A good prequel typically has the benefit of hindsight. It’s mostly tasked with setting up a much larger story, but it also (sometimes) has the power to retroactively fix its predecessor’s biggest mistakes. We’ve seen some of that on this season of House of the Dragon, which feels more connected to its parent show, Game of Thrones, than it ever was in Season 1. Try as it might, though, it can’t actually fix Thrones and its disappointing final season — but it does know how to repurpose the themes and ideas that never truly got the chance to pan out properly.
