Okay okay... Versus is probably gonna get mad at me for this... but are you serious? HOW does it not make sense? Have you not been following the series or have you been too busy complaining cause its not niche or obscure? The hints have been given for this and now everything is coming together. i'll stop myself there, everything makes sense if you're actually paying attention and the fact that you say it doesn't means you haven't been payign attention at all.

The cliffhangers hurt the soul.

It does not make sense if you think about the previous eps. If they always meant to lure MC into a trap with that curse, why would they let it kill him in the first try? The placement of the children was obviously for exactly the purpose to lure him into the woods. But why? Just to get him killed? They couldn't have known that the curse wouldn't kill him so why would they even have that trap in the first place? And if that curse wasn't given to him on purpose, who was that trap for? Nobody could have gone into it. If it wasn't a trap the placement of the kids would just be stupid.

The whole premise of this episode is absolutely contrived. I wonder which route they're gonna go but no matter which they choose it will be stupid and contrived.

I'm gonna join the "actually liked that episode of Zero" crowd. Plenty of progression and good stuff, and yes, it did make sense. Even the cliffhangers aren't so bad anymore since I'm prepared for the fact that they will never end one of these episodes without leaving something unresolved in a major way.

Its not about luring the MC into the trap with the curse. When it gets hungry it feeds off of mana, it does this through curses and it cursed all the children. I'd go further in but that's spoiler/conjecture category. Mainly cause LN readers keep giving huge clues (blue braid girl). Simply put it was hungry and if it lured the villagers there it would have more food which is mana. The goal isn't to kill anybody its to feed itself which is pretty much killing people. The villagers would search for the children and then it would have more food. Its actually simple when you really think about it. You're thinking too much in terms of MC. He is an anomly, nothing is done with him as the centre. He is the interloper that changes the course (which usually leads to his death/restart).

The shaman only cares about feeding itself (from what I could see here) it bit the children, and by doing so it had food. If the villagers came to get the children then it would have more food in the villagers.

If the trap was for the villagers it makes even less sense. If so the monsters wouldn't expect any resistance and would've waited at the pile of children in the first place. Not to mention that the villagers wouldn't even have found the children. There was a barrier placed around the village and naturally the villagers wouldn't have taken a step outside of it so easily. And even if those kids were placed very far off. Then there is the broken barrier, which means the dog already got through. Then why even go to the trouble of cursing only the kids and then dragging them far away in the hopes that the villagers would find them? Why not just suck all the villagers dry in their sleep?

Let's just enjoy the evening with 2 animes that will guaranteed not suck. Sansha Sanyou and Kumamiko.

From what I remember of the anime, the explanation wasn't THAT elaborate but yes I guess it makes sense with the latest episode ... 

Boo cliffhangers

I'll just do the same thing I did with ERASED and wait for the final episode of Re Zero to come out and binge it all :P

In the mean time, I got Kumamiko and MHA Academia to watch today.

Well, you only have 16 weeks to go. Maybe next season will distract you well enough to conveniently forget about it until we're all doing our end of season reviews.