The Mandalorian: Cara Dune Explained | Who The Character Is & Season 2

This episode we’ll be going to a galaxy far far away to talk about one of the Mandalorian’s most fascinating characters, Cara Dune. Throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the character including her back story and the best fan theory on what could be going on with her.

There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you haven’t watched the first four episode of The Mandalorian and don’t want to know what happens then Macklunkey…that means…this is the end of you in Star Wars…nevermind.

With that out the way, I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our break down of Cara Dune.

Cara Dune Explained

Ok so Mando and Baby Yoda come across Cara Dune on the planet of Sorgan. Mando notices her giving him those ‘come to the dark side eyes’ and he decides to follow her using Batman’s detective vision to track her down. Cara get’s the drop on him and shows that she’s more than a formidable match for the character. This is a guy who’s taken blaster bolts to the head but one punch from Cara knocks him down faster than The Emporer’s approval rating after Order 66.

Thanks to the calming mood of Baby Yoda the two decide that talking it out is the best way to go and we learn that Cara was a Shock Trooper that part of The Rebel Alliance who was tasked with hunting down Imperial Warlords after the events of The Battle Of Endor.

Cara was so dedicated to the cause that she even got a Rebel Alliance symbol Tattooed on her face and though this is a little hard to make out in the episode, in behind the scenes shots and the toys for the series, this is clearly visible.

The Fall Of The Republic Explained

After the destruction of the Death Star 2: Bigger Is Better, the Galaxy became slightly destabilized and may have helped with the formation of The First Order which I’ll get into in just a bit.

When discussing her past Cara says the following:

“Saw most of my action mopping up after Endor. Mostly ex-Imperial warlords. They wanted it fast and quiet. They’d send us in on the drop ships. No support, just us. Then when the Imps were gone, the politics started. We were peacekeepers, protecting delegates, suppressing riots. Not what I signed up for.”

This let’s us know that after all the last remnants of the Empire, bar The Client it seems, were dead, that the Alliance decided to become more politically organized and this may have had negative consequences.

Before Disney wiped the slate clean with the expanded universe, The New Republic was constantly built up and torn down all the way through the canon up until the events of Star Wars: Dark Empire in which it settled and finally found stability. Juxtaposing this, we know from The Force Awakens and Sequel Trilogy that the New Republic wasn’t really that effective at all and this is why the Empire in some form or another has risen once more.

It’s likely that the best soldiers of The Rebellion ended up becoming bored with the way things were going and ended up leaving their positions. Thus lesser leaders were allowed to rule things their way and they didn’t quite have a grip on what was going on. We know that Luke ended up leaving and cutting himself off from the force and though this may have been massively down to Kylo Ren, I definitely think that the Republic could have also been instrumental in this decision.

Leia herself is also clearly working outside of the Republic and this may be due to the fact that she couldn’t have gotten on with the bureaucracy that was prevalent within it. With no more Jedi Knights and the leaders, soldiers and major parts of the army that made it what it is either ostracised or retired, it’s easy to see how people became disenfranchised and thus the First Order was able to rise once more.

We have seen throughout the Star Wars saga that The Government twists and changes are some of the big reason’s for its collapse and this is exemplified in the Prequel Trilogy in which it falls apart and is taken over by The Sith Lord Darth Sideous due to how easily manipulated and corrupt it is.

Cara’s Retirement

Either way Cara saw this coming and decided to dive out of the conflict to Sorgan, though she still clearly believes that the Empire may still be out for her so she keeps an eye out for Bounty Hunters at all times.

I found a lot of similarities between Cara’s position and the real world Nazi Hunters that existed after the Second World War. There was a lot of forces, namely Jewish ones that made it their mission to track down surviving members of The Reich and though Magneto kinda played up this role in X-Men First Class, there’s actually a lot of interesting aspects parts of our own history that you should definitely check out if you want to see some similarities between Cara and real-world figures.

Anyway after Divulging most of her past to The Mandalorian, she insists that they have to leave the planet as she found it first but it’s not long until they are back on each other’s paths when Mando hires her to help with the rescue of a Fishing Village on the planet. This shows that though Cara is out of combat when it comes to fighting the Empire, that she still operates as a Mercenary from time to time.

Cara Vs The AT-ST

When scouting outside of the village, Cara and Mando discover the huge track prints of an AT-ST and they later return to the village, training the population to be ready for their counter-attack.

After digging a trench, she and Mando snuck into the Raider’s base, destroying their favorite tent and leading the AT-ST back to the village which they then destroyed. Cara was pretty much the MVP of the battle, rushing the huge, lurking machine and using herself as bait to draw it out so that Mando could destroy it with a detonator.

This forces the remaining Klantoonian Raiders to flee and the villagers settle, going back to their peaceful way of life. Dune suggested that Mando stay in the village and live out a peaceful life but he states that the attack will draw a lot of attention, though he decides to leave Baby Yoda there in order for it to have a normal childhood.

However, on the outskirts of the settlement, Dune discovers a Bounty Hunter which she kills before it can assassinate Baby Yoda…we must protect Baby Yoda at all costs. This lets us know that Bounty Hunters will constantly be coming for the two characters no matter what and this kinda leads us into our fan theory on what could be happening down the line with Cara.

The Mandalorian Season Predictions

Ok so we now know that no matter where Mando and Baby Yoda hide, they will never be safe. It doesn’t matter if they’re on the Metropolis of Coruscant or a backwater planet like Sorgan, the hunters will keep coming for Baby Yoda like a Grandma constantly visiting the toy section in the run-up to Christmas hoping that Disney has finally made the one thing that could make or break their Grandchild’s holiday this year.

This pretty much means that no matter what, Mando and Yoda are gonna have to tackle the problem head on and take the fight back to the Empire.

Personally I think throughout the next couple of episodes that Mando will be building a network of Mercenaries that he will eventually use to storm The Client and those that have a bounty out on his head.

The synopsis for Episode Five reads: ‘The Mandalorian helps a rookie bounty hunter who is in over his head‘ and this to me definitely adds a lot of weight to the fact that Mando is going to be getting contacts together from the people he comes across. By the time he’s got enough for a Whatsapp group I can see him storming the Headquarters of The Client and The Guild in order to stop them once and for all.

We know that the Mandalorian’s are team Baby Yoda and that Cara definitely is too and though she may have been trying to avoid as many fights as possible due to her retirement, I can see just the mention of an Ex-Imperial Warlord such as The Client being enough to draw her out.

We know that the lack of targets like this was a big reason for her retirement so getting rid of one more will definitely be enough to entice her in my opinion. Mando will likely need as much help as he can get too as we know that there are lots of Bounty Hunters after him and Baby Yoda, including IG-11 who may be a little angry that Mando shot it in the head at the end of the first episode.

If this isn’t the case then I can definitely see it being the aesthetic for the show going forward.

The Mandalorian Season 2 Confirmed

When promoting his film, Knives Out, Rian Johnson accidentally let it slip that he had seen Baby Yoda on set a couple of weeks prior and though we’re all jealous of him getting to meet the little guy face to face, it also highlights that a Second Season is currently in development. The Mandalorian would have finished filming months and months ago, so the fact that he came face to face with it very recently does cement that things are going ahead with it’s next installment.

I guess we will see what happens but you can definitely count on Mando and Cara’s paths crossing again, even the two characters believe that so I guess we will see but that’s my theory. I have spoken.