（4/26 update: due to the upcoming physical release, the electronic download of Pacific will be re-released (for free, as we always try to do) due to additional pages. This current download link will be up until the week of May 6th, where it will be replaced by a brand-new version. Thank you!)
Here’s an electronic version of Pacific vol. 1. in English. Longtime readers will notice that there are a few different things – at least stylistically – about the books, and I want to give a quick explanation for why that might be the case.
Chinese is not my first language. It is not even my second, or third, or fourth language. It is a language that I learned out of passion for learning (and also for reading things like Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and while the Chinese team often comments on how much I’ve improved, native speakers can tell that there’s something off about the way sentences are used. But when we first released Pacific, that’s what it was. I did my best then, and I’m going to do my best now.
Quite some time has passed between the three different language editions. I watched with some amazement at the consolidation of our own lore, and when an opportunity arose to clarify my own writing, I took it. You may not see this as well as my team, who sees snippets and comments from me all the time, but if I dropped Pacific drafts from a year ago versus now, the improvement is more or less self-evident. You can see some of that, in fact, on this very blog.
That being said, the English version contains more or less the same level of detail as the Chinese release, but it benefits from a more experienced Morgane and an inherent linguistic advantage, which allows me to present my thoughts and our characterizations with more clarity. Rather than forcing the reader to hunt down the sources and have them rummage through the details, I wrangled Zero into remastering the quotes by providing footnotes when necessary. The trivia section has been largely updated, with additional clarifying naval history concepts for our audiences here at home, and it’s what I would like to do for future volumes of Pacific.
Physical preorders will be coming in some time later. The physical prints version will have more to it – some author’s notes, additional commentary, and the like, but insofar as the shipgirls go, this is what it’ll look like. As I said, I’d like people to know what they’re getting so they can make an informed purchase. I don’t want low-resolution previews or intrusive watermarks getting in your way of enjoying our work. If I say we’re release our content for free, it should be free.
I’d love nothing more to see the physical hard-copies do well and Pacific earns enough from that to keep herself printed, but I really do believe that if we’re trying to sell anything, we need to do it right. Trying to do things right is what got us started on this journey. If this release is where our luck run dry, then we’ll be happy still, knowing that even to the end we did our very best to treat our readers right.
Yes, I know today’s April Fool’s Day. I figured it’d be something of a nice meta joke, since I will solemnly swear that every word up there in this post is nothing but heartfelt truth. People are expecting tricks today, so what better trick could there be than, well, being perfectly frank and honest?
Risk and opportunity go hand in hand, Flora. What separates the winners from the losers is how they react to risk.
机会和冒险其实是手拉手的，弗洛拉。胜利者和失败者的区别，只是如何面对危险而已。
I had all the right strategies. The statistics. The money. The tactics. The –
但我的战术！我的统计！我的数据，我的钱，我的战略，我 –
Look. My guy is someone who leads from the front. It’s that simple. He fights for the little guys and everyone can see that. That’s why they follow him. That’s why he wins.
Hey, you know what, guys? We all saw this one coming a mile away.
伙计们你知道吗？其实这个结果我们大家都能预测到了。
At this point, the race is rapidly coalescing into shape. Trump is the undisputed frontrunner still, though at this point it seems that the establishment is coalescing around Cruz. But before we begin, let me comment a little on the democratic side.
Yes, it’s not subtle. Yes. Hillary and the other party elites have been calling on Sanders to drop out. I don’t know if Fairy!Hillary’s showing him news articles or polls or whatever, but you can see what we’re getting at, right?
Sanders, of course, is having none of it. One of the things that I have noticed consistently is how many news pieces are just outright condescending to him or ignoring him. For the record, while Bernie lost every single contest on March 15th, he managed to recover a bit yesterday, taking Idaho and Utah both at nearly 60 points higher than Hillary. He lost Arizona by about 20 points, but he is favored to win a number of the states coming up, and yes, it will take a miracle for him to come back and beat Clinton now, but this is no longer the age of man, or even the age of heroes. Given that this is a season that coincided with the rise of Trump, I’m not saying anything else other than it’s only over when Sanders chooses to make it over.
