#rwd dx-tr

[done-dm]

I really hope we get to see DX-TR again before the season ends because the bits and pieces we know about him are fascinating.

Like, he gets brought onto this elite group of mechanites for a very particular skillset. As K-LB so eloquently puts it at the end of season three, "The thing about DX-TR... MR-SN's superpower was making you believe in his dreams. DX-TR's superpower was making you believe his lies."

He's an invaluable member of the team and then betrays his party to the githyanki only to work on the exact same thing they were working on before: traveling beyond the planescape. We see in VR-LA's vision via MR-SN that DX-TR specifically wanted the whole crew to be captured, but don't really get an explanation beyond DX-TR saying to Endellion "We need them! All of them, alive! Especially him. This wasn't the deal!"

And it doesn't seem like he gets much from the githyanki aside from resources. Again, drawing from what K-LB has said...

"In some ways, DX-TR seemed as much of a prisoner as us. Like, he could go and come back, but mostly he was summoned [...] He was stuck in that same room with us, a little more space to walk around..."

And he keeps working on the project. For three years he keeps his old friends in a cell, watches as AS-TR deteriorates to the point of not speaking at all, and keeps at it.

Until he doesn't. According to K-LB, there was a certain point when he "stopped working so hard" and goes on to say "I just feel like it wasn't because he hit a dead end. It was because he didn't need to be working hard on it anymore. He was just biding his time."

But why bide his time? Kyana points out during the conversation with K-LB and the others that DX-TR probably used their attack as a distraction to escape, that he could have taken more hits at them and chose to run instead, but there might be another reason.

When VR-LA asks K-LB if they succeeded in their work under the githyanki, K-LB responds "We're still here, ain't we?" VR-LA quickly figures out this meant that the githyanki would have killed the old Per Aspera crew when they finished, which likely includes DX-TR. So he fled to save his own skin but also (either purposefully or inadvertently) saved his old crew by stalling with the githyanki.

Instead of playing on this angle with the crew during the rescue attempt, he comes across as a cut and dry villain the first time we meet him. He kills Dani while she's unconscious and no threat just to send a message to VR-LA not to come after him.

And then, once he's free and has the most valuable information in the planescape, he goes to work for the mindflayers??? Why? Why would he choose to go work for one of the most universally hated and dangerous species that exists? What's stopping them from eating his brain and using his knowledge without that pesky individuality getting in the way?

For whatever reason, he gets to remain himself and is set to eliminate other threats to the mindflayers' plan. He kills Casimir, but not C-RA or K-LB. Which, as K-LB tells VR-LA outright, he easily could have done so since he caught everyone off guard. Instead, he lets C-RA take his arm (which, granted, probably isn't as big of a deal for a mechanite and can probably be repared, but if I were in a situation as dangerous as working with mindflayers on a daily basis I would want to be in tip top shape at all times in case one of them gets hungry) and runs again.

K-LB and E-DN have explicitly stated that they want him dead despite knowing he spared K-LB and C-RA's lives. VR-LA's on the fence about it, but–even if he did fully commit to killing DX-TR–his devil deal is still up in the air and there's a very real possibility that VR-LA can't kill him. Whether someone else on the crew can do so on his behalf remains to be seen, but since he technically only gave the order to kill the mindflayer in the last episode with Kyana and Vhas doing the dirty work and Austin still almost used the deal to stop him, I think that might not be a loophole he can take advantage of.

Which means by the end of this campaign there's a fair chance that DX-TR is just going to be out there in the planescape doing who knows what. We don't know what his motivations are beyond finishing the project, what don't know how much his old crew still means to him (enough to lose an arm but not enough to keep them imprisoned for three years?), and we don't know what he plans to do after this.

Rambling aside, I want to put him under a microscope to study.

[coolgoodandfine]

"To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life."

I have so many thoughts on the Rolling With Difficulty campaign finale.

