Honestly, I'm pretty surprised.

Not that Natsu won, but that he kinda didn't have to...you know...DO anything. No Dragon Force. No Flaming Thunder attacks. He just kinda went, "Nah, fuck you guys. I'm way stronger."

I'd be lying though if I said I still didn't think it was totally awesome in the moment.

I get what you're saying about pacing, but I think because this was the final episode they wanted to make it SEEM a lot more climactic than it actually was. Hence all the emotional cutaways.

That said, this sure wasn't no ending. There was a TON of shit after the credits on this one. Dragon Graveyard! That's cool. Biig fat "To Be Continued!"? Fuck you guys! But at least they didn't try and make up their own ending like so many animes do.