Carasynthia Dune

Carasynthia Dune, a human woman, was native to Alderaan, a planet located in the Core Worlds of the galaxy. In 0 BBY, while Dune was away, the Galactic Empire used the DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station to obliterate the entire planet, an event quickly known as "The Disaster" among Alderaanians living off-world. This tragedy eliminated everyone she knew and loved.

She became a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, serving as a shock trooper commando throughout the Galactic Civil War. Most of her combat experience occurred after the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, which resulted in the death of Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine and fragmented the Empire into numerous warring factions led by different warlords. Dune dedicated her time to hunting down these former Imperial officials who had become warlords, until they were seemingly all defeated. As the Alliance became more politically structured and evolved into the New Republic, its focus shifted to peacekeeping duties like escorting delegates and suppressing riots. This was not what Dune had enlisted for. Consequently, she left the Alliance and became a mercenary, leaving her military past behind.

Around 9 ABY, during the [New Republic Era](/article/new_republic_era], Cara Dune ended up on the remote world of Sorgan, which she considered her early retirement. She eventually crossed paths with Din Djarin, a Mandalorian bounty hunter affiliated with the Bounty Hunters' Guild. They had a brief altercation after she mistakenly believed he was there to collect a bounty on her. Their fight ended in a draw when they both pointed their blasters at each other and noticed the Mandalorian's child, an infant named Grogu, watching them. The Mandalorian then invited her for soup. Dune explained her identity to Djarin and why she had attacked him, assuming he had a tracking fob on her. She then told him to leave Sorgan, as she had arrived there first.

When Djarin decided to assist a tribe in defending its village from Klatooinian raiders, he gave Dune the credits that the farmers had paid earlier. Dune went with the bounty hunter to the village. Later, they investigated the source of the attacks and discovered the footprints of an AT-ST, a vehicle that neither of them could defeat. This led them to unsuccessfully try to convince the villagers to leave. Dune pointed out the lack of available fighters, but after being convinced that the farmers would stay and defend their village, they trained the villagers to fight off the invaders. She explained that the pond needed to be deeper to trap the AT-ST and trained several villagers in close-quarters combat. After training, Dune and Djarin went to the raiders' encampment to provoke them.

After incapacitating the guards, they infiltrated their tent, drawing the attention of the other Klatooinians. The two fought them as they entered the tent and quickly escaped after Djarin detonated a device he had placed. After alerting the AT-ST, they ran towards the village while dodging its attacks. Back at the village, Dune, Djarin, and the farmers fought off the invaders. Dune noticed that the AT-ST didn't fall into their trap and asked for Djarin's pulse rifle to bait the walker. She stepped into the pond and fired at the walker, luring it into the trap and allowing the Mandalorian to destroy it with a detonator. The village's defense was successful, forcing the remaining raiders to flee.

Dune and Djarin stayed at the village for a few weeks. She asked why the Mandalorian never publicly removed his helmet, and he explained that he could never put it back on if it was removed in front of others. She suggested he settle in the village with fellow farmer Omera, but he said that the previous attack would attract too much attention and that he would leave Grogu at the village and move on to keep him safe. While Djarin spoke with Omera, Dune patrolled the outskirts of the village and killed a bounty hunter who tried to eliminate Grogu, concluding that the Bounty Hunters' Guild was still hunting him. Dune later parted ways with Djarin, hoping their paths would cross again.

Dune returned to her normal life, including participating in a wrestling contest in the Common House, until Djarin came back to ask her to help him defeat the Imperial remnant that had taken over Greef Karga's city. She agreed, eager for another chance to fight the Empire, and was given a drum blaster. While traveling to Nevarro, they realized they needed someone to watch Grogu. So, the group detoured to Arvala-7 to convince Kuiil to join them. He agreed, provided that IG-11 and a few blurrgs could travel along as well.

During their journey, Dune and Djarin engaged in arm wrestling. While they were wrestling, Grogu saw this and believed that Dune was trying to harm Djarin, so he began to Force choke Dune to protect Djarin, shocking Dune, Djarin, and Kuiil.

They met up with Karga at a meeting point on Nevarro to discuss how they would take out the remnant. That night, they were attacked by some native reptavians while sitting by a campfire, severely injuring Karga, but Grogu healed him. The next day, as they approached the city, Karga killed the remaining two bounty hunters who were with them, explaining that he had changed his mind after what happened the previous night. They then devised a new plan: trick the remnant into believing that Cara had captured Djarin and Grogu, then kill "the Client" and eliminate the remnant.

They nearly convinced the remnant, but Moff Gideon saw through their deception and shot down the Client and some stormtroopers. Djarin attempted to contact Kuiil, who was taking Grogu back to the ship, but scout troopers overheard and headed toward Kuiil. They eventually caught up to Kuiil, killed him, and took Grogu back to Gideon.

