Your Friendly Neighborhood DinLuke Fic Rec Masterpost*
*Plus some bonus genfic at the end that's too good not to include
For all you dinluke homies out there wanting a breath of fresh air or just a nostalgic reminder of what made you fall in love with the ship in the first place, or a handy starter guide for anyone new to the fandom, here's a by-no-means-exhaustively-comprehensive but still nicely thicc rec list. This is the Way...to some bitchin' good fic.
Under a read more because this is ridiculously long, sorry not sorry.
SOME EPIC CLASSICS
Gravity Well by shirozora (rated T)
Over twenty years after Chancellor Palpatine's failed takeover of the Galactic Republic, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker-Naberrie is asked to join a diplomatic mission to Mandalore to help negotiate a trade agreement with the new Mand'alor. While he is assumed to join as an observer and mediator in these talks, his real mission is to investigate rumors that the Mand'alor's child is powerful in the Force and offer a future for the child within the Jedi Order. The already difficult task compounds when he keeps failing to gain an audience with the mysterious Mand'alor, but distraction comes in the form of a strange, faceless Mandalorian palace guard he keeps encountering at night, someone he keeps gravitating towards despite himself.
The Dangerous Dreams series by shirozora (rated T)
The future of Mandalore is in his hands, no matter what Din Djarin actually wants. While picking up jobs to pay off a new gunship, he runs into the Jedi again and learns that he too holds the future of his kind in his. In the shadow of a fallen empire and the light of a nascent republic, they begin to rebuild what was lost-- their peoples, their cultures, their histories, and each other. "To want something for yourself, that is a dangerous dream."
Currently consisting of The Storm, The Suns, Between Planets, and The Stars.
oh the things we left behind by furiosophie (rated M)
After he commits every single weapon in the hold to memory, Din finds himself cataloging more and more things about Skywalker instead, small observations that carve out a space in his mind unbidden. --- As much as Din likes to tell himself that he’s just been taking a well-deserved break, the truth is that for the six months following their daring rescue he’s been nothing but truly and utterly lost. That is until Luke Skywalker gives him a ship and hires him to help figure out what the hell the Empire needed the Child’s blood for. As they drift through the empty void of hyperspace, they slowly find unexpected companions in each other and realize their respective paths might not be as set as they once thought.
Also part of a series, oh the things that shine bright
The Wanderer and the Seer by aiden_ng (rated T)
Din Djarin is temporarily relieved of a single dad's responsibilities, only to be saddled with the much greater responsibilities of Mand'alor. Temporarily. Hopefully. This is not the story of a great man becoming king; it's the story of some dude finding his place in the galaxy, freedom, and personal happiness through having some goddamn decency and good manners. Also the power of love, or whatever.
The Father the Son and the Exile by Sushiburrito (rated M)
Luke Skywalker has vanished. Declared a missing person two years after the Battle for Endor, the unofficial bounty for Skywalker has become the largest ever recorded. Hundreds of hunters search the galaxy for his whereabouts; yet despite this, no one has managed to find Skywalker. No one, except a small Force sensitive child and his Mandalorian father. Or an alternate universe tale where Force visions warn Luke about Ben Solo several decades earlier but the consequences still force him to go on the run, this time directly into the path of Din Djarin.
The Broken Threads series by Sadie1902 (rated G and T)
The battle is over, the rebels have won. But Luke Skywalker is still reeling from his ordeal in the Emperor's throne room, both physically and emotionally. Wracked with pain and fatigue, he tries to recuperate on Endor with a few days of much-needed rest. But before he even has a chance to relax, he's captured by an enterprising bounty hunter in Mandalorian armor. Din Djarin can't believe his luck. It's the score of his life, the bounty they all said was impossible. The payout will set his Tribe up well... so long as they don't know exactly who he made a deal with. But the job turns out to be more than Din bargained for when his bounty collapses from mysterious injuries, and he must face the truth of the horrors the Empire has wrought. Now, on the run from half the galaxy, it's a race against time as Din helps Luke find a cure for the disease that's slowly breaking the hero apart. There's only one problem... they need a Jedi. And Luke is the last of his kind. Or is he?
