As a Padawan in the final years of the Republic, Caleb Dume learned from such Jedi as Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master, Depa Billaba. He accompanied Depa during the Clone Wars, fighting alongside the Republic’s clone troops. When Darth Sidious issued Order 66 Depa died so Caleb could escape.

Caleb took the name Kanan Jarrus and spent years doing odd jobs around the galaxy, from bartender to bounty hunter. He hid his lightsaber and cut himself off from the Force. While working as a transport pilot on the planet Gorse, he encountered the Twi’lek rebel Hera Syndulla. Smitten with Hera, he helped her investigate the Imperial efficiency expert Count Vidian and agreed to serve as a crew member aboard her converted freighter, the Ghost. Together, the two would become the leaders of a cell of rebels fighting for freedom on Lothal.

Kanan first encountered Ezra Bridger in Capital City’s market, when the Force drew him to the orphaned boy. After Ezra stole crates that the rebels were themselves trying to steal, Kanan pursued the thief on a speeder bike, and persuaded him to escape Imperial pursuit by leaping aboard the Ghost. He caught Ezra examining the lightsaber he kept hidden in his quarters, but allowed the boy to take a Jedi Holocron, hoping to test Ezra’s Force abilities.

After Ezra was captured and held prisoner on Agent Kallus’s Star Destroyer, Kanan rescued the boy – and was impressed to find Ezra had already been engineering his own getaway. The rebels then traveled to Kessel to rescue Wookiees enslaved by the Empire. During the fight, Kanan ignited his lightsaber, revealing the secret of his Jedi heritage. This revelation would make him a target of the feared Imperial agent known only as the Inquisitor.

With their mission complete, a contrite Ezra returned the Holocron he’d stolen from Kanan. Kanan told Ezra he’d been able to open the device because he was strong with the Force, and offered to train him as a Jedi. Ezra agreed.

Training Ezra proved frustrating, though – the boy was headstrong, and Kanan had never been able to complete his own training. When Kanan heard that the Jedi master Luminara Unduli was alive and in an Imperial prison, he decided to rescue her in hopes that she would prove a better teacher for Ezra. But Ezra disobeyed Kanan’s orders, impulsively leaping after his master on the rescue mission. The two then discovered that Luminara was long dead. They’d stumbled into a trap meant to ensnare Jedi.

The trap was the work of the Inquisitor. He dueled Kanan and Ezra, knocking Kanan unconscious. Kanan woke up in time to stop the Inquisitor from striking down Ezra, using the Force to pin him against the ceiling. Master and Padawan then worked together to open the prison’s massive gates, escaping just ahead of the Inquisitor and his stormtroopers.

Once they were safe, Kanan explained that he’d only wanted the best teacher for Ezra, and was moved when the boy replied that he didn’t want the best teacher – he wanted Kanan. Recalling the words of Master Yoda, Kanan said he would no longer try to teach Ezra – because that implied he didn’t believe he would succeed. From now on, there would be no try.

After the Inquisitor attached a tracker to the Phantom, Kanan and Ezra tried to throw off the Imperial agent’s pursuit by taking the smaller craft to Fort Anaxes. They removed the tracker and Kanan taught Ezra to use the Force to make a connection with vicious creatures known as fyrnocks.

But the Inquisitor had followed them to Fort Anaxes. He dueled Kanan, defeating him again – but was driven off when Ezra used the Force to summon a massive fyrnock.

Kanan knew Ezra had unwittingly channeled the dark side of the Force, though the boy had no memory of what had happened. Simultaneously impressed and worried by Ezra’s power, Kanan resolved to find a way to teach him to strengthen his will and control his emotions.

Kanan challenged Ezra to find a Jedi Temple, which the boy discovered on Lothal. Together, they used the Force to open a hidden entrance to the ancient site.

While Ezra faced his own trial in the depths of the temple, Kanan communed with Yoda, who warned him that this was a dangerous time for master and apprentice alike. Kanan promised his old teacher that he wouldn’t let Ezra lose focus the way he once had.

Revealed as a double agent, Senator-in-exile Gall Trayvis painted the rebels as villains and announced a reward for their capture. Trayvis’s propaganda gave Kanan an idea: the rebels would broadcast their own transmission by hijacking the Empire’s communications tower on Lothal.

Unaware that the Empire had discovered the plan, Kanan tried to ease Ezra’s worries about the mission. But he also told his Padawan that he had to be willing to make sacrifices – including painful ones – for a greater good.

All too soon, Ezra had to heed Kanan’s words: The Inquisitor dueled Kanan at the communications tower, once again using his superior command of the Force to defeat him. This time there would be no escape: Kanan urged Hera to flee and became a prisoner of the Empire.

Kanan resisted questioning by Imperial interrogation droids and the Inquisitor’s dark-side arts, but Tarkin ordered him taken to the planet Mustafar, where interrogations always produced confessions.

Aboard Tarkin’s Star Destroyer, the Inquisitor taunted Kanan, trying to break him by calling him a coward for having abandoned his own master Depa Billaba years before during Order 66.

The rebels infiltrated Tarkin’s Star Destroyer and Ezra broke Kanan out of his cell, but the Inquisitor intercepted them. This time, Kanan was able to overcome his fear and let the Force flow. He defeated the Inquisitor, who fell to his death, and escaped with his Padawan. Both still had much to learn, but a strong bond had grown between them.