i am Constantly thinking about the end of season 4... about the fact that by the end of the second all-valley, the main 3 miyagi-fangs (miguel, sam, eli) showing the proof that the merger worked despite daniel and johnny fighting it the entire time. but while sam and eli showed it mainly in the sense of mixing their own fighting styles... miguel having a couple extra scenes in 4x10 hear me out... walking back out from the medic room to the mat. everyone starts losing their shit because they think miguel's gonna fight again. but he walks Right Over to the sidelines, and slots in with the other miyagi-fangs that have already started merging from their separate sides to a sea of red and white. the ref looks at him and he just shakes his head, smiling over at eli and giving him their lil bestie handshake.

miguel choosing to let eli take over because that's what the merger was supposed to be. it wasn't letting one side win over the other, it wasn't swallowing the lesser dojo into the stronger one. it was two separate, smaller dojos, coming Together to take down the stronger one. where he very well would have fought past the pain in s3 and most of s4 (and probs ending up in a situation similar or worse than 2x10) .. him Trusting in eli and in miyagi-do... being part of the proof that the merger worked even though the adults spent the whole time rehashing the same decades-old drama for the fourth time in a year thank you for coming to my ted talk