Cara Dune- Why She's the Perfect 'Strong Female Character'

Yeah, all the geeking out about the Mandalorian might be getting a little old, but hear me out. I am not really a Star Wars person(yeah, sacrifice me at the temple of Darth Vader), I LOVE the Mandalorian.

Does it have its problems? Yeah. But so do most other stories. I'm not claiming it's perfect. I'm not even claiming that Cara Dune, despite the title of this post, is really perfect. But through her, the writers of this show have accomplished something that has been managed very few times before it.

They wrote a really good strong female character.

Now, the Strong Female Character™ thing is a piece of work that should really be saved for another post, but I do think that the whole thing is a little overblown. I think that everyone's putting undue pressure on writers to create female characters as tropes, and really poor tropes at that, rather than just people. And because of this pressure, the writers are giving the audience really weak girl characters because they think that's what they want. But every so often, someone writes a character that really blows my mind.

And one of them is Cara Dune.

Lemme unpack what I mean. What makes Cara Dune such an exceptional character?

1. She breaks the 'strong female character' mold.

In a way, this one point embodies this whole post. Cara Dune is nothing like a lot of these 'strong' girl characters roaming around with swords and rock-hard hearts. These days, it seems that a 'strong female character' is a girl character who has to be tough like a man, has no feelings, bullies every other character in the narrative, and has a dark side that nobody knows about because obviously no one's ever thought of that one before.

Cara Dune is tough and has weapons, yes, but! But! she is an entity unto herself. She doesn't hide behind her strength. She doesn't feel like she needs to prove herself to anyone. She's independent in a way that seems natural, not in a way that screams that she's trying to show off her independence to the world. I think that's the great beauty of her character. She doesn't appear to be showing off for anyone's benefit, she's just living.

2. She's super chill.

Similar to what I said above, she doesn't appear to be trying to prove herself to anyone. She doesn't have to. To me, she seems like a person who has gone through the 'I have to prove myself' stage and has come out the other side better for it. She knows who she is, what she's good at, and what she wants. She just wants to find a nice life somewhere and enjoy living, while minding her own business. I respect that. She doesn't have to go looking for destiny or worth or anything. She's so chill.

3. She doesn't have an attitude.

THIS IS THE THING I HATE THE MOST ABOUT THE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER TROPE.

All of the 'strong' female characters are fighting for attention. They're mean. They put the male characters down and make them feel less-than. They yell at everyone and wave their weapons in people's faces. See, I'm strong, I'm strong, I'm stronger than you, I'm better than you, breaking you down is the sacrifice I have to make to win. 

Why does she have to win? Why does she have to be the best in order to succeed at all? I think this thing of making other people small in order to make yourself great is childish and serious bullying. You don't have to build your name on the ruins of everyone else's.

Cara, as I said doesn't get angry without reason, doesn't look around for a reason to take offense, and likes just about everyone. She likes people. She doesn't have to act like everyone's against her.

The baby Yoda has adopted her as its own

4. She and Mando are platonic in a way that is effortless and lovable.

Let's have a round of applause for platonic relationships!! There are people, as there always will be when people are just friends, who will ship, but I take Cara and Mando as a beautiful platonic pairing. They are friend soulmates, if you will. They got along from day one and have a no-pressure friendship. They get one another. And I love it.

My homieeeeeeeeeees

5. Her writing is just so effortless in general.

I think the effortlessness is what made Cara stand out to me. It never felt to me like the writers were trying too hard or overextending themselves to make her 'likable' and 'strong' and all that crap that everyone strives so hard to achieve. They just wrote a character, and she's great! Say what you will about her, but to me, she is the perfect standard for what a tough girl character should be(if you feel like you need a tough girl character at all!).

Obviously everyone loves the Mandalorian, so let's gush about it! Leave your baby Yoda memes and subtle screeching in the comments below, and I will screech with you. ;)