TPmanW wrote:
I'm surprised that they wanted to strip Ravi of her walker powers, seeing as she already couldn't use them. From a storyteller's perspective they were already in an advantageous position where they could have her use or not use her powers as they saw fit.
From Matt Cavotta's perspective in 2006? No idea. From Pete Venters' perspective in 1996, though, my guess is that perhaps he was trying to justify the existence of Grandmother Sengir's card. Keep in mind that this was several years before Blind Seer, so at the time there was no precedence for active planeswalkers being creature cards (Dakkon Blackblade had this loophole in the comic where Geyadrone Dihada suppressed his powers to be able to enslave him with an amulet and summon him to battle). It would also explain why Feroz and Serra don't realise she's a planeswalker when they are around her in the comic (from the top of my head, at least I'm pretty sure they don't). Then again, the Homelands comic feels like one of the more nerfed depictions of Oldwalkers in general, so some details are bound to be a little bit off... Heck, maybe they just wanted her to become a vampire, which would clash with her being a 'walker either way because Sengir vampires are undead.When/if we see Ravi again, I'd prefer her to still be a planeswalker (at least in most conceivable scenarios), but I will admit that Pete Venter's version makes at least some degree of sense. It might as well mean that she is "no longer a planeswalker" in the way Ob Nixilis was "no longer a planeswalker" during his time on Zendikar, meaning that maybe she could still have her spark and it just needs to be reignited. That might make for an interesting plot point if it's done right, though it would probably be too similar to previous stories involving Bolas or Ob Nixilis... What isn't an option in my book is retconning her backstory from the comic and pretending she never was a 'walker to begin with, if that's what Cavotta's article is trying to suggest. Though I have to say I'm glad he's ignoring that ludicrous, self-contradictory anthology story, because that would certainly be my way of handling the Homelands continuity.
I guess the Mending made the issue of what to do with her character even more complicated, though the fact that planeswalkers' age didn't actually catch up with them after the Mending (except for that one time when the plot dictated that it should
) removes one of those complications. I can't help but feel that they brought in Elixir of Immortality for a reason...Heliosphoros wrote:
Ulgrotha may possibly be a wasteland but with some planeswalker/s that remember it and keep its culture alive.
You mean their buttered scones might have a bit of a cult following? 
I mean, yeah, something like that could be the case, though I think it's not that high on the list of likely scenarios. Most of the 'walkers that are currently active would be too young to remember it before it died (if indeed it did), and why would they care about some dead old plane anyway? Granted, maybe Grampa Sandruu is going around being all sentimental and handing out pastries, but I certainly think someone like Davriel couldn't care less. Though now that I think about it, one thing about Ulgrotha that someone like Davriel might be interested in even if it's a wasteland... is the reason why it's a wasteland.