If you’re wondering about who the two ladies are in the Democratic side, here’s a hint. The one backing Sanders was the former vice chair of the DNC(Democratic National Committee). She resigned in protest in support of Sanders all the way back when Clinton was beating him in South Carolina. Since we unfortunately do not have shipgirls representing Hawaii, we thought we’d like to give a nod to her here, rather than not mention her at all.
The one backing Hillary happens to be a current representative from Florida. She was formerly part of Hillary’s campaign in 2008, and currently serves as the chair of the DNC. Yup. No potential conflict of interest here. Nope. Not at all.
Losing his home state by almost 20 points, his meteoric rise – and fall – will go down in American political history. Already I’m hearing my friends in that discipline use the word “Rubioesque,” used to describe a candidate who seemly had so much potential, yet ultimately, failed to meet those expectations.
He looked like he was about to cry when he was giving his Florida talk. I don’t blame him. If I were him I think I would have cried, to be honest.
说句实话，他那佛罗里达的讲话我感觉看他都要哭了。不过我如果要是他的话，我直接会哭。真的。
His concessions speech was one of the best speeches I’ve heard from him to date, and partly what inspired us to well, draw his fairy as we did. Deep down inside, I’d like to believe that Rubio isn’t as bad as the media’s making it out to be. I think – if we were to ignore all the mudslinging for a second – that Rubio does genuinely have a positive side. If only he managed to stick to his positive campaign, rather than diving right into dirty politics (such as calling into question Trump’s mini-Trump, for instance), I couldn’t help but to wonder if he could have been, rather than what was.
真的，我认为他那场演讲是我从他那里听到的最棒的一次。最后我们给他精灵版本画成这样也是同样原因。其实，我真心希望水哥并不是媒体说的那样狼心狗肺。我相信，如果我们能暂时无视媒体的各种黑化的话，路标（Lu bi ao，哈哈哈哈中文好有趣～）确实有潜力能亮出他阳光明媚的那一面的。当然，如果，如果，一切都是如果哦。如果他没有开始直接人身攻击（举个例子攻击特朗普的迷你特朗普大小的话），我只是好奇这个后果是否能改变。
注：中国朋友们，当我看到某人说水哥是山寨奥巴马时，我直接笑翻了。太准确啦！
Well, guess what? I guess Fairy!Jeb’s warnings came true. He’s endorsing Cruz now. As of today, Cruz is still in, and Rubio isn’t.
总之，小小灌木的警告确实成真了。昨天他选择了支持克鲁斯。目前克鲁斯还在。水哥呢？
Now, some of the other folks here. First of all, Kasich. I have no idea what we’re going to do with this, but he remains a wild card at this point. Kasich won Ohio handily, but then the GOP establishment positively backstabbedhim by immediately telling voters in Utah that a vote for him meant a vote for Trump.
I can see why they’re doing it. But man, I just … I just feel like that’s real low, you know. Sure, mathematically it’s hard for him to win (actually, as of now, impossible), but if the GOP is aiming for a brokered convention, why are they shooting him – the last establishment candidate – before the running’s even over?
Does Kasich know he’s just being a pawn? I mean, I don’t want to give the conspiracy theorists too much credit, but in all seriousness, they’ve GOT to be trying to paradrop in someone that they’d like. I find it incredibly unlikely that they’d take Cruz over Trump.
Anyone’s game, folks. All I have to say is that if the GOP IS going to resurrect a guy whose nickname starts with an M and rhymes with something you put on your hands to keep them warm …
Oy hoy yoi, actually you know what. He’ll be amazingly fun for us to draw, but yeah, on second thought, GOP plz self-stump. I can already see how absolutely and hilariously that’ll backfire now.
Now, Mr. Cruz. He is the only one left who can realistically challenge Trump. While he didn’t pick up any wins on Mega Tuesday, he did get all 40 of Utah’s delegates yesterday. So he’s definitely still in the running.
I am absolutely not joking. Yes. That is a real thing.
这是真的。我没开玩笑。
Anyways, without making any kind of statement on Mr. Cruz’s drawing ability, his strategy, or why we’ve even brought this up, the thing in his hand is the fabled unity ticket. Cruz-Rubio. An alliance to surpass all alliances. A trump card capable of stumping Trump. A –
(Not saying that it won’t happen in the future – Rubio’s gotta be taking a side at some time, right? But as always, we’ll see!)
