25 ways Star Wars is better than Game of Thrones

2. The music and score

This is a tough one, as we don’t like to pit one musical genius against another. But for the sake of the list, we’re picking Star Wars’ score as the greatest.

It’s hard to even come close to matching the legacy and talent of John Williams, who not only produced the score for Star Wars, but also for other iconic franchises like Harry Potter, Jaws, E.T. and Indiana Jones. Even just hearing or reading about the score for those movies elicits musical pieces playing in your head.

You know exactly what the “Imperial March” and the opening “Main Title” sound like. The music of Star Wars is just as ingrained into our minds and popular culture as Darth Vader’s iconic line to Luke, “No, I am your father.” And, the original score from 1977 won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

In terms of meeting the popularity power of Star Wars, the score for Game of Thrones comes pretty close. Besides the captivating “Main Title” that accompanies the opening sequence (see next slide), composer Ramin Djawadi crafted musical themes for major characters, Westeros’ ruling families, regional groups, locations and key events and episodes in the series. The melodies also evolved as the characters did — like the growing power of the music played for Daenerys’ dragons from hatching to being full grown.

Djawadi’s music was so popular, especially as the series was wrapping up, it spawned a touring concert series featuring him directing local orchestras on custom 3D stages as they played the score and giant screens showed scenes from the show. Djawadi also won several awards for his Game of Thrones composition since its creation in 2011.