A little obvious, the Artist Formerly known as Fire and Blood doing “Fire and Blood,” but here you have it.
Welcome once more to the road show that ain’t stopping ’til the wheels fall off at the season 6 premiere, aka our little tour through Memory Lane. And also welcome to season one’s mindblowing finale. This one was a doozy.
Written by David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor (with more than a little help from Alik Sakharov’s cinematography), this proved the pitch-perfect capstone to a revelatory season of groundbreaking fantasy television.
Basically… if you weren’t down with this show by the time this sucker ended, well, it was never gonna be for you. This episode was excellent, easily in my top ten for GoT, even though there were very few actual tense moments. (Even Dany’s pyre walk felt more atmospheric than gut-wrenching.)
It opened with death… A close-up on the bloody length of Ned’s former sword (“In case anyone wondered if Ned was actually dead.” – D.B. Weiss) And it closed with life, the birth of Dany’s dragons. Because only death can pay for life. It was in short the perfect ending to a near-perfect adaptation of A Game of Thrones.
Still reeling from the shocking death of our noble protagonist (reverently reviewed by the Faith’s Champion WinterPhil in yesterday’s Baelor post), we find just about every character taking very specific turns in their varied crossroads. Jon tries to run south, but is hauled back by honor (“Didn’t say it was your honor”), and is then taken north. Arya is hauled north aboard a caravan of misfits and ne’er-do-wells. Sansa finally realizes there is no escape for her in King’s Landing. Tyrion is sent by his father to rule. Robb is crowned. And of course Danaerys has her epic rebirth. It whetted our appetite for season two… which, at the time, felt oh so far away.
Introductions: Hot Pie, Lommy Greenhands, Arry’s Bad Wig
Deaths: Khal Drogo, Mirri Maz Duur, Marillion’s Tongue, Arry’s Bad Wig
(Praise R’hllor, Maisie Williams had the intestinal fortitude to whack her hair for season 2!)
Big Moments: Just as the book A Game of Thrones ended with the birth of dragons, so too did GoT’s season 1, and it was every bit as shiver-inducing onscreen as it was on the page.
Dany rising from the ashes, sharply (and probably purposefully) reminiscent of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. The final cut to black over nothing but Drogon’s scream (Alan Taylor’s lobbied idea). Ramin Djawadi’s music!
Often lost in the Dany praise for that ending scene is her other scene–the soul-shredding murder of her shekh ma shieraki anni, Khal Drogo. Emilia Clarke is brilliant in her desperation and despondency, and Taylor’s camera work (more credit to Sakharov for the final pull back) is par excellence.
And to say nothing of other scenes; go back and watch the throne room conversation between Littlefinger and Varys. The wordplay in the script. The framing, the color, the camera movement as they walk. (David Benioff, in the Blu-ray extras, called it “A stately progression.”) Baelish’s smooth turn, knowing Joffrey’s footsteps even before seeing him. This shit’s art. Benioff, Weiss, Taylor, Gillen, Hill, each at their best.
Notable Quotes:
“They have your sisters. We have to get the girls back. And then we will kill them all.” —Catelyn Stark
(Will you though?)
“You’ll be needing that again.” —The Hound to Sansa Stark (letting her keep the handkerchief)
“They have my son!” —Tywin Lannister, thundering truth
“There sits the only king that I will bow to. The King in the North!” —Greatjon Umber
“Come on, you sorry sons of whores! It’s a thousand leagues from ‘ere to the Wall… and Winter is Coming!” —Yoren
“What gods are those? The trees your husband prayed to?”
And, yes…
“There are no men like me. Only me.” —Jaime Lannister
There is no show like this. Only this.
Season 6 is coming!
(Oh, and tomorrow the Blu-ray hits. So there’s that too.)
See you soon, nerds!
Hodor 😛
That poster is epic.
Wow, totally awesome poster…
Everytime I watch that final scene, the birth of the dragons, it gives me chills. Everytime.
KINGINTHANORF
I miss the Greatjon. While everyone stays hoping for Stoneheart, I stay hoping for the Greatjon to appear…..
…in season 7. lol
The music from the final scene gives me real chills, every single time, and I shiver like hell when that dragon scream comes up. The music of dragons, indeed.
I’m obsessed with the framing in the Littlefinger/Varys scene. It’s brilliant. The two of them in opposition, with the windows forming eyes.
