Ahsoka Episode 7 Review: Dreams and Madness is a Fun Episode | Disney Plus

Cast: Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Lars Mikkelsen

Director: Geeta Vasant Patel

Streaming Platform: Disney+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Ahsoka Episode 7 was released on the Disney+ streaming platform. It surprised us by giving us hours of entertainment, interesting and multifaceted characters, and a healthy dose of action, including space chases, shootouts, and lightsaber fights. After a constantly growing path and some of the most beautiful scenes of Disney’s management of the Star Wars brand, Ahsoka continues to confirm itself as one of the best original products on the platform and this seventh and penultimate episode of the miniseries is also proof. Although it is not without flaws, the episode has many good ideas and well-packaged sequences. But let’s try to analyze everything calmly and carefully: here is our review of Ahsoka Episode 7, entitled Dreams and Madness. As Far, Far Away indicated last week, Ahsoka‘s seventh chapter is largely about the arrival of the togruta on Peridea, setting up the final conflict between our group of heroes and Thrawn, with Baylan running behind the story as a figure with vested own interests.

It’s also a chapter about the reunion of Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine, with parts of the episode focusing on small conversations and charming reunions, although, in my opinion, there’s a certain lack of emotion when the characters see each other, whether it’s Ezra’s reveal or on the return of the dead from the togruta. The meetings have a more comical and charismatic tone than necessarily dramatic, which also works, although it’s not my preference. However, there’s something about Dreams and Madness that isn’t quite right… starting with the opening vignette with Hera arguing with the New Republic senators about her impulsive actions. The bureaucratic side of the series never worked, but the way the court scene is rushed, easily resolved with a cheap C-3PO cameo without any kind of tension, raised some feelings that it was a narratively problematic episode on Dave’s part. Filoni had been finding himself with the strength of images, great concepts, and great moments, but who gets stuck when the story needs to breathe a little to explore elements and themes that require more from the text?

Ahsoka Episode 7 Review: The Story Plot

Unfortunately, the episode starts at a tremendous low. During some of the previous episodes, we had a construction of friction between Hela (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)  and the Senate, mainly with Senator Hamato Xiono, due to having used his position as general and ignored direct orders to help Ashoka (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine against the plot of Thrawn’s return, which was all very interesting, establishing this layer of distrust and arrogance that would be the downfall of the New Republic. However, the way this is resolved is very lame, only serving to provide poor fanservice from C3-PO. However, moving forward, we return to Ashoka and Hyuang (David Tennant), still within the Cosmic Whales, managing to reach Peridea, but without first having to deal with the “obstacles” placed by Thrawn’s troops ( Lars Mikkelsen), which gives us brings probably the best “sequence”, if it can be called that, of literal ” Star Wars ” in the entire series, from the escape from the “cloud of explosives” to the part inside the “wreckage” that involves the planet, which I consider to be some of the most beautiful scenes in the series overall.

But the moment everyone was waiting for in this episode was finally being able to meet Erza Bridger again after so long. Obviously, we had already seen the little reunion that he and Sabine had at the end of the last episode, but here is where we can see more of this version of the character, played by Eman Esfandi, who even with the blue lenses make it look like he came straight out of Dune, meeting this older, different, yet experienced character again is a delight. However, the episode slipped a lot in cutting the length of this initial meeting and jumping to them already talking, while they were already walking around the planet, cutting out a lot of the emotion. Furthermore, the parts inside the planet feature cool fight scenes, like the siege that the Stormtroopers and Hati (Ivanna Sakhno)  do to Erza and Sabine, which is interesting when demonstrating the combat skills of the “ex-Jedi”, and the fight, face to face between Ashoka and Skoll (Ray Stevenson), in addition to the scenes that show a little more of the duality in the Jedi and Mandalorian master and apprentice relationships with the two bounty hunters.

Ahsoka Episode 7 Review and Analysis

Before focusing on the merits of the episode, let’s try to talk about the critical issues related to the episode, which mainly concern the management and unraveling of some storylines. We also talked about it about 1×06: what we fear most, and what becomes more and more looming, is that the plots that have remained open up to now in the series will be resolved with excessive haste at the end of the season, an aspect which, unfortunately, is common to many series produced for Disney+, especially Marvel and Star Wars. The impression we had after watching Ahsoka1×07 is that perhaps a single episode might not be enough to give a satisfactory conclusion to all the storylines: on the one hand Baylan has not yet completely revealed his cards, on the other hand, Sabine has not yet confessed to Ezra how she was finally able to hug him again, which could cause tension given the danger of freeing Thrawn.

Let’s not forget that the series will then have to lead to a direct face-to-face meeting between the protagonists and the Grand Admiral for obvious reasons, even if, given the plans for the film future of the saga, we don’t feel like ruling out the possibility of an open ending. If the last episode still had only 45 minutes, are we sure that all the interesting points could find a worthy conclusion? Although Ahsoka has taught us to believe in miracles, burned as we are by previous experiences, we reserve the right to remain cautious and not let ourselves be overwhelmed by enthusiasm, even if we hope to be able to change our minds about it. But no more worries! Because, despite everything, watching Ahsoka 1×07 we enjoyed ourselves, and not only thanks to the lots of action: from the very long aerial combat of Ahsoka and Huyang’s ship by the imperials to the chase that sees Ezra and Sabine together with their tender friend’s aliens with an impenetrable shell, through duels.