Currently consisting of Broken Threads, Sister, Game Night on Bogano, Chasing the Dawn and The Starbird
No Glory in the West by leorizanzel (rated T)
Texas, 1870 - Din Djarin, a bounty hunter with a mysterious past and the quickest draw this side of the Mississippi, finds a new gig escorting a strange young man to his destination. Inspired by Casual Cowboy Friday and my love for the American West as a whole.
Also part of a series, The Lights of All The Western Stars, including Drive Me, Crazy (rated E)
The Once and Future King by leorizanzel (rated T)
“Din Djarin, the Once and Future King,” Luke declared, his voice somehow ringing through Din’s head rather than through his ears. It sounded as though another voice spoke over Luke’s own. This man was Luke Skywalker, and yet, was not. “You wield the Darksaber, won in honorable combat, as Kings of Mandalore before you. The Force commands you to seek the Child and save it from its doom, and in doing so, will save the galaxy and reunite your people under your banner. Do you accept your quest?” The Force delivers a dire prophecy to Din Djarin, demanding he take his rightful place as the king of his people. With the help of the last Jedi, he must gather his closest allies and prevent the worst to come.
Last of the Old Gods by angiebodies (rated E)
A chance meeting puts Luke Skywalker and Din Djarin back on the same path. As Din comes to terms with his obligations to Mandalore, Luke begins to question his own commitment to the Jedi Order. Together they learn that the truths of their creeds are mutable, but their faith in each other is absolute.
I Want a Moment to be Real by Purplesauris (rated E)
He wakes up cold, alone, and without a single memory to base himself off of besides his first name. Who is he, and why was he left for dead in an abandoned facility?
SOME SWEET SQUISHY SHIZ
The Vanishing Breed series by annathaema [moony] (rated T, M, and E)
The first thing Din noticed was the fire in the hearth. Near the hearth was a small, handmade crib, and from the crib came an excited cry. It spread through Din's chest like a bloodstain, perhaps it had in fact pierced his heart. He knew that little voice. “Hey, you,” said Din softly. He dropped to his knees as the Kid scrambled out of the crib and scampered to him, crawling into his lap and burbling happily. “That’s the most excited I’ve seen him in months,” said Skywalker. Din hadn’t even noticed him sitting across the room at a rough-hewn wooden table, nursing a cup of something. He wore the same carefully neutral expression he'd had on Gideon's ship, but his clothes were now desert-colored and hung loose around Skywalker's wiry frame. His hair was in disarray and it made him look much younger than he'd seemed on the ship; there, he'd seemed world-weary and ancient. Now, Din felt an insane need to protect. Skywalker raised his cup at Din in greeting, a lopsided smile on his face. “He’s missed you," he said. “Feeling’s mutual,” said Din gruffly. ___ The Mandalorian becomes Din Djarin. Din Djarin becomes. (Luke helps.)
Currently consisting of His Beacon, His Harbor, The Hidden Riches of Secret Places, and Interlude: Among All the Stones in the Sky
you're going to have to relocate the covert by aiden_ng (rated T)
‘This is the Way,’ Din says aloud to the empty cavern. He feels—or he seems to hear—his kin and his vanished forebears echoing the words back to him, ghosts in the walls around him, all the dead and the scattered and the not-forgotten. He walks with them, these watchful invisible companions, on the way of the Mandalore.
Sweater Weather by shirozora (rated T)
For two months, Din Djarin has been delivering the same order from the same restaurant to the same address every several days. The customer is a newcomer to Nevarro, a PhD student who seems out of place in the city but has become part of Din's everyday life. Then Luke changes their routine with a small gift and the uneventful, mundane life Din made for himself and his adopted son Grogu starts to unravel.
but home was a dream by redyucca (rated T)
Din takes off his helmet and learns how to put it back on. Which is, like, a metaphor.