It was a great finale, made me go? and want the next episode already!!! But that’s every episode of GoT really! Hey Axey, U nerd, great recap!
The final scene with Dany and her dragons was breathtaking, the look on jorahs face tells it all. Loved season 1, well I also loved seasons 2-5 as well, but that’s not the point right now XD
The point is when I watched the first episode of game of thrones, I truly didn’t understand how big this show was going to become for me. Every episode had something I loved about it, from the writing to the acting, the characters that dominated your imagination even when I wasn’t watching this show.
Can’t wait for season 6, Winter is coming.
Sue the Fury,
The composition reminds me a bit of some Maxfield Parrish works.
HODOR?
EDIT: 🙁
I love the genre, Sean Bean, and Peter Dinklage so I watched season 1 of Game of Thrones, religiously, every Sunday night. I was hooked right away, but after watching this season finale I ordered the entire published ASOIAF series. I am excited to be in the position where I do not have any idea what is coming next except for my own convoluted theories.
Also I appreciate the 50ep countdown. Thanks and nice work.
Another awesome episode. The only downside the first time around (as a then-unsullied) was getting very frustrated with the long (and at the time seemingly pointless) Pycelle scene. With all the drama and excitement going on, it seemed a very peculiar editorial choice to insert a long scene devoted a secondary character.
Oh that and the seemingly interminable wait to season 2 (although that was made quicker by reading all the books – I’m sure there were many others who read the lot for the first time between the first two seasons).
Mirri Maz Duur is the last really compelling antagonist in Dany’s story to date, book or show. I use “antagonist” rather than “villain”, because, really, killing Drogo is perilously close to being an objective good, seeing as he’s a warlord whose men rape, murder and enslave as a matter of course. That Dany loves him doesn’t change that.
Catelyn’s story really starts to go astray here. Instead of her plea for peace, she gets the “kill them all” quote mentioned in the article, when her desire to end the war and retrieve her family marks the major difference between her and Robb going forward.
Sue the Fury,
Dany has always had the best music. And the music in this scene too is absolutely perfect. The birth of the dragons is still the best season ending scene for me.
I have not always liked Emilia Clarke’s acting in the later season, but she was really great in S1 though.
I hope and think we will get another round of Littlefinger vs Varys before the series is done.
1/6 of the way there , yippee!
Their similarity / dichotomy has been hammered home so much that I would be amazed if we didn’t.
Ross,
Their stories have taken them in such different directions that it’s entirely possible, or even likely, that no such opportunity will exist.
True, but one way or another, I expect both will end up back in the capital. Given Littlefinger’s huge ambition, I’m sure he’ll end up back there eventually.
Dave and Dan had said when they finished season 1, the episodes were coming in short (HBO requires hour long dramas to be between 50 and an hour). So HBO gave them two weeks to write a bunch of new scenes to fill time. Being that this episode was right around 50 minutes, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pycelle scene was one of these scenes. You see a lot more of them early on in the season.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
The Pycelle scene almost feels like a parody of the show’s other “sexposition” moments, as Ros waits around listening to him but he never says anything interesting and she gets frustrated.
I think I recall reading that the detail with Pycelle was added in partly because Julian Glover wanted to do a bit more with the role.
Ross,
My copy comes in tomorrow, and I’m having minor anxiety attacks waiting for Season Six. Please, since I’m a man who LOVES spoilers, if anyone on this website truly has inside plot info, tell me!
?????,
Sean C.,
I think Mirri Maz Duur is such a great character because I’ve seen people try to paint her as purely a ‘bad guy,’ and it’s puzzling. Like…she’s not wrong. The Dothraki murdered everyone she cared about and the prophecy for Dany’s kid sounds like bad news for everyone under their feet. I think Mirri was an early lesson for Dany’s savior complex. “I saved you!” “Saved me from what, I’d already been raped by a few of your guys. And they killed everyone in my village.” I can understand Dany feeling angry too though. I find it all very interesting.
LOVE this episode. So good.
OT: I saw the S6 trailer on TV yesterday after Vinyl. Was so happy… lol It looks so good on the big screen
Don’t you mean 1/5? There’s 5 Seasons and once the countdown is up Season 6 premeires.
Same here 🙂 played before Vinyl for me.
