These are all interesting thoughts. One moment that I especially liked from AFFC was Jaime's Aunt (Tywin's own sister) saying that Tyrion was his father's son. Made all the conflicting emotions concerning Jaime's release of Tyrion and the murder of Tywin even more complex. Perhaps now Jaime will realize that Tyrion is the ruler that he and Cersei could never be.
But what I disliked about AFFC, was that more questions were brought up, more seeds planted than sporuted. I guess that's to be expected with a "middle" novel but it did seem the non-stop pace of the first 3 books ground to a screeching halt with this one.
My thoughts concerning points debated above:
Brienne is dead. Cat killed her. She was a somewhat useless character. I wish she had had some breakthrough, a moment of romance in her life, or a feeling of contentment before death, but I think her death is true to Martin's form. She's out like Robb, Ned, Tywin and everyone before her. (Bout time a female POV died off,
)
The Onion Knight. I think he's alive. No reason other than he wouldn't have been killed off-screen. Cersei was given faulty information which she believed.
Sam Tarly is, slowly, growing nuts, becoming a man. This is a good thing. He will learn all he can from the maesters and become a valuable advisor to the Lord Commander on the Wall.
Arya has the most possibilities. Will she go to Jon? Will she finish her training and forget all she was? Or will she always keep a part of Arya Stark and Needle under the stone? But I agree that her chapters were a lot of nothing much happening.
As for the next book, it can't come fast enough. What do you guys think about Bran? Will he be completing his 3rd-eye training? Will Jon side with Stannis? Is Rickon going to be a new POV? I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to the Dany chapters. I never really liked her character very much, too much dragon blood, and it looks like she's going to be more static this book. No more city hopping and slave freeing, which was the only thing that kept me interested in her. We shall see.