[justablah56]

LEAVE HIM ALONNEEEEEE

[my-humble-abode]

dx-tr had better count his fucking days, because i swear to god-

[astranauticus]

oh i absolutely gave myself way too much of a workload this semester but holy shit i finally have like... about 80% of that orv changgwi animatic down in concept and i am. cartoon villain cackling

[caliburn-not-calculator]

Shaking MR-SN, shaking him so much

We see so little of his characterisation but I am chewing on every bit there is

I’m like, really hung up on this one line of K-LB’s, ‘he never took no for an answer’. And like, MR-SN is so good and inspiring and kind and such a dreamer but that one thing… I know I’m probably overthinking it but it’s just

A flaw

I’m too tired for fancy words but I have him in a cocktail shaker clanging around

He’s so determined and such a dreamer that of course he’d see what he believes to be the the best, right and true choice and then refuse anything else. He doesn’t take no for an answer cause he’s an unrealistic idealist with a head full of dreams. What makes him so inspiring and such a good leader and someone people gather around to follow is the exact same quality that most taints him…

Anyway I think this might all be actually very surface level but I am eepy and brain is soup and agrhdhgrhrv

Love a double edged character traits

I love when you’re greatest strength is your greatest weakness

I’m now thinking of all other kinds of ways said flaw of not knowing when to back down or accept defeat or consider for once that maybe he cannot do the thing he wants to do could come into play

Fuuuck, the reason why DX-TR followed him being the reason he betrayed him. He followed him because of all the above traits and then betrayed him cause he wouldn’t make the pragmatic functional choice DX-TR thought was necessary… MR-SN always thinking he is right, that he knows the way, always so convicted (don’t even get me started on conviction as a theme with rwd) and then everything falling apart when he’s wrong about his closest and oldest friend and suddenly everything isn’t so ideal and maybe he pushed too far and maybe he should have seen all the nos the universe was telling him and then maybe he wouldn’t have died for it…

Idk guys

Anyway, Himb

[fandom-panda]

RWD S3 EP7 SPOILERS

okokok so DX-TR betrayed the old per aspera crew?

whos andelion???? am i missing something or is this a new character?

[blazestar3450]

Can people give me ideas for some more RWD fics? I think I'm gonna turn the VR-LA memory thing into a short series with a one shot for each old crew member excluding DX-TR. I just want some more ideas so I can make some different ones

[pens-in-a-jam-jar]

Hi- sorry, was forced to use my main bc for some reason Tumblr doesn't let me ask with my side account for rwd-

Who's who in your Utena au?

*fLAILING!!!* (also yea I think that's like. An intentional thing Tumblr does, not entirely sure why.)

Okay so we of course know Dani = Utena, VR-LA = Anthy. Starting with my strongest choices then going on in no particular order:

Roy is our Wakaba. He has to be. Roy fucking tackling Dani nearly sending both of them tumbling into the courtyard?? Dani initially joining in on the duels over his honor not knowing what the fuck she's truly getting herself into??? Roy being jealous over how much time she spends with VR-LA now???? The Black Rose Arc??????? It's so good It's So Good!!!

For my next strongest choice: MR-SN as Dios. Obviously. If I'm fucking with the theming to be less about gender roles and more about class/caste roles (as is the case when I've changed the 'because you're a girl' line into 'because you are nothing') then of course MR-SN needs to be the image of The Perfect Self-Made Captain In Charge.

However: the situation with Dios vs Akio is weird. Because everyone from Akio and Dios themselves to the visual language the show uses present the two of them as two completely separate people, and Anthy and her brother are clearly not mortal humans. Anthy has been suffering constantly for long enough that the event that started this and the folk tale version of the event passed down culturally bear next to no resemblance to one another. So we could frame it as Dios and Akio being different aspects of the same conceptual being. Dios died in the same way Pan greek god of the wild died. He's dead because people say he is, but he can never be gone forever. In Dios's case, he has been replaced by a version of himself that 'grew up' and 'lost his nobility'. He's still Anthy's older brother, but he is not Dios.

We're gonna make the call that they're to be represented by different characters and have DX-TR be Akio, mainly for his connection to VR-LA and the fact that he canonically killed Dani once.

Emi is Chu-Chu. Enough said. No notes.

I'm choosing a Nanami next because she's my favorite. Davion is our Nanami. Because think about it: Nanami is introduced lashing out at Anthy because Anthy is valued and coveted by the world and has the attention and (as far as Nanami can tell) affection of her older brother who Nanami sees as her whole world. It's infuriatingly unfair to her that Anthy would be (from Nanami's point of view) constantly rewarded with adoration and protection for what Nanami intuitively clocks as an act. Even if it's a 'there's no way, she's too good to be true' kind of impulse, she is right! Anthy performs this perfect feminine damsel image that everyone defines her by, and Nanami cannot fucking stand that seemingly everyone values Anthy over Nanami for ~performing well~. Anthy gets everything just for being fake and that's just not fair! What kind of vampiric freak does that on purpose??

