"Go to school, Summer. I'll go in Morty's memory and do a little."
Rick often plays God,
"If God exists, It’s f***ing me!"
while Morty is a mere mortal.
But Rick himself certainly values Morty, enough to want to spend all his time with the boy,
and if we dig deeper it becomes clear that Morty’s actually just as essential to the
Rick and Morty universe,
or rather, to all the Rick and Morty universes, as Rick is, and for good reason.
So here are the key reasons we can see for why Morty matters.
By the way, stick around at the end of this video,
and we're going to tell you how to get a major discount on some really cool Rick and Morty
gear we came across.
"You two call yourselves geniuses, but you've spent this time learning nothing!
Come with me into the forest -- there's something I wish to teach you."
"There's a heavy theme of creator and createe in Rick and Morty."
The dynamic of father and son or creator and creation is reflected in Rick’s contentious
relationships
with his creations.
But while of course they’re literally grandfather and grandson,
thematically, the father-son story is a key part of Morty’s relationship with Rick.
Father-son narratives have been around for thousands of years,
not just as a way of talking about literal parents and children,
they are humanity’s way of dealing with our complicated feelings on life’s key principle
--
new will inevitably replace old.
Stories based on an "Archnemesis Dad" reflect our pain due to the inevitability of life
cycles.
In Greek mythology, Cronos, the youngest of the titans, overthrew his father to become
ruler,
then became paranoid that his children would overthrow him,
and decided to kill all his own kids by eating them, as a precaution.
But one baby, Zeus, was hidden by his mother in a cave,
and grew up to kill Cronos and become king of the gods on Olympus.
Perhaps the most iconic example of the Archnemesis Dad trope is Star Wars, with Luke and Darth
Vader.
"You killed him."
"No. I am your father."
A key message of these narratives is that fighting the inevitable only helps it come
to pass.
In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, a prophecy says that the baby Oedipus will kill his father
and marry his mother.
All of his parents’ efforts to avoid this only make sure that these events do in fact
happen.
And Harry Potter features an original take on the same motifs.
Voldemort hears a prophecy saying Harry would kill him, so he tries to kill the young boy.
But in the process, the powerful wizard inadvertently plants a bit of his soul in Harry,
giving the young boy unique powers and acting as his "creator" in a way.
Harry, thereby strengthened, grows up to become Voldemort’s downfall, and fulfills the prophecy.
All of these stories demonstrate the pain we feel knowing we’ll die and be replaced.
But we can't prevent this universal destiny, so characters who try to fight this natural
life cycle are punished.
And the dad who tries to stop his son from replacing him by squashing new life
becomes a villain at war with the nature of life itself.
As we've seen, the "Archnemesis Dad" trope can apply to any Parent-Child, Creator-Creation,
or Student-Teacher duo.
Any relationship that is fundamentally about the old passing on knowledge or life to the
young
or the young searching for their place in the world.
Rick and Morty aren’t father and son, but their relationship eerily follows this classic
Archnemesis Dad narrative.
Early on in the show, Morty admires Rick and tries to mimic him,
spending much more time with Rick than with his actual father.
Morty’s time with Rick is an apprenticeship of sorts,
though he learns more about controlling Rick than about actual science.
He can now see through Rick’s petty behavior and disable a nutrino bomb in minutes.
"You should still stay back!"
"Morty, how many of these --"
"Too many, Rick! Too many!"
Rick, meanwhile, seems hellbent on asserting his dominance and keeping Morty’s ego in
check.
"Just don’t get too big for your loafers, Buster Brown.
A cocky Morty could lead to some big problems."
This underlying dynamic explains why Rick so often feels the need to put Morty down.
His behavior echoes many of the Father-Son stories
in which the father tries to keep the son from gaining any power, fearing displacement.
Their time together transforms Morty -- he becomes increasingly jaded and callous.
"Mr. President. If I've learned one thing today,
it's that sometimes you have to not give a f***!"
