If there was a version of les mis where the main characters are mice, (like great mouse detective is to sherlock holmes) do you think Javert would be a mouse, cat, or still a dog?
Extremely Serious Answer to This Critically Important Question:
Because Javert is described in the novel as being a "dog who is the son of wolves" (in an explicit multiparagraph digression about how that animal Literally represents his soul) he would ordinarily need to be a wolfdog in any furry au. However!! This is a different case! because The Great Mouse Detective works on a different set of furry logic!
The rodents and small creatures in that world are all anthropomorphic, while large animals generally behave like animals. More importantly: while Les Mis uses "dogs vs wolves" as a metaphor for the people who are accepted into society vs the criminals who are not, The Great Mouse Detective uses "mice vs rats." In Les Mis, the wolves are generally used as a metaphor for the people who attack society and dogs are used as a metaphor for those who defend it; in The Great Mouse Detective, the Rat attacks society and the Mice defend it. The hero characters are respectable mice, and the villain is a rat who pretends to be a mouse because he wants to be seen as refined. In the end of the movie, the villain gives up his pretense of being a refined mouse and turns into a fully feral animalistic rat.
Essentially: within the Metaphorical Logic of the cinematic classic "The Great Mouse Detective," Javert would need to be "a mouse who is the son of rats"-- not literally, but symbolically.
In Les Mis, Jean Valjean is described as a "wolf in [Javert's] master's clothes," a wolf who can pretend to be something less wild and more respectable. Thenardier is also frequently compared to a wolf, but also rankles at people seeing him as inferior. And Javert is a dog who is the son of wolves, betraying his class to defend a hierarchy that he is at the bottom of.
So The Great Mouse Detective AU: Jean Valjean is a rat who is good at pretending to be a mouse, Thenardier is an insecure rat who is bad at pretending to be a mouse (he's literally Ratigan), and Javert is the child of rats who now despises all rats, and works with the mice to outcast them.
Aaaaaaand that's my Hot Take on that.
