Knight of Ren

Fantastic episode! I'm loving all of Daemon's Harrenhal scenes, as I feel they give the castle a really unsettling and eerie vibe that it didn't have the previous times we saw it. Also, I'm really liking Aegon as a character this season. I don't entirely side with him but he's such a complex, tragic and sad character and Tom Glynn-Carney's portrayal is really layered and makes you emapathize with him. And then the battle at the end was amazing. All of Cole's and Ser Gwayne's strategies and battle plans are worthless when confronted with the sheer force of a dragon. The scale of it all, the way it's portrayed on screen, the building tension, it was a horrifying yet oddly beautiful sequence. It is indeed portrayed like the dragons are dancing in the air when the lock their claws and are spinning around spitting fire. The humans on the ground cannot do anything more than run for their lives and try to escape the devastating dragon fire. The direction, production design and acting on the whole episode and those final minutes in particular were amazing, as was Djawadi's music, who continues to deliver an amazing and emotional score episode after episode that I cannot wait to listen on its own!

Yeah, you're right about the new themes. That "emotions" theme is a bit confusing on what it means but yeah, it's there. As for Giacchino's themes, she also uses the Family theme in The Life of Riley and I think I also caught a reference to the Sadness theme but I'm not sure about that last one.

Agree! I love Datzman's new main theme and while at first it might not br as memorable as Giacchino's, the way both themes are joined in Glide and Joy is indeed a brilliant moment!

So far I've been really enjoying tjis season, and I lovr how they're slowly building up the conflict, not relying on action and gore, but on the characters clashing motivations, on the different sides and points of view, and giving depth to each of the characters before the war fully explodes, allowing us to connect with them and understand them (at least some of them). And man, the visual aspect of the show is miles above many other shows out there right now. The direction, cinematography, production design and costumes, it's all on a whole other level, as are all the actors. I have to say that there are some decisions I don't fully buy, especially how episodes 1 and 2 ended with Cole and Alicent, as I feel the endings were a bit flat and disappointing, but I really enjoyed Alicent and Rhaenyra's conversation this last episode. Also, Djawadi's music, for me, is an essential element of the show and I feel he really enhances the emotions of many scenes like Daemon leaving Dragonstone, the lament at the beginning of episode 2, Rhaena departing on episode 3, and many more. Cannot wait to hear all of them on album! And next week looks like it's going to be a big battle so really looking forward to that!

Made me revisit all his scores for God of War and I feel it's some og the best work he's done. So many great themes and great use and development of them! It's great that he still finds some time to post these blogs, even if it's for works a year old. I hope he does some extensive blog articles for RoP S2 as they did for S1! Still waiting for Masters of the Universe: Revolution though...

After listening to the album a couple of times and watching the film I appreciate more Datzman's score, and I have to say is a great continuation of the score and themes from the first movie. I agree that the first soundtrack tends to wander off in the middle section and something similar happens with this one, but I feel both have very strong openings and endings, which make up a pretty great listening experience. The new themes aren't immediately noticeable at first, but now I identified at least three new ideas, with the most prominent ones being that new theme for Riley/friendship that is literally everywhere in the score, sometimes cleverly joined with Giacchino's main theme for the first movie, and then there's also the Anxiety theme, which was a bit wierd for me at first, but it's actually a pretty great representation of the character of anxiety! Overall, solid score that pays homage to Giacchino's score while also doing its own thing. I was surprised by how prominent the rock elements are in here, but I think they fit perfectly!

Yeah, the Greens have those two themes associated with them so far, and if you listen to The Green Dress, Fate of the Kingdoms and Interests of the Realm, they present both the Hightower theme and the Green Alliance motif (that repeating 8-note motif) in full. The Hightower theme also appears in the beginning of Compromise and Consequence.

I mean, I enjoyed King of the Monsters as a dumb and fun movie, and it has a brilliant score by McCreary, but Minus One for me is on a whole other level in every aspect. More profound and complex characters, emotional connection with them, actual stakes, and a great use of its titular monster as a raw force of nature, both scary and awe-inspiring. If that film it's too boring and too artsy, then I guess that's my kind of film, because I prefere Minus One over Godzilla (2014) by a long shot, even if I also enjoyed it. Also, Noaki Sato's score works brilliantly in context, and I agree that it's one of the most effective scores of that year. Cues like Resolution or Pray have been frequently on repeat since I saw the movie!

Haven't listened to it yet, but if Abels is involved in the song perhaps it features some references to the ritual music from episode 3?

Well, I really like when a movie or show allows a composer to build such a rich thematic tapestry, and I think Djawadi's work is such a great example of this, and I love listening to it and finding all these little thematic connections. If anyone's interested in a bit of an in-depth analysis, here's my video analysis of the main musical themes that appear in the first season! It's in spanish (my native language) but you can activate subtitles in english in case you need them. I don't know if anyone's really interested in this, but I just love doing this kind of things and being able to share them with people who might enjoy them as much!

Yeah, 2 volumes would be awesome, but it will probably be a release similar to what we got for S1, which was two hours long, but even then we had some pretty great cues missing! Even so, the bigger the release, for me it will always be better!

No idea about new themes, as I don't know much about the story and the new characters, but I hope we get to hear again some themes from GoT, like the House Stark theme, which I think is a given because of the appearance of Creagan Stark! Also, great to hear it's been officially renewed!

It's time to choose a side! Before the season premiere, I created this two suites representing each of the sides of the conflict, one for the Blacks containing mostly Rhaenyra's themes, and one for the Greens made out of the Alicent and House Hightower theme. Also planning on upload tomorrow a small video analysis of all the main themes from the first season, as a preparation for the new one coming up in just a couple of days! Which one's your favorite?

Great to hear Giacchino's themes are back. I really like his score for the first entry, so knowing his themes return is lovely. And reading the titles, it's great to know that his wife is keeping the pun-filled style tracks!

Really interesting to learn more about the sisters' past so soon. I'm sure there's something else going on there, because such powerful witches wouldn't just be all killed by a random fire, but I don't think the Jedi did it either. Intriguing. I like that we got to see kind of a new side of The Force, with what they call the Thread. In a universe so big, it's fitting that there would be different names for the same concept, and as mentioned above, it kind of reminded me of the Dathomir witches, but with some different aspects to it. I loved the ritual music during the Ascension, and it reminded me a bit of some of the Kiner's stuff for Dathomir. I think Abels' music shines the most in this episode, and I'm slowly noticing several recurring motifs, like for example a new idea that seems associated with the two sisters, and that plays literally everywhere in the episode. It plays right at the beginning of the end credits suite which I ripped in case anyone wants to hear it: