I think it would have been much more satisfying if it had been Gawyn, Logain, and then Lan, with Galad either not finding Gawyn, not going after Demandred, or getting struck down and taken with the injured before he reached Demandred.

The way it played out with Gawyn was perfect - not only highlight his stupidity at using the Bloodknives, but also delve to his core character, which is to do self-aggrandizing bullshit actions that actually are useless and threaten to undermine the entire cause that he is ostensibly trying to support. Challenging Demandred one-on-one was perfect for that.

For Galad, fine if he finds Gawyn. He should have been sad, and then carried out his duty in continuing to kill as many channellers as possible. That was not only his best use, what was RIGHT, but also his goddamn orders. He wouldn't just brush that aside lightly because he's pissed that Demandred killed his bro. Come on. And if he had to fight Demandred, it should have been an opportunity while he was carrying out his duty, like he was killing channellers and spotted Demandred and decided he should try to kill the most important channeller, and maybe get a bit extra mad because his brother was dead. But, much as I enjoyed seeing his arm 'flop' in front of him, he shouldn't have faced Demandred as he did, and live. That was horse shit.

Plus, the whole Gawyn-Galad-Lan buildup felt a bit too much of a forced 'I'm a teenage fanboy trying to figure out who the toughest sword fighter in the series is' resolution. Gawyn, followed by Logain was sufficient to prove Demandred's bad-assery. The triple-single-combat thing got a bit tired.

Anyway, I was mostly satisfied with that whole angle, and especially loved Gawyn's failure and Logain's prudence/cowardice. Adding Galad, I felt, overstretched it just enough to be irksome.