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Cara Dune - Blog Posts
something i drew in the middle of the night after watching mando s2 ep 7
Women of the Galaxy.
Din was never sure what to expect in life anymore. Jedi, alien babies he adopted and allowed to stay with said Jedi, being on the run, Imps, Pubs, and that was besides the normal unexpectedness that bounty hunting brought. So a deeply encoded urgent message with coordinates and the message title “Sorgan” wasn’t enough to throw him off, but it did make him curious. Very few people knew about that planet, and fewer still left, and of those only two knew that he had stayed there a while, and one was still nonverbal.
What could Cara possibly want?
Read on AO3
I watched Haywire last spring and my second thought* was "I have to write some Caradin shenanigans inspired by this!!" and I finally finished it.
*If you're curious my first thought was "This came out in 2011 I COULD'VE FIGURED OUT I WAS GAY 12 YEARS AGO?!?!?"
Sequel to last post, getting the hug they both deserve ;v;
Just discovered that another writer for this pairing has deleted their stuff on ao3, which is such a bummer. Fortunately I decided to download all the Caradin fics from ao3 the last time this happened, so I can still read it.
Feel free to send me a message if any of you can’t find a fic on there, I’ll see if I can help you out.
Canon prompt: Din Djarin asks Cara Dune (with a engagement ring) for her hand in marriage. She, of course, says “yes”.
click to read !!
@maryscarlett2u said: I miss these two together so much.
Me too I mean I've been binging the whole series again lately and THEY WERE BEST FRIENDS. They teamed up and moved like a friggin' Pacifim Rim drift compatible partnership right from the start. Din goes to Cara when he needs help protecting Grogu! He lets her play in his weapons cabinet with anything she wants! Cara runs into heavy fire and does everything in her power to save Din! She even asks IG-11 to bring his body (presumably because she never got to bury anyone from Alderaan AND because she knew how important it would be to bring him home to his people)! DIN TRUSTS HER WITH GROGU, WITH WHERE HIS HIDDEN COVERT IS, AND WITH THE BESKAR. Din brings in Gideon alive just because she asked! Cara says "name it" when he asks for help and immediately risks her new job just to help him. She tries to make him feel better by cracking a joke when he has to wear the trooper armor. And with that smile when she sees Luke, you KNOW right after it cuts to credits she went over and explained who that was and that Grogu is in good hands. EVEN IF YOU DON'T SHIP IT THEY WERE CLEARLY BESTIES I AM SO SO SO SO SO MISSING THEM RN TOO!! I am begging Lucasfilm to recast Cara Dune!!
Maybe I should change this blog to Oops I Ranted lmao sorry I have been in my Cara Dune + Caradin feels all week with season 3. I am loving the new season but I miss Cara 😭
Spoiler part below:
I did like how S3 explained her absence, it made sense for the character. There were no more Imps on Nevarro so I think she would move on and find more to fight. She totally still calls Din and Greef in between scenes though. Greef is hoping if he lures Din into settling on Nevarro, Cara will return at least part-time and he can finally be the Awesome Grandpa of his found family.
I come bringing a prompt, in hopes that it will help your writing inspiration--how about CaraDin and “Are we on a date right now?” 😊
Din’s head rang as the fist hit his visor hard enough to rattle his helmet, but he had taken the blow so he could sweep his opponent’s leg when she got close enough. Cara fell right into it - literally - and he pounced down to pin her. “Yield.”
She grinned and tried to flip him, but he was very used to that particular move by then and shifted his weight to prevent her from using it. Cara grabbed his belt before he could stop her and yanked him forward, making him fall backwards and off her and next thing he knew, his neck was pinned down between her thighs. “Yield,” Cara said smugly.
“Do I have to? I like it here.”
She laughed and stood, about to offer her hand, but he grabbed her leg and brought her down, straddling her. “I didn’t yield.”
Her fingers poked him right in that ticklish spot in his ribs, and one flinch was all it took for her to get leverage and have him on his back again. “I didn’t either,” Cara said.
“I feel like all our sparring sessions end the same way these days.”
“Are you complaining?” Cara asked. “I tend to like how they end.”
“You could at least buy me dinner first.”
“Aren’t we on a date right now?” Cara asked, lazily stretching her arms above her head in a way that she knew provided him an excellent view of all her assets outlined under the shirt she wore.
“Greef did say he’d keep Grogu for the next few hours.”
“Well, I think we should make good use of the time.” Cara stood up, and this time Din took the hand she offered, not letting go as they left the sparring ring to find more comfortable accommodations.
