After a somewhat slow start, “House of the Dragon” picked up steam over the course of the season, spanning an entire generation with its jumps forward, which proved a trifle disorienting at the time. The net effect, though, was compelling and offered enough big, attention-getting moments to make the show both a rating success and a regular trending topic, achieving a place in the cultural zeitgeist that “The Rings of Power” seldom appeared to reach on Amazon Prime.

Part of that might stem from the equity built up by both “Game of Thrones” – all that grousing about its ending notwithstanding – and HBO, which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The time jumps did serve another purpose by establishing additional characters, an area where the series felt initially deficient. That includes Ewan Mitchell as the eye-patch-wearing Aemond Targaryen, whose nasty streak played a pivotal role in the finale while demonstrating that flying dragons and truly taming them aren’t necessarily one and the same.

Although it wasn’t a direct competition between “Dragon” and “Rings,” the parallels between them and the timing of their release made comparisons virtually inevitable. In addition, the first seasons both essentially served as long prologues for the epic battles that lie ahead.

Neither was perfect, but the final few episodes of “House of the Dragon” reinforced the distance between them and did a fine job of whetting the audience’s appetite for what comes next.

Within the show, the game of thrones will continue. But based on its opening salvo, score “House of the Dragon” as a victory for the old guard.