This was probably covered in another thread so bear with me. If Rexler takes Ruthlessness does he have to spend another focus to flip the card on the ship that got Ruthless'ed?

He can't affect that ship at all. His attack is not causing the damage to it; the EPT is. Thus his ability never comes into play against it.

The way I'd read it is that he can only flip cards that were assigned to the defender. The chain target from Ruthlessness wasn't "attacked" in rules terms, they were just assigned a damage card.

I see what you guys mean. In the interest of exploring this further for our own enlightenment, I see how the wording on the card may appear to be otherwise. Let's have a look:

"After you perform an attack that hits, you must choose 1 other ship at Range 1 of the defender (other than yourself). That ship suffers 1 damage."

The card uses the term "suffers" when referring to how the ship receives the damage. Does this word usage influence how you read Rexler's pilot ability verbiage on his card?

"After you perform an attack that deals at least 1 Damage card to the defender, you may spend a focus token to flip those cards faceup."

I'm not sure what you mean. The two abilities are completely separate and not at all related to one another. The simple timing of their activations rules out any possible interaction.

EDIT: I guess I should explain what I'm talking about. If both trigger "after you perform an attack (etc)", how can the damage from Ruthlessness be included amongst the damage that now-concluded attack dealt?

A ship can suffer damage without being the defender. It's like, say, Assault Missiles or Ion torps.

The other ship targeted by Ruthlessness isn't the defender. It seems to me that it will be FAQ'd to specify only the defender's cards may be fliped.

Edit

After reading Rex's ability again a few times, it seems to imply the card(s) you flip up are the damage cards delt to the defender.

It doesn't imply it at all, it outright says that you are flipping the cards dealt to the defender. The ship that receives the damage from ruthlessness is not the defender of Rexlar's attack so his ability has no effect on it.

Ok so Defender is interpreted as, "the guy who rolled green dice". But the guy who got Ruthless'ed was dealt a card, no? I mean, it doesn't just spontaneously generate itself?

EDIT: Ok, so the defender can only get flipped. And the defender is the guy who rolled green dice. Case closed. Thx all!