You're GRRM's editor. He gives you his manuscript of A Feast for Crows. There's a red pen in your hand.

[Maxxine]

I think ADWD needed to do several things:

- Get Tyrion to Daenerys.

- Get Daenerys out of Meereen (bonus points if she lands in Westeros).

- Resolve the Battle of Ice.

Two out of three would have been perfectly acceptable, whereas one out of three would have been treading water. As it is, there was indeed no resolution - a zero out of three. We've had endless pages in the last couple of books devoted to the Fat Pink Mast and Quenyn's misadventures, a pointless Jaime chapter, and the spectacular destruction of Cersei as a believable character. In AGOT, Catelyn could be in Winterfell in one chapter, and in King's Landing the next. Compare that with Tyrion drifting down the river.

It wasn't even just the fact that there was no resolution absolutely NOTHING happened. I would've been ok with the cliffhanger if she actually made some progress. But other than that I agree with you. He just slowed things down too much especially once you consider how fast things progressed in the first 3 books. As someone else said (and I'm sorry I don't remember who) not including the 5 year gap really hurt the last 2 books. Did GRRM ever say why he scrapped the 5 years? I personally thought it was a good idea. It would've given Dany's Dragons time to grow so we would have to plod through their growth and aging up the younger characters (mainly Arya, Bran, & Rickon but to a certain extent Tommen & Myrcella) could've done wonders for the storyline IMO.

[Good Guy Garlan]

I think ADWD needed to do several things:

- Get Tyrion to Daenerys.

- Get Daenerys out of Meereen (bonus points if she lands in Westeros).

- Resolve the Battle of Ice.

Two out of three would have been perfectly acceptable, whereas one out of three would have been treading water. As it is, there was indeed no resolution - a zero out of three. We've had endless pages in the last couple of books devoted to the Fat Pink Mast and Quenyn's misadventures, a pointless Jaime chapter, and the spectacular destruction of Cersei as a believable character. In AGOT, Catelyn could be in Winterfell in one chapter, and in King's Landing the next. Compare that with Tyrion drifting down the river.

Agreed. Just resolving the Battle of Meereen and the Battle of Winterfell would've meant more complete arcs for Victarion, Barristan, Tyrion, Dany, Theon, Asha, Davos, etc. I'd add the Stoneheart/Jaime/Brienne dangling plotline to that list, though. On the subject of Dany, I would've even been okay with her setting out to Westeros. She doesn't even have to arrive there, just like set sail for it. That's how low my standards are after Dance.

I feel the exact same way.  I touched on this a little bit in my earlier post, but yes, the individual storylines themselves lack either a complete character arc, a finished plotline (less important), or both.  So simply combining them still doesn't actually deal with the larger problem.  Broken down on a scale of complete/incomplete I'd say:

Complete character arc and storyline:  Dany (see below), Jon (see below), Theon, Quentyn

Complete character arc, incomplete/pointless plot: Jaime, Cersei (see below), Arys Oakheart, Arianne

Incomplete/nonexistent character arc, complete plot: Sam

Incomplete/nonexistent character arc, incomplete plot: Bran, Arya, Tyrion, Sansa, Davos, all the other Greyjoys, Hotah, Brienne, Connington and Aegon, Stannis and Mel, the Boltons, Barristan and everyone else in Meereen

--Dany really only qualifies as a completed storyline because of her abrupt exit from Meereen; everything that happened during her storyline is obviously unresolved, but she's on a new path now so I'm willing to call her part of the Meereen story finished

--Jon is questionable as a complete storyline, in that there's obviously no resolution at the Wall, but the stabbing cliffhanger is the natural ending point of his plotline for that book; unlike the cliffhangers that dominate all the other storylines, which feel unnatural and exist simply because the book hit its page limit, Jon's cliffhanger is very natural and I'm sure would have remained the same even if George had another 200 pages to work with

--The only reason I count Cersei as an unfinished storyline is because of how much page time was spent talking about the trials she and Margaery will face; there's so much set up for them that the fact that we don't actually get there feels incomplete.  If this material had been moved to Winds, I'd call it a complete plotline

So yeah, looking at it like that it becomes even more obvious.  Only four characters have both a complete character arc and a storyline that advances the overall plot.  Two of those four are WAY too long, however, and one of the others is typically regarded as a waste of space.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of the POVs/plotlines contain no actual character arc, and don't come to any kind of resolution.

