I think your reply made me realize that yet again, really really over thinking things here.
If I see an emote value just reference like this
https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/emoticons/v2/emotesv2_421f84110f484ad2a481d8d17a4677ea/default/light/1.0
Let “default” do its deal to show which is the default view of the emote and move on.
My case was missing out if emote was animated or not.
I am building my emote list for selecting your emotes from my own chat program which “was” able to break them apart of animated vs non animated. But thinking more this is just silly.
Just show them by their default in my lists, and move on with life.