#...... Yoda is a Leeran

[thaylepo]

omg omg, ok, a few things will need to be switched around vis a vis who has what personal relationships and who fills what role in the star wars narrative versus the animorphs narrative, BUT

Ok so the dual sides of the main conflict are easy. You have a powerful ruling body (the Senate) overthrown from within by a new faction (the Empire). The two powerful forces backing each side are directly mirrored as light and dark: the Jedi and the Sith. The same elements are all present in the initial setting of Animorphs: you have the good-guy Andalite forces and the bad-guy Yeerk Empire. It gets more complex later on, but this is how the series presented the setting for its main conflict.

Slide this into the SW universe: a Galactic Senate, backed by the considerable political power of the Andalites, is overthrown from within by a rogue faction backed by the newly emerged Yeerk Empire. The Sith and the Yeerks combine as a dual power -- not all controllers are Sith, but all Sith are controllers. Something something infestation combining a force-capable yeerk and a force capable host equals one super powerful entity. The Andalites are not a perfect stand-in for the Jedi, they fit more into the Ep. IV role of Alderaan and the Rebel forces, but it's not a huge jump to say this race of psychic deertaurs was possibly super over-represented among the ranks of a multi-race force of mystic space warriors. For a nearly wiped out semi-legendary race of incredibly force-sensitive beings who may have begun the Jedi order? We have the Pemalites. Crayak and the Ellimist could also fit into this theme of diametrically opposed forces of good/evil, light/dark, creation/destruction, etc. Perhaps as literal personifications of the Force itself? It's nearly impossible in this mashup to keep everything consistent from one universe versus the other, so we're throwing all the spaghetti at all the walls and seeing what sticks XD

How does the morphing power fit? Well, it easily can remain as: technology developed by the Rebellion (Andalites) to turn the tide of war, but how does turning into animals help in a setting where most of the major conflicts are fought in space, or with weapons and armies of ground troops? How does morphing translate into the SW setting as an allegory for the Force? I do not know. It could be that the Force, in this mixed universe, is more technologically based than spiritual: you need to be given it like the morphing power, but perhaps only "force sensitive" people can actually receive it.

Ep. IV: A New Hope follows the structure of the hero's journey, and roughly so does the first book of Animorphs, so that's a good place to start. As for the characters, that's the easy part..........

Tobias grows up in the boonies on Tatooine with his aunt and uncle. He's never known his father, but after finding an injured Andalite and a dog-shaped robot carrying a message from a beautiful golden haired princess, his friend the strange old blind woman who lives in the desert reveals that Tobias' father had been a Jedi who was murdered by the terrifying Yeerk warlord, Visser Three. Before he died though, Elfangor left a gift for his son that will change the course of his entire life........

Rachel was raised by the ruling family of Alderaan from a baby as a favour to her mother, a former Senator turned legal arbitrator. Her incredible intelligence, fighting prowess, political education, and ferocity in debate has made her a force to be reckoned with in the scene of galactic politics. She takes a leading role in the Rebellion at an astonishingly young age and she shows no sign of faltering. She certainly has no idea that a couple of her biological cousins are involved in the shady galactic underworld smuggling rings, and nor would she care; she needs to smuggle crucial information herself to the Rebel Forces herself, ironically. When her diplomatic ship is intercepted by Visser Three himself, Rachel doesn't miss a beat. There's only one person who can help her now.....

Jake may be a serious guy, unlike his best friend and huge hairy behemoth Marco, but he trying to do his best with what he's got. And what he's got is a fast ship, a quick mind, and an eye for getting out of trouble. He'll never be a leader like his older brother Tom, who governs his own city now, but he's content with his two-man operation and the life of a simple smuggler. This latest job they've taken, though, is a little out of the ordinary: ferry the entourage of an old blind lady and a wide-eyed country bumkin into the heart of Empire space. It wasn't even a very good offer, even with that pretty mechanic they hired, but for some reason he just hadn't been able to say no.......

Marco is not in the crime business for the money: he's in it for Jake. They've been best friends for almost their whole lives, ever since the human child stumbled upon a captive young Wookie and broke him out. He knows he'll outlive his friend by a couple centuries, but after he was captured and his mother killed, Jake has practically been his only family. They make a great team: Marco's wit and devastating good looks, along with Jake's stellar piloting skill. Marco wishes Jake were better at the people side of the business, though. He doesn't take to their new passengers, and while it's funny watching Jake try flirt with the first cute girl he's ever seemed tongue-tied by, Marco suspects the old woman and the sharp-faced, squinting desert boy are going to be way more trouble than they're worth......

Cassie is a natural with droids. Actually, if it runs, swims, crawls, flies, drives, hovers, or burrows underground, she has an uncanny knack for it. Creature or machine, she'll tend to whatever you bring her and give it back to you better than it's ever been. She's known Tobias for years but rarely sees him more than once every few months, so it's a surprise when he and the reclusive desert hermit known as Old Lo show up out of the blue with an injured Andalite and a dog-shaped robot she's never before seen the like of. Even more troubling, once the corrupted message is extracted from the robot ER-1K, Tobias and Lo intend to leave Tattooine and Cassie has a terrible bone-deep feeling they won't be coming back. It's the sight of the ship they hire that's the final straw: someone is going to have to come along and keep that smuggler's death trap in the sky.......

Aximili has lived his whole life in the shadow of a brother whom people rarely speak more than whispers about anymore. Elfangor had been one of the most powerful Jedi ever to exist, a hero of the Clone Wars, a larger-than-life figure impossible to live up to. But now the Jedi are eradicated, the Empire is in control of the galaxy, and Elfangor's name spoken only in hushed, reverent tones. Though Aximili had hardly known his brother, still young when he'd been killed, he doggedly tried to live up to his memory. His hard work and dedication had earned him a highly honoured place: the right hand assistant to the formidable Princess of Alderaan herself. But now, Princess Rachel is in the clutches of Visser Three himself, the Rebellion was losing ground, and Aximili can only think on his own monumental failures while he's crammed aboard a rusted spacecraft with a blind former Jedi, a backwater doctor-mechanic, two highly dubious criminal lowlifes, and Elfangor's own long lost son. This rescue mission already feels doomed, but it's the only hope they've got......

Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, six kids are the only thing standing in the way of an empire.......

Au idea: animorphs but star wars

I know other folks will have better ideas than I do. Any Animorphs and Star Wars fans out there willing to weigh in with thoughts?