Okadiah Garson Okadiah Garson was a male human thorilide miner and owner of the bar called The Asteroid Belt on the planet Gorse . He took Kanan Jarrus under his wing , giving him a home and a place to work at his bar , as well as securing him a job as an explosives freighter pilot for Moonglow . He died when Count Vidian destroyed part of Cynda . He was found by Jarrus , but died before he could be rescued . Biography . Background . Okadiah Garson was a Gorsian human male who lived during the Age of the Empire . He had several jobs including working as the foreman of a Moonglow Polychemical mining team on the mining moon of Cynda and running a cantina called The Asteroid Belt on the planet Gorse , which was located in a former mining neighbourhood known as the Pits . He worked for the mining industry in the Gorse system for thirty years . A few months before the Gorse conflict , Okadiah met the Jedi Purge survivor Kanan Jarrus , who broke up a brawl at his cantina . Out of gratitude , Okadiah secured Kanan a freighter - pilot job with Moonglow and allowed the Jedi Padawan to rent the flophouse next door to The Asteroid Field . Kanan regarded Okadiah as a good landlord due to his ample supply of liquor . Okadiah hired Kanan to driver his ancient hoverbus , ferrying miners between the Moonglow refinery in Shaketown and his cantina . Kanan came to regard Okadiah as the father that he never had . Encountering Count Vidian . In 11 BBY , Okadiah took a ride aboard Kanan ' s freighter " Expedient " during a work trip to Cynda . While the Galactic Empire had designated Cynda a mining moon , it had once been a nature reserve until Minerax Consulting produced a report claiming that Gorse ' s moonward side had exhausted all of its thorilide mining reserves . On the way , Okadiah took a nap while Kanan navigated through the space traffic . While dreaming , Okadiah overhead Kanan having an altercation via intercom with an Imperial officer named Captain Rae Sloane . From Kanan , Okadiah learned that the Imperial Star Destroyer " Ultimatum " had entered the Gorse system and destroyed a laggard freighter called " Cynda Dreaming " . Garson was acquainted with one of the Ithorian crew members who was a regular patron at his cantina . As the " Expedient " entered one of Cynda ' s caverns , Kanan ' s freighter narrowly scraped against another personnel shuttle . After Kanan got into a heated exchange with the Devaronian Yelkin and several other miners , Okadiah came to his friend ' s defense by reminding the other miners that Kanan was carrying a shipment of Baradium - 357 , a highly volatile explosive used to break up the thorilide caverns . He also urged the other miners to be on their best behaviour since Moonglow ' s boss Lal Grallik and an Imperial efficiency expert Count Denetrius Vidian were inspecting the Cynda mines . To encourage his work crew , Okadiah promised to host an alcohol party at his cantina to honor the death of a the crew of the " Cynda Dreaming " . He even offered to pick them up and drive them home . After the crowd had dispersed , Okadiah asked Kanan about his perceived lack of interest in winning friends and influence . He also asked Kanan about his transient lifestyle before asking the freight pilot whether he could work at The Asteroid Field that night . Kanan obliged provided Okadiah could afford to pay him . The two then parted company with Kanan unloading a supply of baradium - 357 from the " Expedient " to deliver to Lal . Okadiah ' s work shift coincided with Count Vidian ' s inspection of the Cynda mines . Displeased with the rate of thorilide production , the Emperor had dispatched Vidian to speed up production in the Gorse system . Thorilide was vital to the rapidly expanding Imperial Navy since it was used to shield starship s from turbolaser fire . One of Count Vidian ' s first acts was to impose an age cap on the mining work force on Cynda . Due to his old age , Okadiah was among those miners who were laid off . Garson had a personal encounter with the cyborg industrialist when Vidian found him kneeling on the ground as he was cleaning his pick . Vidian grabbed the old man by the scruff of his collar and told him he was " too old . " Okadiah then retorted that the Count was " too ugly " . Angered by Okadiah ' s perceived jibe about his cyborg body , Vidian tightened his grip on the miner ' s neck and joked about flaying him . Before Vidian could do any harm , he was accosted by Kanan , who pointed a blaster straight at the Count . Undaunted by Kanan , Vidian dismissed the freight pilot as a gunslinger and suggested that he was the same saboteur who was running loose around the mines . When Kanan demanded to know what Vidian was doing , Count Vidian insisted that he was carrying out the work of the Emperor . Kanan then responded that it would be unwise for Vidian to murder a man who knew a lot about thorilide mining . When Vidian doubted Okadiah ' s usefulness on account of his frailty , Kanan countered that Okadiah could mentor younger miners and suggested that he helped boost Moonglow ' s output . Swayed by Kanan ' s argument , Vidian spared Okadiah ' s life since he had already murdered someone else and had a schedule to keep . Unknown to