How does Pandarus affect the relationship between Troilus and Criseyde?

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus serves as the essential go-between for the two title characters. By facilitating their romance and acting as an intermediary, he enables their relationship to develop, a role so central to his characterization that it gave rise to the term "pander".1

It is important to clarify that while the name Pandarus originates from Greek legend—where he was a Lycian warrior who broke a truce in the Iliad—his function as a romantic intermediary is a distinct literary development found in the works of Chaucer and later William Shakespeare.1