“If you don’t want him going outside the box you should really spring for the clumping litter like I’ve told you…”
din: i need your help
cara dune: absolutely not
din: pl-
cara dune: FINE you’ve convinced me TWIST MY ARM why don’t you
Jedi AU Cara Dune, because why not.
I pictured her surviving Order 66 and the destruction of Alderaan and so, so full of angst over losing not one but two homes/cultures/people. But she fights on to help the Rebellion, willing to do almost anything to stop the Empire. I could see her doing her best to help Luke, but doesn't really feel like she would succeed as a teacher and mostly does so as a service to Princess Leia.
I picture a Jedi Cara being very combat focused; she was never the one she sent to deal with dumb Senators as non-aggressive negotiations are not her skill set. So her outfit is close-fitting, taking elements from Jedi garb and her original costume. She has no shocktrooper tattoo since she never joined the group and instead I added arm bands similar to those worn by some muay thai practitioners (because if a certain actress didn't get herself fired I would love to see her stuntwork take on an AU like this; Jedi Cara may have a lightsaber but definitely isn't afraid of a brawl).
Her lightsaber has a teal crystal and the hilt was originally crafted on Alderaan out of Alderaanian materials and is her only relic from her homeworld. The design was inspired by some in SWTOR.
helmetless Din sketch because why not?
Grogu probably did a neat Jedi trick to make him proud; or simply just existed
text because my handwriting sucks:
*Proud Dad Smile*
Cara: Ha ha! Careful, Mando, if I knew better I’d say you were smiling!
Din: *embarrassed Mandalorian noises*
Not pictured: Greef and Mythrol taking bets on the outcome
being a baby isn’t something you can just expect to get good at overnight
Image description under the cut
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With Eyes Undarkened
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Din hasn’t told anyone yet that the Armorer exiled him for removing his helmet, and finally confesses to Cara. Post-TBobF; Caradin. Also on AO3
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Din stared at the ceiling, perfectly content, idly playing with Cara’s hair between his fingers as she lay against his chest. He couldn’t see her right now because of the helmet’s limited range of vision, but he knew she looked so beautiful, a smile on her face, eyes half-lidded in post-coital bliss. Not for the first time, he wondered what she would look like without the visor between them, nothing altering his vision, just her unfiltered. And he wondered what she would think if she could see him, unmasked, no helmet to hide his face.
But he’d sworn the Creed. He’d sworn to never remove his helmet or have it removed by others. And he’d followed that vow religiously. Until…
Then you are a Mandalorian no more.
“She said I wasn’t a Mandalorian.”
“What?” Cara sat up a bit, enough that he could see her, her black hair cascading over her bare shoulders. “Bo-Katan being a piece of nerf dung again?”
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Disney you didn't warn us we gonna cry like bitches, OK?
#canyoujusthearmescreaming
YES
I didn't even notice until op said it!
When I was watching that one scene in Avengers it felt so gross, I was immediately disgusted and had such a strong urge to turn it off and forgetforgetforget and pretend I didn't see anything. I guess it worked cause op made me remember it, but if I was asked out of nowhere what the worst show off feminism have you ever seen in cinema I wouldn't be able to tell. The Trauma. Ugh.
Anyway, again, I didn't really see that as something exceptional. It felt so normal and natural to me.
Usually I do pick up on BAD performance and all this bullshit female characters just for check. They don't have a story. They feel empty and unnecessary. The only quality that is important for the story with them is their sex/gender. Or there is nothing important for the story at all.
The point is the Mandalorian did a great job. Its female characters never felt bad like that. That fight included. The performance was good as expected. Therefore it never clicked as something special in modern social media. WHILE IT CERTAINLY IS. It is special!
Because right off the bat I can only remember Hannibal was such quality female writing where the were just right. Tbc it also depends on shows writing and perfomance level in general, so there are some more, but imho they are written less great in general.
And the amount of good female writing is truly saddening yet the good news are it grows! With time there is and will be even more great stuff!!
Non-performative inclusion and “The Mandalorian”
This post contains minor spoilers. Proceed with caution.
In the season two finale of “The Mandalorian” there is a scene near the beginning of the episode in which a strike team (minus Mando himself) storms onto an Imperial ship, blasts stormtroopers, etc. It’s an extended action sequence. Two of the characters are helmeted.
I was well into the scene before it hit me that all four of the characters on this strike team were women.
The fact that there was this all-female action team wasn’t new. I’ve seen that before. What was new about it was that this was the first time I’d seen a team of women that didn’t feel performative.