（我不会说这个永远不会发生。毕竟水哥需要选择阵营了嘛，但，咱们走着瞧哦！）
So, Trump won Florida. And Missouri. And Illinois. And the Northern Mariana Islands. And North Carolina. And Arizona as of yesterday. I’m pretty sure he’s still on track for the nomination.
I think we’re going to keep the color theme and go from there. Trump picks up the most hilariously colorful cast of characters going forward that I am at a loss as to who to include next, but honestly, it means that we’re almost never lacking for ideas.
No comment on what’s happening in Europe right now.
我对欧洲目前情况没有任何评论。
I’ve personally noticed an increased intensity in both people attacking Trump and people speaking up in defense of Trump. I’ve grown to appreciate how many organizations that I personally once considered fair are now willing to intentionally misrepresent, distort, magnify, or outright fabricate correlation and association to promote a particular viewpoint.
I’m not saying that Trump is necessarily the truth or the light. Far from it. Part of the fun doing this is really getting down to the bottoms of it all, and figuring out what are truths, half-truths, and lies for myself. Part of my research process is that I look at print media (yes! old fashioned newspapers! my university has plenty of subscriptions) first, then I scour the internet, occasionally listen to podcasts or commentary from a variety of networks, and of course, search social media. Sometimes this means diving headfirst into comment sections, though I can tell you now that I can more or less list, off the top of my head, all the common talking points used by both sides at this point.
Again, I don’t claim to be unbiased. I only try my best to be fair, and I encourage you to do the same. Think about what your opinions are. Ask yourself, why is that right?
If you have a reason, ask yourself again, why is that right?
如果你有原因，再问自己一边。为什么那个原因是正确的？
If you still have a reason, then ask yourself again, why is THAT right?
如果你还有原因，再问自己一边。为什么那个原因的原因是正确的？
Ask yourself if you really understand the arguments you’re presenting. Ask yourself if you really have given the matter the consideration it deserves. I’m asking yourself to ask yourself these questions not because I’m trying to convince you of anything. If I were, you would have seen me make my own positions very clear at this point. No. What I’m trying to do is out of respect for your own intellect.
Your brain deserves better than 140 characters and 20 second sound bytes. Your life, too, for that matter, deserves better.
你的大脑理所当然应该得到比140字符或者20秒快评更有意义的营养。你的生命也一样。
Seriously. Get going. Move forward. Aim high. By the very virtue of you being human, you have the capability to soar. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane and make it fly for you.
Traditionally, as told by Iowa in our first series, America’s politics is split into two distinctive parties. The democrats and republicans are both fighting over the nomination spot for their party, and the race is still currently on-going as of today.
Before we begin, I’d like to point out that I am an American. Our artist is Chinese (not Chinese-American, Chinese). Please note that the particular viewpoints presented below represent only impressions based on my reading of each particular candidate’s supporters.
If you’ve kept an eye at all on current events, you should know Hillary Clinton. Former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. Clinton’s supporters view her as a sensible, experienced leader with plenty of experience in Washington, a legion of strategists, and a well-oiled network of supporters. This would be her second presidential run since ’08.
She is currently the undisputed frontrunner of the democratic race, building up a massive delegate over Bernie Sanders, shown below.
目前来说，她遥遥领先下面的老爷子。
Against Clinton is Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont currently running for the democratic nomination. Sanders’ supporters are drawn to his authenticity and his consistent message of fighting against income inequality, wage stagnation, and other social injustices.
On the GOP side, everyone now knows that the party is currently undergoing a “fundamental transformation” (or civil war). The party is fractured between three individual forces, which are respectively the party establishment (represented currently by John Kasich), the “true conservative” (represented by Ted Cruz), and Trump.
First and foremost we have John Kasich, the last republican “insider” left in the race. Kasich is viewed by his supporters as a moderate, centrist candidate, and he is considered to have a proven track record of governance at every level of government. As the governor of Ohio, he just recently won his state’s primary.
