As much as I adore the younger characters, and as much as Merlin & Arthur are the central characters, Uther is still definitively the best character on the show for me. His self-dynamics and interactions with others are just so rich, regardless of how few and short they were. I don't know if you've already managed to watch the finale, but his scenes with Arthur is yet another proof of that: one of them was less than a freaking minute, and yet it was still so heartbreakingly powerful.

...but faced with the near certainty of his own death he is genuinely glad that Arthur will have a friend who cares for him, and maybe escape the terrible loneliness that Uther himself probably knows only too well.

And word to your entire post. I especially want to quote this, because it speaks so much about how Uther truly does love his son -- not because he's the heir to Camelot, but simply because Arthur is his child. When he went out to battle the Black Knight, he was doing it as Arthur's father, not as Camelot's king.

P.S. I discovered you from one of the Merlin comms -- your posts are really cool!