John Carter and Sarkoja

John Carter and Sarkoja are adversaries within the Thark community, and their conflict links Carter’s effort to protect Dejah Thoris with Sarkoja’s escalating efforts to harm both of them. Their relationship is defined less by direct confrontation than by opposing conduct: Carter intervenes against Sarkoja’s abuse, while Sarkoja responds with hatred, covert sabotage, and an attempted attack on Dejah Thoris.

Conflict Begins Around Dejah Thoris

Sarkoja is one of the older women sharing quarters with Carter and Sola. She has also served as a guard to Dejah Thoris, a Red Martian captive. At a gathering in the audience chamber, Sarkoja is present as the women’s discussion turns to the captive’s fate. She reports that the Thark leaders intend to take Dejah Thoris to Thark and display her death at the great games before Tal Hajus. Sola objects to such treatment, but Sarkoja responds angrily to her sympathy. The contrast establishes the moral divide that Carter later encounters directly: Sola sees the captive as someone who has caused no harm, whereas Sarkoja participates in the harsh treatment imposed on her.

Carter learns that divide through what the women say and do. After Sola speaks in Dejah Thoris’s defense, Carter concludes that Sola is friendly to the captive and believes he can rely on her help in an escape. When he later sees Dejah Thoris in the audience chamber, Sarkoja’s conduct confirms the danger: she handles the prisoner roughly and shows no restraint in moving or holding her. The other guard is not described as similarly cruel, but is indifferent. Sarkoja’s treatment of Dejah Thoris is therefore not merely an expression of the community’s general disregard; it is presented as active, personal harshness.

Carter Intervenes

Carter’s opposition becomes explicit after he and Dejah Thoris reach the open. When the two women assigned to guard her approach to resume custody, Dejah Thoris shrinks against Carter and holds his arm. He waves the guards away, assigns Sola to care for her, and warns Sarkoja that any further cruelty toward Dejah Thoris will bring a severe response. This intervention changes their relationship from hostility at a distance to a direct contest over who can control the captive’s treatment.

Carter later arranges the practical protections behind his intervention. He asks Sola to guard Dejah Thoris as she had guarded him and to find other quarters where Sarkoja cannot molest them; he himself moves to quarters among the men. The arrangement makes Sola the trusted intermediary between Carter and Dejah Thoris while removing the captive from Sarkoja’s immediate access. Carter’s threat, however, does not deter Sarkoja. Since men on Mars do not kill women, Carter’s warning is not a credible threat of the kind he intended; Sarkoja leaves with an ugly look and plots against them instead.

A Vendetta Takes Shape

The narrative makes Sarkoja’s hostility unmistakable when Carter passes her near Dejah Thoris’s chariot. He interprets her black, hateful look as a grim source of satisfaction, a sign that she loathes him. Soon afterward, he sees her talking intently with Zad, a warrior who has not killed a chieftain but bears a second name associated with a chieftain’s weapon. Carter notices Zad glancing toward him as Sarkoja urges him to act. At the time, Carter does not understand the significance of the exchange; the following day gives it meaning and reveals the extent of Sarkoja’s desire for revenge.

The plot she sets in motion unfolds during Carter’s duel with Zad. Fighting before the Thark community, Carter selects the same weapon Zad has chosen, intending to meet him on his own terms. The contest has continued for some time when, as Zad closes in, a flash blinds Carter and leaves him unable to see the approach clearly. From his position in the fight, Carter looks toward the nearby chariot and sees Dejah Thoris, Sola, and Sarkoja above the surrounding crowd. Dejah Thoris strikes a small mirror from Sarkoja’s raised hand, exposing that the flash came from Sarkoja’s attempt to blind Carter at a decisive moment in the duel.

Dejah Thoris and Sola Resist

The scene reveals that Sarkoja’s hostility is not confined to her treatment of Dejah Thoris in custody. She has turned the duel into an opportunity to endanger Carter while avoiding the final blow herself. Dejah Thoris responds immediately, knocking the mirror away. Sarkoja then draws a dagger and attacks Dejah Thoris; Sola steps between them to shield her. Carter is forced to return his attention to Zad, and the interruption has already put him at a serious disadvantage. The clash thus gathers the relationship’s central stakes into one moment: Carter is fighting the warrior Sarkoja has apparently enlisted, while Dejah Thoris and Sola oppose Sarkoja’s attempt to influence the outcome and strike at the people Carter is protecting.

The episode also sharpens the contrast between Carter’s direct challenge and Sarkoja’s covert methods. Carter had openly warned her to stop mistreating Dejah Thoris; Sarkoja answered not with a direct contest but by working through Zad and using the mirror during the duel. When Dejah Thoris exposes that interference, Sarkoja redirects her violence toward the captive, and Sola again intervenes. Their conflict therefore extends beyond a personal grudge: it is bound up with whether Dejah Thoris will remain vulnerable to Sarkoja’s power, and with the fragile protective alliance Carter has formed with Sola and the captive.