Love you, canon Sirius. Sirius, who loved his motorbike and leaned back in chairs. Sirius who suffered 12 years in Azkaban while being innocent. Sirius, who missed crossword puzzles and turned into a dog to escape. Sirius, who bonded with other animals and magical creatures. Sirius, who wanted to commit a murder in front of children. Sirius, who is tall and terrifying. A pureblood heir. The bad child. Sirius, who is top of the class. Sirius, who chose his own family. Sirius, who bullied other students for fun and told Snape about the willow because he was a noisy git. Sirius, who doesn't apologize for who he is. Sirius, who ate rats to be closer to Harry and fought Molly who tried to question his parenthood. Sirius, who is brave and energetic and didn't do well just sitting in the house when others are in danger. Sirius who didn't lose his mind in Azkaban. Sirius who was a competent wizard, loyal friend and loving godfather. Sirius who is moody and drank alcohol to cope and lost his temper. Sirius who never wanted to be apart from James. Sirius who hated the dark arts. Sirius who was mean to Kretcher. Sirius who risked his life constantly for people he loved and died protecting Harry.
Thank you @fanfoolishness for the prompt. This was fun to figure out! (And yes the vision of Din and Grogu flying the Razor Crest together was totally inspired by your story.)
How well are Din and Grogu known around Adelphi? Does Grogu have any friends there?
Let's have a look and see.
------
At first the pilots at Adelphi Outpost think Grogu is a nuisance. If you leave your X-wing canopy open when Mandoās around, there's a good chance you'll come back from the pilotsā lounge to find a little green kid messing with the control panel.Ā
It doesn't matter if you take the ladder down, the kid's got an amazing high jump. He'll get up there anyway.
There's a lot of commiseration about it. āWhat's with Mandoās kid? āWho said he could have the run of the place?āĀ
But then Din will walk in to the room with Grogu on his shoulder and somebody in handcuffs trailing behind them, and everyone falls silent.Ā
The subtext is clear: Don't piss off the Mandalorian. Nobody wants to find out what happens when he gets mad.Ā
Din knows they're complaining about Grogu, but he doesn't know why. His sound amplifier will pick up a few words before heās through the door. āMandoās kidā¦ā ā...every damn timeā¦ā But his job is to collect the people the New Republic is after, not to make friends, so he doesn't ask.Ā
He would like Grogu to have friends, though, and it troubles him.Ā
-
Thank goodness Carson Teva doesn't mince words. The first time he gets back to his X-wing to find Grogu tapping buttons, Din is nowhere to be seen, but Carson doesn't hesitate to holler.Ā
āHey! Mando! Come get your kid!ā
Carson can't see it, but Din abandons Colonel Ward mid-sentence at the very hint of danger. His IB-94 blaster is half out of its holster by the time he's cleared her office door.
āPut that away, Mando,ā Carson yells before he's in the line of fire. āHe's fine. I just want him out of here.ā
Dinās pace slows. When he reaches the X-wing, his tone is mild. āCome down from there, kid. Let Captain Teva do his work.ā
The little face turns up to Carson, who suddenly finds it hard to stay annoyed. What's with the big pleading eyes?Ā
āDown,ā Din says more firmly, and this time Grogu climbs to the edge of the cockpit and then jumps down into his arms. Din remembers as he's walking away that you're supposed to apologize for things like this.
āSorry,ā he says, turning back to Carson. āHe wants to learn.ā
āA Mandalorian needs to know how to fly a ship. He can learn on the Razor Crest. I'll keep him away from your X-wing.ā
Carson looks down at the tiny kid in Mandoās arms. āYou're teaching him to fly?ā
Din shrugs, as if it were perfectly normal to let a child fly a gunship. āYou want to come for a ride?ā
-
Carson spends the first ten minutes on board the Razor Crest fearing for his life, as Grogu takes the controls. He spends the second ten minutes watching how Mando and Grogu fly the thing together, Mando helping out with the switches the kid can't reach.
