#the inner fight

[startrekuniverse]

LOWER DECKS

4x09 The Inner Fight

[old-type-40]

"I just want to be an ensign. If it was good enough for Sito then it's good enough for me."

Poor Mariner. Maybe if it had only been the loss of Sito or only experiencing the Dominion War, she might have eventually come to terms with the trauma. But with both together, there was no escape.

[rosalie-starfall]

Bradward Boimler

Star Trek: Lower Decks - The Inner Fight

Seriously I am Boimler! I've been saying it since season 1. I am more like Boimler than any other Trek character in the Trek Universe and I Love him!

[pixelwixard]

"Those Noble Tremble Lizards," a GIFset from Lower Decks S04E09, “The Inner Fight”

And the bonus GIF:

[spockvarietyhour]

WHO?!

[quasi-normalcy]

I love Lower Decks's commitment to just keep using the Gorn as random background aliens on crowded planet scenes, even as SNW keeps insisting that they're irredeemably evil, xenomorph-like space monsters who attack on sight.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

If you remember Ma'ah is basically a more successful klingon Boimler then it totally makes sense that Mariner just hugs and browbeats him into friendship and totally ignores he wants to continue their fight.

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

Confession #125

"Vrek and Gem (the Romulan and Ferengi we see work together in The Inner Fight) are the most interesting new potential pairing to come out of Lower Decks season 4. They were the only ones from different crews working together before Mariner arrived despite the fact their species aren't exactly on friendly terms (or friendly in general) and their dynamic has the exact energy tumblr loves. The only reason people aren't invested in them is the absolute doozy of a season finale overshadowing everything that happened in the previous episode."

[thresholdbb]

I’ve seen this TNG Sito Jaxa screenshot floating around after the Mariner revelation in Lower Decks saying stuff like, “ooh sucks for Mariner, Sito didn’t consider her a friend.”

I think they were still friends, but friendships are complex relationships. When something catastrophically bad happens (like the Nova Squadron incident), relationships inevitably change. We know Mariner isn’t the best at dealing with her emotions, and she probably didn’t know how to respond to and comfort her friend after the accident happened. She may well have avoided the interaction altogether, leading Sito to believe her friend had abandoned her and that they were no longer friends. That doesn’t necessarily change how Mariner feels, and she may also be carrying guilt about how she responded (or failed to) when her friend was going through it. She is, however, a fiercely loyal friend and could have been very present and comforting post-incident.

That said, there’s also the fact that part of the punishment was Sito repeating her senior year. If Mariner and Sito were in the same year and supposed to graduate together, Mariner would have been posted somewhere while Sito was still at the academy. She would have undeniably felt like a pariah, which would have stuck in her mind while speaking with Picard. Even if Mariner had kept in contact during that last year, she would have been balancing a new job in a new place with staying in touch. I’m sure most of us have had friends seemingly disappear under similar circumstances.

Humans tend to think in black and white terms (especially when things are bad), and Sito’s most prominent memory of the academy would have been feeling very isolated after the accident. Even a utopian future couldn’t completely mitigate feeling like an outcast after an incident that killed a classmate and lying about it.

[borgcast]

I know that face.

[stuffandnosense]

Just noticed something interesting going back through The Inner Fight while working on a fic…

Boimler asks Mariner how her adrenaline is still so high after so long.

Yeah that’s called living on fight or flight for literal years due to unhealed trauma. I mean we’d kind of been knew but it was some nice foreshadowing to the conversation she’d have with Ma’ah toward the end of the episode about said trauma. Someone either actually did their research or, sadly, knew what it was like.

I know I do.

[startrekuniverse]

LOWER DECKS

4x09 The Inner Fight

[itsmyfandomandilikeit]

Mariner and Ma'ah

Ok so the end of last season convinced me that I don't want Mariner to end up with Jennifer. Jennifer assumes the worst of Mariner, and going back to watch the beginning of Season 3, she brings out the worst in her, too. Jennifer hates her friends and only brought Mariner to hang out with them so that Mariner would treat them like crap for her entertainment. Jennifer is a shit friend and a shit person.

So I've been on the lookout for anyone I thought might be better? After yesterday's episode, I definitely thought Ma'ah would be a good choice, but it probably won't happen since I seem to be the only person who thought that.

Either way, I think Mariner should be with a person LIKE Ma'ah. Someone who fundamentally cares and thinks for themselves. His flaws do not make her worse or encourage her to be worse. He supports her in battle and defends her honor as a warrior when she isn't around. He's also a competent leader and decision maker in his own right.

At this point this is just rambling and speculation, and I would be a little surprised if it does happen. But if the writers do decide to pair up Mariner with anyone, this is the new bar that's been set imo. She's not watching out for Ma'ah like she does with her teammates, and she seems to be able to trust him pretty easily since he isn't tied up in all of her baggage. His advice actually works for the way she thinks and honestly I do think it would be cool if she ended up with a Klingon.

[ladyofdecember]

Boimler super mad at Mariner for running out there without a suit 😅

[pixelwixard]

"Could you, though?" a GIFset from Lower Decks S04E09, “The Inner Fight”

[spockvarietyhour]

Klingon Bird-of-Prey in "The Inner Fight"