I wanted to go character by character like this, that's great.

Jon: Agreed. I think, with a certain amount of flexibility, Jon's plot might work as it is. Yes, it's a cliffhanger, but it didn't come out of nowhere, like you said, it felt organic and the natural result of his actions, not to mention that Mel warned him about the daggers in the dark in what I think it's his first chapter, so it came full circle. Plus, the Pink Letter mystery is at least a somewhat interesting and intriguing place to left things off and make the readers try to figure it out, unlike most of the other abrupt, rather terrible "to be continued"s. And most importantly, the Pink Letter, if taken as face value, does offer an off screen resolution of the Battle of Winterfell.

Dany: Here I disagree. The character development is there, but that plotline saw so little movement by the end of Dance it literally started going backwards. And that includes Tyrion, Vic, and Barristan, who ended their storylines with the least elegant cliffhangers possible, with a "tune in next time for this huge battle"

Theon: Great, complete character arc from Reek to Theon. Probably the best, most well rounded storyline, with a clear beginning, middle and end. 

Jaime: As boring and uneventful as his Feast chapters are, I thought he had great character development and his "put it in the fire" line caps off his arc by signalling his finally and fully breaking away from Cersei. All that was lost when GRRM threw that weird one off in Dance that ended in an awful cliffhanger - which was, incredibly enough, a cliffhanger of a cliffhanger, as Brienne's plot in Feast finished in full Adam West style, with the awful "she screamed a word"

Dorne: Although it would have been miles better from just Arianne's POV, "The Watcher" at least introduces the next phase in Doran's plan as the Sand Snakes set out on their respective missions. Shame the same chapter didn't include

Arianne sailing out on her own mission of meeting Aegon

Cersei: I already mentioned that I think it works under the right light, but if the trials are going to be resolved in early Winds, I see no reason why they couldn't have been included in Dance. Hell, I don't see why Cersei's 2 Dance chapters couldn't have been included in Feast. It's stuff like that, the bizarre one offs and characters disappearing in the middle of the book that makes it seem like GRRM is just putting stuff willy nilly without rhyme or reason. 

Frankly, the worst offenders in this regard are Davos and the Stark kids. Davos, Sansa and Bran have, I think, between 3 or 4 chapters each. As it's the norm, they end practically midsentence, with nothing but set up for the future and no resolution in sight, and they're too few to make a complete arc. They're a teaser, like advance chapters included in anthologies or something. And Sansa's are the worst because literally nothing happens in them. Nothing. It's the purest filler, rivaled only by Sam's unnecessary travelogue. I honestly think you can skip Sansa's Feast chapters and jump straight to her Winds chapter and you won't miss a thing.

And Arya, my fave, her storyline went down in flames the minute she left Westeros. It's been a training montage so long it has taken two books and counting, and while her Feast ending at least came as a shock, her Dance finale is basically "tomorrow you'll go meet this guy we've never heard of and do more of the same thing you've been doing". Honest to god, what kind of ending is that?

 

It wasn't even just the fact that there was no resolution absolutely NOTHING happened. I would've been ok with the cliffhanger if she actually made some progress. But other than that I agree with you. He just slowed things down too much especially once you consider how fast things progressed in the first 3 books. As someone else said (and I'm sorry I don't remember who) not including the 5 year gap really hurt the last 2 books. Did GRRM ever say why he scrapped the 5 years? I personally thought it was a good idea. It would've given Dany's Dragons time to grow so we would have to plod through their growth and aging up the younger characters (mainly Arya, Bran, & Rickon but to a certain extent Tommen & Myrcella) could've done wonders for the storyline IMO.

