Reva was different in that he was aware of these roles that everyone has hardwired into them, regardless of whether they are human or automaton. It is only once roboticized that the roles become more prominent and controlling over the person. It was something that even the robots had managed to do for the animals and creatures of this world as well. What made Reva different was that he was aware of all this, somehow, but not exactly how or why. All he knew was that he was aware that he was living the same basic life over and over again without end. How he knew about the Robots and the fact that humans had actually lost the Human Robot Wars instead of being locked in an endless cycle was from luck and guessing mostly. Trying repeatedly to actually end the war with the automatons always ended with him being stuck back in either the role of a hero or a Guardian. It did not matter which hero or Guardian he was at the time; the end result was always the same. The current cycle would end with him being destoryed and that next time he awoke would be as human that was 'summoned' to this land as one of the five heroes believed to end the threat of the Mecha Lord....at least the current one.
Gaining allies and challenging the system was something Reva had done so many times that he had lost count of the numerous ways to attempt changing things. Which always ended in failure, however, while Reva was self aware of the system and the roles that everyone had within it, regardless of them being human or automaton. He himself was not free of the system, just one step above everyone else that was within it. There were many things Reva was not aware of because it was beyond his ability to think and act on those things. Despite trying countless times to affect the system and/or break it to free everyone, there were two things that he not only never tried but also never even thought of; these three things never once came to his mind.
1. Be the Mecha Lord/Main Hero himself
This was something that Reva never truly attempted to do, as he was always stopping just one step before actually taking that role. The closest he would get would be the right hand man of the Mecha Lord/Main Hero. The reasoning behind the two of them being lumped together is that the Mecha Lord is always the Main Hero from the previous cycle. Should they have actually defeated the previous Mecha Lord, then that would mean when they turn on their party members, they would roboticize them all to the next cycle of Guardians.
2. Become one of the Leaders of the Humans
This was also something that Reva never did, as the closest he came to doing this was always being the one who got away when everyone else in the family was killed off by the one member that got roboticized. He had at times managed to get them to side with him afterwards, though it never ended well, as humans and automatons could live together as they were literally not wired that way. Something would always come up to ruin whatever peace that Reva managed to create, as the right hand of the Director, the one overthrowing them but settling with peace, and/or that of the ruler themselves. Reva had also played many roles as king and even emperor makers over the countless cycles he had been through. Making someone the king of one of the four human lands or even making a single person the emperor of all four.
"That's barely mentioned in history books," Reva sighed aloud.
As history was something written by the winners, as they say. Since Robots were the actual winners in this world, their will and desires that shaped how history was written gloss over the past as just something that happened, with only details being for everything in this cycle only.
What Reva himself was unaware of was that because he was within basically his own niche at the ceiling of the system. That being said, he was not able to break free of it entirely, thus not aware of his own limitations and boundaries that even he can not cross because they are still hardwired into him. He is, though still free enough to act as he has done so and create this scenario that led to the downfall of South for both humans and automatons, along with making this cycle can not ever truly start because there is no Mecha Lord, South Guardian, or Southern Hero at the moment to anyone's knowledge.
As such, Reva was not aware that his version of roboticization was different than the normal, as once someone was roboticized by him, they were elevated to just below him within his niche inside of the system. They were not automatons that lost their identities as their human selves, thus could and would act in ways they never would have otherwise. Their automaton selves might retain all of the original self, but not as memories, but instead as merely knowledge. They could act on this knowledge to pretend to be their original human selves, but that would be all they would be doing, pretending. There is no way to restore them to their original human self because there is nothing to restore in the first place. Actors can not become their roles, no matter how good they are at method acting, as actors playing the role of a different person. They can not become that person merely because they know of them and their life. They can act like them but never truly become them.
Reva's roboticization does not restore a person's original self at all; it merely ensures that their memories were never converted into just merely knowledge. The person once roboticized is still their original self; however, what is erased is all notions of them ever being human, though. They can no longer recall ever being human, as that's just something that never comes up. The only exceptions to this are Reva, Carter, and Page, who recall fully that they were once human, but neither of them cares, as the only thing those three care about is their goals. Reva and Carter just want to live in peace, and Page just wants to serve Reva.