Actually kind of obsessed with the idea that Rick c-137 isn’t attracted to Morty because he’s still a child. Like, literally treating him as a romantic partner in every way minus the sex because he just isn’t into him like that, despite how profound their bond is. And Morty being 14 is horny on main so he totally would be dtf If Rick showed any interest in him like that, but he doesn’t. And Morty’s SEEN other Rick’s and Morty’s in actual sexual relationships so he knows it’s a thing that happens… just not with C-137. So Morty spends the next 4-5 years going through the cycle of ‘what the fuck is wrong with me’ to ‘planetary mindset blah blah blah’ before finally accepting the fact that he has a crush on his grandfather and their relationship is unique but Rick doesn’t love him in the same way and that’s ok and he’s FINALLY at a point where he can be ok with that. Then suddenly is 19/20 (and a very late bloomer) and Rick starts acting weird. Pet names, kind words, praise, and worst of all he’s very handsy. Pressing their body’s together against a wall to ‘hide’ on a mission. Brushing Morty’s longish hair away from his forehead. Rubbing Morty’s shoulders as he tries to talk him into something dangerous. Shoving him while they bicker, and Morty thinks he’s being crazy because they’ve been fighting more over nothing meaningful, and it just seems like Rick is starting shit as an excuse to put his hands all over Morty-which is CRAZY, right? And yet Rick keeps finding more absurd ways to touch Morty until he can’t actually play it off as nothing in his own mind. So Morty risks it all and flirts with Rick, and is flabbergasted when Rick flirts back because 1-what the fuck, that’s never worked before and 2- Grandpas got game to the point where Morty is red faced blushing, stumbling out of the garage before he does something stupid.
And yeah now that Morty is an adult Rick literally can’t help himself.
Rick getting into a genuinely healthy relationship with someone, and Morty's conflicted about it. He's seen Rick have other love interests, but this one has gotten so close that they're almost integrated into the Smith family. He sees them all the time, doing things that usually only Rick and him would, and even more. He can't help but feel uncomfortable, and he doesn't know why.
He tries getting over it by simply asking Rick if he would try to hang out more like old times, and they do, but the hangouts have gotten shorter, and their relationship more shallow. Even though Rick is visibly happier and friendlier to him, Morty's still not happy, even though that should be what he'd always wanted.
The lack of attention gets unbearable. Morty secretly tries to ruin the relationship, taking advantage of the fact that Rick still trusts him, feeding them both small lies one step at a time, and when it works, he feels both guilty and satisfied when he's the one who Rick looks to for comfort about his breakup.
Morty thinks he got away with it, until one day, Rick comes up to him, drunk and wobbling, telling him that he knows all about what he did.
+ personal thoughts, clip analysis, & em (evil morty) contemplation? also sorry again for the fat essay down below, i got carried away bc of how excited i got :D
honestly, this episode was so sweet. i did not expect snowball to come back into the picture, but the absolute happiness in his voice when morty came out in the first clip was just AUGGGHGHGH SO SWEETTT. i love how snowball's voice actor was changed to someone older bc dogs age faster than humans! also the episode recognizing morty's penance for uprisings is hilarious because i'm pretty sure that happens a lot of times in the show, morty just being like. a leader and symbol of good. it really contrasts rick's symbol as like, destruction, death, and chaos. my theory is that the brain waves between rick and morty cancel out because they complement one another, not because smart and dumb cancels out. but i'll make another post on that.
like i always do, i see parallels in this episode. more specifically, between morty and snowball and em and rick.
reflecting back on season 9 ep 1 without rickorty shipper goggles, i was trying to think of why em would suddenly change, suddenly reach out to a rick that he's so obviously wanted to keep away from in the past, and suddenly drag on adventures with. em so obviously wanted to deconstruct the CFC (and did), and we've seen his obvious disdain for ricks and blatant disregard for morties. so, why reconnect with rick? why reconnect when em is so obviously capable by himself? why try to make morty jealous in the first place? why would the writers disregard this trait of em's--hating ricks?
this episode brought the reason why to light: em is the snowball in this equation. think about it. at the end of the clip, rick treats morty like a dog, mirroring snowball's relationship with morty! morties were selectively bred for forgiveness and to be ricks' companion across infinity. snowball was selectively bred for unconditional love and to be man's best friend across the entire world--and in turn, morty's best friend. morty, in this relationship, is the rick. he was basically god in the original dynamic they both had--similar to rick's role as basically a god. in snowball's monologue, he admits he was trying to be like morty and emulate man, but failed in doing so. he felt ashamed. we even see that after all this, even after trying to kill morty (similar to em killing ricks), that he still loves morty. we can see it in how snowball clearly still loves the little pets, keeps morty in the bunker with him when he could so easily rip out his throat, have fun little banter with morty, and confides in morty about his insecurities.
and i think that this, everything that happened in the second clip, mirrors what happened with em. em was, or is, ashamed. even though he didn't want to be anything like rick, as snowball with morty, em ended up being exactly like rick. he killed indiscriminately across the multiverse. he was manipulative. he was cunning. he tortured morties. he killed ricks. but despite it all, he's just that little boy who wants rick's attention and wants to be just like him--just like a dog to his owner.
i think that's why em was trying to make morty jealous. he's jealous that morty's rick actually cares about morty, and he's ashamed that he wants that too--on either side of the relationship. em is everything like rick so why doesn't morty want him? he's everything like rick and they work so well together, so why doesn't rick want him? that's the real reason em went back to rick and morty. basically, he wants to be their third lol.
i cannot think of anything within the episode that doesn't allude to em's personal relationship with the rick and morty dynamic right now, so i can really only think of this episode of a flashlight, bringing light to what confused me in the first episode. this season is really proving to be just... super heart wrenching and full of nostalgia, especially with all the callbacks and wrap ups to side characters. i remember when season 4 was still coming out.
