If you’ve seen Tangled, which more than likely you have, then you remember when Flynn Rider, the loveable rogue, tries to win over Rapunzel with a smoldering gaze. She doesn’t fall for his charms, but what about other characters with a more tempting version of “the smolder?”
Photo: Disney
“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smolder!”
What is smoldering you might ask?
The Urban Dictionary defines it humorously as:
Smoldering
“The act of accessing your deep, inner, and molten sexuality and shooting it through your eyes into an undeniably sexy stare.”
For this week’s list, I decided it would be fun to share some of the male characters who smolder with that piercing gaze that may or may not make you a little bit weak in the knees. From overconfident or tortured vampires who find the object of their obsession (or affection) to Romantic Austen heroes with that eye gaze felt across the room or even to love-struck characters unable to disguise their feelings and more…
RELATED: Check out our Top 35 Vampires in Film and Television
So let’s get right to it. Here’s a countdown of thirty of the best male characters with…
THE SMOLDER.
30. Mr. Knightley – Emma
29. Tom Lefroy – Becoming Jane
28. The 10th Doctor – Doctor Who
27. Jack Robinson – Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
26. Max – Roswell
25. Gilbert Blythe – Anne of Green Gables
24. Lancelot – King Arthur
23. Mick St. John – Moonlight
22. Mr. Rochester – Jane Eyre (2011)
21. Edward Cullen – Twilight
20. Lancelot – Merlin
19. Bill Compton – True Blood
18. Eric Northman – True Blood
17. Henry Fitzroy – Blood Ties
16. Captain Hook – Once Upon a Time
15. Colonel Brandon – Sense and Sensibility
14. Angel – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
13. Spike – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Photo: Fox
12. Mr. Rochester – Jane Eyre (2006)
11. Captain Wentworth – Persuasion
10. James “Sawyer” Ford – Lost
9. Guy of Gisborne – Robin Hood
8. Damon Salvatore – The Vampire Diaries
7. Davis Bloome – Smallville, season 8
6. Mr. Darcy – Pride and Prejudice (2005)
5. Mr. Rochester – Jane Eyre (1983)
Photo: BBC Worldwide
4. Fox Mulder – The X-Files
3. Mr. Thornton – North and South
2. Mr. Darcy – Bridget Jones’s Diary
1. Mr. Darcy – Pride and Prejudice (1995)
What character has your favorite smolder? Did I leave any of your favorites off the list? Sound off below…
Featured image at top: North and South. Photo: BBC
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Well any list that includes Henry Fitzroy automatically makes it a fantastic list but then you included Rochester, Tom Lefroy AND Lancelot. And Mr. Darcy (both incarnations!)
Okay so I could go on forever but the upshot is this is a great list…. most of your posts are perfect but this one is especially so.
Haha! Thank you. 🙂 I think we must have very similar taste! Someone else who actually has heard of Henry Fitzroy…finally!
Excellent list!
Thank you. 🙂
Why can’t I be this good looking? haha
I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice
Here comes the Mulder
Haha! Love it. 🙂
Richard Armitage FOREVER!! I notice North & South is only every list that has anything to do with romance. Ugh, he is too good.
Half of these are not smolders.
Agree with them all but in particular #3 and #27!!! In fact, #27 should rate higher in my opinion when you consider his voice in addition to his eyes. Other examples of #27’s smolder can be hard to find since he’s never worked outside of Australia but I highly recommend a program called “Underbelly: Squizzy” for more examples.
Yes, Jack Robinson! Love Nathan Page. I will have to look up that show. I’m always looking for good imports.
My favourite would have to be Timothy Dalton’s Rochester *fans self vigorously*, but some fairly recent ones would include Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) from CASTLE and Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) from the sadly short-lived FOREVER. Also, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) in Crimson Peak. Great list!
That look Hawkeye gave Cora in the 1992 version of Last of the Mohicans. Cora:”What are you looking at, sir?” Hawkeye:” I’m looking at you, miss.” Yowza!
The fact you didn’t include the lead actor from prison break (Wentworth Miller) leaves this list incomplete….
I’m disappointed that there’s not one single male that is not of European descent on this list. Surely there’s some racial diversity of characters even within period dramas. Maybe this is more of a critique of the website on the whole—it’s almost entirely Anglo/Euro-centric, which is fine if that’s the purpose. But, it’s a shame. There’s a whole world, histories of people from every nation with so much beauty, story, and romance from these different periods of time gone unrecognized.
Actually, we have a lot of diversity on this site and have had writers around the world contributing. Sure, many popular period dramas are British and often white which we do cover a lot of since it’s relevant to our audience. But we regularly cover international and diverse content. We have dozens of articles about Kdramas, for example. We have categories dedicated entirely to International, Foreign Romance, and even Korean dramas. Our monthly book picks are typically diverse too. I’d also recommend checking out many of our lists. We try to make sure we have a good variety of choices from around the world. But we’re not perfect. This website is our passion, but it’s just two of us doing it on our own, and we do make mistakes. Recently, we’ve been working with Acorn TV and BritBox, if that’s your complaint. This article was written a long time ago when we first started this blog and we have evolved a lot since then, so I understand your frustration with this article. But we’d love to update it in the future with more diversity. Anyway, we agree with you. We love promoting romance from around the world and do often. However, it is true that some of the big focuses of our website are Jane Austen, British period dramas, etc. So, maybe we’re not the site for you. And that’s fine. 🙂
Agreed!!
Please girl, this site is not for us, of diverse backgrounds…obviously
I think the person that does the best smoldering face ever DWAYNE JOHNSON (THE ROCK) Im suprised that his not even on that list.
Good point! Except that he’s probably not in this list because most of his movies are not romantic. Come to think of it, there may be a few moments in a couple of family friendly movies (in the few romantic scenes ) that could have been included.