Sue the Fury,
That’s one of the more prominent instances where GRRM’s sophisticated use of POV storytelling (in the show it’s not quite the same, but Dany is still the protagonist and the character we’ve been following) passes many people by. She loves Drogo and (after raping her) they grew to have what looks like a reasonably healthy relationship (or what passes for one in this context). Both the books and show peel this away, as Dany realizes that this campaign to retake her throne is going to involve slaving and butchery, but a lot of people skim over that and just focus on the characters they’ve grown to like at the expense of what’s actually happening.
Not the first time in the series that happens, and most definitely not the last either.
It’s a notable point in Dany’s arc, because she doesn’t really become especially self-aware about what Mirri was saying (she still has her burned alive), but going forward she will struggle with what sort of actions she’s willing to tolerate in order to take what she believes is hers. Ironically, whereas had Drogo not died they would have financed their campaign by selling slaves to the Meereenese, Dany ultimately ends up trying to end slavery in the region.
I remain of the opinion that this is the best episode of the season, Baelor be damned. This is the one season where every episode is better than the one that preceded it (save “Winter is Coming,” which I’d slot in around 6th best of the season, maybe 7th).
So many moments, both big and small:
–Yes to everything Sue said about Mirri Maaz Duur. What would this Great Khal have done to the world? Plundered and destroyed it? She isn’t wrong, not in the slightest.
–I love the Pycelle scene. It gives us so much insight into the nature of how he carries himself. His brief moment where he does some deep-knee-bends and then is careful to adjust his posture before he leaves the room adds an element of cunning to his nature that we hadn’t quite seen before, and it’s what really makes me throw him in with Baelish and Varys as a true member of the “small council three,” because they’re all, in some ways, “performing.”
–The first sense of kindness from the Hound and the rough role of protector of the Stark girls he plays. “Do as you’re bid, child.”
–“There are no men like me. Only me.” Such a great line, because while you could argue there’s bravado in the statement, it plays more like a hollow sadness, one that we didn’t really get the full measure of until “Kissed by Fire” in the bathtub.
–And then the episode ends on three massive, monstrous moments:
—–The great epic “King in the North!” scene, Robb’s wariness and acceptance of his role, and Cat’s hesitant expression that mirrors Ned as he looks at Arya at the end of Episode 3;
—–Jeor Mormont’s epic “Are you a boy who likes to play at war?” speech as he leads the Night’s Watch out on a massive ranging that in retrospect, was a terrible blunder, leaving Castle Black nearly completely defenseless and decimating the ranks of the Black Brothers;
—–DRAGONS.
It’s a great episode, and easily slots into my top 10 GOT eps ever.
Jack Bauer 24,
so awesome
King in the North scene always gives me chills. The GreatJon’s speech followed by Robb slowly rising from his chair to accept the charge given from his banner men. Just a perfect ‘coming of age’ moment.
Also, I’ve always loved the setup for Tyrion going to KL as hand. He puts all of Tywin’s men in place and is the only one outside of Tywin to grasp what is really at stake. Also, the look on Tyrion’s face when Tywin says ‘because you’re my son.’ Priceless.
Apologies if any of this was in E9 and I’m back referencing out of context.
For its first three seasons, Game of Thrones finales cultivated a reputation for being quieter hours (a paradigm that’s been upended in recent years by “The Children” and “Mother’s Mercy”). “Fire and Blood” is the prototype for that type of episode, as it’s primarily focused on sorting through the fallout from Episode 9’s earth-shattering chaos and doing some table-setting for what’s to come. But it’s also great.
“The King in the North! The King in the North! The King in the North!”
God, I love that scene! 🙂 Robb – uncertain, then confident. The Greatjon – raucous and ebullient (last appearance for Clive Mantle, unfortunately). Catelyn – supportive, but resigned. And there’s Theon, pledging his eternal fealty to Robb – which is touching in the moment, but also tragic and ironic, given what’s to come.
The scene that follows between Catelyn and Jaime is excellent as well. Jaime talks a nice game about not caring what happens to him or what people think of him. But from the way his expression falters after Catelyn turns away, you can tell that doesn’t relish playing the cavalier villain as much as he pretends.
Jon has a nice little arc in this episode. I love Sam, Grenn, and Pyp reciting the Night’s Watch oath to bring him back to his senses, and Mormont’s speech at the end setting up the Great Ranging Beyond the Wall.
