# (Might Contain Spoilers) The Dark Zebra in Game of Thrones S8 e3



## Zee (Apr 29, 2019)

I had a wide grin on my face when i heard it and the patches he used for the dragon wing flap are just perfect


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## marclawsonmusic (Apr 29, 2019)

The piano music during the final confrontation didn't work for me at all. Nor did the dark color grading... or whatever they did to make it hard to see - I couldn't understand what was happening for most of the episode. 

Those two creative choices were risky and in this case I don't think either paid off.


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## DivingInSpace (Apr 29, 2019)

marclawsonmusic said:


> The piano music during the final confrontation didn't work for me at all. Nor did the dark color grading... or whatever they did to make it hard to see - I couldn't understand what was happening for most of the episode.
> 
> Those two creative choices were risky and in this case I don't think either paid off.


I wasn't fan of the color grading either, but i think the music worked really well, the piano parts too, though i would have done a few things differently and probably used another piano for it.



Zee said:


> I had a wide grin on my face when i heard it and the patches he used for the dragon wing flap are just perfect


Can you elaborate with which patches and when?


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## Zee (Apr 29, 2019)

DivingInSpace said:


> Can you elaborate with which patches and when?


At the battle preparation before they head out the low bass and drones i believe those were "Bane Bass" and "Batflaps Performer" patches


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## Consona (Apr 30, 2019)

Honestly, I couldn't stand majority of the music in the last episode.

A minimalistic electronic score for a huge dark fantasy battle?! It was so inappropriate, unimaginative, obnoxious and repetitive. The whole time I was imagining how would a fitting orchestral score elevate the whole thing. The orchestra has no many colours and effects to offer to score such a thing, but no, we obviously needed a simple thudding ever-repeating low synth pattern and synthy drones. Eh.


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## LeonardWest (Apr 30, 2019)

I thought the piano music during the final confrontation was genius. 

Moving and gorgeous. 

I loved that they avoided the usual musical cliches throughout that episode.


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## lucianogiacomozzi (Apr 30, 2019)

I thought the piano was okay... A nice contrast, however, I don't remember a single other bit of the score for that episode. It was bland and boring for most the fight. I do think the silence was used well in places, though. For a feeling of tension of the impending doom and the bitter cold, anyway.


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## marclawsonmusic (Apr 30, 2019)

Since Djawadi is known for doing covers, he should have gone with a piano cover of 'King of Pain' during that sequence. That would've rocked!


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## Studio E (Apr 30, 2019)

Yeah, the color grading almost had me shaking my fist at the TV.


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## will_m (May 1, 2019)

I wonder what the schedule is for an episode like this, must be crazy, its an hour and twenty minutes of almost wall to wall music.

I liked a lot of the cues, felt like a break from some of the previous work but these final episodes need that next level of drama. There was also some nice adaptation of previous themes, the one for the red woman was great.


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## Zee (May 1, 2019)

will_m said:


> I wonder what the schedule is for an episode like this


IIRC they spent couple of months on filming this episode


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## will_m (May 2, 2019)

Zee said:


> IIRC they spent couple of months on filming this episode



I'm sure the production time was lengthy but I meant the time for post-production and scoring. They only wrapped shooting 10 months ago and each episode is like a film now, the last one was almost wall to wall score for 120 mins.


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## VinRice (May 2, 2019)

I think the music has been great for this season so far. There's clearly been a conscious decision to move beyond the orchestration of the previous shows into more sound design. Perfectly appropriate imho. All bets are off for these final mini-movies.


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## Sean (May 7, 2019)

I thought that final piano piece was absolutely amazing, surprised others don't feel the same way.


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## CT (May 7, 2019)

I thought that piano cue at the end of episode 3 worked, too. It brought the scene up a few notches.

I've followed this show for so long, but I'm definitely too emotionally invested in one particular character, and as ridiculous as most of the material this season is, the character in question is sadly played by someone with the skill to absolutely sell that material... I'm prepared to get my heart broken in two weeks, considering how hard this last episode was to watch.


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## NoamL (May 7, 2019)

I admit I'm not an HBO subscriber (and slowly stopped watching the show a few years ago). I watched some scenes of the last few episodes on YouTube and I thought the synthesizer music was something the uploader had added to avoid a copyright takedown. Putting those kinds of synths in GOT is a very strange choice.

The show has had tons of TRULY smart music over the years. Like the way RD manipulated Theon's theme in season 2, the development of Jon & Ygritte's love theme in season (4?), and the way Ramin used the piano in the scene with Cersei's plot.

I made this chart 5 years ago back when I watched the show religiously.







The reaction to this season has been very divided and I can't help wonder if the music is subconsciously playing a role in that. New music and new sounds can only make the audience subconsciously feel a disjunction from everything that has come before. The White Walker theme has been teased relentlessly in every season... I think it might be the very first piece in the show actually... surely this episode was the chance to deliver on it the same way that the episode where Jon & the Wildlings climb the Wall was the episode to really deliver on the Wall motif that had been heard in earlier seasons.

Of course it's easy to criticize from afar as a viewer. This might be the hardest composer job there's ever been in the history of television. Effectively the gig for this season is scoring 6 feature films back to back and somehow delivering a Howard-Shore-LOTR-sized payoff on more than 40 hours of prior score.

On the plus side, there is a scene with Melisandre that uses her theme with an _entirely new harmonization_ (as far as I know) and it rocks. That's the kind of thing that really makes a TV show musically fun, when the composer reveals they have been holding something in reserve for _years_. I had an irrepressible grin on my face watching that scene.

Also say what ya like about the writing on the show but the actors are doing a better job than ever before. Very reminiscent of LOST in that respect. Dinklage, Clarke and the girl who plays Sansa (Sophie something?) all deserve Emmys.


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## MA-Simon (May 8, 2019)

I think aside from production value and music, Season 8 of game of thrones might be remembered as one of the most horrific examples of the butchering of a show, it's character, it's motivations and it's source material in the history of television. Among book readers it is considered an absolute turd.


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## erica-grace (May 20, 2019)

NoamL said:


> This might be the hardest composer job there's ever been in the history of television. Effectively the gig for this season is scoring 6 feature films back to back and somehow delivering a Howard-Shore-LOTR-sized payoff on more than 40 hours of prior score.



I think that Ramin Djawadi did a good job, but let's not kid ourselves here - the GOT score is not even close to being in the same league as Shore's work on Rings.

Plus, there is not that much music in each and every episode. Some have a good amount, while some have 12-15 min, total. So, it's not like he's writing an hour of music for each ep.

Then there is the orchestration, which is sparse much of the time.





There isn't much happening there. Not that it doesn't work - it does. But it isn't, most of the time, nearly as densely orchestrated as Shore's work.

Of course there is a lot of work that goes into everything for the GOT score, but it's not on the same level as LOTR.


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## MA-Simon (May 30, 2019)

At least the soundtrack is something that is applauded all arround the interwebs! He should be pround! (Judging by my reddit browsing). 

The rest... shure was cinematic.


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