We also have two establishment candidates who has suspended their campaigns in the Republican Primary. Both are from Florida – the former governor Jeb Bush, and the current Senator Marco Rubio. You can see our thoughts on the matter in these posts covering the before and aftermaths of the Nevada-South Carolina primaries.
Something of a firebrand, Ted Cruz is a senator from Texas. While outside of the conservative circle there are a lot of people who revile him for various things (shutting down the government, for instance), his supporters describe him as a principled conservative who is motivated by a strong sense for his conservative ideology and fights for smaller government and the Constitution.
Lastly, and currently leading the GOP field, is Mr. Trump.
最后就是特朗普啦。目前共和党遥遥领先对手的人。
Depending on who you ask, he is either the reincarnation of Hitler or a once-in-a-lifetime leader who can truly – to use words coming straight out of his campaign message – Make America Great Again. Absolutely by far the most controversial candidate in American history, Donald J. Trump is a highly successful reality TV star/businessman best known previously for his “Art of the Deal” (and, if I am to interject a personal comment, his real estate projects – I’m from that one state down south where NY dumps their garbage, you know ;).
这家伙，看你问谁。回答他是希特勒重生的人不少，回答他是那位 – 用他自己话来说 – 能真正拯救美国”让美国再次强起来”的千古一帝也不少。这位绝对是美国历史上争论度最大的总统候选人。在选总统前，特朗普是一个非常成功的电视明星以及商人。主要出名是他的那本书（Art of the Deal）。
Running as a self-funded political outsider, Trump is seen by his supporters as a common sense candidate who puts America’s interests first, a deal-maker, and someone capable of stopping America’s slow decline over the past decades. Brash, unapologetically patriotic, and unafraid to start fights over any topic, Trump has repeatedly highlighted, often in less-than-politically-correct ways, issues that would have gone undiscussed in other elections.
He is currently under constant attack by, well, pretty much both sides of the media. Below we present the rest of Team Trump.
目前正在被左右媒体合伙围攻中。下面是特朗普团队剩下的成员。
Chris Christie is currently the governor of New Jersey. Ben Carson is a renowned neurosurgeon. Both were formerly in the running for the republican nomination, but have since joined in with Trump. Milo is a journalist, but you can basically think of him as a one-man counterbalance/viewpoint against the typical “mainstream” left-leaning media. Jeff Sessions is a conservative senator, well-known for being consistent, who is one of the first politicians in DC to endorse Trump.
From a personal perspective, Trump and friends are absolutely, hilariously fun to brainstorm and draw. We also find him fascinating, and it’s not purely because of the controversy he brings. In some senses, just as the GOP race has captured the media’s attention, it’s captured our attention as well. If you see how the series is going, you know that we’re doing our best to capture (in a fun way) the spirit of the election. That’s why we got into this thing the first place. I literally sat around chatting with the team about politics about how our girls would feel about the matter, and someone said, why don’t we draw something? It’ll be fun.
Draw something we did. So that’s what you see today. At this moment, though, it is absolutely undeniable to me that Trump, perhaps more so than anyone else in the race with possibly the exception of Sanders, has fundamentally transformed what we know about American politics. There are issues in our country. You know that. I know that. What they’ve done is simply brought those issues out into the open, and yes, oftentimes, they’re ugly. But we need to confront the matter sooner or later, and I’m honestly glad that we are doing it now, before things get any worse.
The lore we have for Pacific, the “main” work where this entire 2016 series is basically that exceptional or notable individuals can become fairies. The fairies and their super-powered human allies (the shipgirls in question – the young women in the pictures) are unequivocally fighting on humanity’s behalf against inter-dimensional sea monsters out to the devour the world.
When I say we’re trying to present everyone as the “good” guys here, I mean it. Seriously. The composition of each piece is meant to carefully reflect on our interpretation of the political situation at large. It’s true that a lot of times Hillary and Bernie are “fighting” off in the background and not the foreground, but isn’t that true given how TV, radio, and the internet’s covering this whole thing?
Look at all of our pieces to date. Even this one here. You will find that we really do strive to give every character as much attention and as much detail as we can given. You might see a lot of Trump, but it doesn’t mean that Cruz or Kasich or Sanders or Clinton are any less well drawn!
