Thinking of Blood Ridge and why exactly does it feel so profound to me. I tried to list all the layers involved in making it so tragic, and ended up with 10 times more words than I planned which I consider a testament to how amazing this plot is (and to my obsession unfortunately).
1. None of it matters, exept for Birdperson
In a way Rick tells BP that he's the only thing that matters to him.
I could take you right now to this same battlefield, in a universe where we lost or another where we won. Or another where the war never even happened. All equally real, all equally unreal. None of it matters.
Because I respect you. And I wanted you to know you could respect me.
Even though nothing matters?
Rick has seen the infinite, experienced the nature of multiverse and reached a conclusion that nothing really matters. In a cosmic sense, but also to him. Exept for BP.
This is a big statement, a testament to great feelings (romantic or platonic). You could read it as him saying not only saying "you matter the most in the world to me", but also saying "you matter the most in all versions of all conceivable worlds". You can even reach and say it is THIS instance of BP matters the most in the world, because Rick could search for a version that'd follow him, but didn't. Why has he refrained from doing it is a separate topic; the current BP is most probably not Prime BP and Rick is somehow ok with it. I’d love to dive into this one day, got some theories.
2. Being wrong with a hint of unsuccessful autistic masking
He got things wrong and that’s embarrassing to the smartest man in the universe. Rick being who he is, seems to value getting things precisely right. The Truth, as in true nature of things, appears to be valuable -or even enjoyable- to him. He delights in being the only person who sees things for what they are, and subjecting others to The Truth when it’s uncomfrotable or missed. The easiest example would the overused quote about love, but there’s plenty others:
“(...)what people call 'love' is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed.”
We all know, evolutionary, it's kinda true, but chose to operate ignoring this because the meaninglessness of love would be just too bleak, too uncomfortable. Rick enjoys dissecting and showcasing this type of truths, being in the position of a presenter of such. So becoming the person who got things wrong and mistaken would be uncomfortable to him (mistaken that the feelings are mutual).
There's also a hint of something that personally feels a bit like neuroatypical difficulties understanding social norms - he misread the vibe and didn't mask the way he usually does, which can be painful. I get this idea partially because of voice acting, the excitement picks up when he's saying:
But I could take you right now to this same battlefield, in a universe where we lost, or another where we won. Or another where the war never even happened. All equally real, all equally unreal. None of it matters.
It's another thing to unpack but keeping it short: what reads as nihilistic and bleak is performed in an excited joyful way, which makes me feel Rick got caught up in the scientific wonder he feels about the true nature of reality. “None of it matters” is delivered especially joyfully, at least that’s how I perceive it. Ironically I think it’s this excitement, that’s BP reads as lack of integrity.
What speaks in favor of this take is quite a ruthless response after BP rejects proposition. Rick goes on a hurtful tangent, resorting back to his cynical shtick that (I think) intends to show he doesn't care about that at all, when he just admitted it does. It also feels to me like his default masking strategy.
So, if the neuroatypical masking take is correct, the shame comes from the fact that he didn't mask his excitement well enough, revealing by accident his scientific wonder, which was then perceived as cynical, nihilistic or even moraly decayed. In other words: lack of integrity.
(That is so fucking painfull, I can not.)
3. Unexpected desynchronization
It’s also interesting to notice we don't rally see many instances of BP saying no to Ricks ideas in the past. He's portrayed "down to clown" most of the time. I think it’s kinda the idea behind his character, the joke being that he's ready for crazy stuff, really fun personality which clashes with the stoic and collected mannerism. Kinda the exact architecture of most iconic lines like "in birdculture it is considered a dick move" or "I am indeed down to clown".
But going back to matter at hand: it’s possible that there's a tiny mirror to Rick dynamic with Morty here. Maybe this type of disbalance is where Rick feels most comfortable, him at the steering wheel and a companion ready to witness his crazy actions, rarely questioning it. If that’s the case being rejected like this, assuming BP was more of a passenger up until then (or at least mostly on the same page) would feel very unexpected and add to the hurt. And I want to say it’s interesting because of character building perspective, not because it’s cool. He's deeply dysfunctional and it’s not ok. Another take, kinda oposite, may be that this is why Rick drags Morty along, because he rarely definetly objects and this doesn't put Rick in danger of being rejected like that again. I do feel a connection could be drawn here. But thats another topic on its own.
4. Importance of BP and Blood Ridge as a building block of Rick personality
The last thought I’d like to share is that outside of current family two most important relationships that he know Rick had are Diane and BP (and Cisko, somehow). BUT Rick doesn't know much about Diane. He knows he loved her and that she was brutaly taken away from him. This is in on itself extremely interesting to discect (and I may one day), but the point is: a lot of Diane may be an ilusion.
We dont know and it seems Rick doesn’t know either. Omega device took all precise memories of Diane exept for one (shooting range). Prime even mentioned that the marriage was falling apart, but we don't know if thats true. It may have been just as beautiful and ethereal as suggested in the snippets, or it may have been mundane or even failing, just idealised with time. The most of that relationship we see is BP’s idealised memory of Rick with Rick’s (possibly idealised) memory of Diane (Fear Hole footage is Morty’s imagination so doesn’t count here).
It does not sound like we saw a faithful depiction of an actual relationship they had. We just have no actual data here so it’s equally fair to assume it was perfect and far from it.
But the point being: if there's no memories it’s impossible to tell how much of an influence the actual relationship has on his present personality (outside of the tragedy that happened, because we know that is a huge part of Rick).
On the other hand: Rick does remember BP. And I’m mentioning this difference because it’s possible that the echos of their dramas may be much more prevalent in Rick’s current personality and motivations. I could even imagine the rejection at Blood Rodge is a solid building block of the nihilistic approach (especially if we agree that after Blood Ridge Rick changed his mind, deciding BP doesn’t matter after all, hence his peace with the fact it’s no longer the original BP). You could probably dive deep and draw strings to a lot of current issues of Rick and his relationship with BP. It would probably be overinterpretion but who cares, it’s cool to do whatever you want with a piece of media inside your own head.
Or you could write a solid canonical fanfic I guess.
It amazes me how this very complicated universe is capable of creating such complex and realistic characters. I'm not sure of this is calculated and intentional or just intuition and/or referencing real people, but it works on so many levels. Once you start pulling it appart it still all makse sense, at least to me. It’s interesting that you can take such a convoluted concept of multiverse, put a character through absolutely unrealistic and confusing experiences and still produce motivations, aspirations and fears that are this coherent, logical and... normal. I have similar feelings about two Beths plot.
Rick and Morty is such a SOLID piece of media. I wish it was appreciated the way it deserves. Or at least have more active fandom, but maybe once season 9 starts things will pick up. The reviews seems to be praising it, but I think we all know better than to trust the reviews.
Anyways please share your thoughts on this topic if you feel like it (or even if someone managed to read through the whole thing :D). I’d love to see a different perspective or just discuss it.
