I was very impressed with the update. Especially the growing relationship between MC and Asterion, Nikos' development, and the Hinterlands. It was nice to see some of my theories confirmed. I remember Carbon telling me to not look to the original 4chan quest for speculation since things had diverged heavily, but that seems to have been misdirection since my confirmed theories were aspects from or adjacent to the quest.
Personally, I was fine with Kota's involvement in the matchmaking since it clearly came from a place of concern. Kota's happiness slipped away, so he's not about to let his friends miss their own chance at happiness together. Jean's part in it did bother me though. He came off as rude, and overly nosy and pushy. It felt like he was just projecting due to the mistreatment of his son. His plans shouldn't even need MC and Asterion to be romantically involved.
While Jean's goal is ultimately good, I disagree with his methods. Trying to kill Nikos for doing what he himself had ordered him to came off as reprehensible to me. I also don't get how that would've even helped Asterion in any way. Nikos actually wasn't a threat to the hotel.
Initially we were told Asterion's crime was meekness, letting Theseus kill him. Then the tablets suggested it was his mercy killing of Tithomus. But now that got expunged. The transcripts I got from the Olympians' trial suggest that some of the gods were afraid of him because he is a demigod and wields the labrys. In other words, his crime was merely existing, under no fault of his own. This makes the official sentence of meekness make less sense, since if he was cowardly like they accused him of being, they'd have nothing to fear from him. And the trial was rigged with two of the votes in his favor being thrown out on lame technicalities. I've always maintained that Asterion did nothing wrong, but this makes his eternity of torture even more tragic than it already was. I'm glad things are finally looking up for him now, but can anything actually make up for what he's been unjustly put through?