Why does Solus just happen to look like the Ascian who is posessing him?

[gilmorej]

When attempting to explain the situation with Varis and Solus to my sister, who just saw the 4.0 ending credits, this just now hit me.

Why does Solus look like Emet-Selch? We know that Solus was possessed at an early age, and that many clones of Solus were made so that Emet could just possess a new one whenever the body died.

But why does Solus, who was at one time a normal person, look like Emet-Selch?

Are there any examples of an ascian transforming the appearance of their vessel? I can't think of any off the top of my head.. So I don't think this could be explained as a case of Emet rearranging Solus' face to suit him (also assume that would be very suspicious to the people Solus knew in life before his possession).

[RicaRuin]

Ascians can change the appearance of the vessel. Emet-Selch explains that in Shadowbringers when asked how his current vessel looks like Solus as well. But they just seem to look really alike for plot convenience.

[gilmorej]

Emet-Selch explains that in Shadowbringers when asked how his current vessel looks like Solus as well.

Oh, I guess I missed/forgot that piece of dialog; thanks.

Do you remember when he talked about this?

[Cleretic]

Emet mentions he could do that himself in his debut scene when talking about the cloning vats. He also mentions early in Shadowbringers (I think in his first scene with the Scions) that he possessed and altered someone on the First. (Weird how we never inquire about the person he just erased, that seems like someone should care.)

There is a relevant question of 'how did the original Solus happen to look exactly like Emet'; the resemblance is confirmed, since Urianger recognizes him. And an angle I saw there was just that perhaps Emet took it slow; maybe Solus didn't originally look like him, but he altered the body so gradually that people just assumed it to be regular aging. We know Emet possessed him as a relatively young and indistinguished soldier; presuming the Solus body we saw in Stormblood and Shadowbringers was maybe him in his forties or fifties after taking the throne, it would make sense if Emet took the body in his twenties and took his time.

[KageTokage]

Emet mentions he could do that himself in his debut scene when talking about the cloning vats. He also mentions early in Shadowbringers (I think in his first scene with the Scions) that he possessed and altered someone on the First. (Weird how we never inquire about the person he just erased, that seems like someone should care.)

I always assumed he just grabbed the lifeless body of some poor sap who got mauled by a sin eater or some such.

Ascians taking over living hosts doesn't seem to be their favored angle compared to them snatching up the deceased be it recently or otherwise. If it was, they certainly could've messed with us a heck of lot more if we could never be certain of who was or wasn't being controlled by them.

[Cilia]

It's not mentioned in voiced dialogue, but if you talk to him at some point Emet does say he possessed some random guy on the First and remodeled his appearance to look like Solus. Just like the "We were all tempered by Zodiark, totes." it's a big detail you can miss if you don't stop to talk to him.

[MikkoAkure]

I always assumed he just grabbed the lifeless body of some poor sap who got mauled by a sin eater or some such.

Ascians taking over living hosts doesn't seem to be their favored angle compared to them snatching up the deceased be it recently or otherwise. If it was, they certainly could've messed with us a heck of lot more if we could never be certain of who was or wasn't being controlled by them.

Emet-Selch simply mentions that he "fashioned some hapless body into the man you see before you" not specifically mentioning living or dead, but back many expansions, it was mentioned that "lesser" Ascians can only possess the dead while the main ones generally possess the living. Elidibus possesses Ardbert's and Zenos' bodies on purpose for specific reasons. But from the clones, to OG Solus, to all those he mentioned in his backstory where he started lives and had children, Emet-Selch has never been shown to possess a dead body. He already tells us that he doesn't even consider us living: "I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you.", so it's not like he has a specific thing against possessing live people and warping them to look like his preferred face.

Considering they bothered to bring it up in the SMN quests that the lesser Ascians can only possess the dead and we can defeat them permanently by killing them with traditional means when there's no potential hosts nearby, I would assume that those who can, prefer the living. The reason we don't see our friends possibly being Ascian is probably due to the fact they already did that whole thing with Thancred and it might feel overused if they kept doing it unless they did a whole Battlestar Galactica thing where it was central to the plot.

[Lyth]

I don't think that it mattered to them all that much. Mitron is sundered, and yet he forcibly merges his soul with Gaia against her will to try to systematically destroy all the memories of her new life. It just comes down to whoever wields more aetheric power.

[SannaR]

Zenos and Ardbert were already dead. Well ok so Zenos was sort of dead. Asahi was also dead by the time Hermes was slapped into the body. I think part of why they can't take over our comrades bodies while they're alive is due to the density of our souls. We get told the reason why Lahabreha was able to possess Thancred's was due to how ragged he had been running his body. Also seemed to need the used once and then forgotten dark crystal. I think the attack Elidibus uses but fails with on Minfillia and G'Raha is how one would try said possession, but both times he's all damn your soul is too chonky.

We just don't have enough information on about Emet's possession of Solus. Keep in mind it was during a mission so for all we know he could have been on the brink of death at the time of possession. I don't think Emet would do the while still alive style as he also seems to be against the forceful memory bit when uplifting a person to a seat. Course I'm basing that on how he sounded and looked when talking about that possibility and the fact he had the Azem crystal all of ShB yet never once took the opportunity to try and force Azem's memories onto the WoL.

[Cleretic]

We just don't have enough information on about Emet's possession of Solus. Keep in mind it was during a mission so for all we know he could have been on the brink of death at the time of possession. I don't think Emet would do the while still alive style as he also seems to be against the forceful memory bit when uplifting a person to a seat. Course I'm basing that on how he sounded and looked when talking about that possibility and the fact he had the Azem crystal all of ShB yet never once took the opportunity to try and force Azem's memories onto the WoL.

Because that crystal's not one that contains memory, it contains a spell. Mitron's clearly not using the normal method, it was just the best he could manage without a crystal (which he didn't have because we gave it to Elidibus). Mitron's also an excessively terrible person in extremely weird circumstances, especially relating to Gaia, so it's possible that the method he used wasn't on the table for everyone else for both logistical and moral reasons. Personally I think logistics would be the major factor for Emet, he doesn't seem the type to be stopped by morals.

I believe it was mentioned at one stage that only the Unsundered could possess living bodies, and the lesser ones had to make do with corpses; that might've been relating to black maskers, though, and I'm not sure where to look for confirmation. It is clear that only the Unsundered have possessed confirmably living people (Lahabrea with Thancred, Emet with Solus... uhm, multiple times), so the facts line up for that, it's just that they might be coincidental.