Remember that scene in “Avengers: Endgame”, the “she’s not alone” scene where All The Lady Characters Assembled, and you could tell the filmmakers were getting some kind of weird boner of “looooook at how many Strong Female Characters we have, let’s put them all together and have them be Strong Female Characters at the same time” and it felt super gross? That was performative.
I’ve heard and used that term before but I’m not sure I really grokked what it meant until I saw what its absence looked like, in “The Mandalorian.”
It didn’t feel performative because each of those characters had been part of the narrative in their own time over the previous two seasons, with their own agencies and backstories. They were characters in the story as it needed to be told, they weren’t Strong Female Characters introduced for the purpose of being that (in a sexy way, of course). There was never a sense of ticking off the “kickass lady character” boxes. When Cara Dune is introduced, or Fennec Shand, or Bo-Katan, there was never that subtext of “Okay here is our Lady Character, isn’t she such a great Lady Character, look look we’re Doing the Thing you want us to do with having Womens in our Boy Stuff.”
No. It was, here’s a Rebel soldier. Here’s an assassin. Here’s a Mandalorian exile. Here’s a Jedi. Here’s a magistrate. They have functions to perform and stories to tell in this narrative. Those functions and stories happen while these characters are women, not because they are women.
And it’s so, so subtle, the difference. It’s hard to put your finger on how it’s usually done wrong until you see it done right. It’s not just the writing although that’s a big part of it. It’s in how they were filmed, framed, shot, costumed, and lit. It’s in how they were directed, how the camera treated them - i.e. no differently than the male characters. None of these women were sexified, either. Not that they weren’t being portrayed by attractive women, but that wasn’t remotely played up or displayed in how they were styled, costumed, and made up.
Unfortunately now that we’ve all seen how non-performative inclusion of women into a narrative can be done right, everything else is going to seem that much more insufferable.
these stripes mean something
rating: g (word count 762)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40832574
When the Mandalorian shows up in front of Cara's glossy new officer's desk, asking her to help him spring one Migs Mayfeld, traitor to democracy and accessory to murder, the first thing she thinks is: this man is not the same person who fought by my side on Sorgan. There’s something wrong with the rigid way he moves, with the tightness in his voice when he speaks.
“These stripes mean something,” she says, indicating the badge on her chest.
It’s a no, but not a hard one. More of a please don’t ask me that. She doesn’t want to choose between Mando and her last chance of going straight. (She doesn’t know if she has the strength to choose going straight.)
“They have the kid.”
Cara’s eyes narrow. Oh no, they don’t.
The whole way to Morak, Cara watches the Mandalorian out of the corner of her eye.
There used to be a tenderness to him, an awkward softness that poked out between the cracks of his armor. She saw it first on Sorgan, in the way he watched his son play with the children in the krill ponds. Heard it in the thank you's he clumsily handed the young widow like he wasn’t sure what to do with them.
It's gone now.
There’s an aura of deadliness concentrated around him that wasn’t there before. It’s like he’s a blaster aimed to kill and he’s only waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. His voice is a gaping void. Sure, Mando has always been quiet, but now… it’s like he’s catatonic. Like he only exists when he needs to for the mission.
Cara has never feared him. Not even on that fateful day on Sorgan when she looked up from her spotchka, saw a real live Mandalorian hunter, and thought for the first time in her life, I might be meeting my match. She tends to be more practical than terrified in those kinds of situations, but—
Not gonna lie, the rigid figure sitting across from her makes her a little uneasy. It’s a good thing they’re on the same side.
The old Mando called a truce and offered her soup. She’s not so sure this one would do the same.
Cara can’t believe he agreed to replace his beskar with stormtrooper armor. She can’t believe he suggested replacing his beskar with stormtrooper armor.
It’s kind of dumb, but all she can think is where did your face go? She knows, rationally, that the black T-visor and beskar zygomatic curves aren’t his real face, that helmets are removable and there’s got to be a head somewhere in there. But still. Where is his face.
“I’d say it looks good on you, but I’d be lying,” she says.
The Mandalorian looks at her.
Cara’s always been able to read the crease of a brow and the twitching of lips through a helmet’s tilt. She knows this man as well as she knows her own blaster. Knows the way he fights and the way he stands still, knows what he’s saying when he doesn’t say anything at all. They’ve had entire conversations without speaking a single word. But now—
Now, for the the first time since the day they met, she locks eyes with the Mandalorian and has no idea what’s going on inside his head.
(It’s the lack of doubt. It’s the way he faces her, head-on, like a challenge.)
It shouldn’t feel so jarring. It’s not like he’s done anything yet that Cara wouldn’t do if their places were swapped; the kid is everything to him, so there’s no justification for the strange, premonitory loneliness she feels welling up in her bones. It’s just a helmet.