If we are changing the themes to be about class roles and meritocracy instead of gender roles, of course Davion would make an excellent Nanami, because VR-LA himself says 'Competence is not a good look on you, Davion' in canon and he just fuckin' takes it. But what if he had reason to Fucking Hate VR-LA For It? Think of the drama: Davion calling VR-LA captain as a dig because they both know that's not his real station and VR-LA smiling back at him in that unsettling way Anthy smiles at Nanami. Davion realizing Dani is special for some ephemeral reason he doesn't understand despite knowing for a fact she's lower on the totem pole that him and VR-LA, and he shouldn't be bothered by the things she says and does But He Is! Davion being constantly suspicious of both of them yet constantly hovering around them trying to understand.

Another fun casting: Cassimere as Sayoji. Top notch I'd say. Do I even need to explain this one? The exchange diary scenes alone would be fucking hysterical, and the scene of Anthy fully dropping the way she used to speak to Sayonji but with VR-LA and Cassimere? Perfection.

If Cassimere is Sayonji, I would then posit K-LB as Touga and I know that's horribly cursed and their personalities aren't even a little similar, but like think about it: K-LB and Dani interacting with the leadership and ownership they're aiming for in wildly different ways the same way Touga and Utena interact with the idea of masculinity and princeliness in ways that cause them to clash yet that they both almost understand one another over. K-LB being close to DX-TR because DX-TR has promised him the way to view 'something eternal'. K-LB winning VR-LA and chatting with him all chipper-like asking him some of the same questions he's seen Dani ask him and getting different answers. K-LB trying one last time to make some kind of executive decision over Dani and VR-LA at the end, begging them not to listen to End of the World and Dani Just Not Trusting Him. I love it. Tastey drama.

I'm making Elyse, Love and Finbar my Shiori, Ruka, and Juri respectively. This feels really mean to Specifically Elyse but also the three of them would be So Fucking Good for this??? I promise, I promise it's a good idea. I'm so sorry Elyse.

Kyana and Ione as Miki and Kozue? The fuckin' Tastey Drama??? Codependency my (fictional) beloved!! The duels with Miki and Utena, but with Kyana and Dani CAN YOU IMAGINE?

Oh god. I Completely On Accident made it so the badminton scene would be happening between the 3 non-VR-LA members of the og crew absjdhskzbazoxbxg

[blazestar345]

Favourite RWD character?

Thank you so much for asking!! It's a tie between VR-LA and Kyana for multiple reasons.

For Kyana, her arc is what got me into the show first. I absolutely love her abilities and think Astral Self monks are entirely underrated. Her character development in the past couple seasons while relatively in the background has been amazing! Her pulling away from the training she got from the Cenobium by starting to take levels in Barbarian and embracing the chaos of her emotions. She's taking what she learned from her new friends and using it to become a better fighter to protect them. It's so amazing

For VR-LA it's primarily because I relate to him so much! He's an autistic coded robot done well! He doesn't exclusively run off of logic despite being a logical person and is actually treated well by all his friends. All of the NPCs related to VR-LA I absolutely adore! (Except for DX-TR for obvious reasons) His development of finding a new family in the crew and rescuing his old family that he now has to find how to regain the connection they once had. Also he has had by far the best monologue in the entire show at the end of season 2! He's super compassionate as evident with Emi and is just very genuine.

[coolgoodandfine]

Shhh... secret draft designs. Don't tell Twitter yet. Please give me any feedback, and feel free to read my many design thoughts under the cut. Also feel free to use the designs yourself.

Alright! The things right at the top that i wanted to keep in mind were things in the series that are distinct to mechanites vs things warforged have.

As far as I remember, there are only two notable ones. Mechanites have jaws that cannot move, instead they have face plates that can open up. And while the other isn't stated in canon, warforged have crystals in their eyes, and mechanites are never pictured or described in that way.

I almost broke the first rule on purpose with DX-TR, seeing as he's described as human-like and the negotiator, but as I was going through the series again, he was explicitly stated to have the same stiff jaw.

