- 4,498
- 1,117
So as far as John Carter goes (I don't remember all of his skill feats but I'll post the ones I currently can here for now):
The man is already at least centuries old by the time of the series' start, and has been fighting wars as long as he can remember. On earth he is a legendary soldier, and "the embodiment of the fighting man". With a single gun and a sword he is able to scatter an entire camp of Native American warriors in minutes, then retreat before they can regroup.
On Barsoom, any Red Martian will have seen more combat and received more military training in 8 years than any human warrior will in their entire life. When they fight as a group, they maneuver and slash around each other with such coordination that it's as though they share a single mind.
The Green Martians are nomadic barbarians purpose-bred for combat and survival, and able to wield four weapons at once with their multiple arms, be they spears, guns, or swords. They easily outmatch Red Martians in combat prowess, with one Green able to duel evenly against four Reds simultaneously, easily fending off each warrior with one hand.
Beginning-of-series John Carter mastered all forms of Martian swordsmanship in 2 days, and used this newfound mastery to duel an "exceptional swordsman" even among Greens, whom he outskilled low-diff. The only wound he received was due to being blinded by a flash of light from the sidelines, and while completely unable to see he still managed to dodge a killing blow and deal one in return via sheer reflex. At this same point in his journey, he lands a headshot from two miles away with an unfamiliar firearm that isn't accurate at anywhere near that range after picking it up for the first time, all while noting that he's better with a sword than with a gun.
A Green Martian general is expected to be a one-man-army even among Greens, and will have hundreds of years to hone their skills, becoming so familiar with the ways of the sword that they can predict their opponent's every action before it happens.
Kantos Kan is the finest warrior among the Red Martians, serving as their greatest military leader and possessing enough skill to easily dispatch a particularly powerful Green Martian General in a single move. His fighting style revolves around a combination of traditional sword techniques, interspersed with sword-throwing to catch enemies off-guard.
Plantmen can effortlessly stomp even Green Generals due to having an incredibly bizarre, agile, and unpredictable fighting style that instinctively targets the opponent's blind spots.
Therns can easily hold off Plantmen and the physically-superior White Apes simply through extensive swordsmanship training and extremely underhanded tactics. Carter states that fighting a single Thern means countering more dirty tricks in several seconds than an experienced soldier will face all their life.
An entire Thern military force can be skillstomped by 8 Firstborn, with each one obliterating 12 Therns at once because their berserker-like fighting style is designed to plow through the Therns' defenses in spite of their trickery, and they are described as fighting with such reckless viciousness that even rabid animals look hesitant in comparison. Xodar is easily the most skilled of the Firstborn, with all of their warriors referring to him as invincible (until he meets Carter). Yellow Martians are the equals of the Firstborn, only through refinement and skill rather than strength and ferocity.
Carthoris (John Carter's half-Red Martian son) is able to stomp Xodar while just playing around, and is able to easily dance and parkour around a whole room of Firstborn warriors that he's sword-fighting all at once, while joking and having candid conversations with the people he's rescuing, not paying any attention even as he's dispatching their greatest men.
Tars Tarkas is the most skilled of the Greens by far, and achieved a battle record expected of a Martian in their hundreds in a mere five years. It was generally accepted that no number of Green Martians working together would even dream of challenging him in combat. He is the only warrior that John respects as a true equal, and is his most reliable battle partner.
John himself has his aforementioned learning curve and duel with a Green. He also skillstomps 4 Red Martians at once simply by taking advantage of the terrain. He killed a young Thern effortlessly, and fought his much more experienced teacher for several minutes, easily outwitting his dirty-fighting, all while bleeding heavily and so exhausted that he was nearly blind. He engaged and slaughtered all but one of a Firstborn Hunting Party, something that no martian in history had ever accomplished before. He later fought unarmed against a room full of Yellow Martians, and it took all fifty of them attacking at once just to halt his advancement.
John Carter and Tars Tarkas fighting as a duo in peak condition are considered unquestionably the single greatest military power on Mars, able to fight for an entire day against literal hundreds upon hundreds of White Apes and Plantmen. During this fight it describes how every motion they made inflicted death on another enemy, with the barest fraction of a second passing between each kill. John Carter and Tarkas also easily copy and counter the Plantmen fighting style after seeing it once. Carter further says that with Tarkas, Carthoris, and Xodar by his side, they could wage war on the entire planet and win after fighting from one side of the world to the other.
And both of them are effortlessly outdone by Solan, a Yellow Martian who has been fighting for several thousand years, and despite being weaker than John Carter physically, is so immensely skilled that John Carter refers to his swordsmanship as wizardry. Solan's basic, reflexive attacks were so quick and precise that they made end-of-series Carter resemble a monkey with a stick in comparison, and very nearly eviscerated him before Solan could even remotely perceive him. He is described as being so inhumanly skilled that Carter feels like he's fighting forty of him at once.
And the moment they begin fighting, Carter adapts in that brief instant of panic and becomes Solan's perfect equal, with the two surpassing all other warriors of Mars or Earth that have ever lived, and fighting the fiercest battle ever in the span of five minutes, during which they couldn't make even an inch of headway against each other. After managing to improve yet further, and distract Solan just enough to land the killing blow, Carter is essentially invincible from that point onward.