(It has never been just a helmet.)
Cara will go to the other end of the galaxy and farther if her Mandalorian needs her to. It’s a silent promise she made a long time ago, sometime after a bag of credits and a second chance plunked onto the dirt by her feet. She owes everything she is now to this man, who met an outlaw and saw a former Rebel shocktrooper, who without saying a single word reminded her what it was to have a heart and a code and a people to protect. She’ll hold herself to her vow as long as she’s able, but something tells her the Mandalorian is headed somewhere she can’t follow.
These stripes on my chest mean something, she thinks. That beskar meant something. You were the one who taught me that.
I wonder if you remember.
[ID: Venn Diagram with one circle titled “Tried to kill Din at least once” and the other titled “Will babysit his child”. Under “Tried to kill him at least once” are pictures of Moff Gideon and Xi’an, while Frog Lady, Omera, and Peli are under “Will babysit his child”. The “both” category has the most people, with Mayfeld, Fennec, Boba Fett, Greef Karga, Cara, and Ahsoka. End ID.]
i love how literally everyone din meets is either a deadly enemy or a potential babysitter
and fifty percent of the time they’re both
Helmet - A Mandalorian Story
Author: mae-the-4th
Fandom: The Mandalorian/Star Wars
Timing: A few weeks after Season 1 of The Mandalorian
Warnings: none, just a bunch of fluff and a bit of angst
Author's Note: It's about time I wrote a new story! Felt like doing a Mandalorian one. I hope I do these characters justice. Please feel free to correct anything I may have gotten wrong. Enjoy!
xXxXxXx
The Razor Crest was quiet, the humming of the engines the only noise. The kid was asleep in his box, and Din could finally have a moment to himself.
His helmet stood proudly next to the bowl of soup on the table, silently judging the walls and ceiling of the ship. It's owner sat behind it, bare-headed, sipping soup and thinking over what the Armourer had said just those few weeks back.
She had told him that the Child was a foundling - specifically, his foundling. He would protect it, care for it, perhaps train it someday.
In other words, Din Djarin, fierce Mandalorian warrior, fearing throughout the galaxy, was a father.
Din was certainly familiar with the Mandalorian foundling program - he had been one himself, many years ago. Any child alone and without a family, the Mandalorians would take them in as one of their own, no questions asked.
This is the Way.
Din rubbed his temples and sighed. He had always been aware that he might be in charge of his own foundling one day - but not so suddenly or under such circumstances. Yet he couldn't find any regret or reluctance in him faced with looking after the kid. The womp rat was useful in a tough spot - the fact that Din was sitting in his ship, alive, was proof of that fact. And, yes, the kid was cute. Din could admit he had a soft spot for the green creature, anyone could see that. In a recent hologram transmission with Cara, she had pointed out that exact fact herself.
The almost daily transmissions with Nevarro was a distraction both occupants of the Razor Crest looked forward to. Greef Karga would update Din on the latest events - constantly praising Cara on her job as his enforcer, even though she protested that she was just doing her job. Her modesty was definitely something Din liked about her. Usually, Din and Cara would take up the most time during the transmission, chatting long into the night about recent events, the kid, and past battles. Occasionally, when topics were particularly hard, they would both break out a bottle of spotchka. On one of those nights, Cara had admitted to Din that it was nice to talk about past battles with him. That it brought some sort of closure for her, in a way. After almost no hesitation, Din agreed. He told her that he trusted her, both with his life, and with his past. He told her things that he'd never told anyone before.
He told her about his family. He told her about his life before he put on his helmet.
And Cara, recognising his trust in her, replied with stories of her life on Alderaan. Of her dream to be a healer before she became a killer.
Any time these stories came out into the open, Din slept easy that night, knowing her could trust his comrade, his best friend.
Din sighed again, rubbing the stubble on his chin. It was late, or at least the clock that showed Nevarro time told him it was. Din quickly finished his soup, reaching for his helmet-
And froze. And stared.
The kid stared back.
Din's eyes flickered down to his helmet, the visor accusing. His eye jerked back to the kid, breath hitching. Wide brown eyes flitted over Din's features and his wrinkled forehead furrowed.
An eternity later, Din finally found a way to work his mouth.
"Kid," he croaked. "Um-"
His voice seemed to have jostled the kid from his scrutiny, because the child took a step forward, a big grin on his face and holding out hands to be picked up. Not knowing what to do, Din just stared at him - until he thunked his helmet down onto the table and flopped onto his chair, his head in his hands. Fingers gripped dark hair and Din realised his hands were shaking. The kid toddled over and grabbed his leg.
