Well now that the mini boss is dead we can get to the real threat, a pregnant alcoholic and her pirate boyfriend.

*Season 1-7* - “All the wars in Westeros are just a distraction from the Great War” *Season 8x03* - “The Great War is just a distraction from all the wars in Westeros”

The wights kill 90% of the Dothraki and half the unsullied, but can't kill Sam.

The real issue now is there is no urgency. - Why even go down to King's landing right away, let them attack you. - Bran is basically a screen watcher that can alert you at any time. - You can send Arya to assassinate Cersei at any time.

Season 1: Winter is coming Season 2: Winter is coming Season 3: Winter is coming Season 4: Winter is coming Season 5: Winter is coming Season 6: Winter is coming Season 7: Winter is here Season 8: Eh Winter actually wasn't so bad but....Cersei is coming

When you get down to it the writers genocided the Dothraki for a visual spectacle

Bran was busy building a nest and collecting worms.

I think this final season is just more proof that without the source material the show has lost its magic.

It's not about how many characters died or survived. They were put in impossible situations and then magically didn't die because the enemies around them just stopped being around them. The battle of the Blackwater was much better, and you never saw the hound or tyrion being piled on by Stannis troops with nary an inch between them. If you want a character to survive don't throw them out an airplane with no parachute in one shot and then have them running along the ground in the next shot. Game of Thrones has started doing this over and over again and it wrecks suspension of disbelief.

"You'll never walk again. But you will sit in a chair, in a garden" I died hahaha

If the writing is good you don't have to make up fan stories or excuses for the missing parts.

Marissa put it best: the Night King dying was not cathartic at all.

Season 1: Khal Drogo dies of an infection Season 1: Ned walks with a limp for the rest of his life after being speared through the calf. Season 2: Robb gets murdered for betraying an alliance. Actions have consequences. Even for main, plot driving characters. Season 8e3: Everyone survives getting zerg rushed by 30 zombies at once for 20 minutes, with no significant and lasting injuries and Beric is Wolverine. Actions have no consequences. At least not for 90% of named characters. It's not that we wanted people to die. It's that we wanted Game of Thrones to follow its rule that actions have consequences. If the battle 'plan' hadn't been as ridiculous as putting your siege weapons in front of your defenses, then D&D could have made a halfway plausible reason for everyone surviving. You're into shock and subversion? How about Brienne losing an arm? How about Sam's Crying no Jutsu not saving him after Jon decides not to help him? The whole thing was bait and switch cop-outs.

HBO: " What do we say to good writing?" D&D: "Not today"

"Tarly, I forbid you to die" Jhor Mormont No wonder Sam lived

Marissa: End Game did it right. Long Night didn't. Dude: Nah, different audiences. WTF?? MARISSA IS 100% RIGHT!!!!

Wow, I don't think you guys even touched on Theon's death. That one takes the cake for me. "Theon. You're a good man. Thank you." The look Alfie Allen gives is the perfect closure to the character. He's just been given the absolution for the wrongs he's done, and can finally die at peace. As a Stark.

I've heard for years now that the iron throne doesn't matter, only the great war matters. Now I'm supposed to care about the iron throne again, and I kinda don't.

Well Cersei is no problem, just tell Arya to go down and assinate her.

lol arya playing resident evil/the evil within while jon was playing dark souls

I always knew Brienne was going to live through this battle. I think shes going to die in kings landing because of Cersei and that's going to be what makes Jaime snap and kill his sister.

It's fine that they didn't die. The issue is that you have people who are (SAM) flailing on their back for 45 minutes in the middle of the courtyard and live. same with brienne, pod, tourmond, greyworm, and jaime. it's fine that they live, if they are back into a room that they can defend from (Like the Hound). but you can't have them in the middle of the Courtyard fighting and live.

Marissa had a lot of intelligent things to say, basically agreed 100% with her. The episode was fine, but it could have been much better if D&D had bothered to do some basic narrative work.

Marissa's the saving grace for this discussion. I lost count on how many times I said "YES! exactly! thank you!" during this video lmao

The real Azora Hai was the friends they made along the way.

