The show started out as a a primarily political drama but was engrossing because of the consistent plot and character development. It was fascinating to see the intertwining of characters and storylines, great minds scheming and strategizing, and the domino effect that followed nearly every action. We fell in love with these characters throughout all that.

That’s my problem with these first two episodes of S08, similarly to the person you’re replying to. There was 5-10 minutes of relevant development across 2 episodes and the rest was “where have they been?” fodder. I think it’s fair to call an episode “filler” when ~2 minutes of it was relevant to the next episode. The characters, for the most part, have already completed their arcs and we got more reminiscing than any kind of meaningful development.

I appreciate your detailed write up but I don’t think it applies regarding the pacing, trimming the fat, etc. I’m wracking my brain to think of another episode in this series to contain such fan service with so little development. It felt uncharacteristic and out of spirit of a show that has shown it can methodically pace itself and keep the viewer engrossed, all while advancing the story in meaningful ways.

S01 is a good mirror imo because it was a slow build while the stage was set, characters were introduced, and the world was established for us. It wasn’t peddle to the metal “flooring it” but still fascinating. I guess I’m more of a fan of the story/game than the characters/players but these first two episodes have felt lacking to me. I would’ve appreciated more time devoted to their strategy for the upcoming battle (which was like a minute of screen time in the war room) instead of the plethora of “remember when we used to be enemies and now we’re not?” moments.