Are Emoji ZWJ sequences characters?

[Richard Wordingham via Unicode]

On Mon, 15 May 2017 16:14:23 +0000
Peter Constable via Unicode <unicode at unicode.org> wrote:

> So, your helpful person was, indeed, helpful, giving you correct
> information: ZWJ sequences are not _characters_ and have no
> implications for ISO/IEC 10646.

Except in so far as the claimed ligature changes the meaning of the
ligated elements.  For example, using <'a', ZWJ, 'e'> for an a-umlaut
that was clearly not a-diaeresis would probably be on the edge of what
is permissible.  Returning to the example, shouldn't 1F468 200D 1F680
mean 'male rocket maker'?

Richard.