Ahhh true. In a two step reaction, a slow step proceeded by a fast step has a rate only dependent on the first step. Its fast steps proceeded by a slow step that gets the kinda tricky rate laws.
well, sort of, but really, the place where the slow step occurs doesn't really affect the rate law. it's what the slow step is that affects the rate law.
think of it this way:
you have a long pipe that is made up of 3 sections:
1. the first section allows water to flow at a max of 3 L/min
2. the second section allows water to flow at a max of 1 L/min
3. the third section allows water to flow at a max of 2 L/min
at what rate will water come out of the end of the third section?
well, that's 1 L/min, because no matter what, you have the bottleneck of the middle section. when you first introduce water into the system, you could get it up to 3 L/min while it's still in the first section, but if the second section only allows water to flow at 1 L/min the water will get backed up until the rate through the first, second and third pipe is all 1 L/min.
this is the concept of something being rate-limiting. it's rate-limiting because the slow step forms a bottleneck that cannot be overcome. no matter where I put that 1 L/min section of pipe, either at the beginning or at the end or in the middle, it'll still limit the rate to 1 L/min.