In the second season Shirayuki gets to dress pretty, have tea with her agressor (which, granted, happens to be one of the best characters in this season), get kidnapped, get kidnapped again and cry. There is a whole lot of crying. It's like she isn't even the same character anymore.
Once I noticed how little agency* this new version of Shirayuki had, I also noticed that there wasn't a single thing that had happened because of her. It's not only that she could be substituted by a pretty red lamp and the story would be the same, it's that she wasn't important enough in her own series to even merit being the reason plot happens. Things happened because people were trying to do something else and she happened to be there. Motivations for characters were reused. It's just bad storytelling in general.
The break from slice of life into badly written adventure, for instance, felt like something done just to have Zen going all fairy tale prince. There are no consequences for the main characters: nothing is gained or lost from that action. A secondary character does gets to find himself, but he's the only one impacted by half the season.
There are, still, a few good things: Raj's and Obi's character archs were great, as was that Mitsuhide episode (though he and Kiki get no character development).
* No biggie, it's just she's the MC. You kinds expect the main character to actually DO THINGS instead of having things done to them. And then cry. While mumbling the name of their lover. ¬¬
