by Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones theme is one of the most iconic TV scores of the 2010s. Maybe there is a reason, then, that when House of the Dragon began, Djawadi returned to Westeros and sort of threw his hands in the airallowed the prequel to be shown only to reuse it for its own opening titles. How to promote a TV icon?

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms managed to do so, even if it meant turning into a bad shit joke.

When the latest Game of Thrones The spinoff started a few weeks ago, has lots of chatter about the show’s use of Djawadi’s iconic theme song, its building chords that accompany what appears to be a burgeoning heroic moment for our new protagonist, Ser Duncan the Tall—only to have it cut short as Dunk finds his insides betraying him, replaced. Game of Thrones as we know it in a smash-cut of a graphic behind a wooden bathroom break. This is shorthand to tell us that it is not the Game of Thrones we know; others worried that it would appear disrespectful to the franchise and Djawadi’s work, almost literally mocking it.

Since then, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gives us a very different soundtrack in comparison. Composed by Dan Romer, it’s less sweeping strings and orchestral epics and more folksy, weird music with a western bent, all the guitars and quiet whistles melting into the world as actual in-universe songs take over, from rude, boozy ballads sung in Baratheon tents to young Egghyme playing itself Rebellions. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a small scope show, and so its score is in line with that vibe.

Until the climax of last week’s brilliant fourth episode, “Seven,” that is. Things have taken a turn for the worse for poor Dunk in the last few episodes, after his bold decision to help Tanselle the puppeteer—and briefly beat the snot out of Aerion Targaryen in the process—means he finds himself facing a ancient trial by war to prove his innocence. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms back to the butt jokes again, as Dunk’s appeal to the assembled crowd to find one more noble warrior to join his side is interrupted by a dude who stands up to rip a huge fart in response.

So it’s only fitting that the show uses that opportunity to bring back the Game of Thrones theme too, when Dunk found the last slot in his group of seven for the trial filled by Baelor Targaryen, Aerion’s uncle and the current heir to the throne. The episode ends with a startled Dunk and the audience at Baelor’s act of majesty, and, of course, with the sweeping strings from Djawadi’s score returning to the picture-disappearing closing titles with a version of Game of Thrones theme mixed with an orchestral rendition of Romer’s theme for Dunk, no longer whistling and folksy, but that orchestral epic tone that the show has largely avoided until now.

And this GREATbecause it is fully earned. If many of the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms up to this point about the little people (not literally, in Dunk’s case), this time it will briefly be about the high fantasy of what a knight, respectful character for them: a noble prince who rides into battle on the side of the oppressed, even if it means siding with his own family, and a call to arms and better judgment that most of the lovers of the Westdero era listen to. It makes use of Game of Thrones The theme for us, the actual audience, becomes almost instantaneous, this theme that we associate with a larger narrative that is now woven into this smaller, personal one.

It wouldn’t have been half as successful if the show hadn’t played with our expectations and touched it teasingly in the first episode. But for a moment, Game of Thrones became the theme of Dunk’s hype, or rather, it raised his own leitmotif to its level. That is a much more powerful use of that particular piece of music than simply being attached to it House of the Dragon from a sense of anticipation.

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