Gideon surrounded the compound where Djarin, Dune, and Karga were holed up and set up an E-Web cannon. He gave them until sundown to surrender. When IG-11 killed the scout troopers and launched a daring attack on the stormtroopers surrounding the compound, Djarin asked Dune to cover him while he went into combat. Despite their initial success due to their surprise attack, IG-11, Djarin, Dune, and Karga were forced back into the compound. While IG-11 looked for an escape route, Dune tried to convince Djarin to remove his helmet because he was injured when the E-Web was shot by Gideon. He refused because he was not allowed to take off his helmet in the presence of another living creature. Gideon then sent in an Incinerator trooper to force the group to surrender, but Grogu killed him. Dune, carrying Grogu, escaped the compound through the sewers while IG-11 healed Djarin.

Dune, Karga, IG-11, and Djarin met up in the sewers and tried to find the covert. They discovered a pile of Mandalorian helmets and found that the Armorer was melting them down for Beskar. The group was directed to an underground lava channel that led to the lava flats of Nevarro. They found a lava barge jammed against the tunnel walls. Dune fixed the problem by repeatedly shooting at the bottom of the boat. As they got closer to the exit, Djarin saw a group of stormtroopers waiting for them. IG-11 then sacrificed himself to protect the others.

The group was then attacked by Moff Gideon, who was flying an Outland TIE fighter. Dune tried shooting at the fighter but was unsuccessful. Djarin defeated it by using a jetpack to get onto the fighter and planting bombs on it, causing it to crash. After these events, Karga offered Dune a position in the Bounty Hunters' Guild as his personal enforcer. When Karga offered Djarin the chance to rejoin the guild, he declined, saying he needed to find Grogu's species. Before he left, Dune advised Djarin to take care of the infant, though Karga then speculated that Grogu would end up taking care of the Mandalorian. Dune and Karga then watched their friend leave with Grogu, using his jetpack. As they left Nevarro on the Razor Crest, Karga and Dune walked back to the city. Unknown to her or her allies, Gideon had survived the crash.

Instead of letting Nevarro revert to the bounty guild's control, Dune and Karga worked to clean up the planet. She became the city's marshal to assist in this effort. She later participated in a skirmish on Nevarro after Djarin returned to repair the Razor Crest. During the operation, she, Karga, Djarin, and a Mythrol infiltrated and destroyed the last Imperial base on the planet but learned that Gideon had survived the first skirmish. After two New Republic pilots arrived to investigate, offered by captain Carson Teva, Dune decided to join the government and was given a position as a New Republic marshal and ranger of the New Republic.

After Grogu was kidnapped by Gideon's dark troopers, Djarin met with Dune on Nevarro, requesting that she use her status as a New Republic marshal to find information on a prisoner named Migs Mayfeld, who had recently worked with Djarin and betrayed him. After finding his file, Dune refused to help Djarin break him out of prison, stating that her new position meant she had to follow rules. However, after being told that Gideon had captured Grogu, Dune reacted with surprise. Dune decided to help Djarin and "pull some strings" to temporarily release Mayfeld from the shipyards.

Dune then traveled to the Karthon Chop Fields aboard Slave I and used her credentials to convince the security droids to release Mayfeld into her custody, offering the prisoner a reduction in his sentence if he helped them with their rescue. Mayfeld directed them to the remote forest planet of Morak, where an Imperial remnant was operating a rhydonium refinery. Overlooking this, the group formulated a plan where Mayfeld and Djarin would hijack one of the fuel transports and infiltrate the base disguised as drivers to retrieve the necessary intel, while Dune and Fennec Shand would provide sniper support and Boba Fett would extract them. Both women followed the transport and set up posts on a ridge overlooking the refinery, preparing to take out the anti-aircraft cannons so Fett could safely fly in. Mayfeld and Djarin successfully retrieved the coordinates for Gideon's light cruiser but were forced to fight their way out and climb up the exterior of the base to the roof, with Dune and Shand sniping any Imperials that appeared. Both women then watched as Slave I extracted the two, but Mayfeld chose to leave a parting gift and used an appropriated cycler rifle to detonate one of the rhydonium transports, causing a chain reaction of explosions that devastated the refinery. Dune and Shand, both impressive markswomen, were impressed by this. In light of his help, Dune and Djarin agreed to list Mayfeld as officially deceased so he wouldn't have to return to prison, giving him a second chance at life.

With the information in hand, the group attacked an Imperial shuttle carrying Doctor Penn Pershing, a scientist affiliated with Gideon's remnant, disabling and boarding it before storming the cockpit. The co-pilot took Pershing hostage, ignoring Djarin's demands to let him go and even murdering his fellow pilot when the man tried to negotiate. Dune then entered the cockpit and ordered the man to release the doctor, but the co-pilot refused, recognizing her as both a rebel dropper and a native of Alderaan, whose destruction he claimed to have witnessed aboard the Death Star. Dune remained calm at first, even taunting the co-pilot about which Death Star, since both were destroyed by the Alliance, but he responded by taunting her in turn about the billions killed when Alderaan was destroyed. Dune started to visibly break down but still offered the co-pilot one last chance to drop the blaster, only for him to continue taunting her by stating that "destroying [her] planet was a small price to pay to rid the galaxy of terrorism". This proved to be the final straw for Dune, and she shot him in the face, killing him instantly and lightly wounding Pershing, before leaving the cockpit to compose herself.