I usually refrain from saying the 5 year gap would've worked better because we really have no idea how it would've looked. I mean, in this I do tend to trust GRRM because he tried to do it and realized it wasn't working. But then again, dividing the POVs didn't really work either. It's so frustrating to see his afterword at the end of Feast, it really is:

"I did not forget to write about the other characters. Far from it. I wrote lots about them. Pages and pages and pages. Chapters and more chapters. I was still writing when it dawned on me that the book had become too big to publish in a single volume . . . and I wasn't close to finished yet. To tell all of the story that I wanted to tell, I was going to have to cut the book in two. The simplest way to do that would have been to take what I had, chop it in half around the middle, and end with "To Be Continued." The more I thought about that, however, the more I felt that the readers would be better served by a book that told all the story for half the characters, rather than half the story for all the characters. So that's the route I chose to take."

The sad irony is that he ended doing the opposite of what he wanted: he ended up telling just half the story for all the characters. What character can we honestly say had a truly complete story in Feast? Cersei had to come back to Dance because her story wasn't finished in Feast. So did Jaime, so did Arya, so did Asha, Brienne, Victarion, Arianne, even Hotah. So who had a full story in Feast? Arys, probably, but that's just cause he died and couldn't come back in Dance for more. Sam had a pretty long and boring journey, but his story was just beginning when the book ended. Same with Sansa. Things happened around her, but that doesn't make a story. Aeron, I guess, if you wanna call that a story. And these two were rumored to be included in the original draft of Dance as well before they had to be removed to make room for something else. So whose story, I ask, did Feast manage to tell fully? 

[JonCon's Red Beard]

I think both main battles being in the next book is ok. It will be a mayor plot point and will stand out alone.

Dance could have include Aegon and Jon taking Storm's End to prove the kid is serious business, though.

That and Barristan preparing Meereen for battle and

Victarion landing in Slaver's Bay.

[FuzzyJAM]

Another major problem for George is that the first 250ish pages of WoW have got to be payoff for stuff he's been building up for the past two books.  They're going to have to be intense.  But then how does he plan to pace a novel that begins with a climax of scenes that have been built up for a decade, then has to set up new arcs for the characters involved, and then conclude them in a satisfying manner for the individual book whilst setting up DoS to conclude the series?  All he can really do is rely on different characters and different story arcs to provide different elements to the book so that, while we'll certainly end with mostly beginnings and middles for the major characters, there can at least be some endings for some characters, and hopefully the way he places the chapters will make the pacing as a whole work out.  

At any rate, it's not going to please everyone.  

[Dark Syster]

I'd politely ask for justification of Arys' POV chapter. It could have easily been told by Arianne. As for Hotah, he's needed to show how torn Doran is about everything. If all we had was Arianne, it would seem like he really was some weak push over and it would be hard to see why she and the snakes don't just bully him into going to war. I'm not sure what else I'd do. I actually enjoyed the amount of info and world building that Feast and Dance have. Whenever I do a reread, I wish that aGoT and aCoK were more detailed. I still raise an eyebrow at Ned leaving Sansa totally unguarded at the feast alone. There had to have been gossip. Sansa could hear it and would be super motivated to try and redeem her embarrassing northern bumpkin family and suddenly we have more than the wanting to marry Joffrey motivation for ratting out the escape plan. It's little stuff like this that's missing from the earlier material.

I don't know if I would ever say this to GRRM's face though. He's got enough hecklers. Wtf do I know? 

 

[JonCon's Red Beard]

^About Arys, I think GRRM just wanted to have a sex chapter. Because that's all that happens there: SEXPOSITION.

[Dark Syster]

^About Arys, I think GRRM just wanted to have a sex chapter. Because that's all that happens there: SEXPOSITION.

I would kill for that chap from Arianne's POV. "Man I remember when he sucked at sex. I taught him how to do WORK."

