that’s because I want you to look these guys up!)

Recall in AR we explained that Pacific appears to have a category of “named fairies” who possess many attributes similar to, well, their historical counterparts.

In-universe, STEC doesn’t understand this at all. Nominally, fairies are notoriously difficult to communicate with. Even the shipgirls can only sort of “suggest” things to do for the fairies – they have no issues getting to do their “task” related things (like, say, loading a shell), but anything beyond this for the rank and file and it’s just like herding cats.

For instance, you’ve read about STEC carrying out R&D and stockpiling weapons for the shipgirls. You also know that at any given moment there are probably tens of thousands of fairies literally derping about and doing absolutely nothing on Avalon. Why not mobilize them and get them to, well, build stuff?

You can’t. For one thing, the vast majority of fairies doesn’t seem to really understand orders. They don’t really communicate. Specifically, they seem to have their own singsongy kind of language that (some) shipgirls claim to understand. They are definitely aware of humans and knows the human language, but how much do they listen or pay attention varies extremely considerably.

For instance, let’s say you have a bunch of AO fairies lounging around.

CV Girl: “Guys, it’s training time!”
Fairies: <o/ (very eager and ready to get working)
Mike: “Guys, it’s training time!”
Fairies: zZzzZzz…. (Basically puts it off until they have to do it.)

Or something like this:

Shipgirl: “Time to eat!”
Fairies: “YAAAAAAAAAY!” (is happy)
Shipgirl: “Time to do the dishes!”
Fairies: ??????? (literally rolls around and want to skip out on work)

Certain charismatic individuals can charm some fairies into doing extra work, but as someone in STEC put it, if fairies are meant to also represent humanity in some form, then the astounding laziness that these guys exhibit is pretty a strong piece of evidence.

I mean, you can’t really bug them either. If you nag them too much they’ll just fade “out” of existence and go dark for a while until you stop bugging them.

The exception here are the named fairies. STEC has several theories. They range from “these fairies are actually these people just empowered by God/supernatural force/whatever and turned into fairies” to “these fairies are just fairies who grew sufficiently powerful and managed to take upon a particular identity” to “these fairies aren’t fairies at all but are a totally different category of beings like shipgirls.”

STEC really doesn’t know. What STEC does know, however, is that these fairies are as intelligent (if not more so) than their real life counterparts. What’s more, they can be communicated with. Which means they can be reasoned with and given tasks to assist with the anti-Abyssal effort.

…Except that’s the thing. STEC’s not entirely sure if these fairies are “fairy-enough.” Specifically, these guys behave, well, entirely like real people. Yes, they have access to the full array of fairy powers ranging from invisibility to teleportation to “conjuring” physical illusions. They are more powerful than the non-speaking “ordinary” fairies. They appear to be unique in the sense that multiple copies of the “same person” hasn’t showed up yet.

But their behaviors are entirely human. Or, rather, their behaviors are very different from the ordinary fairies. Personality-wise, the individuals that know them describe these individuals as what they “would” or could be. They seek out entertainment and get bored just like normal people. They have hobbies and dreams and wishes and get fascinated by technology. In short, they lack the single-minded, almost autistic type behavior of the –

Actually you know what. I take what I said up there back. A lot of these guys are so absorbed in their work that they really aren’t too different from the fairies themselves.