Also part of a series, including keep the noiseless tenor of my way
And this, your beating heart by sluttysuperheroes (rated G)
After winning the Darksaber from Moff Gideon, Din accepts his role as the new leader of Mandalore and returns to the ancestral home of his people. While he grapples with the responsibilities that come with his new title, he begins to build a friendship with Grogu's new Jedi master -- and begins to question his identity, his Creed, and his place in the galaxy.
Dralshy'a Drabbles by HeadOn_HelmetOff (rated T)
dralshy'a: stronger, brighter Sometimes a Mandalorian bounty hunter just wants to be a side character while figuring out how to parent a tiny sorcerous gremlin, sometimes a bitch just wants to see him squished up against a tenderly chaotic Jedi.
I have made this place around you by HeadOn_HelmetOff (rated T)
“Do you know who you are, Din Djarin?” Survivor of Aq Vetina. Mandalorian. Bounty hunter. Apostate. Father. Mand’alor. “...No,” he uttered. Luke nodded sagely. “Then that’s what we’ll focus on first.”
Luminous Beings by Gluten_Full (rated T)
On their first night together, truly together without any beskar or Jedi robes between them, Din had promised that he would go to the far edges of the galaxy for Luke. They were old now, weather-worn and tired. The cold of Ahch-To hand long since sunk into their bones, making them achy before their time. When Luke senses a rising darkness in his padawan, he relocates his school to a more remote and ancient place in pursuit of balance.
That We Still Feel by actualbabe (rated G)
Luke gets hurt. Din takes care of him. It is incredibly simple and yet unfathomably intimate, and Luke realizes that he has never felt anything like this.
Restorative Work by draculard (rated G)
In which Luke plays therapist, Din faces his past, and Grogu learns that it's not always scary to face your traumatic memories when you have a friend there to help you get through. Based on that comic by ngrogu.
Five Days on Yavin by rinwins (rated G)
"He’d seen so many different versions of Luke by now -- implacable knight, patient teacher, fearless pilot, loyal friend; the Jedi master who could move a starfighter with his mind and the Tatooine farm boy who laughed at his own ridiculous jokes. And they were each, somehow, still the true Luke, none of them contradictory-- all except this version, the exhausted young man asleep in the bed. It didn’t suit him, the sense of having been through entirely too much." Luke crashes his ship, and his recovery has complications Din doesn't really understand.
A different kind of blood by HeadOn_HelmetOff (rated T)
A slight twist on events in Ch. 5 of The Book of Boba Fett: when Grogu is afflicted with visions of his father injured on Glavis, he and Luke make a decision that will greatly influence Din Djarin's journey toward redemption and reconciliation with the survivors of his covert.
HURTS SO GOOD (but not too much)
The By Fortune Or Its Re!verse series by CatalpaWaltz (rated E)
Luke imagines explaining this to him. The response he gets, when he spins the scene out to its inevitable conclusion, is not promising. The Mandalorian will tip his head downward, or cock it to one side, and settle deeper into an implacable stance. "Am I supposed to be flattered? To be some kind of experiment for you?" Or: Luke, struggling for insight into Jedi teachings on the renunciation of possessive love, discovers a possible solution in soft-domming the hell out of his boyfriend.
Currently consisting of By Fortune Or Its Reverse, So I Can Wait Behind, and The First Hour of the World
Thaw by spqr (rated T)
That’s what hope does to you, Luke remembers now. It lingers at the back of your mind, whispering maybe, maybe, so that knowing a plan is stupid isn’t enough to keep you from trying it.
down to a sunless sea by spqr (rated M)
Din's first scuba dive was when he was six, which is illegal in every country on earth that has laws about that sort of thing.
Christ in Repose by spqr (rated T)
More on this story as it develops. Subscribe to HNN’s JEDI WATCH newsletter for instant updates on Jedi sightings throughout the galaxy.
