Until recently, you could make the argument that Game of Thrones was a stealthily feminist show. In its early years it might have lured in the typical male fantasy crowd with sex, violence and alpha-male characters like Ned and Robb Stark, Robert Baratheon and Jaime Lannister, but before you knew it a woman was on the Iron Throne, her main challenger was also a woman, and Westeros was stuffed full of female assassins, knights, wily politicos and Dame Diana Rigg. Sure, the show still asked us to ogle naked female bodies once a week, and there was still a worryingly relaxed attitude to rape, but we fantasy-loving female viewers have learned to take our victories where we can – and Game of Thrones was one of them.

Which is why it’s so frustrating to see the show slip back into its old ways in this final season. Coming off the back of The Long Night’s excellent twist ending – where Arya, rather than the expected hero Jon Snow, killed the Night King – the latest episode is especially disappointing. So many of the show’s strongest female characters were undermined by showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, who also wrote this episode.

First, a caveat: personally, I’m thoroughly enjoying Daenerys’ descent into complete megalomania. Anyone who thinks it’s an unbelievable character shift for her weren’t paying attention during her seven straight seasons of setting people who don’t agree with her on fire. Daenerys was never going to be the right person for the Iron Throne – and neither is Cersei, who also has a history of blowing up her enemies. Heck, if they weren’t fighting over the Iron Throne, the two of them would probably get on like a Sept on fire.

Completely dreadful ... Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) with Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk). Photograph: HBO

So having two female villains is not at all anti-feminist – in fact, it’s refreshing – but it gets wearisome when, in The Last of the Starks, Tyrion and Varys all but decide that Jon Snow is the rightful king to oppose these mad queens, chiefly because he’s a man. Sure, he hasn’t resorted to solving his problems with explosions, which is certainly a tick in the plus column, but he’s also a notoriously terrible politician, and last time he was put in charge of something he got murdered in a mutiny. None of his major battles were won by him – Sansa bailed him out in the Battle of the Bastards, and Arya saved the day in the Battle for Winterfell. Jon’s only qualifications for the throne are that he’s a Targaryen, and a bloke.

To hear Tyrion and Varys – characters who have always been portrayed as egalitarian – say that Jon’s gender would make him a better leader than Daenerys is just depressing. And to see Daenerys being rejected as a potential queen for being too “strong” for a husband to control, not to mention being portrayed as emotionally unstable when a man in her position would be depicted simply as a bit of a dick, is a betrayal of the character.

But that storyline, at least, can be justified by the ‘historical’ context. Kings held more weight than queens in the medieval period that Game of Thrones is loosely referencing. Elsewhere in the episode, female characters were dealt much more egregious wrongs. A mere two weeks after her triumphant knighting, Brienne ended the episode wailing over a man while wearing a nightgown – one of the only times we’ve seen her out of her armour.

‘Wailing in her nightgown’ ... Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) with Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Photograph: Helen Sloan/HBO

Elsewhere, Sansa’s brutal abuse at the hands of Ramsay Bolton was used against her twice. I forgave the show for its cruel treatment of Sansa a season ago, when it became clear that her story was one of survival rather than victimhood. But Thrones rarely passes up an opportunity to remind us of her rapes. It undermines a character who has refused to be beaten or defined by her suffering, especially when, in the latest episode, she credits her abuse for transforming her from a ‘little bird’ into what she is now. As Jessica Chastain pointed out on Twitter, it was Sansa and Sansa alone who transformed herself into the strong and savvy leader she is – not the men who abused and manipulated her. If the writers don’t understand that, how can we trust them to tell Sansa’s story properly?

Worst of all, though, was the treatment of Missandei. As Game of Thrones’ only regular female character of colour, the show had a responsibility to not mess her arc up. And yet we found ourselves watching a former slave – who only wanted to return to the home country she was stolen from, and who had dedicated the last few years of her life to helping Daenerys wipe out slavery – get captured and beheaded while handcuffed, all so that her death could give Daenerys the final justification she needed to burn this mother down. It’s a move so shockingly tone deaf as to make you wonder how anyone in the writer’s room ever thought it was a good idea.

‘Shockingly tone deaf’ ... Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) meets her maker. Photograph: Home Box Office (HBO)/Game of Thrones © 2019 Home Box Office, Inc.

The writing staff on Game of Thrones has always been male-dominated, with only four episodes in the show’s history being credited to female writers. Season eight is written and directed entirely by men (only one woman, Michelle MacLaren, has ever directed Thrones), although there has been at least one woman in the writer’s room, Gursimran Sandhu, this time around.

It’s worth pointing out that not every female character is currently being let down. Arya rejecting Gendry’s proposal was pure Arya, and at least Lyanna Mormont died as she lived – taking down people much bigger than her. Cersei is also being resolutely true to herself – it just so happens that she’s a completely dreadful person. But the latest episode made such vast missteps with the characters of Sansa, Brienne and Missandei in particular that it’s hard to see how the show is going to turn it around with only two episodes to go. Game of Thrones was supposed to be a story about the underdogs, the ‘cripples, bastards and broken things’, as one first season episode title put it. If it turns out that a white, male, true-born heir is the saviour after all, it will feel like the show has missed its own point.