This new story chapter was the definition of meaningless. I don't really hate Episode 4 that much, it was a bit bland for me but I could do with it. But this story chapter offered absolutely nothing. You would think there would be mention of Mother or even ether and how it connects with Photons and Shiva commenting on it or something. Or even trying to see how effective it could be against Mother ( even if it is a branch of photons). Instead it was just a case of " Remember these characters guys!" It's even more pointless considering none of them will probably be relevant to the ending plot making this chapter even more redundant.

This could have been a sub story, there was no reason to make it a main story chapter.