Kanchar was a man who served as an officer in the military of the Galactic Empire. In the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin, during which the Empire lost its Death Star battle station, he held the rank of general, serving as the commander of the operation to oversee the harvesting of all remaining kyber crystals from the devastated moon of Jedha. A hulking, brutish man, Kanchar had a cybernetic left arm and a patch on the right eye.
The mission ended in failure, though unbeknownst to Kanchar it had secretly been a false flag operation to leak false information to the Rebel Alliance.
Kanchar accompanied Shu-Torun's queen Trios to Jedha. There they inspected Commander Befa's progress in extracting the remaining kyber crystals from Jedha despite continuing resistance from the surviving partisans and inhabitants. Kanchar was disappointed in Befa's meager kyber shipments, assumed command of Imperial forces on Jedha and killed Befa for his failure. Kanchar was determined to finish Grand Moff Tarkin's work on Jedha.
Kanchar and Trios watched as her miners prepared mine more kyber crystals. Kanchar issued a new edict: Jedha was now a prohibited system and anyone left there would be a de facto rebel and eliminated. Kanchar, with Trios' permission, launched a Drill citadel to Jedha's surface. Kanchar was then informed that the rebels had destroyed the citadel and was disappointed with the Shu-Torun miners. However, Trios showed him the Leviathan, a Continent-class crawler and promised him that it would peel Jedha's mantle of the remaining kyber crystals. Kanchar was aboard the Leviathan and was informed that the Millennium Falcon was approaching them. He ordered the Falcon destroyed but the Leviathans guns were powered down.
Kanchar was then confronted by Rebel Luke Skywalker. Kanchar fought Skywalker with his cybernetic arm and chased him into the Leviathans hangar. He was knocked out by Skywalker. Kanchar was saved by Trios and they both evacuated aboard her shuttle before the Leviathan crashed into Jedha's mantle.
After the Battle for Jedha, Kanchar was fully briefed on the operation and made aware that he had been an unknowing pawn in Vader's plan. In spite of Trios and her thinly veiled insults and taunts, commending him on being a "blunt distraction," he claimed that he didn't hold a grudge, as his part in the mission had gotten the job done.
After returning to his Star Destroyer the Tributum, Kanchar received a transmission from SCAR Squadron, informing him of the imminent Rebel attack on Shu-Torun. He arranged for rescue vessels to retrieve them and requested the Rebel's plan of attack for him to study. Upon returning to Shu-Torun, Kanchar ordered an orbital bombardment of the Imperial retreat, intending to wipe out Princess Leia and her allies.
Vader stands over Kanchar's body.
Despite his efforts to wipe them out, the rebels escaped into hyperspace and Kanchar was left to report the situation to Darth Vader. The Sith Lord questioned Kanchar on his overkill tactics, to which Kanchar pledged his willingness to do anything to kill Princess Leia and her cohorts. As he vowed not to rest until they were dead, Vader telekinetically strangled the commander through the Force, and Kanchar died not understanding why Vader apparently didn't want Leia and her allies killed.
Kanchar's last words.
Kanchar was a brutal commander who valued competence and order above all else, even to the extent that he openly admired Saw Gerrera for being competent at his job. Harboring no loyalty to his own homeworld, and confused and annoyed by those who did, he viewed civilians as little more than an obstacle to the Empire's efforts to root out rebels. As an Imperial commander he detested his own subordinates and oversaw them through physical intimidation; frequently terrorizing them with threats of violence and death. Despite his frequent violent outbursts, he did acknowledge that everyone failed on occasion and claimed to only kill his subordinates after three strikes, or one particularly incompetent failure. While strict, ruthless, and seemingly unpredictably moody, Kanchar generally appeared jovial and passionate for his job, and possessed a dark, sardonic sense of dry humor.
Kanchar's cybernetic arm was equipped with a blade/flamethrower.
Kanchar's rank is inconsistently referred to as "commander" and "general." His name is misspelled as "Kanchan" in Star Wars (2015) 42.
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