And most importantly, his attitude towards Rick changes drastically.
He's now disillusioned with Rick’s behavior, ethics and approach to life,
"Come on, bird person. Rick's that complicated!
He's just a huge asshole!"
He sees through the bravado to the egotism beneath.
Rick’s pedestal has now cracked.
"He bails on everybody! He bailed on mom when she was a kid! He bailed on Tiny Planet!
And in case I never made this clear to you, Summer, he bailed on you!"
The “Archnemesis Dad” narrative has already been overtly featured on Rick and Morty in
the Evil Morty storyline.
Here we saw a bitter, cold Morty who hates “Ricks of all kinds” and devotes his time
to killing them.
This Morty possesses the solidified adult identity and goals
that every "son"’ figure must search for and eventually achieve,
and this role seems to be ridding the multiverse of Ricks.
The question that remains is whether our Morty will renounce Rick.
In Morty’s Mind-Blowers, we saw what might have been the final straw
as Morty snapped and actually attacked Rick.
And in Ricklantis we see what appears to be Evil Morty returning
and making a bid for city council in the Citadel of Ricks, suggesting bigger upheavals to come.
If Rick’s story reflects the fear of inevitably growing old and becoming irrelevant,
Morty’s story reflects the challenges of growing up.
There’s a crushing realization that hits everyone sometime post-puberty -
finding your place in the world doesn’t happen automatically.
Becoming an adult is really hard and seems to inevitably involve becoming disillusioned,
disappointed or angry with your parental figures.
"I'm sorry! I ended up lying to you and yelling at you just like my parents did to me."
The creator-creation life cycle eventually requires the creation or son to become his
own person
and that means renouncing your idols
or at least realizing idols are human, just like everyone else.
"My father kept me locked in a house until I was a teenager.
and there was violence and...threats of poison gas.
But also dancing."
In many ways, Morty is Rick’s polar opposite.
He’s naive where Rick is cynical, anxious where Rick is confident.
Rick walks all over people, people walk all over Morty.
"Glenn's bleeding to death! Someone call his wife and children!"
"They're not robots, Rick!"
"It's a figure of speech, Morty! They're bureaucrats! I don't respect them!"
Morty asks a lot of questions while Rick has all the answers.
Rick seemingly doesn’t care about anything, Morty cares too much about everything.
Their differences make Rick and Morty an odd couple,
a classic comedic pairing based on two characters’ differences.
Some of the show’s inspirations were odd couples as well,
like Phineas and Ferb, and Doc Brown and Marty McFly.
Clashing personalities often result in comedy gold.
Rick and Morty being dysfunctional polar opposites makes us think
that maybe combined, they could make one functional person,
which is probably why the fan theory that Morty is actually Rick’s younger self is
so popular.
There are obvious holes in this theory, like does that make Beth both mother and daughter
to the same man?
The show’s creators avoid definitive explanations like this, for fear of writing themselves
into a corner,
and they prefer just messing with fan conspiracy theorists,
for example by placing a Rick-Morty hybrid in The Citadel of Ricks.
So Rick and Morty may not secretly be parts of the same person,
but Morty is definitely the thing that’s missing from Rick.
So watching a show with just Rick without a Morty would probably feel sad.
Rick and Morty also fit the bill for hero and sidekick.
Being a brilliant man of science who can’t stand most people and cares about little other
than his work,
Rick is an anti-hero type called "The Insufferable Genius."
Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who and House all fall into this category.
Insufferable Geniuses typically need a sidekick to help them navigate the world,
due to their complete lack of social skills and their egotism.
They’re often paired with someone more conscientious and likeable, a type called the Morality Pet.
"You have got to find less debilitating outlets than humiliating people.
I hear bowling is more fun than stalking."
Morty compensates for Rick’s lack of a moral compass,
calling out some of Rick’s most ethically questionable behavior, like enslaving a miniverse
or dealing arms.