I agree the lack of deaths isn't the problem, the problem is the amount of fake out deaths. These fake outs have been happening since season 7 and they really decrease the quality of the show because it's gimmicky.

Marissa was the real MVP in the conversation XD

I think GoT was really hurt by missing 7 episodes the past 2 seasons.

HBO: what do we say to good writing? D&D: not today

Season 1 - 8.2: "The Iron Throne doesn't matter. There's a bigger threat to the north." After Episode 3: "The Night King and the Army of dead weren't the main threat, it's about the throne."

Thanks to marissa! Explained how I feel for that episode. Finally someone more objective about the episode

You should rename your channel to "Casual Soup". Marissa was on point.

Bran learned that trick from Jojen "My sister carries the blade"

Like Beau mentioned in this, it’s bizarre to think that there are three episodes left and the destruction of the army of the dead was pushed to season 8. Season 7 was cut down to 7 episodes in length, instead of the season 1-6 10 episode structure. I don’t think half as many people would be complaining if season 7 was structured like this: 1. “Dragonstone” 2. “Stormborn” 3. “The Queen’s Justice” 4. “The Spoils of War” 5. “Eastwatch” 6. “Beyond the Wall” 7. “The Dragon and the Wolf” 8. An extended episode for “Winterfell” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” 9. “The Long Night” 10. (Aftermath and prelude to season 8 with Cersei) Then you could smoothly transition into a final political-based season, without needing as large of a budget with the hype being around the drama, rather than the action and the mythology, whilst giving yourself room to explore the secret mythology if you need to because people won’t be desperate for answers EDIT: I’m very aware of the budgetary issues that the producers faced in 2017 when making season 7 and the decision to make fewer episodes. This is more of a hypothetical idealistic scenario to help the narrative.

The episode was an insult to anybody with a brain, and who were invested in the series.

I really think the main problems with the past couple of seasons is that they’re just trying to wrap up the story too fast. This season and season 7 are lacking in episodes compared to the seasons of the past. I also feel as though they’re trying very hard to kill off the bad guys and the secondary characters as fast as possible while keeping the fan-favorites alive.

Remember when Jon and Bran had character arcs that revolved around the white walkers and how easily those arcs were destroyed?

7:15 "What do you say to the people who wanted to know more about this character ?" - Not today.

Not one character in the crypts. That entire scene was wasted time.

I never thought I would type this...but can somebody please time stamp HER discussion?

My biggest gripe was the plot armor. This show has always had stakes, if you made a mistake you died. Putting so many characters in places where they should've died and then saving them everytime was trash. Kill like 2 more of the characters in those situations and the feeling of plot armor goes away and the stakes are there.

Now every time I hear Ned say “winter is coming” I can’t help thinking to myself “who cares”.

The first four seasons will stand the test of time, these last 4 seasons won't last a year, this is the lost of our generation

I apologise to Marissa for criticising her in the past about petty stuff (like using the word "dope" Unironically). At least she has high standards.

Nerd soup: "its a red wedding moment" Red wedding: "Am I a joke to you?"

Seasons 1-5: These characters are normal people and almost anyone might die. Seasons 6-8: These characters are superheroes.

How did Davos survive? Were the wights afraid of his severed fingers?

WTF RED WEDDING MOMENT WHAT I’m just done with the video when you said that

I was just expecting Bran to tell Theon "We're in the endgame now"

It takes away from the argument that "This is more important than our petty squabbles." So, now everyone goes back to the petty squabbles? YOU called them petty squabbles, and now you want me to go die in a war over them. Hmmmmm.

I just want to say, watching "Inside the show" with D&D, I don't feel like they had a great idea of what kind of a story they have been making since they passed the books. The way they explain some of their decisions seems very TV executive rather than story teller like George. We've seen it for the last 3-4 seasons. Anyways, I don't think the whole story surrounding the Night King is done...Bran has to have something else to say. On the other hand, It was disappointing on the deaths. There was too many logical moments for people to die and they faked it. Again, I imagine they'll have a story, but it was definitely disappointing after those first 2 episodes this season.

this battle was no where near BotB and hardhome

Ice dragon takes down the wall that has stood for thousands of years, but Jon survives it hiding behind a rock and yelling at it. Umm ok.......

