Endwalker's message (spoilers!)

[Garnetiferous]

Considering how much art and fanfic Emet gets for being a hot sad dude, this is debatable at best, hypocritical at worst. Its so easy to reduce characters popularity to something basic

There is absolute no way to prove people who like Venat do so for her looks more then her character then there is to prove the same for the Emet.

While I agree with you on the point about Venat's looks being the primary reason why people like her (I don't think that's the reason, I think its the way she's portrayed in the story) in Emet's case, he actually was not intended to be hot. (tbh I think he looks pretty average) I think it was his story that made him attractive to the player base, not his appearance. I don't recall him being that popular when he first showed up in towards the end of stormblood although ofc I could be wrong.

[Rokke]

While I agree with you on the point about Venat's looks being the primary reason why people like her (I don't think that's the reason, I think its the way she's portrayed in the story) in Emet's case, he actually was not intended to be hot. (tbh I think he looks pretty average) I think it was his story that made him attractive to the player base, not his appearance. I don't recall him being that popular when he first showed up in towards the end of stormblood although ofc I could be wrong.

He wasn't particularly popular in SB. I remember people groaning over Ascians being reintroduced to the plot because at the time they were flatter than Zenos character-wise. No one could have guessed what we were in for :P

And yeah, I don't find SHB Emet or Elpis Emet pretty/handsome (especially standing next to Hermes and Hyth) but the combo of his mannerisms and story made him my fav. I think the character designer even said they were surprised he was so popular because he wasn't Final Fantasy Handsome Anime Man™