King’s Landing probably features the most table-setting of any location in the episode, but the individual scenes are all strong. Sansa shows the first real hint of steel lurking under her porcelain-and-ivory skin when she comes thisclose to pushing Joffrey off the catwalk. Varys and Littlefinger share a great moment of resetting the game board as they settle into their old positions under the new King. And while the scene with Pycelle and Ros admittedly seemed like a strange addition upon my first viewing, it’s really grown on me since. The companion scene from Season 3, when Tywin calls Pycelle out for his “performance”, is one of the only deleted scenes that I wish had remained in the show. I’ll never complain about Julian Glover being given more to do.
Oh, Tyrion’s on his way to the capital as well! Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance are both fantastic in the scene when Tywin gives Tyrion his position as Hand of the King (as they always are).
Ultimately, however, as the title suggests, this episode belongs to Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, of the Blood of Old Valyria, the dragon’s daughter …
With the potential exception of “And Now His Watch Is Ended”, I think that this is Emilia Clarke’s best episode of the entire show (and as I’ve said many times, I really like her work across the entire series, so that’s high praise). Her performance during the scene when she has to mercy-kill Drogo after all that she sacrificed to save him is just heartbreaking. And her eerie sense of calm self-assurance during the scene when she walks into the pyre makes for a transfixing image.
(I’ll echo the praise for Mirri Maz Duur as a complex antagonist (not villain) for Dany as well. A good character, and well-played by Mia Soteriu).
One of my favorite small moments in the episode is when Jorah is trying to convince Dany not to walk into the pyre, and he staunchly declares “I won’t watch you burn.” I absolutely love the small smile that she gives him and how calm her voice is when she replies “Is that what you fear?” She’s not going to argue with him, she’s going to show him because her belief is just that strong. Ultimately, her faith is rewarded.
The final scene is my favorite closing scene for any Game of Thrones episode, and one of the best scenes of the entire series, bar none. Years later, it has lost none of its power. Ramin Djawdi’s music (the piece is just titled “Finale”) is beautiful and transcendent – it’s one of the tracks I listen to most frequently. The way the camera pans out, and the dragon’s music echoes across the barren landscape and the screen cuts to black.
“And for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.”
That’s how you end a season of television! The wait for Season 2 was perhaps the hardest of any offseason (with the potential exception of this one), although it was alleviated slightly by the fact that A Dance with Dragons was published about a month after Season 1 ended. Alas, we haven’t been graced with such a boon since.
..art, indeed!
That’s why it’s an embellishment to say that the book is superior. The show must fire on all channels to convey information. Each footstep, the positioning of characters in a frame, colour scheme…and on, and on..is a message. It’s like a waking dream that needs interpretation. If you’re good at interpreting symbols, then you don’t need to refer to the books.
But, we can’t escape human nature, can we? Those who read the book, long before the show came to exist, want to be seen as elder canon. They want to be revered. They want to say they are literary visionaries for having picked the now popular book off the store shelves – instead of countless others – and for liking it. But of course, it’s all coincidence.
Well, that’s S1 done. Forty more episodes to go. Thanks to all the trips down memory lane, guys and gals of WotW! This is a really good series of posts.
Jared,
I feel about Emilia the way I felt about Nicole Kidman the first time I saw her in “Dead Calm”: I knew she was going to be a big, big star. If she had been a stock, I’d have bought a thousand shares.
It’s peculiar though, how she walks away from her missing baby. I say the baby is missing because Deny should have demanded to see the body of her supposed deformed and dead infant son. She should have wanted to know where he was buried or burned. I reflect on what a woman might do if she’s told her baby is dead, but never sees his body. I imagine that baby would always seem to be missing.
I think it’s entirely possible that the infant was spirited away by the old women of the Dothraki. They believe Deny’s son is the stallion who will mount the world, an infant in grave danger since Drogo was dying.
That means that what’s-his-face might be in on it…it means Mirri was in on it. Would Deny see this as betrayal, or rescue? I’m guessing betrayal.
Deny is going back to Vaes Dothrak in season six. I think she might leave with much, much more that a Khalasar, she might leave with a small boy.
Anon,
Why would Jorah allow that? Or Mirri, for that matter, seeing as she wants the little sucker dead?
