I like where he discusses villains. That there is something "missing". "They have this hole that is bottomless that they keep trying to fill." This does give some insight into people like Nicodemus, and Cowl.
Ooh. I could make an Amber comparison here, but it for Amber is a rather specific case. Julia and Brand and any others that walk a broken Pattern, touching the broken pieces rather than the whole ones get attuned to a magic that has something 'missing', something from the void. This really isn't such a moral thing except that in Amber those that touch this magic with a bit of the void get changed by it and negatively so. I had wondered if Jim was going to take Outsiders as coming into or manifesting from the void via those that walk broken Patterns. So, I've made comparisons to those that summon Outsiders to in some way touching broken Patterns.
Of course, I don't think this can generalize to simple villains, but some of the villains in Amber Chronicles had this 'magic' and property.
Now, in Jim's other series, Cinder Spires, the 'magic wielders' actually do have something missing as they become more adept at their craft. These missing pieces though manifest as psychological disorders like OCD and other peculiarities.
Oh and on OCD, ect, I've made progress on likely identifying the partial cause of my psychiatric disorder. I hit my head at age 15 during a flip turn at a swim meet. So, essentially I slammed my head into concrete. THis would be a mild traumatic brain injury that I didn't seek treatment for but left lasting unseen effects. It took me awhile to think that a nonpsychological issue like hitting my head could be part of the problem. Also, in my history psychiatrists don't ask if you have hit your head.
Sorry for derailing the thread after mentioned the OCD of the characters in Cinder Spires and it reminding me of my own (computer games, etc).
