That was part of what people were complaining about with S1. That they were spending too much time of character development instead of story and that it was a bit boring. Seems they went the other way with S2, sped up the story to make it more exciting.
There is plenty more story to come, there's like 14 books in the series.
I'd have mixed the development with action personally. I don't quite get how you can do a massive action packed finale thst basically resolves everything and then just move on cos you've broken thr wheel no?
but anyway a few white clocks over time etc were needed
. There are lots of great Asian role models from history they could pick.