After briefly stopping to recruit additional help in the form of Mandalorians Bo-Katan Kryze and Koska Reeves, the group infiltrated and stormed Gideon's cruiser. While Dune, Shand, and the two Mandalorians went for the bridge and Gideon, Djarin would head to the detention bay and free Grogu, as well as jettison the cruiser's complement of dark troopers before they could be activated. During their fight through the cruiser, Dune's heavy blaster jammed, and she briefly used it as a club before hitting it against the bulkhead got it working again. Reaching the bridge, they slaughtered all the defending troopers and officers but found no trace of Gideon. Djarin soon joined them, bearing a trussed-up Gideon and the Darksaber, which Bo-Katan had wanted to retrieve from him but which belonged to Djarin per Mandalorian custom of defeating the wielder in combat. Dune wanted Gideon alive so he could face the New Republic Judiciary, but the point was complicated when the dark troopers reboarded the vessel and prepared to storm the bridge, with little hope of repelling them. A single T-65B X-wing starfighter then arrived, which did not raise Dune's spirits as she reckoned one fighter was not going to make much of a difference, only to watch in awe as a Jedi wielding a green lightsaber exited the fighter and proceeded to cut his way through each and every dark trooper on the ship. The arrival of the Jedi caused Gideon to panic and try to murder Grogu with a concealed blaster, then trying to kill himself when that failed, only for Dune to knock him unconscious with the butt of her blaster. She then watched as Djarin shared a helmetless goodbye with Grogu before letting him leave with the Jedi Luke Skywalker and his astromech droid, R2-D2.

After the capture of Moff Gideon, Carasynthia Dune turned him in, and he was sent to a New Republic War Tribunal. Subsequently, she left her position on Nevarro when Teva recruited her for the New Republic Special Forces. When Djarin visited that world again and assisted High Magistrate Greef Karga with pirates, Karga attempted to recruit Djarin to fill Dune's former position, but he declined.

Carasynthia Dune was a woman whose hair was black, partially braided, and reached her shoulders. Her eyes were brown, and her skin had a light complexion. Standing at 1.73 meters, she possessed a noticeably muscular physique. A tattoo depicting the Rebel starbird beneath her left eye served as a mark, identifying her as a survivor of Alderaan; this marking was known as a "tear."

Dissatisfied with protecting delegates or quelling riots, actions she felt were outside the scope of her rebellion commitment, Dune departed from the New Republic. She moved away from her past of military discipline and began a new life as a mercenary. The Empire's destruction of her home planet fueled an intense hatred for Imperials, leading her to immediately accept a plan to assassinate the Client upon discovering his Imperial affiliation, a task she had previously declined. She also strongly resisted capture by Moff Gideon, fearing the punishments the Imperial remnant would inflict. When Karga offered her a position within the Bounty Hunters' Guild, she voiced concerns regarding her chain code, but Karga assured her these would be irrelevant if she became his enforcer.

Dune maintained tight control over her emotions and personal feelings, yet the loss of her homeworld remained a raw and painful memory. When Carson Teva questioned her on Nevarro about losing family there, Cara responded bitterly that she lost "everyone." Upon rejoining military service as a marshal for the New Republic, she initially hesitated to engage in any actions that might be considered an abuse of her position and authority, but she eventually relented to save Grogu and to have another opportunity to fight against the Empire.

As a seasoned warrior and former rebel shock trooper, Dune was an exceptional shot with a blaster and a formidable brawler. Highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, she managed to fight Din Djarin, a highly skilled fighter himself, to a draw during their initial confrontation. Later, in a Sorgan tavern, Dune overpowered a male Zabrak, forcing him to tap out of the Laser Tether connecting them. Despite her height, she possessed considerable strength, demonstrated by holding Djarin in an arm wrestling match, confidently asserting his inability to defeat her. During their first encounter, Dune delivered a single blow to his helmet that knocked him to the ground.

Carasynthia Dune made her debut in Chapter 4 of The Mandalorian, a Disney+ television series created by Jon Favreau in 2019, which premiered on November 29, 2019. Her complete name and backstory were revealed in Chapter 8, which was broadcast on December 27, 2019.

Gina Carano, a former MMA fighter, played the role. She initially believed she would be portraying a female Wookiee and was surprised that her face would be visible in the series. Carano performed her own stunts during filming. In one instance, her kick to a stunt performer was so forceful that director Bryce Dallas Howard thought it was a joke and that the performer was wearing a wire. Amy Sturdivant served as her stunt double.

On February 10, 2021, Lucasfilm announced that Carano would not be returning as Dune. Dialogue in "Chapter 17: The Apostate" indicated that the character had taken on a new position.