Just because Edward is a reanimated skeleton held together by metal bolts doesn’t mean he’s not a nice person. He’s not, but that’s entirely on his own merits.

Edward was once the most beautiful man in the kingdom. When baby Edward was born to the king and queen, the midwife was said to have been so struck by his extraordinary beauty that she exclaimed in delight, “May this child live forever that his beauty never die.”

The crown prince grew to be a callow and self-absorbed young man, much admired but little loved. In spite of his great beauty, his decrepit soul was betrayed by his dirty, blackened fingernails. He neglected the duties of the realm, and nothing changed when he became king.

As his starving people agitated he courted admirers from far-off lands. As they tore down his watchtowers he sought fine silks and garments. And as they stormed his gates and slaughtered his men and set fire to his walls, a drunken, lustful Edward stood before his great mirror transfixed by his own reflection, unable to tear himself away even as the castle came down upon him.

He awoke in darkness. Crawling out from under the rubble, he found the remnants of his mirror, and looked at the thing he had become. The midwife’s prayer had come true, and though his body was shattered and the flesh seared from his bones, he was alive… and a horror to look upon.

Edward was crushed (metaphorically this time) by the loss of his beauty. Hammering his bones back together with scraps of iron and fashioning a golden jaw from his shattered crown, the monstrous thing that was Edward set out to walk the world until he found one who could restore his rightful beauty, the greatest in all the world.

So comes Edward to the Island.