I totally understand wanting to defend the story but the pacing is like objectively fucked right now and it makes sense that a lot of season one readers are mad at waiting more than a year to get back to the plot.
Preach it sis
I agree completely. I also want to add that it means we'll always be looking at Sol as if he's seeing Brian, not Ian so in essence it'll never feel like a romance bewteen two people just one person in love with his (for lack of better terms) dead lover. This past (and pacing) really did hurt the story in multiple ways.
i feel like the writer taking this route for their story has essentially doomed the story because if Ian becomes Brian then it ruins Ian's internal conflict in season one and shows that Ian does not matter.
however, if they don't do that then that means they wasted everyone's time with a whole season of about 50 chapters on the flashback when they could have only done flashbacks when the information is necessary for the audience.
Not only that but this flashback has essentially ruined the pacing as actual plot came to a complete stop meaning that there has been NO STORY PROGRESS FOR A YEAR. i'm not complaining because i hate the flashback because i think as its own story its interesting but in the actual context of season one and the actual plot occurring present-day, this actively hurts the story