La douleur exquise by HeadOn_HelmetOff (rated T)
Pain is a fine razor’s edge—too much robs your focus and strength, but a lack imparts no discipline or mettle. Pain can be as useful a teacher as it is a dreadful enemy. You’ll dodge faster from the next knife blade and blaster shot to avoid it. It can brand your memory like a bruise to press upon, invoking the raw resolve to finish a job or enact vengeance. Above all, it’s another fact of life he’s had to largely deal with alone. Sometimes his brethren in the covert treated him when he came limping home, moreso in earlier years. But this is usually as insular a practice as the rest of his rituals. Even after bonding with the kid and seeing his astonishing works, it’s not something he considers changing. His love for his son expects nothing from him; he’s not going to exploit Grogu’s abilities for his own benefit, not when he’s perfectly capable of handling himself. Somehow Din forgot to factor Luke into this equation.
SOME EXTRA FUN TIMES
The In Which Chaos Is The Primary Goal of Our Beloved Main Characters series by Oystering (rated G and T)
u/throwRAgroundrunner posted: AITA for sending my step-son to his father with my droid? Luke Skywalker is facing a moral dilemma after sending Grogu back to his father... so he turns to the holonet for help. (This is pure crack)
Currently consisting of Only the Force Can Judge Me, The Galactic Court of Moral Judgment, and What a Man(do) Gotta Do?
Mornings of Gold, Valentine Evenings by leorizanzel (rated T)
Figure skating champion Luke Skywalker meets Team USA Hockey Captain Din Djarin at the Winter Olympics, and it all goes downhill from there in the best way possible.
OR
He was a figure skater, he was a hockey player - can I make it any more obvious?
JUST SOME GOOD, GOOD SHIT
We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by celinamarniss (rated G)
Din, searching for a Jedi to train Grogu, finds two. (Five times Din crossed paths with Luke and Mara and one time he stayed for good.)
Bonus: cover art by lil old me. :D ;)
unstoppable force, immovable fathers by godbinder (rated E)
“I just need a refuel,” Luke tells the droids, carefully throwing his legs over the edge of the cockpit to slide to the ground. Grogu coos softly, his hands opening and closing his three fingers. “Not a problem, we’ll have you—ready to go...” She trails off when she gets a look at the child, who begins babbling. The Force moves around her in happiness then surprise, shock, then something akin to anger sparking faster than a thermal detonator. Before he can open his mouth, in a move that would have left Han impressed, she has a blaster in hand and shot him in the face.
buy a big house where we both could live by lacecat (rated M)
Din trails behind them and reminds himself this is temporary. He’ll make sure they get to the temple safe, and once he’s sure that Luke agrees to continue training Grogu, he’ll leave them. Grogu reaches up with his hand to tug at the edge of Luke’s shirt, and Din’s fingers flex at his sides. This is the way, he tells himself.
Nurse & Protect by BrownEyesBrightEyes (rated T)
Dr. Luke Skywalker is a pediatric resident struggling through his intern year, when a new child abuse patient case turns his life upside down. Now, along with his intern responsibilities, he has to deal with his growing attachment to the charming child, Grogu, and his assigned Mandalorian guardian, Din Djarin.
parry, parry, strike by AlchemyAlice (rated T)
“Oh? What are you, their king?” the Senator says sarcastically, and then freezes at the same time Din does. “...No,” Din says. He does not sound convincing.
BONUS NON-DINLUKE GENFIC SERIES THAT DESERVES A HECKING SHOUTOUT FOR BEING THAT AWESOME
The Mand'alor and the Jedi series by theunacknowledged (rated G and T)
A run-in on an Imperial ship between Mandalorians and New Republic pilots ends in violence and stalemate. Tensions are now heightened as several New Republic senators extend negotiations to the mysterious rule of Mandalore, a reformed planet isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Mand'alor Din Djarin and Duchess Bo-Katan Kryze begin defensive discussions with the Galactic Senate, opposed to becoming involved in any outside government after so recently reclaiming their home planet. As they aim to keep Din's identity confidential, the Mandalorians hunt the rest of the Empire in the Outer Rim and attempt to avoid the New Republic's domineering presence. But Senator Leia Organa isn't taking no for an answer with peace on the line. (Oh, and of course, the clan of two reunites.)
Seriously, can't rec this entire series enough, you're welcome. Currently consisting of Until Our Paths Cross, Mando'ad Draar Digu (A Mandalorian Never Forgets), Found, and Legends of the Outer Rim.
