and the fact that a lot of things are done without any explanation, like 'X did this, and then Y did that', but it doesn't say why or what led to any of it.

Yessss! It all feels kind of random. (I guess otherwise it would have to be incredibly long and detailed.)

It got moved to the Shen San story. :)

Ahh, thank you! (The Shen San story is my favourite, but clearly I don't remember it very well, lol.)