Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-27234079-20200111162942/@comment-4010415-20200112011712

Y'know, I'd say the stuff with Jacques wasn't wasted or pointless, as he was honestly a stepping stone for Watts to get into Atlas' updated systems. Jacques winning the election and Robyn going full Robin Hood also led to Blake and Yang getting fed up with Ironwood's methods enough to go leak some truth to Robyn, which earned some of her trust and got her to be more receptive to him in the end. Had Robyn won the election, the Schnee banquet hall and council meeting would not have happened, and the truth may have come out in a much worse way. With Jacques winning and things going the way they did, Whitley's story has also been impacted.

We didn't need Jacques to have his own long-running story as councilman. His purpose in this plot was to be a stepping stone and a catalyst for numerous characters and story threads.

As for Nora's story thread, I'm pretty sure they're trying to build up to revealing that Nora and her parents were originally from Mantle. She's been the one going on and on about Mantle's suffering since episode 1 of this Volume. Her story with Ren, however... might be buildup to something in Volume 8, unfortunately.

Also, if they set it up right, they could have Neo become the next Winter Maiden, considering that both Neo and the Maidens originally didn't exist in the plan that MMK made. Monty came up with Neo and the Maidens. He inserted Neo into Volume 2, and then after they finished making Volume 2, he came up with the Maidens. It'd be kind of fitting for the character who didn't originally exist to inherit powers that didn't originally exist.