I finished it last night. Here are my lingering questions/impressions.
1. What are the rusty hinges?
2. What is Littlefinger's plan that involves Sansa stark becoming Lady of the Vale? How does that benefit him?
3. What's with the tapestries that Littlfinger wants from Cersei?
4. Cersei is really, epically dumb. her problem is that she doesn't see one move ahead, she only sees the situation that she's in at the moment - hence she handed the whole kingdom over to the High Septon to get rid of Margaery.
5. Jaime is trying to both be Tywin's son, and redeem himself from being a bad guy. He can't do both.
6. "Sins can be forgiven, but crimes must be punished." Oh dear.
7. So.... the Maesters are trying to keep magic out of the world, huh? Qyburn as unlikely hero?
8. On reflection, Targaeryan power did not long outlive the Targaeryan dragons. Westeros respects only power.
9. I'm cheesed that Davos and Beric Dondarrion, two of my favorite characters, died "off screen".
10. Trading Beric for Catelyn was not a fair trade. She sucks. I didn't like her when she was alive, and I like her even less as a zombie.
11. There is a 700% increase in the mention of monkeys between ASOS and AFFC. We approve. (I'm also nearly positive this happened because I bugged George about it.)
12. Speaking of which... poor Mark Mullendore! I expect he will be the big hero of the series, once he gets another monkey.
