Game Of Thrones Season 8: 9 Ups And 2 Downs From 'The Long Night'

9. The Music

In a sense, praising the music in Game of Thrones is a bit like saying Lionel Messi played well for Barcelona or that a painting by Vincent van Gogh looks nice. Ramin Djawidi is just that good, that consistently, that it's easy to take it as a given. But every so often geniuses remind you of why they're considered as such, and Djawidi does so here.

This is his best score since The Winds of Winter (when he delivered Light of the Seven), and like the best scores it elevates what's around it, especially during the action: think Duel of the Fates in The Phantom Menace, or the Avengers theme in Endgame (no spoilers for that here).

Djawidi's score in this episode lifts everything: it can make your heart race, soar, or sink; it can tonally flip everything 180 degrees in an instant. There are themes and motifs we've heard before, combined with new material, and in the last 15 minutes or so he finds a whole new level. That quiet, single piano playing towards the end of it all, when hope appears lost, is the kind of musical moment that will rip your heart in two, and something few would actually decide to go with. It's easy to think the music in Game of Thrones is great. But sometimes, it's just astonishingly so.