Okadiah and Kanan , this altercation was witnessed by both the rebel operative Hera Syndulla and the surveillance operator Zaluna Myder . Able to keep his job and having survived a narrow brush with death , Okadiah and his miners headed to Zone Forty - Two . Unknown to Okadiah , the dissident miner Skelly had planned to conduct a test bombing there . A staunch opponent of mining on Cynda , Skelly was researching the effects of the blast in operations on Cynda ' s fragile structure . Within the past five years , Skelly had alienated the mining establishment and lost several jobs for his criticism of mining operations on Cynda . Despite running into trouble with the Empire for making " seditious " remarks , Skelly managed to conduct his test bombing , which created another cave - in that disrupted mining operations on Cynda . Skelly was subsequently captured by Kanan , who was angered that Skelly had endangered the lives of other miners . Not wanting to get into trouble with the Empire , Kanan handed him over to Moonglow , who made preparations to hand him over to the Empire . However , Skelly escaped due to the intervention of Hera . An atypical night . That night , Okadiah would host three special visitors who would play an important role in the coming Gorse conflict : the disillusioned surveillance operator Zaluna Myder , who had come to pass a sensitive data cube from her friend Hetto to the rebel Hera ; the rebel operative Hera , who had come to meet Hetto ; and Skelly , who had come to the cantina to seek Kanan ' s help in procuring his Moonglow ID card . After discovering that prolonged blasting activities would cause Cynda to fracture , Skelly wanted to convince Count Vidian to end all mining operations on that moon . Skelly had learned that Count Vidian was conducting a tour of the Moonglow Polychemical facility . Okadiah encountered his bouncer Kanan , who had just incapacitated a miner who had come to settle an old score . After observing Kanan ' s bruised state , he quickly learned that the freight pilot had been involved in a fight with several members of the Sarlaccs criminal gang at Philo ' s Fueling Station in Shaketown nearby . Kanan told Okadiah he had gotten embroiled in the fight because of a woman . Shortly later , a hooded female Sullustan named Zaluna Myder enter the cantina . Due to Zaluna ' s timely arrival , Okadiah mistakenly assumed that she was the woman Kanan had fought for until he was corrected by the freighter pilot . While Kanan went to discuss a private matter with Zaluna , Okadiah continued entertaining his other patrons with a game of sabacc . Shortly later , Hera arrived looking for Hetto but found Zaluna , who promptly informed her about Hetto ' s imprisonment and secret investigation of the Empire ' s activities . Okadiah arrived at the cantina seeking Kanan ' s help but was rebuffed by both Kanan and Hera , who thought that his plan to reason with Vidian had little chance of success . Okadiah ' s arrival was quickly followed by a stormtrooper patrol , who were looking for the fugitive . Despite their disagreement with Skelly , Okadian and Kanan hid him from the Imperials inside a storage closet . They managed to fool the Imperials into believing that a drunken Wookiee was locked inside the closet . Unwilling to risk upsetting a Wookiee , the Imperials promptly left the cantina . After the Imperials had left , Kanan asked Okadiah to vouch for his character to Hera . Okadiah backed his friend up by telling the Twi ' lek rebel that Kanan was a fine [ [ pilot ] , an occasional humanitarian , a " somewhat tolerable " house guest , and a worthy spouse . When Kanan asked Okadiah about whether he had ever encountered a man named [ [ Denetrius Vidian | Lemuel Tharsa ] ] , Garson replied he had never encountered such a man among his mining crew . However , he suggested that Boss Lal might know the man if he had worked in the refineries or the Guild administration . However , he warned Kanan not to look at his personnel records to avoid finding out his age . Kanan and Hera then departed to recuperate for a new shift the following diurnal day . Trouble on Gorse . The following day , Okadiah took a ride on the Moonglow hoverbus with Kanan driving the vehicle . Okadiah told Kanan that he had befriended Hera and they had decided to take a vacation on the planet [ [ Naboo ] ] . Knowing Hera ' s involvement in the rebellion , Kanan cautioned his friend that Hera was a woman with a mission . Kanan told Okadiah he was not flying bombs today but was showing Hera the sights on Gorse . In secret , Kanan was helping Hera to infiltrate the Moonglow facility in order to spy on Count Vidian , who was conducting an inspection . Okadiah and his fellow miners took a transport for their work shift on Cynda while Hera and Kanan stayed behind on Cynda . In his absence , Kanan , Hera , and Skelly became caught up in a plot by Count Vidian to detonate Cynda in order to increase the Gorse system ' s thorilide production rate and to meet the Emperor ' s new quota . In secret , Vidian planned to destroy Cynda ' s thorilide crystals in order to discredit his rival [ [ Baron ] ] [ [ Lero Danthe ] ] , who was involved in surface mining operations . Since Vidian