He spends a while fearing for his life again as the Crest drops into a spin, before he realizes theyāve got perfect control of the thing and Grogu is laughing.Ā
By the time they land, he's decided he's got to show this kid what an X-wing can do.
-
People tend to follow Captain Tevaās lead.Ā
The other pilots notice when Carson starts climbing the ladder to his starfighter with Grogu clinging to his flightsuit.
They see Carson, Mando, and Grogu with their heads together over schematics in the lounge.
One by one, they start to drift over to join them.Ā
Pretty soon, Groguās getting flying lessons from the entire Adelphi squadron.Ā
They're violating about a dozen New Republic regulations in the processāGrogu is hardly a designated pilotābut Colonel Ward tends to look the other way when something's good for morale.Ā
And if you saw her letting Grogu take the controls herself, once or twice? No, no you didn't.
I fully respect those who wish the storyline had gone this route!
Personally, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they skipped the "reluctant ruler/forced destiny" trope. I have no issue with this trope in general; but for this story, I feel that avoiding this trope fits both Din's baseline character and his character development better: he's never struck me as ever wanting to be a ruler, and his development throughout the show was toward him becoming a father rather than a ruler. And I also love that the show depicts that a person can be excellent leader without needing to default to becoming the ruler who's stuck on the throne and has to deal with the politics and laws etc.
Besides, with the way the story is going, Din and Grogu are set to have a huge impact on the galaxy at large - after having already had a major impact on the Mandalorians and their home planet. Ironically, by not becoming Mandalore's ruler, Din has the potential to become even more important to the galaxy's future.
Let Din be the dad and protector and diplomat and hunter he was meant to be, rather than taking on a ruling role he doesn't want.
I would pay good money to see how Din managed to get out of that little mud hut Grogu built. He almost died again, wakes up in a tight space, has to get out but doesnāt want to wake up Grogu, so he has to wriggle his way out. You just know the poor man STRUGGLED
And then I thought what the heck, if I want to see it that badly I better go ahead and write it. This is just a little scribble, nothing fancy but it got it out of my head and onto the page.
I would love to see other people's takes on this scene too!
--
Din Djarin wakes up.
Heās thirsty.
His muscles ache.
He opens his eyes to darkness.
Thereās something sticky adhering to his teeth.Ā
Din moves his head to trigger the helmetās display. Itās flickering and dim.Ā
The kinetic battery takes days to run down. How long was he out?Ā
He tries to shift up onto his elbows but thereās something weighing down his right arm.Ā
He notes the rush of adrenaline and draws on years of practice to keep his cool, assess the situation.Ā
Only a few kilos.Ā
Warm.Ā
Dinās heart rate slows back toward normal as he realizes Grogu is with him, snuggled up against his side. The boyās breathing is quiet and even.Ā
He slides his arm carefully from under Grogu and tries to sit up. A twinge on his left side reminds him that heās been injured, just before the helmet thwacks against a low ceiling and pain shoots down his neck.Ā
What is this place?Ā
There might be enough power left in the helmetās circuits to activate its flashlight beam for a few seconds. He gives it a try and sees curved dirt walls. An unlit emergency lamp. The spine of a fish, lying on the ground. Grogu looking peaceful in sleep. Din forces himself not to linger on his sonās face.Ā
In the last few moments before the headlamp winks out he sees how the ceiling curves down in front of him, how his legs are stretched out in a little tunnel that extends into darkness.
Din remembers trying to give Grogu and the Anzellans time to lift off, remembers the festering wound in his side, remembers forcing weakening muscles to keep working until everything gave out altogether. He remembers nothing after that.Ā
Grogu shouldnāt be here.Ā
Din starts to bend one leg, trying to see how much room he has to move, and feels something slide off his boot. A branch, maybe. He moves his foot again and hears the rustle of leaves.Ā
Camouflage.Ā
This is a hiding place.Ā Ā Ā
The tunnel is big enough for Grogu to come and go.Ā
To go out all on his own, to pile up sticks and leaves to hide the entrance. To catch a fish and bring it back to eat by Dinās side. To sit here with the little emergency lamp in the darkness.Ā
For how long?
