>>79638634i think its entirely up to the author as long as it retains the core aspect of the characters and transforms them.
in that Suisei fic case, i feel like the uncanny valley happens due to the fact that the narration doesnt allow us the viewer to look at suisei's inner thoughts and go "oh shit, that's suisei".
You could have sally asteroid. who is tasked with being the con mascot "suisei" and as long as suisei shines in there, it could work (of course this is hard)
also bumping with some progress