When I first watched Season 1, some time after it aired, I’d been spoiled on some points, like the dragons hatching. But I had no idea that Tywin would send Tyrion to serve as Hand, so those wonderful scenes between Dinklage and Dance (two of the most compelling actors on the show) were among my favorites. The Catelyn/Jaime scene, which book readers were surprised had been moved far up from its position (late in ACOK), seemed to fit well here, I thought.
Emilia Clarke should be praised for her willingness to do the magnificent final scene in the nude, which is beautiful and natural and perfect, not at all bordering on the (arguably) salacious Daenerys bits of the following seasons.
Lord Snow,
That’s Tywin’s reply to everything concerning Tyrion.
Tywin is a classic bigot. Cersai said so herself when she told him that the rumours of her and Jaime were true and that he couldn’t believe it because he cared only for the idea of his children, not his actual children. And isn’t that exactly what a bigot is? Someone who sees only what he believes and ignores objective reality.
Tyrion is clever and ambitious, but, Tywin sees a stunted embarrasment. Jamie is scattered and lacks ambition, but, Tywin sees his legacy.
Bigotry makes fools of us all.
Feels really good to rediscover the wonderful Beautiful Deaths at each of these great posts !
Congrats to the whole team for the effort !
Sean C.,
There are a few possibilities, I think:
On the darker side, Jorah is a weird, obsessed guy. He might think it’s in his interest to have Deny free and unencumbered by Drogo’s baby. I’m not a fan of that idea. On the other hand, Jorah told Deny that the Dothraki men would feed her baby to the dogs if Drogo died. So, he might keep his mouth shut to protect the infant if the women hid him away. That would be a twisted kind of love, from a twisted kind of guy.
How much power did Mirri actually have in that situation? If the Dosh Khaleen told her they were taking the baby, could she protest? I suppose she could raise an alarm and let the men know, but, it’s also possible that Mirri wasn’t so hostile to Deny, after all. I’m mean, twice Deny saved her life, maybe she returned the favour by saving Deny’s son…in a twisted kind of way.
Anon,
There were no Dosh Khaleen present, and I really don’t see how any of that would fit with Mirri’s motivations on the show. It would detract from everything she says to Dany at the end.
Where did GreatJon go? Do we see him after that scene?
Did he not go to war with Robb? I know we see the Karkstarks after… the boltons… etc.
I always wondered why we didn’t see more Umbers after?
Deesensfan,
The actor wasn’t available for the following season, and the show opted against recasting the part or bringing him back later.
Bryan Cogman claimed on Twitter that the Greatjon wasn’t at the Red Wedding and was still alive leading some men elsewhere, but I have a hunch that Season 6 is going to say differently (I’d say “retcon”, but it’s not really a retcon since Cogman’s statement was never in the show itself).
Sean C.,
That’s a good point. I don’t know whether the show is cleaving to the idea that the old women remain in Vaes Dothrak and don’t ever travel.
It could just be Mirri’s pride and pain talking. There is evidence that she does, in fact, value her gutted life. She said that life isn’t worth much when the people you love are gone. Well, maybe life is still worth something. Mirri could have killed herself, could she not? And, Deny didn’t do anything to harm her…no matter what she tries to tell herself. So, she teaches Deny a little lesson about what it means to lose what you love, while not actually killing the infant.
I absolutely love the Jaime/Catelyn scene. All Jaime scenes were amazing in the first three seasons.
Dany just begins here path as Dany, the misguided. I hate how entitled she is and how she always thinks she knows what is right or just. Even after being wrong so fucking always
Ahhh…… the birth of the dragons! This is the scene I have rewatched the most of any other scene from the entire series to date! It never gets old, and that is in no small part due to the music, especially Drogon’s calls. Still as goosebump-inducing and spine-tingling as the first time I watched it. Emphatically announcing a change in the course of the story.
Emilia Clarke was excellent in this episode, and she has seldom had material as good in all the rest of the seasons, as in Season 1.
Sean C.,
Wow I had no idea that’s what happened.
Okay good, so I was not imagining things when I was doing my rewatch a couple months ago, and he just disappeared.
I wonder if we will see him again. Or the Umbers. I mean Rickon did go to the Umbers. Sooo they must be coming back somehow.
Sean C.,
Mirri knew very well that someone else would replace Drogo, and that Deny was the closest the Dothraki would come to morality. I do believe that Mirri’s magic is a crock and that Drogo had brain damage from neurotoxin from bacteria, or something like that. Of course, it’s in her interest for people to believe she has power.