"Da?"
Din barely heard him. All he could think about was how he had broken his oath - how he betrayed the last few remaining members of his Creed. He had let a living creature see his bare face.
"Da?"
His whole life was now a lie. Every ounce of respect he had worked for was now gone. He could never place his helmet back onto his head. He could never call himself a Mandalorian again.
"Da!"
Din peered through his fingers down at the kid. Tiny arms clung to his leg and he stared up at the man. The grin that was there before had vanished, confusion and worry replacing it. Din slowly reached down and picked the kid up.
"Don't worry about me kid. You shouldn't have to worry. That's my job as a father."
Father.
He was the kid's father.
Din choked back a sudden laugh, a disbelieving smile adorning his face. The kid cocked his head.
"I'm your dad! We're literally family! No rules about helmets there." The kid gurgled. "That means I can put it back on, kid. That means I can still be me." Din looked over at his discarded helmet. Unconsciously he tightened his grip on his kid, hugging him to his chest. The little womp rat smooshed his face into his shoulder in reply, a giggle escaping him. Leaning back and reaching up, Din's kid ran a three-fingered hand over his father's face, feeling the stubble on his chin. His hand moved upwards to the mustache - and pulled.
"Ow!" Din laughed. "That hurts, kid. But honestly, I don't mind much. It's about time you saw the real me."
xXxXxXx
FIN
I hope that if they end up recasting someone for season 3 they get an actress that’s buffer then gina carano if only so when Din and Cara meet up again he’ll just be like
“You seem a little buffer”
and that’s it, no other acknowledgement, just thinks her muscles are larger.
Din sabotages his ruling as Mand’alor but it keeps back firing at him
So let’s say Bo-Katan manages to drag Din’s ass into taking on the title of Mand’alor after many escape attempts and threats. She sends Cara, Boba Fett, Fennec, anyone to drag his stubborn ass back.
None of them manage to catch him. So as last resort, Bo-Katan gets the Armorer and it takes one parental disapproving look from her and Din comes back like a resigned puppy with his tail between his legs. (Paz is laughing his ass off in the background).
Many mandalorians come to challenge him for the dark saber, and with a long suffering sigh, Din accepts. Unfortunately for him, he ends up winning.
The challengers are like: “omg, this Mand’alor is so strong, we stan 😍” even after they got their asses handed by Din.
Word spreads about the many achievement Din accomplished to the point people basically make poetry about him, and Din hates it so much that to blow off some steam he takes on more bounty jobs and ditches his responsibilities. Royalty isn’t meant to take on jobs such as bounty hunting, right? What a great opportunity to stain his image.
Din takes a bounty. Turns out, it involved some imps, and of course Din does the job, and of course mandalorians hear about it and are like “omg, our Mand’alor is so cool he took down imps on his own, we stan 😍😍”
His next move is to ditch important plans and meetings with important people to later hide at Luke’s jedi academy to be with his son. Luke doesn’t mind. He gets a call from Leia demanding to speak with Mando, but Luke, not really involved with politics so he doesn’t realize that Mando is a big deal right now, tells her he’s spending time with his son. After that, word spreads about the Mand’alor postponing his duties to take care of his foundling. The mandalorians, having a sacred creed about foundlings, are like “omg, our Mand’alor is such a dilf, we stan 😍😍😍”
Din hides at Boba’s palace. Boba won’t treat him differently, plus he gives goods drinks.
But of course, mandalorians find out and “Omg our Mand’alor is so cool he hangs out with criminals and does hot mandalorian shit 😍😍😍😍😍”
The people who’ve meet Din during his bounty hunting days begin to make stories about him.
“Mando is flawless.”
“I heard his beskar armour’s insured for 10000 credits.”
“I heard he does modelling commercials…in Nevarro.”
“One time he meet Luke Skywalker in an imperial cruiser and he ( THE Luke Skywalker ) told him he was pretty.”
“One time he punched me in the face…it was awesome.”
Din is SO pissed, because no matter what he does, people APPROVE of him. He could literally shot a random dude for no reason and everyone would worship him. He could kick someone’s ass for no reason, and the person would thank Din and ask his hand in marriage because what a fcking priviledge to be punched by the Mand’alor. He could literally start a war and the mandalorians would follow him which is really concerning and he doesn’t like the thought of having that much power. But the more he tries to avoid his responsibilities, the more people seem to like him.
So Din, reluctantly accepts his fate, and becomes a regular guest at Boba’s palace to get drunk twice a week and bitch about his life while the rest of the squad is in between pity him and laugh at him.