I said it in my last post. I try to be fair, not neutral. Neutral would mean that I have no opinion, which at this point is clearly not true. I’m doing my best to present things as “fair” as my personal values and opinions may be, and if my words and Sima’s art can’t convince you that we’re trying to give your favorite character fair treatment, then I’m sorry, that’s just the way things are.
That’s an interesting list you’ve got there. Nothing from Forgeworld?
嘛，你队伍里没啥重课金装备啊。
（注：Forgeworld是战锤这个坑钱桌游里有名的坑钱点。一辆塑料坦克几百刀的神奇逗逼店）
Nah. It just doesn’t fit the theme of the army that I’ve got in my head. Where’s the rest of yours?
啊，跟我脑洞中的部队设定不太一样呢。你剩下的模型呢？
Off the table, Mo. Not surprised that you don’t know anything about the meta.
桌子下面呢，莫莫。你对meta（主流套路）真的一点都不了解呢。
Mehwuh?
啥？
…Nevermind, hon. Don’t ever change, alright? 🙂
算啦，亲爱的。永远别变，你现在这样很萌哦。
Why a 40k game?
为啥这次用了战锤桌游呢？
Well, I’m gonna let you figure out about what the allegory here is. Florida the loaded power-gamer veteran who has every army ever casted, versus little Missouri on the other end who’s managed to cobble together the oddest little group of fellows and put all of them together in a list that’s uniquely “hers.”
In other news, for this upcoming primary election, the GOP spent 88% of all of their attack ads (out of three states) in Florida, attacking the one man who they thought was a joke – until he wasn’t. Millions of dollars are being spent to attack someone running as the candidate to represent their own party, and it remains to be see whether or not the ads have any effects.
A lot has happened in America just over the weekend. Thursday. A debate that was civil happened over on the Republican side. Friday. There were riots and arrests in St. Louis, and Trump abruptly cancelled a rally in Chicago citing concerns about the safety of both his supporters and his protesters. Saturday, Rubio offered Kasich an alliance, in which Kasich – in an entirely predictable but at the same time, political – maneuver, flatly rejected. It also happened on the same day that a “peaceful protester” who once dragged a US flag through the ground in protest decided to bum-rush the Republican front-runner by leaping over a barrier (that’s putting it really gently). This is to say nothing of the alleged and/or questionably threatening content found on his social media, or the fact that a major TV network decided to give this man a spot on national TV despite the fact that, oh, I don’t know, what he did could obviously have been interpreted as trying to attack – or assassinate – a man currently running for president of the United States of America?
Recent events have made it incredibly hard for me to not inject my own personal feelings and emotions into the matter. I am doing my best to stay fair, but being fair doesn’t mean being neutral. At its core, these pieces are meant to be fun and educational – especially to the half of our audience that don’t speak English. When I first embarked on this journey, I was hoping to cover contemporary American politics in a lighthearted manner, where we could look, laugh, and learn a little about the great and the silly parts of my country and our unique idiosyncrasies.
But we’re at a point where I can’t just pretend to be neutral anymore. To do that would be ignorant and disrespectful. People should not blame everything on the left or the right. I sincerely encourage each and every one of you to consider the other side. There is no reason that you can’t read the New York Post and the New York Times at the same time. If you’re conservative, go read HuffPo or Politico. If you’re liberal, go check out Breitbart or the Federalist. If you’re used to getting all of your news from CNN or FOX news, go OFF the beaten path. We’ve got twitter and facebook now. Hear directly from the candidates themselves. See for yourself what they’re actually saying. Don’t let anyone tell you what the truth is. Find that out for yourself.
Head over to r/the_Donald (EDIT: Someone emailed me and suggests r/askTrumpSupporters instead. This post has been up for like, ten minutes!) if you’re curious about Trump. Find those Facebook groups that genuinely support Madam Secretary and find out why these people are supporting her. I’m not even going to waste text telling people how to learn more about Bernie because, well, if you’re at all on the internet there’s no way you haven’t been approached by a friend wanting you to feel the Bern at this point, but start with Bernie Sander’s website. That’s a good place to begin.
