Fuck it. Can't sleep.
Yes the children are the future. I got that much from the books. And Ned getting his head chopped off couldn't have come any sooner. The idiot deserved to die. I think they should've strayed further from the books. The dialogue works in the books but when you take it and put it on a screen it just felt awkward. Like the first scene where we meet Father Lannister. Where he's butchering Santa's reindeer.. That entire scene felt misplaced and odd, and he didn't come off as a badass (which was the point) but rather a clown. They pushed the characters to hard into the "I'm a tough mother fucker!" to hard without any real meat on their bones. They are badass not because their actions says so. But because the makers put in a few scenes forcing the role on them.
I'm guessing the crippled kid will become a wizard, the tomboy a master swordsman/swordswoman hellbent on vengeance and she might learn some magic as well, Geoffrey (what an ugly kid!) will become a tyrant the likes which have never been seen before and throw tantrums every episode, Mother Stark will haunt the Lannisters with her throat and army.. Who am I missing? Cercei will be locked in her room and only brought out when Geoffrey need milk. Older daughter Stark will cry and whine some more with a case of Stockholm's Syndrome but eventually overcome it and see Geoffrey for the retard he is.
Yes Wheel of Time got a bit slow after the sixth or seventh book, Robert Jordan admitted that it didn't work out as he'd planned and got back on track towards the ninthish book. I've read the first eight or nine books about three times (havn't actually had time to read the post-Jordan's death 11th and 12th books yet). They're excellent. There are so many small details in them that when you first read them all they do is flesh out the world. But the second and third time around you start noticing those small things that tell you of future events. Little threads that keeps getting tugged on throughout the books until they blow up and turns into massive stuff. Jordan knew exactly where he wanted to take the books from the very beginning.
There are a few WoT projects in the pipeline. A game or two (one is rumoured to be a MMORPG) and a movie by Universal Pictures. I don't think a movie will do the books justice but a good game might. The world Jordan has built up is just amazing. There are so many details to it making every country, city, people and events come to life. It's one of four IPs I'd love to work with.