Mad respect for Marissa for actually bringing different opinions to the discussion

When Arya killed the next level boss, the only thing missing was a rendition of "Everything Is Awesome".

This episode was horrible. For the whole episode Bran goes for a fly and just comes back to watch theon die. They just threw away the dothraki and the unsullied. We couldn't see anything 80% of the episode. The night king popping up threw the clouds like a dam jack in the box. All the main characters having soo much plot armor. Beau, Arya killing the night king is no where close to the red wedding, people actually died at the wedding. How did arya get around the night king's generals when they were directly behind him. You guys sound like GoT apologists defending every bad writing decision. This episode really ruined this season for me.

Guys! No one died because Gendry crafted something extra special... PLOT ARMOR!!

We know the Night King's origin. What I wanted to know is why now? Why after the Walkers were supposedly gone for 1000's of years are they back now? Is there a correlation to the return of dragons and magic? What really bothered me was there was no "twist" to the White Walkers. The whole idea of the show is "There is really no Good/Evil everyone is really somewhere in between" but no. The Walkers were just evil.

Sam did fight a bit, but i'm calling it now: they kept him alive so Jon's heritage gets out.

You know what else is un-expect... "everything was a dream" Like a bunch of us though about this end, but we ignore the possibility for the hollywood-esque/fan service/ predictability of the situation.

It's not the destination we're mad about. It's the journey they decided to take to get there.

Don't forget the biggest atrocity from this episode... NO ICE SPIDERS BIG AS HOUNDS.

Maybe George is gauging our reactions before he settles on the specifics of the ending? 😂

Completely agree with Marissa.

It's not about theories/predictions being wrong, IT IS about the storytelling. When you dedicate the VERY FIRST SCENE of the show to this threat, have characters and producers alike announcing for years how the white walkers are the ReAL tHREat and build them up for the entire show, only to have them killed of in a scene that that looked nothing short of ridiculous? You people will eat up everything, lol

I wanted Jon to at least cross swords with the Night King

$356 Million - 3 hours Endgame budget $240 Million - 8 hours Big Bang Theory season budget $90 Million - 7.5 hours Game of thrones season 8 budget Incredible Action Sequence Considering...

Cersei is just a B Villain now after all the hype for the Night King

You can tell when she has a point when they just laugh her off and don’t answer it

The whole 'Cersei should be final villain in the show' idea is so stupid. Politics? What politics, we have Euron and Cersei on one side and the rest of the characters on the other side(maybe Jaime could realistically turn). In the first 3 seasons (when GoT politics were interesting) we had plenty of different sides(war of the FIVE kings) + players like Littlefinger and Varys. And characters were still evolving and growing back then. Now everything is set. Unless we get more 'politics' like Arya vs Sansa from last season, or the Dorne coup, those were masterpieces indeed.

So much rationalizing.

"just because they didn't know what was going on didn't mean we didn't have to know what was going on" take it to the barn Marissa

First time ive disagreed with nearly everything said. They jumped to the defence of every bad writing choice in the episode. Btw I did not mean this maliciously at all! I love the videos guys! Its just the first time ever I found myself disagreeing with you