（注：Bernie Sanders的名字是Bernie嘛，Feel the Bern (burn)是美国文化梗。大概就是燃起来吧！本来是两个意思。我小学的时候这个意思是你被耍了。当我到大学的时候，变成了…燃烧吧，肌肉（主要在体育馆里面听到的）。现在一改，成了老爷子在年轻人里的口号。）
Ted Cruz. John Kasich. Marco Rubio. All of these candidates have their own people and their own presence online and offline, and I would strongly and seriously recommend that you give everyone a fair shot. Don’t hide away ideas that are unsettling or discomforting. Confront them. Because you know what? If your beliefs are worth it, then it deserves to be tested. The other day I learned from our Chinese friends a proverb, “That of which is true gold does not fear fire.”
… Er, actually, interjecting a scientific comment, gold does kinda fear fire, I mean it, like, melts and has a low melting point and everything –
（那啥，不好意思，我感觉金还是蛮怕火炼的。熔点蛮低的嘛，然后 -）
You get the idea. My point is, we live in a digital age now. An age of information, where the internet is empowering you for the first time to honestly open your eyes up and decide for yourself who’s telling the truth and who isn’t.
Okay, the actual artistic inspiration for this one. In no particular order:
好了，画里的梗。
Florida was a harder shipgirl to conceptualize than we had first realized. Trust me, once you get to see her in her full glory, you’ll definitely agree that she’s worthy of the nickname “Sunshine.” That being said, when Sima asked me what’s Florida known for, I instinctively answered, “Orange juice.”
The girl to her right is Missouri. This is not at all me trying to prod November to actually let us post her. She’s been drawn for like, five months now. xD Our overall design is actually a fairly sweet and innocent “midwestern” girl. She wears flowers in her hair because the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the country, and we wanted to give a nod to that.
Now, fairies. First off, yes, that’s Hillary and Bernie duking it off in the back. Someone forgot to tell Ari that this is the 40k and not the Fantasy – I mean, AGE OF SIGMARINES table. We’re still looking for a better Hillary meme, so again, if you have ideas for an outfit upgrade, let us know. 🙂
Then, on the GOP side, we have Governor Kasich. Congrats to the gentlemen writing in from Ohio. Yes, it is a reference to Kasich’s home state. He’s got a bunch of tools in his apron because Ohio (to this NJer, anyways) is widely known for being a center of industry. Off the top of my head I can think of steel, automobiles, aircraft and defense matters, and other manufacturing (wiki says rubber, though I seriously also didn’t know that Ohio had a big agricultural component). Kasich has also been fairly low-key, and we wanted him to keep his suit-and-tie (at least for now) throughout our series. You can tell that a lot of people’s came a long way since.
You know why Rubio’s looking like he’s operating a Dreadnought? A Dreadnought, in 40k lore, is basically a giant robot housing a dying Space Marine so he can return to the battle once more. Look to Rubio’s campaign, now. Florida is going to be his last stand, and while miracles do happen – like in Michigan, I have an honest feeling that we’ll be saying farewell to him (at least in Pacific’s 2016 series) come March 15th. No idea whether or not he’ll be joining –
Yes, that is Jeb. Jeb has yet to endorse anyone at the time of us drawing this piece. At least, since the battle is ostensibly over Florida, he deserves a cameo.
Front-and-center is Ted Cruz. He presents himself as the “true conservative.” I mean, if we’re really going to go back to the conservative “roots,” might as well put him in something more period-appropriate.
That’s more or less the visible folks that the GOP is fielding. The crowd in all black? That’s up to you to interpret what it is. Hopefully I’ve made the reference to that particular piece of cheese abundantly clear – I haven’t played 40k in years, but I remember well when our Spiritual Liege decided to break all semblance of balance with one of those codex updates…
（战锤一般的玩笑是全人类不朽神皇（God Emperor of Mankind）。这个梗有点太冷门，暂时就先不解释为啥叫这个了。）
Seriously, we flip between Gilgamesh and the Big E from 40k. He honestly works as both, and it works. Chris Christie you’ve already seen. The two guys that are new to this side are Dr. Carson, who just recently decided to endorse Trump, and a certain fabulous, fabulous man known to just speak his mind and isn’t afraid of anything.
Hey, if you still want to find out more, the internet’s right next to us. Don’t be shy. Dive in! Go! Read!
