Yeah, I actually got the sense that whoever was in charge of S7 was more reluctant to break away from the Elena paradigm than Plec was during S6. If anything I feel like S8 has tried to shift back more into S6 mode with the exception of Damon (and even with Damon, they're only superficially hanging onto Elena IMO. He's way more motivated by fear of going to hell than he's ever been motivated by any woman, I think.) LOL I have thoughts on this, I might have to write it up into a post...

I'm not feeling much from the Sirens either (except Seline's goldfish sacrifice with the twins, that was fab), but I don't mind, heh. And yeah, here's hoping the second half of the season brings some great moments!