I liked this season a lot, but the pacing towards the end just got more and more stretched out. The first few episodes are fine— great even. However, several extremely significant tense moments towards the end absolutely grind to a halt with lengthy dialogue, realizations and flashbacks. It stands in contrast with how well the producers did with previous scenes. The feeling is very much like watching someone realize they have too little material and try to stretch out the last drops to fit a quota. I think they could have fit this arc into even fewer episodes. In an ideal world, either this arcis included as part of another season or a season of anime does not need to take twelve-ish episodes.