House Of The Dragon May Be A Prequel, But It Can Still Keep Us Guessing--Here's How

gamespot.com:

That blockbuster first episode of House of the Dragon went down well enough, but it didn't answer the single biggest question about this show: why does it exist? Why do this story specifically, seemingly just another story in the Game of Thrones universe, instead of a story that might be more immediately relevant to the main series?

And why craft a story that had apparently already been told in full in the George R.R. Martin novel Fire & Blood? We apparently know all these characters' life stories from beginning to end, after all.

While that first episode may not have provided the answer I was looking for, I think the second episode may have. And the answer I came away with is intriguing in a way I didn't expect: that the book is just the «official story,» and what we're seeing here is what really happened.

Let's go on a little journey. Midway through the episode, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) sent a message to his brother, King Viserys (Paddy Considine), informing him that he would be marrying his consort Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno)--even though he was already married and she was a prostitute--and that she was carrying his child. And he stole a dragon egg to put in the baby's crib, in the Targaryen tradition.

King Viserys skipped the wedding, sending his Hand Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) instead. There's a tense standoff when Hightower and friends show up at Dragonstone, but Daemon's niece and dragon rider Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) intervenes and cools things down.

Throughout the standoff between Daemon and Otto, Mysaria seemed baffled and annoyed by pretty much the entire discussion, until she stormed off before it was resolved. And later we learn why: this was the first she'd heard of her own pregnancy and upcoming wedding.