But there’s one question that her set visit doesn’t answer. Is John Carter going to be a former Confederate soldier like he is in Burroughs’ original?[...]And while it could be convenient, from a plot perspective, to explain that a human who has ended up on a strange planet would be good at organizing an alien insurgency because he developed his skills in a specific, analogous conflict. But it’s probably better to make it almost any other conflict than the Civil War. The Confederacy doesn’t get retroactive points just because fighting in it helps someone achieve justice for another species down the road.
Personally, I think that keeping John Carter as a Confederate opens up a unique storytelling possibility: John Carter’s insurgency on Mars can become an act of redemption for his fighting on the Confederate side. All it takes is a 10 minute prologue with John Carter coming home and seeing the absolute jubilation of the freed slaves as they cheer the Yankees coming into town. Let him be confronted with the reality of the side he fought for.
Then, when we cut to him a few years later, we can make it clear that Carter is out prospecting out West, drunk most of the time, trying to forget the war. Then his trip to Mars can be more than just using the guerrilla tactics he learned as a Confederate — it can be his way of penance for his sins.
Done that way, I think John Carter can still be a Confederate vet without glorifying the Confederacy.
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