owned stakes in the comet - chasing industry , he wanted the comet - chasers to harvest the thorilide before they disintegrated within a year . After Skelly made two failed attempts to assassinate Vidian , Kanan and Hera escaped their Imperial pursuers in the hoverbus and dumped it in a quarry . There , they encountered Zaluna , who had accidentally stowed aboard the hoverbus ' restroom . After escaping their Imperial entanglement , the four rebels sought refuge at Okadiah ' s cantina . Upon arriving back , Okadiah was greeted by his friend Kanan . Okadiah had just received news that Moonglow ' s Boss Lal had died when a [ [ Groundquake / Legends | groundquake ] ] knocked her into a vat of [ [ xenoboric acid ] ] at the refinery . As an acquaintance of Lal , Okadiah disputed the veracity of this report and believed that she had been murdered by Count Vidian . He also added that the Empire had rerouted Moonglow ' s personnel transports to [ [ Calladan ' s field ] ] , causing a traffic jam . Okadiah had been forced to take a [ [ hovercab ] ] to The Asteroid Field . Okadiah then told Kanan that he had just found out that the Empire had commandeered his Smoothride hoverbus to the [ [ spaceport ] ] and that someone had stolen it from there and taken it on a joyride . While pouring two glasses of alcohol , Okadiah continued that the thief had shot several stormtroopers and did a hundred thousand [ [ credit ] ] s ' worth of damage to the bus . Okadiah asked Kanan whether he or Hera were responsible for the damage to the hoverbus . While neither confirming or denying his responsibility , Kanan told Okadiah that someone had just deposited several credits in his safe to compensate for the damage to the bus . Okadiah seemed satisfied with Kanan ' s explanation and compensation and the two drank a toast in honor of the late Boss Lal . The last shift . The following day , Okadiah traveled for another work shift on Cynda . This proved to be his last work shift because Count Vidian had decided to conduct a test bombing in order to allay [ [ Captain ] ] [ [ Rae Sloane ] ] and the Imperial Navy ' s concerns that destroying Cynda would cause the moon ' s thorilide crystals to disintegrate . Okadiah witnessed several stormtroopers ordering the miners to evacuate [ [ Zone Sixty - Six ] ] before being caught up in a massive explosion that destroyed the mining facilities and killed many miners . Okadiah was crushed beneath debris and succumbed serious injuries which subsequently led to his death . Okadiah managed to last long enough for Kanan and his companions to find him on Cynda ' s surface . Using Okadiah ' s distress beacon , they found his leg pinned under an elevator car . Kanan managed to fasten an oxygen mask around the dying old man . Hera and Kanan managed to free his legs from the wreckage but were unable to save Okadiah . Before he died , he told Kanan and Hera that the Empire was responsible for the explosion on Cynda . He also told Hera that Kanan was a good person to have around and to stick by him . Kanan and Hera buried Okadiah ' s body in a side grotto and covered it with rocks . To honor Okadiah ' s memory , Kanan and Hera resolved to stop Cynda ' s plot to detonate Cynda during the ensuing [ [ Gorse conflict ] ] . Personality and traits . Okadiah Garson was an elderly human man with white hair and a beard . He was a frequent drinker of [ [ alcohol ] ] and drank it when someone got hurt in the mines of the mining moon Cynda , which happened nearly everyday . Unlike Kanan who preferred using physical force , Okadiah preferred to win over people by using diplomacy and persuasion to diffuse conflict . Despite the rough nature of his life and his work , Okadiah had a good sense of humor and was known for his cheerful temperament even in the face of trouble . Despite his old age , Okadiah was a skilled miner who knew how to mine thorilide well . He was regarded by Kanan as a mentor for the younger miners . The Jedi Purge survivor Kanan came to regard Okadiah as a father figure since he had been separated from his parents at a young age . Viewing Kanan as a fellow with nowhere to go , Okadiah took pity on the young drifter and helped him to find work in the Gorse system . Okadiah did not want to get in trouble with the Empire and was displeased when Kanan and Hera got his hoverbus into an " Imperial entanglement . " Despite his differences with Kanan , Okadiah still held Kanan in high regard a fine pilot , occasional humanitarian , and a good companion for Hera . Okadiah was also well acquainted with Lal Grallik , whom he regarded as an employer that prioritized the safety of her staff , and was skeptical of the official Imperial account that her death was accidental . Behind the scenes . Okadiah Garson first appeared as a secondary character in [ [ John Jackson Miller ] ] ' s [ [ 2014 ] ] novel " [ [ A New Dawn ] ] " , which was the first in a new line of [ [ Canon ] ] novels approved by the [ [ Lucasfilm Story Group ] ] . Most of his lines are told from the point of view of Kanan Jarrus , one of the main characters . Notes and references . [ [ Category : Business owners and executives ] ] [ [ Category : Humans ] ] [ [ Category : Males ] ] [ [ Category : Miners ] ]