I don’t think it’s fair to imply that Mirri was a moral crusader against rape and pillaging. I think she just wanted her life back the way it was.
If anything, she wanted a little personal vengeance…but even that is complex, as she can’t deny that Deny was good to her and it’s not that easy to kill a baby.
Sean C.,
Yeah, I doubt what Bryan Cogman said on Twitter a few years ago was viewed as binding canon by Benioff and Weiss when they were the show this year. I’m expecting that in Season 6, we’ll learn that the Greatjon died at some point after the Red Wedding (or that he was captured and remains a prisoner, but death would be cleaner if he’s not going to appear).
Alternatively, if the Greatjon did die at some point, maybe the Smalljon is angry at the Starks for leading his father south to his death. Why he wouldn’t blame the Boltons, I don’t know – unless he doesn’t know, or the Greatjon was killed by someone else.
The most common rationalization for why the Umbers may side with the Boltons in the Battle of the Bastards (assuming that they’re not planning a double-cross, a la the Manderlys) is that they hate and fear that the wildlings who have been allowed south of the Wall. They’re backing the Boltons because they view them as the lesser of two evils. That makes a lot of sense, and it’s probably the main factor. But perhaps there are other reasons as well.
Overall, the possibility that the Umbers could be backing the Boltons has really done a number on me … and that’s without even considering the Rickon factor! It’s one of the mysteries I’m most keen to get an answer to in Season 6 … although the fact that the Smalljon is only set to appear in two episodes could make it difficult for him to have any kind of serious arc. He may just wind up being a general in Ramsay’s army, like Harald Karstark most likely will.
Darkgreenblue,
Praised for going nude? Isn’t that part of her contract, she took the role knowing what she would need to do. It’s funny how she decided to stop doing nude scenes later on when Dany became an established and popular character, it would have been a disaster to re-cast Emilia. After season 1, she didn’t have any salacious scenes, so I don’t know what your talking about. She was naked in that one scene in season 3 when Dario swore fealty to her, but she was just coming out of the bath. Dany is a very sexual character, Emilia has not really played her well in this regard, you can’t start saying things that are not true because it is Game of Thrones, most of the established actors and actresses don’t really put themselves in compromising situations, they usually use body doubles a lot.
Ross,
I did just that, and I’ve been reading them on a loop ever since; each time I finish I try & start something else but I drift back. “I thought I was out, but they puuulled me back in”… The only non ASOIAF book I’ve managed to finish was The Force Awakens novelisation hahaha
Brannis the Mannis,
What a fantastic video… An awesome piece of mixing with the actor’s lines synced perfectly with the music! Its a cracker 😉
As an Unsullied, I did believe eventually Robb would kill some Lannisters and avenge his father. *sobs* I was sure the writers were setting him up to be the hero and lead the Starks to glory.
When Jon fled south, I was so happy at the possibility that he’d reunite with Robb and they’d kick ass together. Back then I wanted him out of the Night’s Watch. Little did I know that my favorite story would eventually center around the North and what lay beyond the Wall.
Dany ‘birthing’ the dragons is one of my ‘hell yeah!’ moments of season 1. The show threw all their eggs into the magic basket and there was no turning back. And I loved it. I couldn’t believe that in the span of 2 episodes they killed the ‘hero’ main character and the insanely hot Khal, and introduced dragons! And so began my yearly agony of waiting 10 months for a new season.
Arya’s wig was so flipping hideous; millions of dollars in production and they couldn’t come up with a better wig? Kudos to Maisie for chopping off her locks for season 2. Not many little girls would do that.
The wigs are, I find, consistently the weakest aspect of the show’s otherwise excellent production values.
Who is actually wearing a wig in TV series? Cersei, Daenerys, Melisandre… Is there anyone else?
Lord Parramandas,
Margaery (her season 2 wig was really bad; it got better in subsequent seasons). Sansa during her very brief Alayne phase. Ned, a few other male characters.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve repeated that last scene.
No, her spell caused shadows to move in the tent of their own accord, and Dany’s baby, who otherwise would have been the Stallion Who Mounts the world, to be born dead and draconically deformed, full of graveworms. It’s a bit beyond coincidence, and in keeping with how other magic has worked in the series.