Like a lot of things in the books, it's a confusing mess generated by lots of similar, overlapping situations created by the characters acting on incomplete information.
In a 1996 interview with SFX Magazine, someone else pointed this out and Robert Jordan agreed with it. Without modern means of direct communication, a medieval-tech war or other events spanning a continent would be hopelessly confusing and contradictary, with only an impartial observer (i.e. the reader) or a historian sifting through dozens of conflicting accounts decades later would be able to make sense of. He wanted to capture some of that chaos in the books (rather too successfully, I think someone would argue).
In a 1996 interview with SFX Magazine, someone else pointed this out and Robert Jordan agreed with it. Without modern means of direct communication, a medieval-tech war or other events spanning a continent would be hopelessly confusing and contradictary, with only an impartial observer (i.e. the reader) or a historian sifting through dozens of conflicting accounts decades later would be able to make sense of. He wanted to capture some of that chaos in the books (rather too successfully, I think someone would argue).
Yeah, to put it mildly. RJ let showing off some neat idea of his get in the way of even adequate storytelling more than once, starting all the way back with the double-flashback sequence in Eye of the World. (Complete with his narration busting our chops for it right after.) Then he owned up to destroying the pacing in Crossroads of Twilight so the reader would really feel the confusion and lack of direction on the part of Our Idiot Heroes.
But I like complicated things. The back half of the series improved greatly for me when I reread the lot last year and wasn't as fixated on the journey-battle-journey fantasy standards that I was on when I started them as a teenager.
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But I like complicated things. The back half of the series improved greatly for me when I reread the lot last year and wasn't as fixated on the journey-battle-journey fantasy standards that I was on when I started them as a teenager.
Funny, but a lot of people I have talked to have said something similar. They were angry or frustrated with the series, and put it down, only to pick it up and re-read it a few years later, and find a better appreciation for it.
I think the added appreciation on re-reading the books has a lot to do with knowing what's to come. There's a lot of bits where the characters are, as someone other than me described it, "just sitting around and having tea" where you now get a lot of "So that's where the threads of that plot gets picked up the first time" moments.
I feel as if in Lord of Chaos to Crossroads of Twilight the plot moves like a boulder that's being pushed up a hill, and then, when it reaches the summit somewhere in the middle of Crossroads and starts moving downhill it just keeps picking up the pace.