Back for more sauciness after last week’s Sexiest Women article, we now present those dudes of fantasy that burned their way into our collective memory.

Same rules as last time: we’re rating characters who have been made flesh by an actor on either the big or small screen. Animated or literary characters will have to wait patiently for their own list.

And away we go!

7. Will Turner

I know, I know, what about Captain Jack? Sure, Johnny Depp’s Keith Richards-inspired pirate captain is a work of comic genius, and Johnny Depp himself is one sexy dude, but is Jack Sparrow really someone you would want to … you know? Meanwhile, dashing and daring Will Turner, as portrayed by genre fave Orlando Bloom, stands smoldering and hot just a few feet outside the spotlight. Let’s show this kid some love.

6. Conor

In the role that first introduced him to American audiences (though precious few actually remember it), Heath Ledger played Conor on the short-lived fantasy series Roar. The show, which took place in 4th-century Ireland, featured Ledger as the young leader of a ragtag rebellion determined to fight off the encroaching Roman occupation. Though the show suffered from uneven writing and production values, the young, sexy Ledger kept it anchored right up to its all-too-soon series finale. This also comes as a painful reminder of the many great performances we could have seen from Ledger had his life not ended so tragically early.

5. Jin

After the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wuxia (Chinese martial arts fantasy) films became popular with American audiences. Zhang Yimou quickly rose to the top by creating such beautiful works as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Though the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi gets most of the attention, many people found an extra special bonus in Takeshi Kaneshiro’s character Jin, who proved to be as deadly with his kung fu skills as he is easy on the eyes.

4. Richard Cypher

Yeah, you’re not even reading this, are you? You’re just looking at the picture. It’s cool. I get it.

3. That dude who said “Then we will fight in the shade.”

The reaction to 300 is split, to say the least. Personally, I’m not a huge fan. But that dude who said we will fight in the shade had it seriously goin’ on.

2. Aragorn

As if you could make a list of the sexiest guys in fantasy and not include a character who makes his audience swoon with practically every line. (Even when he picked up that weird Irish accent for two seconds in Return of the King — “May the LARD of the Black Gates come FARTH!” Seriously, what happened there, Viggo?)

And here we go, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

The Number One Sexiest Male Character in Fantasy Ever of All Time is…

1. Gimli

Do I even have to explain it? From the moment he showed up in Elrond’s Homely House, we all fell in love.

Okay, just kidding.

Here ya go.

1. Wolverine

Nine years ago, Aussie actor Hugh Jackman did what was thought impossible — he brought a fairly accurate portrayal of comic book character Wolverine to life. Four movies later, we’re still hungry for more…provided there are more scientific experiments done naked, of course.

Honorable mention:

I don’t know if the cheese stands alone on this one, because all I ever heard from my fellow Buffy fans was the fight for supreme hotness between Spike and Angel. A small minority spoke up proclaiming it was the adorkable Xander who deserved the title of sexiest Buffy dude. But I always thought the answer was simple:

How can you ignore the innate sexiness of a 5′4″ guitar-playing laconic too-cool-for-school werewolf rock star? I’m pretty sure his character was meant to express one of those famous Whedon metaphors, that even the gentlest-looking guy has a beast inside him, but the message got lost once the full moon hit and — oops — he morphed into a wolf, thus shredding his clothes, only to wake up in the morning in some field and show off everything his mama gave him. Plus he has awesome hair. So how excited are we that Oz has now (finally!) resurfaced in the Buffy comics?

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