Score Saturday: Light of the Seven, Game of Thrones – Ramin Djawadi

S6E10 of Game of Thrones was probably the most satisfying episode of the whole series. It took some big steps, and the story arcs finally seem to be converging.

The pièce de résistance, of course, were the opening ten minutes. You know what I’m talking about! (if you don’t, you better close this right now!). Although we all probably had an inkling of what exactly was gonna happen ultimately, there was still a suspense of how it was all gonna play out. And also the more important question, who all would die?? (Side note: I totally like the way Cersei deals with her problems!) The wildfire was never mentioned, but when you finally see it, the candles melting down like a ticking time bomb, pray to God if it didn’t make your hearts racing. In one sweeping instant, everybody is dead while Cersei stands atop the Red Keep, saying her final fuck-you’s. Exactly the kind of scene GRRM would have an orgasm writing.

But let’s talk about the music. Using pianos in Game of Thrones may seem like an outrageous idea given the setting but when they finally do appear, holy-shit did it feel ominous! We instantly knew something was gonna happen, what with the way it slowly builds tension. Everybody is waiting for something, but Cersei alone is waiting for something wholly different. The juxtaposition of pianos with solo voices, again something new for GoT which always relied on more sombre tunes to make a point. But this was different, this was plot explosion(pun intended) of epic proportions. And when the cellos and violins kick in finally, there is an unspoken urgency and you go ‘Oh shit!’ before, well, shit really does smack everybody in the face. The main GoT theme makes a triumphant return here (shrouded in an organ, albeit) and you finally do realize that when you play the game of thrones, you live, or you die.

I applaud Ramin for this spectacular new theme which pretty well is gonna come very close to Rains of Castamere as far as ominous music goes. He took some brilliant risks and they paid off, big time.