[White Ravens]

You people of the Cult of George have drained all of my motivation just because you can't conceive the idea of someone not thinking Feast is the Last Great American Novel.

 

Cry me a river.  I didn't start this thread.  You did.  I never claimed that Feast is the Last Great American Novel.  Why whine about other people actually liking the books after inviting a discussion about how horribly written the books are?  How does me liking GRRM's writing prevent you from writing your screed?

[Good Guy Garlan]

Cry me a river.  I didn't start this thread.  You did.  I never claimed that Feast is the Last Great American Novel.  Why whine about other people actually liking the books after inviting a discussion about how horribly written the books are?  How does me liking GRRM's writing prevent you from writing your screed?

I wrote something on the incompleteness of the books a few posts above. You're welcome to read it. 

I'd politely ask for justification of Arys' POV chapter. It could have easily been told by Arianne. As for Hotah, he's needed to show how torn Doran is about everything. If all we had was Arianne, it would seem like he really was some weak push over and it would be hard to see why she and the snakes don't just bully him into going to war. I'm not sure what else I'd do. I actually enjoyed the amount of info and world building that Feast and Dance have. Whenever I do a reread, I wish that aGoT and aCoK were more detailed. I still raise an eyebrow at Ned leaving Sansa totally unguarded at the feast alone. There had to have been gossip. Sansa could hear it and would be super motivated to try and redeem her embarrassing northern bumpkin family and suddenly we have more than the wanting to marry Joffrey motivation for ratting out the escape plan. It's little stuff like this that's missing from the earlier material.

I don't know if I would ever say this to GRRM's face though. He's got enough hecklers. Wtf do I know? 

 

The problem is that Doran does come out as a weak push over in the Hotah chapter in Feast. Not only does Hotah remarks on how Doran takes so long doing stuff, but the chapter literally ends with Doran ordering him to imprison the Sand Snakes and hoping "Tywin Lannister will know what a good friend he has in Dorne." Obviously this is all for show, but we only find out later. In this first chapter Hotah pretty much sees Doran the same way Arianne sees him.

[ChillyPolly]

I would edit for elegance and efficiency.  I would try to shorten paragraphs and sentences without loss of meaning or content.  And while perhaps I would like to remove more, I am not in a position to judge what parts of the story are important and which are not.

I would love to drastically shorten LF's longwinded way of telling Sansa that Harry The Heir is actually Sweetrobin's heir and not anyone else's heir.  That was ridiculous.  But there might be some nugget of info hidden in that haystack that may turn out to be relevant.  How can I know?

[tallTale]

I'd politely ask for justification of Arys' POV chapter. It could have easily been told by Arianne. As for Hotah, he's needed to show how torn Doran is about everything. If all we had was Arianne, it would seem like he really was some weak push over and it would be hard to see why she and the snakes don't just bully him into going to war. I'm not sure what else I'd do. I actually enjoyed the amount of info and world building that Feast and Dance have. Whenever I do a reread, I wish that aGoT and aCoK were more detailed. I still raise an eyebrow at Ned leaving Sansa totally unguarded at the feast alone. There had to have been gossip. Sansa could hear it and would be super motivated to try and redeem her embarrassing northern bumpkin family and suddenly we have more than the wanting to marry Joffrey motivation for ratting out the escape plan. It's little stuff like this that's missing from the earlier material.

I don't know if I would ever say this to GRRM's face though. He's got enough hecklers. Wtf do I know? 

 

 

The Arys POV was to show his own personal struggle with the decision to soil his cloak and how he feels about Myrcella. We learn that he truly loves the little queen. It's also why in the Arianne POV we get the big telling hint that he's wearing his white cloak again and why he seemingly blindly rushes into his death. 

Arys actually switches Myrcella and hides her. Arys believes she can only be safe if no one knows where she truly is.

It's only one chapter, whereas the Cersei chapters seem endless. 