"Selling a gun to a hitman is the same as pulling the trigger!"
The Morality Pet bridges the gap between the Insufferable Genius and the rest of the world.
It’s a special character who can understand both the inaccessible brain and everyone else,
and translate between the two.
While Morty may not be as glamorous or get called a genius,
it's the Rick who truly needs the Morty, and not the other way around.
"All right! Knock it off! You're not impressing anyone.
Morty, not that I give a [bleep], but are you okay?"
Even though everyone thinks Morty is mentally challenged, including his family, teachers
and even the Vindicators.
"Oh, so you're the leader now because we gave you a jacket?
You're the learning-disabled kid we do photo ops with!"
From what we witness he’s actually very wise.
He’s not cerebral like Rick, but Morty’s genius lies in his ability to identify other’s
emotions
and understand what to do with this insight.
In other words, he’s emotionally intelligent.
For example, in "Get Schwifty," Morty knows exactly how to help his dad feel valuable.
"Hey, dad? Nobody’s smarter than Rick. But nobody else is my dad. You’re a genius at
that."
"Wow."
At this point, Beth thinks Jerry is insecure about his intelligence,
but Morty knows that the real source of his father’s insecurity
is the fear that Rick is displacing him as a father figure for Morty.
Morty also correctly predicts that Jerry will buy into the Plutonians’ fake admiration
of him,
understanding that Jerry is driven by a desire for fame and admiration.
"Oh man, this is definitely going to go to his head!"
Unlike Morty, Rick is actually not very smart when it comes to people’s emotions and motivations,
possibly because he just doesn’t care very much about feelings.
"Goodbye!"
"So did you guys make out a little bit? Is he gonna send you a postcard?"
He builds Beth a perfect kids’ fantasy land to stop her from acting out,
and never recognizes that what she really needs is more attention from her father.
"You can't do it, can you? You can't just [bleep] apologize."
"Okay, okay, Beth. I'm sorry. You think you deserve an apology."
But Morty knows exactly how his mother feels about Rick and tries to keep her from getting
hurt.
"Rick, I can handle it if you go , but you’ll break mom’s heart, and I won’t forgive
you for that."
And he knows his dad is depressed after the divorce, so he convinces Rick to take Jerry
on an adventure.
Rick is the brains of the show, and Morty is its heart.
As the heart, Morty also has an intuitive understanding of ethics and decency.
He pushes Rick to treat others with more concern and fairness.
"Thank you, Morty. You are not like other carbon-based life forms. You put the value
of all life above your own."
Morty’s intellect isn’t as easy to recognize as Rick’s,
because our society places less value on emotional intelligence.
We tend to view it as inferior.
But while Morty’s smarts aren’t appreciated, the people around him clearly depend on Morty.
So his form of intelligence does a lot of good in his world.
This one might probably make a lot of the would-be Ricks in the Rick and Morty fanbase
furious,
but if there’s any character in the show that represents the audience -- it’s Morty.
Morty is the ‘normie’ of the show.
He reacts the way a real person would when placed in these situations,
mostly by being completely terrified and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"That's it! I'm done with these insane adventures! That was really traumatizing! I quit! I'm
out!"
He’s constantly horrified by Rick and by what they experience together,
so that we don’t have to be, letting us just sit back and enjoy the show.
Also, Morty has an anxious tendency to ask a lot of questions,
"So what's so special about these seeds anyways?"
"You ask a lot of questions, Morty. Not very charismatic."
which conveniently allows the writers to slip in exposition without forcing it.
If it wasn’t for Morty, we would probably be confused most of the time, since Rick’s
behavior is erratic at best.
While most of us have probably thought about what it would be like to be a Rick,
there’s nothing inherently bad in being a Morty,
and maybe this video has even convinced some of you that being a Morty has its merits.
So maybe it’s a good thing that he has more questions than answers.
Like most of us, Morty is still figuring out who he is and what his life is going to be
like.
And maybe we should ask more questions too.
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