Moden Canady

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"What are we waiting for? Fire on the base!"

―Moden Canady during the siege of D'Qar^[3]

Moden Canady was a human male who served as a naval officer in both the Galactic Empire and the First Order. During the reign of the Empire, Canady commanded the Star Destroyer Solicitude of the Imperial Starfleet. He later joined the First Order, becoming captain of the Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix, a capacity in which he served during the evacuation of D'Qar. To his irritation, however, he had to put up with the crew of the Fulminatrix, who were younger than him and, in Canady's view, inexperienced and arrogant. Canady, along with everyone else on his ship, were killed in a Resistance bombing run led by Poe Dameron in the space battle above D'Qar.

Biography[]

"Captain Canady, why aren't you blasting that puny ship?"
"That puny ship is too small and at too close range. We need to scramble our fighters, five bloody minutes ago."

―Armitage Hux and Moden Canady, speaking of Poe Dameron's X-wing^[3]

Moden Canady^[1] served as the commander^[4] of the Star Destroyer Solicitude of the Imperial Starfleet during the reign of the Galactic Empire. Following the Empire's fall, Canady became an officer of the First Order.^[4] He eventually became the captain of the Fulminatrix.^[1]

During the evacuation of D'Qar, General Armitage Hux ordered Canady to command the Fulminatrix against the Resistance. During the battle, he ordered his warrant officer, Suday Bascus, to reorient the ship's topside cannons and prepare the onboard fighter squadrons for deployment against the Resistance Fleet, and proceeded to sternly remind the man that there was a difference between the orders "prep for launch" and "launch" when Bascus protested that Hux had previously ordered for the ship not to deploy their fighter squadrons due to wanting to give a demonstration to the Resistance.^[5]

HuxHoloCanady-TLJAdaptation1 — Canady speaking with Hux.

In a surprise maneuver, Wing Commander Poe Dameron led a lone spearhead attack on the point-defense cannons of the Fulminatrix, to the annoyance of General Hux who demanded to know why Canady was not blasting the ship. Canady responded by stating that the ship was too fast and too close for the cannons and ordered his crew to launch their fighters. Canady was then informed by Bascus that there were several Resistance bombers approaching the dreadnought. While his fighters wiped out all but one of the bombers, Canady ordered the crew to fire on the Resistance base, destroying the complex after it was fully evacuated and then had them target the main Resistance cruiser. Before they could fire, however, the gunner Paige Tico managed to launch her ship's payload of bombs against the Fulminatrix, causing systematic destruction. Accepting he had been bested, Canady stood firm silently respecting the courage of his enemies as his ship blew up, killing him and his loathed crew.^[3]

Personality and traits[]

"What a bloody idiot."

―Moden Canady, on Armitage Hux^[6]

Canady opinion — Canady gives his opinion of General Hux

A veteran officer of the Galactic Empire, Moden Canady was proud to serve the First Order just like when he served the Empire at the beginning of his career. However, he loathed having to serve alongside arrogant and inexperienced young First Order officers due to their lack of discipline and failure to work as a team hindering his operational duties, to the point that he once entertained a brief fantasy of ejecting one out of an airlock.^[5] Despite this loathing, he nonetheless sympathized to a degree with their zeal for the First Order.^[1]

Canady also detested serving under the command of General Armitage Hux, a First Order officer younger than him.^[4] He also held some irritation towards Hux, to the extent that he once denounced Hux as a "bloody idiot" after signing off, due to Hux insisting on continuing bad strategy.^[6] As Canady suspected, Hux's orders would prove to be his undoing, as Poe Dameron's and Paige Tico's actions eventually led to his own death.^[3]

Unlike many officers of the First Order, however, Canady was honorable and he demonstrated that trait until the very end. When he became aware that the Fulminatrix had been defeated and there was no escape, he accepted his fate, and remained on his Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought rather than trying to flee.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

"This actor is Mark Lewis Jones, who plays Canady. And God, I love him. He's just got such a powerful, "Fire on the base!". Matt Wood, who is our sound supervisor, was convinced that that line, "Fire on the base!", was going to start being used by EDM DJs. He might be right."

―Director Rian Johnson, in the audio commentary for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi^[7]

Canady was portrayed by Mark Lewis Jones in the 2017 film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the second installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.^[3] His surname was revealed in the film's credits, while his forename was first revealed in the accompanying reference book Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, which was written by Pablo Hidalgo.^[1]

Mark Lewis Jones originally auditioned for a role in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, but got no part on it, yet it's possible his name was kept on a list as he later received a call for The Last Jedi.^[8] Jones had previously provided the voice for Darth Decimus in the 2011 video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, which belongs to the Star Wars Legends continuity.^[9]

Canady's surname is a reference to May Dove Canady, the titular main character of the 2002 film May, on which The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson previously worked as editor.^[10]

In the 2020 reference book Star Wars: Book of Lists by Cole Horton, the character was mistakenly identified as Captain Tritt Opan.^[11]