Din slides his right hand across his body, finding the rent in the side of his flightsuit. The tear in his skin is closed but itās tender, the surface rough and uneven. Did the child try to heal him? How long did he sit here waiting to see if it had worked?Ā
The emergency lamp is designed to run for many hours on a single charge.
How long has Grogu been wondering if he would be on his own again?
This time the adrenaline rush is anger.Ā
For a moment, Din is angry with his son for coming back for him. Then he is furious with himself for trying to send Grogu away.Ā
He needs to get out of here. He needs to breathe cool air, he needs to see the sky.Ā
He needs to figure out how he is going to get them home.Ā
Din props himself up on his elbows again and the top of his helmet grazes the ceiling.Ā
How did he get in here? Could he have crawled in? Even if Grogu had managed to wake him up after he fell, he doubts he would have had the strength to roll over, let alone crawl.Ā
Grogu, still asleep, snuggles closer against Dinās side.
Maybe the kid magicked him in?Ā
Din doesnāt have the heart to wake Grogu up to magic him back out.Ā
Maybe if he rolls over he can do a sort of combat crawl, keeping lowābut when he tries, turning carefully away from the kid, his right hip clunks against the wall of the tunnel and sticks there, his body twisted about sixty degrees from the floor. He has to wiggle himself loose again, muscles protesting all the while.Ā
It takes him several minutes to catch his breath. It takes longer to recover his strength.
He needs water, and he needs food.Ā
He tries bending his legs to get purchase on the ground and slide his body out.Ā
His knees bang against the top of the tunnel.
Grogu snuffles in his sleep, and Dinās hand drifts to rest against the childās back. He could wake him upā¦ but the kid must be exhausted.Ā
Focus, Din thinks.
This time he bends his knees just a little, pressing his heels into the ground. Flexes aching muscles in his left thigh and glutes, just enough to move his hip an inch or two. Then the right side, another inch.Ā
He has to stop several times to rest along the way.Ā
It occurs to him much too late that heās helpless halfway out of the tunnel, legs exposed and blaster arm stuck at his side. For a while he just has to hope that if anythingās out there, itāll pull him out before it tries to kill him.
When he finally makes it out far enough that his visor clears the tunnel entrance, he looks up into a sky full of fading stars, one edge pink with the first glow of sunrise.Ā
Din rolls over onto his belly, gets onto one knee, and climbs slowly to his feet.Ā
The helmetās display comes back to life as the electrical system translates movement into power.Ā
The audio circuits bring him the sound of a stream.Ā
Heās stumbling a little as he makes his way down the bank. Heāll have to find food soon, but a long drink and a few electrolyte tablets soon have him feeling steadier again.Ā
He feels even better when the helmet display alerts him to movement nearby and he looks up to see Grogu running his way.Ā
āYou were supposed to leave, kid.ā
The look on Groguās face is pure indignation.Ā
āIām glad you didnāt,ā Din says, picking him up for a hug.Ā
Din being an engineer, polyglot, strategist, negotiator, and excited teacher, with a side of cunning because that man is smart and i wonāt stand for anymore din slander
Alright the past anon just made me realize how insanely fast Din's reaction time can be. How fast is the N-1? At least as fast as an F1 race car and probably faster. The fact that he, as a non-force sensitive human with no droid support, can run through Beggar's Canyon so easily without any prior practice is literally insane.
We're doing a mistake comparing Din to Jedi characters and the like, because considering he's just a normal human being doing essentially the same tasks and still manages to keep up with some Jedi, his skills are truly impressive.
THEY ARE!!! And this is why I get to irrationally angry when people take the himbo jokes too far because lsdkjflksfdj HE'S SO SMART AND SKILLED!!
