Come convertire una sottoquery dipendente da unire per prestazioni migliori?

Prova prima questa query -

SELECT
  t.*, ti1.*
FROM
  themes t
JOIN theme_images ti1
  ON ti1.theme_id = t.theme_id
JOIN (SELECT theme_id, MIN(image_id) image_id FROM theme_images GROUP BY theme_id) ti2
  ON ti1.theme_id = ti2.theme_id AND ti1.image_id = ti2.image_id
ORDER BY 
  t.theme_date_last_modification DESC
LIMIT 10

Un'altra soluzione -

SELECT
  t.*, ti.*
FROM
  themes t
JOIN (SELECT * FROM theme_images ORDER BY image_id) ti
  ON ti.theme_id = t.theme_id
GROUP BY
  theme_id 
ORDER BY 
  t.theme_date_last_modification DESC
LIMIT
  10

Quindi aggiungi il tuo filtro DOVE.