The man is already at least centuries old by the time of the series' start, and has been fighting wars as long as he can remember. On earth he is a legendary soldier, and "the embodiment of the fighting man". With a single gun and a sword he is able to scatter an entire camp of Native American warriors in minutes, then retreat before they can regroup.
On Barsoom, any Red Martian will have seen more combat and received more military training in 8 years than any human warrior will in their entire life. When they fight as a group, they maneuver and slash around each other with such coordination that it's as though they share a single mind.
The Green Martians are nomadic barbarians purpose-bred for combat and survival, and able to wield four weapons at once with their multiple arms, be they spears, guns, or swords. They easily outmatch Red Martians in combat prowess, with one Green able to duel evenly against four Reds simultaneously, easily fending off each warrior with one hand.
Beginning-of-series John Carter mastered all forms of Martian swordsmanship in 2 days, and used this newfound mastery to duel an "exceptional swordsman" even among Greens, whom he outskilled low-diff. The only wound he received was due to being blinded by a flash of light from the sidelines, and while completely unable to see he still managed to dodge a killing blow and deal one in return via sheer reflex. At this same point in his journey, he lands a headshot from two miles away with an unfamiliar firearm that isn't accurate at anywhere near that range after picking it up for the first time, all while noting that he's better with a sword than with a gun.
A Green Martian general is expected to be a one-man-army even among Greens, and will have hundreds of years to hone their skills, becoming so familiar with the ways of the sword that they can predict their opponent's every action before it happens.
Kantos Kan is the finest warrior among the Red Martians, serving as their greatest military leader and possessing enough skill to easily dispatch a particularly powerful Green Martian General in a single move. His fighting style revolves around a combination of traditional sword techniques, interspersed with sword-throwing to catch enemies off-guard.
Plantmen can effortlessly stomp even Green Generals due to having an incredibly bizarre, agile, and unpredictable fighting style that instinctively targets the opponent's blind spots.
Therns can easily hold off Plantmen and the physically-superior White Apes simply through extensive swordsmanship training and extremely underhanded tactics. Carter states that fighting a single Thern means countering more dirty tricks in several seconds than an experienced soldier will face all their life.
An entire Thern military force can be skillstomped by 8 Firstborn, with each one obliterating 12 Therns at once because their berserker-like fighting style is designed to plow through the Therns' defenses in spite of their trickery, and they are described as fighting with such reckless viciousness that even rabid animals look hesitant in comparison. Xodar is easily the most skilled of the Firstborn, with all of their warriors referring to him as invincible (until he meets Carter). Yellow Martians are the equals of the Firstborn, only through refinement and skill rather than strength and ferocity.
Carthoris (John Carter's half-Red Martian son) is able to stomp Xodar while just playing around, and is able to easily dance and parkour around a whole room of Firstborn warriors that he's sword-fighting all at once, while joking and having candid conversations with the people he's rescuing, not paying any attention even as he's dispatching their greatest men.
Tars Tarkas is the most skilled of the Greens by far, and achieved a battle record expected of a Martian in their hundreds in a mere five years. It was generally accepted that no number of Green Martians working together would even dream of challenging him in combat. He is the only warrior that John respects as a true equal, and is his most reliable battle partner.
John himself has his aforementioned learning curve and duel with a Green. He also skillstomps 4 Red Martians at once simply by taking advantage of the terrain. He killed a young Thern effortlessly, and fought his much more experienced teacher for several minutes, easily outwitting his dirty-fighting, all while bleeding heavily and so exhausted that he was nearly blind. He engaged and slaughtered all but one of a Firstborn Hunting Party, something that no martian in history had ever accomplished before. He later fought unarmed against a room full of Yellow Martians, and it took all fifty of them attacking at once just to halt his advancement.
John Carter and Tars Tarkas fighting as a duo in peak condition are considered unquestionably the single greatest military power on Mars, able to fight for an entire day against literal hundreds upon hundreds of White Apes and Plantmen. During this fight it describes how every motion they made inflicted death on another enemy, with the barest fraction of a second passing between each kill. John Carter and Tarkas also easily copy and counter the Plantmen fighting style after seeing it once. Carter further says that with Tarkas, Carthoris, and Xodar by his side, they could wage war on the entire planet and win after fighting from one side of the world to the other.
And both of them are effortlessly outdone by Solan, a Yellow Martian who has been fighting for several thousand years, and despite being weaker than John Carter physically, is so immensely skilled that John Carter refers to his swordsmanship as wizardry. Solan's basic, reflexive attacks were so quick and precise that they made end-of-series Carter resemble a monkey with a stick in comparison, and very nearly eviscerated him before Solan could even remotely perceive him. He is described as being so inhumanly skilled that Carter feels like he's fighting forty of him at once.
And the moment they begin fighting, Carter adapts in that brief instant of panic and becomes Solan's perfect equal, with the two surpassing all other warriors of Mars or Earth that have ever lived, and fighting the fiercest battle ever in the span of five minutes, during which they couldn't make even an inch of headway against each other. After managing to improve yet further, and distract Solan just enough to land the killing blow, Carter is essentially invincible from that point onward.