Cersei should have been dealt with last season. Season 8 should have all been about the unstoppable apocalypse that's been teased for the last 8 years and building a better world when it's defeated. What would have been cool is if Bran fought the NK inside the weirwood net and starts dismantling it from the inside, simultaneously taking away the NK's powers he gets from there, his greensight, warging abilities, storm summoning, whatever else he can do. Bran ends up sacrificing himself inside the weirwood net because he's taking away his own powers as well and it traps him in there, but he helps the people in the real world deal with a much less powerful NK, then Jon is actually able to take him out, that woulda been good. Brans whole journey has been pointless, why did he need to become the new 3ER? What help was he other than bait? What happened to Benjen telling him, he will find his way to the world of men, and when he does, you will be waiting for him, and you will be ready....waiting for him in what way? In a wheelchair under a tree? But let's take a step back, battle tactics, terrible from the start, catapults in front of your trench, charging light cavalry head first with (until Mel magically appears) standard weapons, why not hold them in reserve to hit from behind when the wights hit the unsullied wall. Why not have multiple trenches, why not have choke points inside WF....The wights come in like a tidal wave at the start, we have Brienne, Jamie, Pod, Gendry, Jorah, The Hound, Sam, Edd, Tormund, Grey Worm all on the front line, and all of them survive that massive wave, yeah ok. When Jon is on his own, they go back to being slow, mindless zombies. Then they go back to being nuts when they're swarming Drogon. I lost count of how many times someone got swamped only to be saved randomly or have the camera cut away then cut back and they be fine. The WW did nothing this episode, and we learnt nothing more about them, nothing, it feels all the mystery, prophecy, history is just, gone, from 1 cheap stab in the stomach. If you wanted to show how badass Arya is, have her fight a couple of WW, not take out this supernatural leader when he's at the high of his powers after her plot has had zero connection to him throughout. I can't accept that Cersei is the last big bad and everyone goes back to the petty human wars that has always happened. It should be more. This show made its name and popularity on the fact it was realistic and if you fucked up, you died, nobody was safe. This is just complete, unoriginal, fanfiction bullshit at this stage.

The battle plan was really dumb. They needlessly sacrificed the dothraki. Why the army was outside the castle is beyond me. I actually watched a medieval channel talk about what they should do (in terms of battle tactics) right before the episode aired, and they did everything opposite of what they should've done. I really thought all 6 episodes were going to be dealing with the night King, and was immensely disappointed with how it was dealt with in just 1 episode. Very anticlimactic.

the night king deserved a season

CERSEI KILLED MORE CHARACTERS BLOWING UP THE SEPT THAN THE NIGHT KING DID BRINGING WINTER.

Thank god for Marissa. I really appreciate her bringing a different perspective. I also appreciate you guys listening to us and addressing the real issues with this episode. Acknowledging some of the faults with the episode doesn't mean you can't also enjoy it and like the direction that the show is going in. In the last video it felt like you two were ignoring or straight up defending the faults that you are now acknowledging.

The chick in this discussion is the only person who’s looking at this as a story and not just mindlessly loving GoT for GoT. It’s okay to like bad things; hell, I like the Star Wars prequels. I know they’re bad, but like them anyway. Just know the difference between liking something, and defending it as a good story.

Okay what kind of “politics” are these people excited for? It is WAR people!!! There hasn’t been good politics since Tyrion, Varys, and Tywin were in Kings Landing. Are you really expecting me to watch 4 hours of Cersei “plotting” with the Mountain who doesn’t even speak? Or watching Sansa “plot” for the throne? The only thing Sansa has to plan are new blueprints for her demolished home.

The battle tactics were dreadful and the defences too. Dothraki should’ve attacked the undead from the flanks, there needed to be multiple lines of trenches so that the wights could be slowed down. Dragon glass pikes should’ve been placed at the bottom of the walls whilst the walls themselves should’ve been coated in dragon class shards. The dragons should’ve been doing strafe runs on the front rows of the wight army rather than the middle of it. Ghost should’ve been in the crypts or should’ve sacrificed himself to distract Viserion so Jon could get to Bran and the NK. Jon is easily knocked back by the NK but is left alive to watch Bran die. Then Arya swoops in. Before all this though, the White Walkers should’ve had at least a small battle as they passed through Winterfell. Maybe Podrick (lol) breaks through a line of wights and kills a WW before getting slaughtered by another. Greyworm should’ve been wounded. Personally, the NK should’ve been poised to throw a spear at Drogon as soon as the flames cleared, smirking. Then Greyworm throws a spear at the NK, misses but distracts him enough that Dany escapes. Then the NK spears Greyworm instead. Thats just a few things that would’ve improved the episode i think.

