"Ugly, ugly, ugly. So ugly I could cry."
"Ugly as hell."
"How could there be a Saint Seiya this ugly?"
"No way that's a Saint Seiya. All the Saint Seiya I know are handsome young men. How could one be this ugly?"
"So this is what an ugly Saint Seiya looks like. I'm out!"
"Now I finally understand why Masami Kurumada drew the Saint Seiya as handsome young men. With faces like that, the series would've flopped without some serious artistic license."
"I still think your idea of 'artistic license' might be different from mine."
"..."
As soon as they saw the face of the man who appeared to be a Saint Seiya, comments flooded Krov's YouTube livestream too fast to follow. This bombshell even brought out viewers who had lurked for years just to have their say.
There was no helping it. The man really was that ugly.
Saint Seiya was a hit across Asia and Europe and had some recognition in the Americas, Oceania, and Africa too. Its characters were famous for their good looks. Even a decrepit old man turned into a handsome youth when he transformed. People joked that becoming a Saint Seiya was, quite literally, all about having the right face.
Judging people by their looks was wrong, but humans were visual creatures. The fact that love at first sight generally required the other person to be beautiful or handsome said enough.
Humans were like that, so of course the gods they imagined were too. After all, Zeus, the notorious womanizer of Greek mythology, usually abducted beautiful women and handsome young men.
So when an ugly man suddenly appeared, the stark contrast made them wonder: Were real Saint Seiya actually like this? Was Athena's taste the exact opposite of humanity's? Did she find ugliness beautiful?