That’s it. Roll credits. No magic, no dragonfire. But so much character and foreshadowing are concentrated in this high-fantasy “Old Yeller.” It establishes, in one sword-stroke, that Robert, pushed by Cersei and his bratty son, is weak and inconstant; that the Stark children will become unmoored from their roots (the direwolf is the symbol of the North, and this is the first of several lupicides to come); that Joffrey is a dangerous monster; that the Starks will pay a high cost, principles will be tested and the innocent will die.

Compare this with “The Battle of the Bastards” in Season 6, where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) sees his adoptive brother Rickon (Art Parkinson) murdered before his eyes. The moment barely has time to land. If viewers remember it at all, it’s as the opening casualty for the breathtaking war scene, which took nearly two months to shoot, that gives the episode its title.

To be fair, the George R.R. Martin books on which the series is based establish a premise in which the mythic and epic will become more commonplace. “Game of Thrones” is about a world in which magic used to exist, seemed to disappear and is slowly returning. This happens gradually, then accelerates. The dragons take a season to hatch, then they grow up fast; war breaks out, then it engulfs the world.

In the saga’s best seasons — roughly the middle of its run — the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss held its human and fantastical sides in balance. It managed stunning set pieces — the Battle of the Blackwater, the Red Wedding — but it was grounded in ideas.