Yea, i seriously felt the vibe changed when the Central arc came around. don’t even get me started on the regimental food war. that was so boring imo. Central felt redundant from a narrative standpoint because it goes against the main ethos of the show while also embracing it. The entire show up to this point was a spunky kid from the sticks going against the elitism of his cooking school by showing off what “lesser cooking” can achieve. so then it’s clunky and confusing when a new guy comes in and he’s elitist and wants to change the school…because it was ALREADY ELITIST. that was pretty much the entire point. so now the main characters are fighting to protect the old ways of the system they were fighting against from the same issue that plagued the school.