this one isn't always as obvious by tumblr's standards. This is a website where a good chunk of users would put Pyramid Head under 'conventional' despite having a number of things the average person greatly dislikes (weird hat, weird outfit, covered in blood, mostly seen torturing people). I generally rank this one by the average person's standard of conventional, so characters such as The Onceler, Sans the Skeleton, DHMIS characters, Bill Cipher, etc all fall under this category; basically anyone who isn't a normal skinny human 20-something or has at least a couple nonhuman traits
2. Are they tragic in some way?
An understated major characteristic of most sexymen imo. In order for a tumblr fanbase to latch on, a character has to have some sort of compelling tragedy driving their story, usually at least partially by their own hand. This includes lost livelihood, discovering the truth of the universe, driving away your loved ones, being involved in something horrible without your knowledge, etc. Though sometimes the character doesn't actually have this, and the tragedy is instead made up by the fandom (i.e. the idea that Sans remembers every single reload/reset, when this is never fully implied in canon).
3. Are a notable chunk of their fans genuinely, passionately attracted to them?
I have to admit, I think some of the candidates some years are more tumblr darlings rather than tumblr sexymen. Imo the character has to be somewhat known for having people drool over them to a concerning degree. Like you go into their tag and are likely to see x-readers or horny art. Subfandoms dedicated to selfshipping are a relatively extreme version of this (i.e. the Daycare Attendant from fnaf)
4. Are their fans annoying?
I want to go on record and say I support harmlessly annoying fans forever-- I speak about reception by a wider community, not my personal opinion. Tumblr sexymen are not usually characters enjoyed outside of their respective fandoms and are often at least somewhat disliked due to popularity. Non-fandom people groan and roll their eyes. You may see fans bringing up this character in completely unrelated contexts, and sometimes even at the most inappropriate moment or post. People may have blocked this character's tag specifically. You don't see most non-onceler fans looking back on the website being obsessed with him fondly, after all.
5. Did the obsession mostly happen on tumblr/through tumblr?
"Tumblr" is in the name. This website has a very particular way of obsessing over characters compared to other websites. Characters such as Qifrey from Witch Hat Atelier wouldn't count, since he has people falling in love with him all over the internet rather than just tumblr's audience, but characters like The Warden or Dr. Habit count since basically no one outside of tumblr has heard of them.
These are the main things I go through in my head when voting. Unless something else comes in, like one being a friend's favorite, or a character who's already won the contest once and doesn't need a second win
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
janainaart
origamiaround
annaxmalina
snowghoul
areudirty
