gen z is trying 2 cancel incest ?

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.