Gotta say, it's really hard to engage with a setting that is both actively insufferable and literally acausal. As in stuff happens just cuz - no foreshadowing, no past behavior determining future events, JuSt CuZ.
Maybe time to actually build up stakes that aren't just "or else you'll die from bad luck" might help here. Stuff just pointlessly happening all the time isn't tense - it's tedious. Every new event is a chore, not an opportunity for the main characters to strut their stuff.
When something new happens, the reader reaction should be "oooh, I really wanna see how things develop" instead of mentally stabbing at the "Skip" button like it was for every encounter with the Artist onwards.
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
aPGtE is a world ruled by narrative tropes. There are some default concessions baked into the setting (for example, a villain always succeeds at the first step of their plan) and then events usually play out according to tropes within a story. I could write out "this is the list of tropes involved within this scene and why they played out this way" but I feel like that's both padding the word count and babying the audience.
There is some foreshadowing for the larger plot. If it's not obvious that a Fae arc is scheduled for some point in the future, and it's involving the outlying story threads, then I'm not sure what to say, because there are a lot of dangling threads there. Likewise with the ongoing events in Callow and Mercantis. The closer we get to those story arcs, the more details will be added.
There was also a fair amount of foreshadowing for events that have already occurred. Taylor's journey of faith started as far back as halfway through Arc 2 and only concluded at the end of Arc 4. There were hints about her transformation early on in the Aisne arc. It became more pronounced the further along the story progressed.
If you mean character motivations, we can look at characters in the most recent arc and see what they've been doing. Taylor believes that there will be chaos as a result of her actions in Arc 4 and thus feels the need to establish some form of system to contain it. She knows that most heroes aren't just going to listen to the words of secular leaders, so she reaches towards the church. The church has the power, but they still need approval to do what she wants, so she goes to the highest assembly. It's a step by step A-B-C of how she gets to where she's going.
You get to see a shitton of the inside of Esme's head and what motivates her. She wants vengeance, she doesn't have the power (or ability) to get it on her own, she sees Taylor as a way to get that.
Pascal clashed with Taylor because his beliefs and hers are not reconcilable. There was nothing "bad luck" about his death.
If you're looking for a story where the MC struts stuff... That isn't going to be Taylor's pov. Ever. I'm ruling it out right here. Cat will do things like that, because she's both younger, and it fits with her personality. Taylor's seen the end of the world, and she's tired of that kind of stuff. She's not doing what she's doing to look badass. She's doing what she's doing because she believes it to be the right thing to do. I'm sorry if the idea of a hero that is trying to earnestly do good through enacting political change isn't that appealing to you, but it is what it is.
One of the themes of worm (which is easy to see from the epilogue) is that
superpowers don't fix problems. Taylor only starts recovering and moving on when she no longer has her power in the epilogue. I'm carrying that theme forward into Taylor's story in the new world. She has powers, they won't solve any of the problems she has. But this time, she's not trying to solve her problems with those powers so maybe she'll do better?