oh! jerry getting a job is also a sweet little wrap up! i'm thinking that the dunking on jerry was a bit justin roiland really amped up, and the writers were trying to get away from that so they've been focusing jerry on some of the sci-fi bits. cause honestly, jerry is just an average guy. maybe a little below average, but with all the sci-fi nonsense, anyone would be pathetic. it looks like jerry's getting used to it though. i'm also the person typing up a rick and morty analysis on tumblr at 3 am so i'm probably just defending the guy who's the most like me. again, i will be utterly surprised if anything i said here is revealed to be true in future episodes--but we'll burn that bridge when we get there!
also also i watched this episode really late at night, like 1 am-ish, so i probably missed a couple of things. in my sleepiness rotted brain, i legit thought at some point that morty and the dog were gonna kiss. idk, i saw friends to enemies to lovers somewhere in that episode. another thing to mention: sorry if any formatting seemed weird. i used my laptop to type this up because it was faster than typing it up on the phone, so here you go! a goddamn paper. thanks for reading through this.
edit: just as a i posted this another thought came to mind. morty is different from em in that morty accepts the fact that he loves rick and wants his approval. that's the whole reason why morty's been able to comfort snowball if snowball was the metaphorical em in this conversation. morty accepts the fact that he's ashamed of what he is, and lets it run over him. he processes it and embraces it! em has claimed before that morty will end up like him, parallel to how rick ended up like rick prime--but morty won't because he has the EQ to deal with his feelings. just a little food for thought.
I’m aware I have shipper goggles on, but the impression Rick’s interactions with Morty gave me in the last episode is “you made me a pedo. I’m gonna kill you.” And it’s so pathetic it’s hilarious.
i don’t usually like to get involved in proship antiship discourse, but a funny thought came to mind.
it’s funny how in minor/adult ships, antishippers assume the proshipper wants to be in the position of the older one. when in reality, it’s the opposite. lemme fuck up AND fuck that grandpa. bro’s gonna feel abused by how much i enjoy his abuse.
My second piece for the RaM Big Bang, and the second piece for Klei’s wonderful fic, ‘Bars of Dramatic Iron’! Please go ahead and have a read of this incredible fic (beware, it’s nsfw!), and leave kudos and supportive comments if you can! :) <3
+ episode analysis & rickorty (apologies in advance, i basically wrote an essay down below before realizing it.)
honestly, this episode didn’t stick out to me all that much. it felt like a rehash of certain plot devices we’ve seen before (the omniscient fart cloud guy with a funny voice and the blue cloud possessing jerry, rick bot and reese, and vodka planet and car battery miniverse). but, i think it paints all these tropes in a different light.
this episode holds such a different tone to the previous one. in the rick fu episode, everything goes to shit and they argue but they make up and everything’s fine! it’s super wholesome. this episode follows the same exact plot line—with the only difference being rick’s alcoholism.
this clip shows just how fucking toxic everything gets in light of rick’s alcoholism—specifically his behavior when he’s drunk. literally nothing changes in terms of the familiar plot structure we all recognize besides that. and i think rick knows he gets abusive when drunk, and he built this robot not just to protect morty, but to protect morty from rick. notice how reese literally interjects whenever rick is in the middle of berating morty in this clip? it happens both times rick gets drunk and starts berating morty! and the second bot—georgie boy—literally interjects again when rick is angry drunk!
that’s the only thing that stood out to me, theme-wise, about this episode. when i first saw the clips with reese, rick, and morty fishing together, i thought it was gonna be another jellybean situation where we get to see rick protect morty, but it wasn’t. i was right about another thing though! rick was paul in this episode and morty norman, if we’re still sticking to the book a river runs through it the episode title was based on. i was also right about previous episode setting up for this one! the sweetness juxtaposed against this episode to make rick seem more cruel.
as for rickorty content, i think this episode shows that rick and morty are on even ground. morty can hold his own as we can see, but rick always starts it—especially when drunk. in fact, while we all know rick’s emotional intelligence is really fucking low, it’s lower than that of a 14 year old (how old is morty now bruh, he’s been 14 for over a decade). did you see the way they argued? actually, flashback to the beginning of the episode where morty checked up on drunk rick. doesn’t that remind you of a spouse checking up on his husband to make sure he doesn’t get himself into shit? we see that morty has to take care of rick, and has done so consistently (does the same thing in the ted episode!)
rick’s the abusive drunk in this relationship and he fucking knows it. also, the comment about the alcoholism being genetic at the end? that feels like a callback to the therapist episode where rick is called out on him using his intelligence to be toxic—he can’t fight genetics so might as well lean into the alcoholism, right? but, while he knows he can’t change, he has to protect morty from himself, hence reese’s existence.
before the episode came out, i also remember people talking about morty being rick’s password. i was thinking “hm, the writers went a little heavy on rickorty this season. it’ll probably be diane because they’re both 5 letters, and we’ll see morty surprised at the fact rick is still hung up on his dead wife.”
NAH! i was proven wrong. dead wife who? fuck no, grandson across infinity forever bitch. rick even admits it, the emotionally stunted asshole. it’s funny how much rick emphasizes how much he hates morty. morty has so many reasons to hate rick, but i theorize rick actually hates how much he loves morty and how dependent he’s gotten on morty.
overall, i’m appreciating how the writers are addressing the dynamic rick and morty have together in contrast to last season. they’re uncomfortably reliant on one another as grandfather and grandson, too close to be considered a familial relationship, literally hold a dynamic perfectly connected to each other across infinity (brainwaves, wonder when they’re gonna address that again), and in consideration of all this—can hurt each other with the same intensity. rick, even more so.
amandla
baratheonpilled
romaincrisis