[JonCon's Red Beard]

 

The Arys POV was to show his own personal struggle with the decision to soil his cloak and how he feels about Myrcella. We learn that he truly loves the little queen. It's also why in the Arianne POV we get the big telling hint that he's wearing his white cloak again and why he seemingly blindly rushes into his death. 

Hidden Content

It's only one chapter, whereas the Cersei chapters seem endless. 

Arys isn't a big problem, tbh. IICR, even Martin said he should have make him a prologue and I agree with that.

The problem with Arys being a PoV is that elevates him to a place too more important that the one he deserves. Do we really need to know about his struggles? Is as irrelevant as having Pate as a prologue, specially because he was going to day. He's a worst payoff than Quentyn, who at least had a small development and did play a part, like Oberyn.

Arys should have been only a character for us to have information: about Dorne, about Arianne, about the plan, etc. He could have been escorting Doran too, and giving opinions about the Sand Snakes too.

[Pod The Rod]

^About Arys, I think GRRM just wanted to have a sex chapter. Because that's all that happens there: SEXPOSITION.

Still nothing that Arianne couldn't have shown us. Arys's chapter is just inexplicable.

 

I agree with Dark Sister that world-building is never amiss, but there had to have been a way to include the world building while also driving the plot. Too many chapters in Feast are simply world-building at the expense of the story. Dance is better in this regard, and I think it's coming in for too much hate here, but Dany's storyline there was awful. It had, what, one good chapter?

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Something I'd ask Martin to remove: all the references to Quellon's loins. It sounds like Aeron was obsessed with his father's reproductive organs.

The Prophet:

• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands.
• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, but only four had lived to manhood.
• Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, and I was the least of them, as weak and frightened as a girl.

The Drowned Man

• "Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy. One was mightier than all the rest, and knew no fear."

We get it, the guy was super fertile... stop.

 

Still nothing that Arianne couldn't have shown us. Arys's chapter is just inexplicable.

Martin needed to introduce Dorne from a foreigner's pov, and also to let us know that something was happening there. Having just Arianne would immediately reveal the mystery.

Ok, imagine Arys as a prologue:

Arys is escorting Dorne back to SS because he needs to discuss something with him (is Dorne tipping him off about taking Myrcella to the Water Gardens to warn Arianne, but Arys doesn't know that).

They meet the Sand Snakes. Arys make observations about them.

Doran mentions Arianne. Arys remembers all the sex. And the nipples. He meets Arianne. And her nipples. They plot. And sex. They also plot to have more sex.

With this, you also cut not only Pate's prologue, but Areoh's.

 

[Pod The Rod]

Something I'd ask Martin to remove: all the references to Quellon's loins. It sounds like Aeron was obsessed with his father's reproductive organs.

The Prophet:

• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands.
• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, but only four had lived to manhood.
• Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, and I was the least of them, as weak and frightened as a girl.

The Drowned Man

• "Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy. One was mightier than all the rest, and knew no fear."

We get it, the guy was super fertile... stop.

 

Martin needed to introduce Dorne from a foreigner's pov, and also to let us know that something was happening there. Having just Arianne would immediately reveal the mystery.

Ok, imagine Arys as a prologue:

Arys is escorting Dorne back to SS because he needs to discuss something with him (is Dorne tipping him off about taking Myrcella to the Water Gardens to warn Arianne, but Arys doesn't know that).

They meet the Sand Snakes. Arys make observations about them.

Doran mentions Arianne. Arys remembers all the sex. And the nipples. He meets Arianne. And her nipples. They plot. And sex. They also plot to have more sex.

With this, you also cut not only Pate's prologue, but Areoh's.

 

I think Aeron may just have been obsessed with male genitalia in general. Remember the Golden Storm and her ram?

 

Yes, but how is Arys going to die at the end of that prologue? You can't have a prologue without the POV dying!

In seriousness, I like your idea. Maybe have Areo Hotah burst in on them at the end and murder Arys, allowing him to have the badass status that's really the only definable element of his personality (as well as necessary for when he gets fed to Darkstar).