The only heights (I think) we have were that VR-LA got the haha funny meme number at 6'9", MR-SN was a few inches taller, and C-RA is at least as tall as Finbar (7'2"). From there, I wanted DX-TR to be nearly as tall as VR-LA, so he's around 6'6"/6'7". E-DN is about the same height as him because I feel like with her satyr legs, her being taller made sense. I put K-LB around 6'2" because I was originally going to have a slight joke that this height was after he'd already made mods to himself with heels and his mohawk. I didn't like how the heels came out, so I left it out. AS-TR is the shortest at the bare minimum height for warforged at 5'10". I'll get into that in the section discussing her design.

While it didn't really come up in these designs, since VR-LA has been pictured with yellow eyes, and described with blue, I've headcanoned that mechanites eyes change color based on how much processing they're doing. So the default would be blue, when they're calm and just hanging out. Their eyes switch to yellow when they're concentrating or focused on something specific. Orange is when they're flustered or upset. Red is the dramatic color for when they're really angy. I'd imagine someone like DX-TR can deliberately control it to avoid giving away some tell, but I don't think it's common for mechanites to do it.

The designs are mostly based on the same shapes and pieces that VR-LA has, rather than Vice/He-11, as those feel like they're kind of unusual in that regard. And even if they're not, I'd still chalk it up as a difference in their plane of origin. Onto individual character notes!

C-RA was described as being large, having a sort of knights templar, aesthetic, somewhat like living armor but more organic. Mostly what I referenced was plate armor, so pretty straight-forward. That being said, I feel like her design's a little plain. I wanted to add something to her head to help distinguish her head silhouette more. Plus I feel like her colors are too desaturated, and she just doesn't really have a shape that carries throughout her design. Idk, it's fine, but it just doesn't feel striking.

MR-SN was described as being slender, regal, and with a permanent smile in his eyes. I feel like I had a similar issue with him that I had with C-RA where there doesn't seem to be anything that carries through his design. I feel like I captured the face pretty well at least where he looks kind and kind of like a dad who's just proud of you. He's one I kind of feel like with clothes, his design might work better. I had no clue what color to go for, so it's just a color that I thought would be unique enough to the group.

VR-LA is just based on his season 1 art. The only thing I changed from how I drew him before, was mostly just proportions, like around the joints. I wanted him to be a thin, scrawny nerd, so he's also more narrow than before. My goal was half of C-RA's size, and I think C-RA's about 1 1/2 VR-LA's, so it's close enough.

DX-TR was described as human-like and bald with a flesh tone color. He was honestly really easy. As a joke, I referenced Seth Everman for his face sculpt, and I think it came out well. Mostly I referenced human muscles for his sculpt. I considered giving him tattoos, but didn't really have any ideas for that. He's got two notably unique traits from the rest of the group. He's the only one without shoulder pauldrons, which I kinda want to change, but idk there, and the light in his eyes is round rather than the cross design I treated as baseline. I wanted a less human saturation in skin, and I don't think I achieved that, but I'm not sure it'd look as good. I kinda want him more uncanny valley, but idk what to do there.

E-DN was described as a similar mechanite design as VR-LA, but with satyr legs. I gave her horns and horizontal pupils, mostly just for variety. I gave her a little more of just a round shape compared to VR-LA's more angular shapes. Her design I like over all. I like the colors, and I think the mint accents help her stand out. She's got good shapes and a good silhouette. And everything feels like it came out pretty well with her.

K-LB I'm torn on. I almost feel like he stands out too much. As far as what's described, I had the hardest time figuring out his design. He's described as a standard mechanite that's gold with fine gold filigree that looks like wire mesh, as well as a blue glow from his arms. I was going for somewhere around a punk-ish Rodney Copperbottom from Robots kind of idea. The filigree mesh I just used a nonsense text brush because i didn't have any specific ideas there. I like how the yellows/blues look together. I like the hexagon shape that carries throughout. His silhouette's mostly different enough from everyone else. I don't think he's too saturated. Yet I just don't feel like his design fits him, and I don't know what to do. He's the one I feel like scrapping and redoing the most.

AS-TR was described with long hair, and a slight glow, but didn't have much of a description as far as I remember otherwise. She had two notable design inspirations. Selûne and my cat who coincidentally has the same name (mostly my cat lol). One of Selûne's avatar's is described as long limbed (which is kind of how I just drew the mechanites), with pale hair, dusty skin, and green eyes. The pattern around her eyes is a less exaggerated version of some of her iconography. Her eyes are tinted green with her holy symbol as the shape of the lights. If I were smart, I'd actually have put all seven of the stars that are a part of Selûne's holy symbol (and I might change that later). Aster (my cat) is a tiny little black cat with a grey undercoat and two tiny lil white spots. So from there, I made AS-TR the smallest mechanite, she's two different shades of grey, and she has two little white spots on her chest in a similar size, shape, and location as Aster's. As a result of the name coincidence, and from what we've seen, similar personality, AS-TR is required to be my favorite, lol. Even excluding that though, I do like how her design came out too. Like I said, I might change the design slightly to have the seven stars across her, and I might change the greys to have more contrast because they're too similar, but the whole design came close to what I had in mind.

