Ezra Bridger got the Luke Skywalker treatment in AHSOKA episode 7 and I expected more

When Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) made his live-action debut in the sixth episode of Star Wars: Ahsoka, I was really excited to see it in real action in episode 7, titled “Dreams and Madness.” I was a huge fan of Ezra and his arc Star Wars: Rebelsand I expected a lot from him in this most recent episode.

Now, before I dive into my disappointment with how Ezra was underused in the episode, I want to say that I enjoyed the episode and the direction of the story. There are aspects that I really liked and appreciated, especially with Ahsoka and the way his old positive personality is now in full swing as he shows more and more of those big, warm smiles. I really missed her brooding in the first few episodes.

It was also nice to see C-3PO appear as Princess Leia’s messenger to help Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) out of trouble. It was an unexpected but welcome cameo.

Then there’s Grand Admiral Thrawn and I love every time he appears on screen. It’s truly the perfect live-action representation of the character and I’m mesmerized watching it Lars Mikkelsen interpret it. I also like that the villain gets closer and closer to winning than he does because we all know he’ll leave to fight another day.

It was also fun to watch Hayden Christensen back as Anakin Skywalker while Ahsoka was undergoing lightsaber combat training. I think we’ll see him one more time before the series ends.

As for Ezra… when we were about to see some real action and him and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) were about to charge into battle, she went to give him back his lightsaber and he pushed her away! She kept insisting, and again and again he said no, with no real explanation as to why!

My first thought when I saw it was that it reminded me of the scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Rey went to give Luke Skywalker his lightsaber back and he just threw it away. What do these recent Star Wars stories have to do with these fan-favorite Jedi characters who refuse to take up their lightsabers!? It’s like the Luke Skywalker creative team invented Ezra and it just shook me.

I was so excited to see Ezra reunite with his lightsaber, I was excited to see him wield it and fight with it again, and instead he was running around forcibly pushing some guys. He didn’t even see that much action and there were a few moments where he had the opportunity to really show off his Force abilities, but it never happened and I was just disappointed with how his character was handled in the episode.

His first encounter with action in the live-action series should have been epic! But, ultimately, it was disappointing and he was underutilized. At least give us some sort of real explanation as to why he didn’t want to take the lightsaber considering Sabine was much more interested in whipping out blasters than she was and using them. I know she mentioned how she trained with it, but that wasn’t enough for me.

I just wanted Ezra to wield his lightsaber again, and for some strange reason, the writers of the series didn’t give it to him. This is my only complaint with the episode, but it’s a major one for me. That’s exactly what I was thinking as I watched the episode unfold.

I might be alone in this because there are a lot of fans praising the episode, which is fine! It was a good episode and I liked how the story progressed. It’s just… ugh… Ezra!