King Bolton

I voted 9. I think the episode really needed to be longer, and I don't like the Stannis arrival being moved into the finale. I think the episode needed a proper conclusion, not a cliffhanger and I think there was too much focus on Sam and Gilly. That all being said, it was very well directed and did great justice to the battle on obvious budget restrictions. Ultimately, though the blackwater is the better episode.

It flitted around a little to much, although this is perhaps expected with the opening episode. I gave it at 9 because I think you have to appreciate the difficulty the writers/directors are under, in an opening episode you really want to be covering all the main characters, and their situations, and when you add to this problem, an influx of new characters, things obviously become even more difficult. However, if every episode is structured this way it won't be very good. I mean they can't continue using the comet link - that would wear thin very quickly. And it would be frustrating to see about 7 minutes of each key character. For me they have to base it around locations, and have half the locations one episode and the other half the next. But I could be wrong, have to wait and seee