We are talking about well-choreographed moments in true Star Wars style which, between one war and another, also allow for a few smiles or laughs! Who particularly shines in this respect is Eman Esfandi, who, after last week’s brief cameo, confirms himself as Ezra Bridgertruly perfect and whom we have no difficulty in associating with the character known in Star Wars: Rebels. Nice, intuitive, but also very strong: after this presentation, we want to see the character again in future Star Wars themed projects. But the one who gets our applause, despite the limited amount of time dedicated to him, is undoubtedly Lars Mikkelsen’s Thrawn, a cunning, devious villain whose brain never stops developing efficient plans and strategies to carry out his plan. His stage presence, his penetrating gaze, and his peculiar colors send the character directly among the best in all of Star Wars.

Although he appears little, a few dialogues are enough, placed at the right time to characterize him as a villain: an evil person who does not make physical strength or Starwarsian strength his strong point, but who focuses everything on his intelligence and his acumen. To be partially sacrificed, however, we find Master and Apprentice, Baylan and Shin: after dismissing the student with a final, short lesson, the man still remains very cryptic about his final goal. Even his duel with Ahsoka cannot boast great pathos, a choice most likely desired by the writers given the final battle that we will surely have the opportunity to see next week. On the other hand, the cameos of Anakin and C3PO are appreciable, not particularly functional to the plot but always capable of making fans’ antennas stand up.

Among the strong points of Ahsoka Episode 7, we include, as always, the soundtrack, always evocative but also epic depending on the occasion. From the point of view of special and visual effects, we now notice some well-done sequences, such as the aerial ones, however, others in which it is very easy to notice smudges in the CGI, both as regards the wolf-like mounts seen in Peridea and for some short scenes, such as the one in which Ahsoka jumps from the ship and lands not far from Baylan Skoll (late  Ray Stevenson ). These are small flaws which, however, do not make the series lose credibility, which always remains enjoyable as a whole.

Now that all the pieces of the chessboard have been positioned and that Thrawn’s plan is finally about to come to fruition, the wait is great, as are our expectations: the grand admiral will be stopped by Ahsoka and her men before he can set foot again in the primary Galaxy or will he succeed in his aim by becoming in all respects the great villain of Dave Filoni’s serial saga? After what was announced during the Star Wars celebration, it seems that we will see the adventures of Mando, Bo-Katan, Boba Fett and Ahsoka intertwined in a cinema film; What better nemesis, then, than the red-eyed Grand Admiral? Even though it has its high points, it’s still a bit absurd how the series can’t build greater weight for its last episode. Even though the entire story of this series revolved around preventing the return of one of the most dangerous and calculating beings in the history of the Galaxy and that this could break the New Republic, that doesn’t seem to mean anything much, even almost at the end of the series.

Reasons that may point to this are that the work wants to try to be a pseudo-continuation of Rebels, which uses a character, who in this “part of the story”, should only be supporting, but is elevated to the main character, (Ashoka), mixing to a well-worn plot of threat to the Republic/New Republic. A big symptom of this lack of emotion in these final episodes is the character Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosato), who is uninteresting in everything she has done and does, and who apparently was supposed to be one of the main villains, but so far she has not shown the who came and just spends screen time being swallowed up by the much more interesting characters, and who will probably soon be forgotten after whatever direction the final episode takes with her, exactly because she was more like a plot device to get us to Thrawn, and it got lost among the different facets of the main story.

In general, it’s a slightly better episode than the previous one, and Ezra’s presence brings a little freshness to this series finale, but not enough to leave anyone hooked on any interesting aspect of the series, which seems to have been made with all the wrong decisions in mind. Hoping that the series can maintain the high quality that has characterized it since its inception, all we can do is wait for next week’s arrival, when the series will conclude with the eighth and final part. The appointment then goes to Wednesday 4 October on Disney+: we are waiting for you! May the Force be with you!

Ahsoka Episode 7 Review: The Last Words

Dreams and Madness is a fun episode, full of action, CGI, and clashes that keep the audience entertained and excited, but it is less interesting than previous episodes, both thematically and dramatically, and it is also a worrying chapter in how little it accomplishes in terms of general narrative, even more so when we note that the season finale is next week. There is a lot of pew-pew fat and beating that could have been eliminated in favor of a story that prepares us for the outcome of a great adventure, but I’m not in disbelief, because we still had a beautiful penultimate act for Ahsoka and company’s journey against Thrawn’s return.

Ahsoka Episode 7 Review: Dreams and Madness is a Fun Episode | Disney Plus - Filmyhype

Director: Geeta Vasant Patel

Date Created: 2023-09-27 16:03

Editor's Rating:
4

Pros

• The action sequences were well-choreographed and exciting to watch.
• The Force abilities that Ahsoka displayed were new and interesting.
• The character development for Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra was well-done.
• The episode set up the season finale in a very exciting way.

Cons

• Predictable
• Sometimes Feels Long