Over all, I'm pretty satisfied with all of these designs, and while there's things I'm going to change, I think these are all pretty solid.

[justablah56]

docents back !!!!!!!!

[justablah56]

DX TR YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE RN

[justablah56]

soooooooo how ya feeling?

wagt the fuck ,,..,,.,,

[coolgoodandfine]

Updated the designs! I think these are the designs I'm going to use, with maybe minor changes here and there. Feel free to use yourself. Changes under the cut!

Outside adding some gear and some clothes to their designs, I changed a couple things here and there. If you wnat to look at the old designs, you can find them here.

C-RA's saturation was cranked up, as well as light orange and purple accents to give her extra colors. I changed her pauldrons and leg guards to match, and changed the shapes on the elbows, chest, and knees. Weapons and shield styled after the shape used on the map.

MR-SN's colors were shifted from more yellow to blue, and was given more saturated accents in a dark and light blue. While we don't have much gear for him, cape was added for dramatic swooshes during storytelling.

VR-LA's design I don't think I changed any? I just added his staff and clothes from his Season 1 design. Technically he also has his spell book attached like a messenger bag, but I just left it off for this.

DX-TR had some armor integrated on him. Pauldrons were styled to match the shape Austin used on the map.

E-DN's colors might have changed slightly? I forget if I did. Wasn't sure what the shapes were in her map icon. I think they're swords, but I just left it, and mirrored the shapes in her bag.

K-LB's design I changed less than I thought I would. I changed the blue I used, and changed his chest thing into a gear shape.

AS-TR I added more armor on, and slightly changed some shapes so she'd have the seven compasses/stars that are a part of Selûne's iconography (attached to pauldrons, hands, chest, and eyes).

Really happy with the changes, and I like how they all came out! I think they all stand out from each other without being too far from the designs we have for mechanites. I think last time I talked a lot about shapes and silhouettes, as well as the colors, and I think they look pretty solid now. It might be a bit until I do a full group drawing, but I've got a few ideas for some smaller ones until then.

[astranauticus]

thinking about rwd/ak crossover ideas again because arknights is just the cosmic microwave background radiation of my brain 👍 but like ak has a very specific character design style that i just cannot.. replicate at my skill level so these ideas are just gonna stay at shitpost level only

anyway draco/more realistically vouivre dani because dragon dani fuck yeah, probably a core caster with a similar skillset gimmick to ceobe where each skill does wildly different things bc they represent different weapons she has (one of them is the spitfire and she just turns into a sniper lmao)

i want to say sarkaz vhas like just setting aside the... everything the vibes work out. anyway vhas skill monkeys a bit too much to fit nicely into an ak class but maybe lord guard with some team buffs? i mean he'll be very busted but vhas is just Like That

finbar as vouivre/oni guardian defender, basically saria+hoshiguma now that one works out. maybe throw in a shift skill for the pixies

kyana... i almost want to say anasa but we don't really have enough lore on them to say for sure (idk i haven't read jieyun's file) or race: unknown could also work. anyway kyana duellist guard with maybe like a range extend talent for suvi's 10-foot reach. it works!

VR-LA is. complicated cuz ak does actually have robots but not that kinda robots. anyway my gut reaction was mechanites = sankta and the more i think about it the more it kinda works out?? but specifically for angst value?? like amnesiac VR-LA still feeling that connection to the old crew because of the empathy link, maxim being a fallen sankta or more realistically somehow learning to close off his empathy link after his whatever (insert dumb animal joke here), DX-TR being a fallen when they fight him in 3.10 but specifically only falling after the raid because back then he hadn't planned on hurting his crew but that changing after tu'narath (maybe even deliberately hurting the old crew so he would fall just to make sure that the rest of them can't tell what he's thinking) .. like there's definitely something here. anyway chain caster VR-LA with bing as a summon like pozëmka's typewriter. now that's another easy one