User blog comment:TheLastLastDragonlord/Spoilers- Finale or Failure/@comment-5484578-20121225132808/@comment-188.73.252.69-20121226090136

You only had to see the field dense with corpses to get the scale of the battle - it was more implied than actual blood and gore. Less Peter Jackson, more David Lean.

Morgana "seeing the light" would have been the ultimate anti-climax - the show's ultimate villain giving up before her end. And there would be only so much CGI dragon fighting the audience would tolerate.

There was always background action going on, shown or implied, that was frequently cut to and everyone's favourite character had a moment to shine. But the central story was the emotional journey of Arthur and Merlin told with the metaphor of the physical one to Avalon.

My favourite moment was actually one you and others have complained about - the haste and absolute determination that Merlin kills off Morgana. Or rather the shock on Arthur's face as he does so. This witch, always invincible to the mighty warrior, and Arthur's own half-sister of royal blood, killed without mercy by the servant he had never thought of as been strong, courageous or daring, to save him an indignity in his death. To me that was the turning point when Arthur realised his long debt of gratitude to Merlin. And perhaps also when he could give up and die, "Peace at last!" he moans.

This was one of several shocking moments in the final episode and my belief is that the writing team did well when so many other episodes have been plodding, formulaic - perhaps adhering to story lines from the Arthurian legend too much, or suffered from schoolboy-level humour (farting trolls etc.). I wanted to be be shocked, surprised and genuinely saddened and I was.