His reflexes are no joke like... look at how he caught that creature on Trask when it was about to hop onto Grogu inside the Crest... yeah <3
Analyzing The Mandalorianās Fighting Styles ā āThe Prisonerā
Part I
Word count: 895
One thing I really liked about Mandoās retribution in āThe Prisonerā episode is that it was in line with his character, and it furthers my gripes with season 2 specifically because āThe Prisonerā reinforces that Mando is a hunter, and a lethally efficient one at that. Hunters lie in wait and plan their moves from afar, observing and stalking their prey as they move silently and decisively, calculating the entire time.
Mando breaks out of the cell and immediately goes for the command center, which by his ability to act efficiently there tells us he was likely making observations about the room when they were there the first time. Mando is constantly aware of his surroundings and is always thinking of the multiple possible outcomes of a situation at any given time. He knew or intuited how to re-route the crew and override security measures, blocking corridors and dropping the walls between hallways, and did so quickly while planning as he went.
In the control center we see him cut the crew off and redirect them in specific ways that will put him at an advantage: by pairing Mayfeld with Qin, he puts Mayfeld at the disadvantage, knowing he was the new guyā Qin has no reason to care about Mayfeld because there was no prior connection between the two of them. Qinās also unarmed until he takes one of Mayfeldās guns (further disadvantaging one of the crew), and Mando knows heās only going to look out for himself regardless of whether Xiāan is his sister or not. Qinās the most likely to just bail on the rest and make for the first escape he can find.
Divide and conquer.
Mayfeld is a sharpshooter so by turning off all the lights and knowing the alarm lights will be flickering, heās taken away Mayfeldās ability to even see what he could be shooting at. Stalking Mayfeld in the dark and moving with him allows Mando to close the gap so he can overpower him at close range, which wouldnāt be a sharpshooterās forte.
When Mando sees Burg and Xiāan split up he redirects Burg to the command center because the only way he can hope to defeat him is by literally getting the high ground, which wouldnāt be found anywhere else on the ship they have access to. Burgās the strongest so he needs to eliminate him first; if any of the others were to team up on him he could still win that fight, but Burg tips the scales too much for Mando to not get him out of the equation entirely.
The command center is the only place Mando could get the upper hand on Burg and he knows he canāt go up against the Devaronian in a contest of brute strength, so he lies in wait in the grating above, hoping he can string Burg up and cut him off with a trap. Obviously Burg is able to yank him down and Mando has to improvise from there, but even though Mando doesnāt succeed in a close quarters fight, heās still setting up advantages for later (like by getting both of Burgās sidearms while his hands are occupied, even if Mando wasnāt able to shoot Burg with them).
Whatās interesting about Xiāan is that if you notice just before their knife fight, it almost seems like Xiāan realizes heās there because she can smell him. What makes his fight with her a challenge is that we can tell shesās also a hunter, and sheās deadly from afarā Even for as many knives as she throws that heās able to deflect, one of them still lands in his shoulder. They may have equal skill with blades, but the key for him here is that if he keeps moving forward he knows if he can close the gap between them where heāll have the advantage of bulk muscle and physical strength. Itās also better to get her to expend her arsenal now so she doesnāt have anything left when he has to remain in close proximity as he drags her back to the cell.
All of these skills demonstrate his powers of observation and ability to predict what his enemies will do next. Mando planting the distress beacon on Qin was him knowing the New Republic would show up at the chop shop. He anticipates Ranās betrayal, he knows Qin would have no idea what the beacon was (thereby preventing him from acting on its presence and implications the second he saw it), and he knows what the New Republic will do, thereby clearing his escape of any pursuers
One of the first teachings of fight choreography is that a fight happens when words stop being effective, and that any fight within a narrative is a story in itself. Fights are character-driven and the results should further reinforce those characters, and/or change the story for the characters involved in a significant way. Every action in this episode reinforces the idea that Mando thinks ahead, thinks on his feet, and does his best fighting when heās able to be a hunter. Heās just as smart, stealthy, and capable in the more subtle aspects of his craft as he is in an all out fight, and I wish theyād kept that characterization beyond the first season because itās integral to how this guy operates within this world.
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