Sympathetic William Hamleigh?
I haven't seen the mini-series, I've only read the book, but I'm curious. Scrolling through TV Tropes I saw that William Hamleigh gets the "Draco in leather pants" treatment from some people (like they make excuses for his evil deeds or whatever, the way a lot of girls feel about Draco Malfoy), and I was like
WHAT?
Because in the book he's arrogant, hot-tempered, he kills people with no remorse (except a fear of hell that leaves as soon as he's had Confession), he rapes practically every woman he runs into (and has his knights rape many of them), he's turned on by their fear and pain, and he blames them if he can't get it up. He has literally no redeeming qualities. I spent the entire book waiting for him to die a horrible, painful death, and then when he did die I still wasn't satisfied because hanging was not horrible or painful enough.
I can't imagine that anyone is giving him the leather pants treatment because of the book, because if they are they really need to look at their priorities and possibly see a psychiatrist.
So I'm assuming that this treatment is because a) he's played by David Oakes, who is reasonably good-looking (a trait that helps most leather-pants characters get that treatment) and/or b) the mini-series portrayed him more sympathetically/gave him some redeeming characteristic/gave him some tragic back-story.
Can someone clue me in? Is he portrayed at all sympathetically in the mini-series, or is it purely that David Oakes is attractive and therefore some fans are willing to overlook the character's attrocities?