[FuzzyJAM]

Something I'd ask Martin to remove: all the references to Quellon's loins. It sounds like Aeron was obsessed with his father's reproductive organs.

The Prophet:

• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands.
• Nine sons had been born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, but only four had lived to manhood.
• Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy, and I was the least of them, as weak and frightened as a girl.

The Drowned Man

• "Nine sons were born from the loins of Quellon Greyjoy. One was mightier than all the rest, and knew no fear."

We get it, the guy was super fertile... stop.

I could be way off, but I get the idea that the Iron Islands are in part supposed to be a comment on masculine insecurity.  Asha as heir, Victarion being cuckolded, the Reader being ridiculed, the loss of  Theon's parts. . .Aeron, a man with no children, is naturally focused on the large number of children born to his father and the masculinity that suggests, because it highlights his own failings as a man.  As Pod the Rod says, you only have to think about the ram intended for his ship to see this isn't idle on George's part - it's intentionally "rammed home", as it were.  It's all very Freudian.  And particularly if it hints at potential abuse by Euron.

I think it's a hint at his psychology which works fairly well.

[Dark Syster]

Arys isn't a big problem, tbh. IICR, even Martin said he should have make him a prologue and I agree with that.

The problem with Arys being a PoV is that elevates him to a place too more important that the one he deserves. Do we really need to know about his struggles? Is as irrelevant as having Pate as a prologue, specially because he was going to day. He's a worst payoff than Quentyn, who at least had a small development and did play a part, like Oberyn.

Arys should have been only a character for us to have information: about Dorne, about Arianne, about the plan, etc. He could have been escorting Doran too, and giving opinions about the Sand Snakes too.

I think Arys could have been a great Prologue/Epilogue, but I'm not sure where I would have put him. I really liked Pate's because Oldtown was sorely in need of introduction and the bit with the FM killing him with a poison coin like Arya did to the fraudulent life insurance seller was a nice tie in.

Still nothing that Arianne couldn't have shown us. Arys's chapter is just inexplicable.

 

I agree with Dark Sister that world-building is never amiss, but there had to have been a way to include the world building while also driving the plot. Too many chapters in Feast are simply world-building at the expense of the story. Dance is better in this regard, and I think it's coming in for too much hate here, but Dany's storyline there was awful. It had, what, one good chapter?

True. Narrative structure of exposition/rising action/climax/falling action/cliffhanger suffered a lot at the expense of world building. I mostly blame his editors who forced him to split up the books. I only do the A Feast with Dragon/A Dance for Crows mashup rereads nowadays. When all the books are out, maybe it'll be less glaring. Maybe they'll do a new edit. I can hope right?

[BrettG]

 

Dany: Here I disagree. The character development is there, but that plotline saw so little movement by the end of Dance it literally started going backwards. And that includes Tyrion, Vic, and Barristan, who ended their storylines with the least elegant cliffhangers possible, with a "tune in next time for this huge battle"

Jaime: As boring and uneventful as his Feast chapters are, I thought he had great character development and his "put it in the fire" line caps off his arc by signalling his finally and fully breaking away from Cersei. All that was lost when GRRM threw that weird one off in Dance that ended in an awful cliffhanger - which was, incredibly enough, a cliffhanger of a cliffhanger, as Brienne's plot in Feast finished in full Adam West style, with the awful "she screamed a word"

Cersei: I already mentioned that I think it works under the right light, but if the trials are going to be resolved in early Winds, I see no reason why they couldn't have been included in Dance. Hell, I don't see why Cersei's 2 Dance chapters couldn't have been included in Feast. It's stuff like that, the bizarre one offs and characters disappearing in the middle of the book that makes it seem like GRRM is just putting stuff willy nilly without rhyme or reason. 

