“All is fair in war” principle on Mars

The “All is fair in war” principle on Mars is presented as an expansive ethic of wartime expediency: a ruler in a time of war is considered at risk of assassination, and the narrator says the maxim seems to constitute the whole ethics of Martian conflict. Elsewhere, however, John Carter’s conduct toward animals and Woola’s repeated loyalty offer a pointed contrast, showing that the story does not make wartime ruthlessness the only possible rule of life on Mars.

Meaning in Wartime

When John Carter is assigned near Than Kosis, the major-domo explains that a jeddak faces particular danger of assassination during war. The narrator frames this danger as part of a system in which the rule that “all is fair in war” appears to supply the entire ethical code of conflict. The principle is thus not merely a license for battlefield tactics: it makes the ruler’s personal safety precarious and shapes the expectations attached to his position.

The account is brief and comes as practical explanation for Carter’s wartime assignment. It does not set out a formal law or describe a specific assassination attempt in this scene. Instead, the narrator’s broad characterization connects the danger to a larger judgment about Martian warfare: in conflict, customary restraints seem to give way to expediency.

Conflict and Protection

The story places this wartime maxim beside episodes in which survival depends on protective bonds rather than calculated violence. When Sola leaves Carter captive, the creature he calls his watch-dog guards the threshold and, according to Carter, never voluntarily leaves him during his captivity among the green men. Carter says it saves his life twice. One rescue comes when a great white ape threatens him: the watch-thing intervenes, and its struggle with the ape gives Carter the chance to survive.

Woola later saves Carter again. Lost and searching for a waterway, Carter awakens beneath the light of the nearer moon to find Woola has killed the creature attacking him. The sight brings relief, but also anxiety: Carter fears Woola’s absence from Dejah Thoris may mean she has died. Woola is emaciated and hungry, and after eating the dead animal he resumes his companionship with Carter. These episodes make protection and loyalty consequential forms of action in a world where violence is otherwise readily accepted.

Kindness as a Counterpoint

Carter’s treatment of his thoats supplies a more deliberate challenge to the martial norm. The warriors whose metal he wears have left him two animals, and he first establishes that they cannot unseat him. Rather than rely on the customary beating used to compel obedience, he gradually wins their confidence through kindness, drawing on his prior experience with mounts. Within days they follow him, press their snouts against him, and respond readily to his commands.

Tars Tarkas regards this transformation as extraordinary and asks whether Carter has bewitched the animals. Carter attributes their obedience to kindness, but also argues that it makes him a more effective warrior: he can rely on the thoats in battle or on the march, whereas their unpredictable tempers can turn victory into defeat for other riders. His practice therefore joins humane treatment to practical advantage without reducing the bond to mere utility. Against the maxim that war suspends ethical limits, Carter’s example suggests that care can persist within a warrior’s life and strengthen, rather than undermine, his capacity to act.

Limits of the Maxim

The text does not present a developed code of wartime conduct or stage a direct debate over the principle. Its force comes instead from juxtaposition. The major-domo’s account associates war with assassination and exceptionally broad permission, while the recurring loyalty between Carter and Woola, and Carter’s kindness toward the thoats, show relationships that are not governed solely by violence or coercion.

That contrast does not erase the dangers of Martian conflict: Carter and those around him repeatedly depend on force to survive. It does, however, keep the wartime maxim from becoming the story’s only ethical measure. Martial expediency describes the perilous public world; fidelity and kindness remain visible in the bonds that help its characters endure it.