thebitterfig Aug 24th 2011 10:57AM

Yes and no. There's really only one thing we know about this dude: that he'll be Brynne and Lisaara's dad at some point. We don't know what happens with his own children, we don't know what trails and tribulations he'll go through before then (personally, I'm betting he fights and kills Ash'gor's brother). Heck, we don't even know precisely if he ever dies in the Quillboar raid. It's easily presumed, since the QBs don't take prisoners and he's likely not the kind of dwarf to abandon his children, but it's entirely possible that he got separated in the fighting, defeating a foe but being knocked out.

With regard to prequels in general, they're not even at that much of a structural disadvantage to other stories. Most romcoms end up with the main characters falling in love, most detective stories end up with the guilty parties being caught, and the hero almost always wins in the end. Sure, there are some prequels which are lazy, only work to set up those story elements we know will be there eventually. That's just bad storytelling in itself, and the result would probably be bad even if it wasn't a prequel. There are others who put in the craft of storytelling and end up with a good tale in it's own right.

Consider also: a lot of stories hold up on a second read or a second watch, despite the fact that we know exactly what's going to happen, not just some fragment of it.