When Morty started getting smaller roles in a few episodes in season six, and then basically became a side character in season seven, I started having doubts about the writers. Did they not want to write Morty? Did they not know how to (anymore)?
Well, now season eight is almost finished, and those doubts have been erased in me as Morty's reclaimed his place as title character, mostly.
But there's another issue, one that might shed light on the issue of the previous two seasons. So far, I can only think of four episodes this season where Rick and Morty were together for more than a couple scenes: Summer of All Fears, The Last Temptation of Jerry, Cryo Mort a Rickver, and Ricker than Fiction. In the latter two, they spent a good chunk of the episode apart.
So now I feel like, it's less that they've been avoiding writing Morty, and more that they've been avoiding writing Rick and Morty. (As in, the two characters together, not avoiding writing the show.) Why is this? The optimist side of me says it's because they want to explore their relationships with other characters. The pessimist side of me says it's because they're running out of ideas of what the title characters can do together. The analytical geek side of me says it's because their dynamic has always been unhealthy and it doesn't mesh well with the recent theme of Rick becoming more gentle. The delulu goblin side of me says it's because it's too hard to not write about them going to bone town.