Out of respect for what this show was I can’t force myself to support this ending.

I'm supposed to be excited about "the real battle vs Cersei" when OP Arya can just walk up to her and kill her?

Dam that once extremely rare plot armour was rarer than Valerian Steel. Now their slapping a suit of it on everyone. Maybe Gendry figured out how to smith it instead of Valerian Steel?

Few complaints :The long nights finally here, and now it's gone :Jon doesn't even cross swords with nightking :Too much plot armour :Arya out of nowhere with the trampoline jump :For 7 seasons "the real wars to the north beyond the wall" Season 8 "actually cersei's the real threat" : Seriously how the fuck are Brienne, Jamie, podrick, Sam, and greyworm even alive.

Visually 10/10, story wise, 5/10. The best and most disappointing episode they've done.

Now that I think about it, Arya has now killed 3 villains. Walder Frey, Little Finger, and now the Night King. Is she a janitor? She killed the one who murdered her family(justified), the one who started the game and the best one at playing it(justified), and now the Night King(I felt this was unjustified, kind of wanted either Dany or Jon to have this kill). Makes it seem like the showrunners are killing good villains with Arya because they have no clue what you do with them. She's pretty must the janitor because the show runners don't know how to create better dialogue/conflict/story with these villains with no book or script to base it on.

Is nerd soup some kind of gas you guys huff?

It basically felt like Hermione killing off Voldemort in Book 4 right after he fully came back; the guy who was hyped up from book 1. And then they go back battling Malfoy giving the explanation that they were in the limelight more than Voldemort and they are the big boss.

Marissa: *Makes a good point* The others: *quick laugh* The others: *quickly change subject*

The NK should have beat all of the main characters back to the godswood where they had a final fight and stand with John fighting the NK defending Bran, kill a bunch of WW and characters, Bran does *something* all is lost..... . When suddenly Arya ninja assassins the NK saving Westeros just as John is about to die or something. You could even have the whole NK catching her in the air and her doing the same knife trick!!! Damn... So much wasted.... Something other than what we got... Come on.

for what this episode should have been, it was underwhelming yeah, i expected more main characters deaths, defientely don't like Arya being the one closing Jon's problem since he got to the wall... and what was the point of briging Jon back and keeping Bran around if it all came down to an Arya's shank to the ice gut, and totally agree with if this was gonna be episode 3 then the first 2 episodes are a waste.

It sounds like they are going through 5 stages of grief for how awful that episode was

Jon snow surrounded by hundreds of wights who slowly walk at him one at a time but thousands of dothraki are wiped out in 1 minute!!!!!!!!!!

Rewatch the episode,Jon and Arya planned the Night King’s demise. You can hear him telling her to go, just before the wind blow lightly through the Walkers’ hair, 😂

Bran could just warg into The Mountain-Hodor style and kill Cersei. Done in 3 mins.

Marissa spoke facts. I love these guys, but she had the most logical arguments.

After this episode I feel like the whole series could have done without the White Walker storyline at all. Usually in agreement with you guys, but there's been some pretty bad writing going around on GoT. Even the director has come out and said the visuals weren't supposed to be so dark. Why continue to defend it? You yourselves have said George doesn't write bad guys who are bad solely for evil's sake. Welp, so much for that. I've mistakenly defended bad things because I so badly wanted them to be good. Kinda the vibe I'm getting here. Marissa the only voice of reason. Keep up the good work though guys!

Melisandra reminding us about the brown, green, blue eyes thing took away the surprise for me. Also Bran's whole ability to warg into people seems to be a chekov's gun that wasn't used unless you count the hold the door scene.

Listening to the guy who said he loved this...just wow. I think some folks turn off their brains altogether while watching and simply don’t care when this stuff makes no sense. They feel that you are nit-picking when there is a major battle built up to for 8 years that has absolutely no strategy and depends 100% on cliched devices and plot armor. Ok, fine....but compared to Battle of the Bastards, Hardome and BlackWater Bay.... this was absolute garbage.