Lame is the word that came to my mind- the licence they had to make the ending epic, noble and meaningful- I mean, ffs, this is a childrens story complete with endless references of how Arthur would be the best king Camelot ever had- well, not much use out in a canoe, dead on a boating lake at, what, 24, is he??
No triumph of Good Magic over Bad if we can't be sure Merlin can practise any magic in Gwen's court, hey?
Merlin so should have had a proper opportunity to spell out (geddit it?) exactly how much help he'd been in keeping Arthur and Camelot safe, not muttered, a one-liner to a semi-conscious king. What a great story line of Merlin 'winning' Arthur over to the Good of magic was missed. How much better a proper destruction of Morgana could have been not the 'yar boo shucks, you gotta magic sword and so have I' of her actual death.
It was all looking promising, the scene in the crystal cave with Merlin's father, the 'dream' where Merlin speaks to Arthur... then
Yes, Arthur's final resting place could still have been the Lake, Excalibur thrown to the waters- but not before he's actually done anything as the King who moved the land out of the darkness of bad magic and repression into the sunlit uplands of the Good Magic.
Disappointed at such possible dramatic gold squandered. And no more knight-porn! 