Frankly, the worst offenders in this regard are Davos and the Stark kids. Davos, Sansa and Bran have, I think, between 3 or 4 chapters each. As it's the norm, they end practically midsentence, with nothing but set up for the future and no resolution in sight, and they're too few to make a complete arc. They're a teaser, like advance chapters included in anthologies or something. And Sansa's are the worst because literally nothing happens in them. Nothing. It's the purest filler, rivaled only by Sam's unnecessary travelogue. I honestly think you can skip Sansa's Feast chapters and jump straight to her Winds chapter and you won't miss a thing.

 

The sad irony is that he ended doing the opposite of what he wanted: he ended up telling just half the story for all the characters.

I totally agree that the Daenerys chapters are interminably boring and the Meereen story goes absolutely nowhere, but I feel like Dany's part in it is done.  If she goes back there, it will only be to pick up a couple characters and move on, not to stay.  It's probably a distinction without difference, but she will be at the beginning of a new story in Winds, not the middle of an existing one.  I think and hope.

Agreed about Jaime, he had a solid character arc, but the plot around it was so weak and unimportant that it was a struggle to get through.  And yeah, forcing a cliffhanger into his one chapter in Dance was an absolutely baffling decision.

And agreed about Cersei as well, her story has a beginning (Tywin's death and her assumption of power), a middle (her increasing insanity and plots against everyone around her), and end (her arrest and walk of punishment), which would have all been fine in one book, but her NEXT story (of which the announcement of a trial and the reveal of Robert Strong is the beginning) was already begun, so her chapters also ended in the middle.  Which leads me to agree with your conclusion, that a lot of material really was just thrown in with no thought given to the overall structure.

I also agree about Sansa.  There is nothing of value in any of her chapters, and you could absolutely jump to Winds material without them and not be lost.  Those chapters you highlight are the best examples of this poor structure, where there's no attempt at anything but set-up...there's nothing resembling an arc, there's no story progression, it's purely moving characters around and going through training montages to get them where they need to be for the next story.  Which is fine on a limited scale -- there are a lot of characters, so if you can't think of a compelling story for every single one when all you're really doing is set-up for the next book, it's not a big deal for one or two to only make one appearance which consists of basically moving pieces around on the board.  But it's SO many characters doing this.  Arya and Bran and Davos and Sansa and Asha and on and on.  There's more time spent milling about in uninteresting plotlines than there is in plot progression in interesting ones.  It's 1500 pages of middle that could have been explained in two sentences at the start of their first POV in Winds.

So your last point is a good one -- the aim of the split books was to tell a complete story for the characters therein, and not end everything in the middle.  And there were almost no complete stories, and pretty much everything did end in the middle.  Mission accomplished?

[Municipal Engines]

 

The Arys POV was to show his own personal struggle with the decision to soil his cloak and how he feels about Myrcella. We learn that he truly loves the little queen. It's also why in the Arianne POV we get the big telling hint that he's wearing his white cloak again and why he seemingly blindly rushes into his death. 

Hidden Content

It's only one chapter, whereas the Cersei chapters seem endless. 

Problem is Arys as a character is unimportant. We don't need to see the struggle of a new character who isn't even of tertiary importance to the overall storyline. This is, IMO, a failing of GRRM; there is too much focus given to too many characters. We don't need the internal struggles of some guy who's going to die after a couple of POV chapters, especially since his is a struggle (love vs duty, what it means to be a true knight and dutiful) we've seen before in the story and done better.

One additional POV I found welcome was Melisandre's, since it showed her as a very flawed human with doubts, empathy and guile rather than just a mysterious all-powerful fanatic of a sorceress.

[tallTale]

Problem is Arys as a character is unimportant.

Why do people keep saying that this character is not important? Arys' chapter was not only about the soiled knight's inner struggle with honor/duty or for the gratuitous sex. Martin clearly wanted to subtly tell the reader that Myrcella is SPOILER hidden (by Arys) and that the Martell's have a fake. I'm sure this will play a huge part in disrupting whatever Doran Martell has planned.