User blog comment:LokiIsAwesome/Merlin should get more bloody/@comment-5364525-20120813033205/@comment-5364525-20120813083028

I don't know that I'd say it was a sudden darkness. The Coming of Arthur was a fairly heavy story line, what with Morgana's reveal, Uther's fall and Arthur's disheartened attitude before Merlin pulls him round by the ear and motivates him to take back Camelot. Even Arthur's lighthearted conversation with Merlin on the steps after the battle is indicative of darker/harder times to come. I felt the Series three ending lent well to the tone of Series four.

As far as storytelling goes, it was quite symbolic to start the series on Samhain, the celtic/pagan celebration of the harvest and the herald of the 'dark' half of the year, and end it on Beltaine, the herald of 'light.' Sure, there's a bit of strife to get to the light, but there's no denying the symbolism of having Arthur draw the sword and truly receive Excalibur during such a significant time of year. Never before were those celebrations used so intrinsically within the overall story arc and I felt that to include them in Series Four the way they did was rather artistic:) Darkness fell at the beginning of the series and light shone at the end. To me, that's good storytelling:)