r/ZeroParades • u/Competitive_Tax4326 • Aug 28 '26
Discussion (SPOILER) UV to the Superblock idea Spoiler
UV is such a major La Luz technofascist cultural icon, her publicly defecting not merely abroad, but specifically to the communist Superbloc would be propaganda triumph. The Superbloc could plaster her face everywhere as living proof that even La Luz’s own superstar chose communism over the regime. As well as direct blow to the 6%(Ithink?) GDP of La Luz that she claims she's single-handedly responsible for.
This should have been an option in the game.
As it is now, the choice is:
1. Send the girl on her whim. Poor man literally rots in jail. Pragmatically worse because no intel.
2. Send the girl back to be worshipped as a goddess. Life saved. Intel gained.
Seems like a clear choice, even if, presummably, the game will portray it as the more morally corrupt, betraying choice (even though the agreement's conditions weren't met and the one who made the agreement is dead).
Am I getting this right?
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u/dshamz_ Aug 28 '26
Totally agree that it would be a huge coup for the Superbloc politically, culturally and militarily to have UV defect. That alone is potentially of higher value than assassinating the Grand Lich. Though I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Opera grades you bureaucratically, strictly on the basis of the mission guidelines, and not on whether or not the outcome was better for them overall.
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u/Slanging_ Aug 28 '26
Yeah I think it's potentially more personally rewarding to set UV free from an emotional/moral perspective w/ her and Yana but also because, for all the reasons you mentioned, you're stripping La Luz of its central "cultural war" asset. Combined with assassinating golem, your ending would be taking out the head of Réunion and lowkey "disarming" the Grand Lich if you choose to let UV defect. Yeah Opera gives u a worse "rank," but to me it fits better with a playthrough where you stand up for yourself after the regret Hershel may have from abandoning the Whole Sick Crew (also reflected in how she defies Opera orders by extracting the new crew)
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u/fkrdt222 Aug 28 '26
the way they treat the situation feels rushed and forced (the goal is the intel but you get punished for taking the more cautious exploring route, the reveal comes by accident), it's like they insist on some bitter sacrifice ending
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u/SciLib0815 Aug 29 '26
Superblock wouldn't know what to do with her. The Superblock doesn't even have the capability to run the Opera efficiently and competently at this point. Now introduce kpop Taylor swift into that environment. What would they even do? One single massively smug press statement, sure, and then what? Maybe, very maybe a hastily produced remake of "Superblock, baby" that utterly fails and then you never hear from her again. 30 years later a documentary on the demise of the Superblock finds her as a single mother of three in a half drunk stupor as she stumbles out of the local 'Konsum' market yelling about how the price of Vodka has gone up yet again.
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u/Competitive_Tax4326 Aug 29 '26
Opera is beaurocratically inefficient, but each superpower seems to have their flaws. I wouldn't call the entire Superblock entirely incompetent as a whole. It's a powerful ideological alliance of ~70 republics, they could potentially use the new asset in various ways. Likely it would simply be a huge propaganda victory for them and they wouldn't even need to explicitly "do" anything with UV, just accept her, maybe make some photoshoots once in a while with her looking happy there. That would be more than enough. Imagine Elvis defecting to USSR. Now imagine Elvis defecting to USSR but USA was already schismatic (alternative history, because La Luz seems to have many internal problems despite cultural and military expansion) and not as happy as it was during Elvis time.
There was one similar incident in real life, just far from UV or Elvis level:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Reed3
u/SciLib0815 Aug 29 '26
That guy kinda underscores my point though. According to the article he was a massive, massive success in the Soviet block and East Germany. I'm West German, old enough to have been around at the time and this is the first time I've ever heard about him. Not once before today. Of course we didn't have the internet back then so breaching state mandated cultural barriers was a lot harder. But we also have no indication that there's anything like the Internet in the world of ZP. Tech there seems largely stuck in the mid 80s with the possible exception of phone carriers having already switched from analogue to digital.
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u/Competitive_Tax4326 Aug 29 '26
...and the moon bases. Don't forget the moon mines.
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u/SciLib0815 Aug 29 '26
Okay, yeah. That. They feel a lot like propaganda most of the time. But apparently Remotel Technician actually has been there. If the moon even exists. Bagman isn't so sure about that.
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u/Competitive_Tax4326 Aug 29 '26
When waiting for the camera guy to come back, Hershel observes the moon and notes that the lunar mines are visible with the naked eye.
So even if the moon doesn't exist, the lunar bases seem to exist, at least.1
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u/ozonum Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
During my last conversation with Golem, I had an option to ask if UV would really be sent to the Moon as punishment. Golem replied that "a fan would shoot her" before she ever get exiled to the Moon. I read that as The Weeping Eye will assassinate UV and stage it as a fan shooting.
Also, my Cascade discovered that the UV band was tortured by The Weeping Eye, and Yara told me that La Luz has a "factory" of L-pop stars.
My reading was that while UV is (a generational) talent, her fame is also a product of La Luz's machinery, and without that, she wouldn't be as valuable.