I Draw And Write (says worst liar)

Okay, my thoughts are more in order (don’t make your expectations too high though, I’m more into lexicology than litreature #youngho) from my previous post;

The overarching theme of this season has been to show the toxicity of Rick and Morty’s relationship from Morty’s side. Yes Morty is a 14 year old, but he still has detrimental traits that bring out a worse side in Rick.

Morty, doesn’t receive adequate attention or care from his family members, he’s got some sort of developmental disability (I personally see it as one or more of the following; dyscalculia, dyslexia, ADHD, ASD/autism or fetal alcohol syndrome), thus making him a bit naïve and desperate for positive attention and affection. Morty has most likely learned that the best way to gain affection is through enabling, he’s developed these behaviors despite being somewhat morally opposed to them, in order to survive.

I cite the sympathaid episode where he tires to stop Beth from drinking and the Go-Tron episode for him being morally opposed to enabling. But as we see in the Go-Tron episode, he often gets steamrolled over by his family members/Rick regardless.

Rick gives Morty the attention he desires. Rick is also outright confirmed to have ASD/autism, and Morty is the best candidate out of the family as a constant grounding companion on adventures (which may help with Rick navigating social situations? It’s like having a friend with you when you’re in a new place, they help calm you down, make rational decisions, and just keep things fun).

Summer’s too independent and not desperate enough for attention to manipulate, Beth’s too eager to please to the point of being more willing to put herself in danger than Morty, and Jerry’s… Jerry. Morty has the least social authority, and is basically neglected by his family members, so even if Rick does ludicrous stuff, it’s basically the lesser evil. (Plus, Beth and Jerry likely see Rick as proving Morty with friendship as well, and Morty’s already been stated/implied to be basically friendless.)

If Rick does something abnormal, Morty’s the least likely to judge out of all of the family members, and has shown himself willing to take care of Rick’s messes/be an occasional caretaker.

Rick is also (albeit to a lesser extent outright than Morty) desires positive attention and affirmation. That’s the reason why the whole vat of acid episode happened, it’s because Rick (on some level) desires Morty’s presence and respect.

Rick is abusive to Morty through steamrolling over his opinions, verbally abusing Morty, killing him, putting him in dangerous situations and basically being overall dominant in all aspects. Rick stays with Morty because he’s irrationally attached to Morty, mostly because of the (basically) unconditional affection and enabling that Morty gives him. Morty is not the best for Rick’s mental health because he enables Rick’s bad behaviors, and not only that, seems to actively disbelieve in Rick’s potential to improve/become more healthy! Morty stays with Rick because Rick is his sole role model and because he irrationally loves Rick.

This season showed Rick and Morty’s relationship, and came to an intriguing conclusion.

Many people (including me) thought this season would end up with Morty rebelling and running away, but it instead made the interesting (and in-character, because he’s done this before in season 7) decision to have Morty decide to stay with Rick, fully knowing of the toxicity of his relationship.

Episode 1 kinda implied that Evil Morty ultimately desired Rick’s companionship and the adventures they went on. Evil Morty went through an incredibly convoluted and hard to carry out plan to ‘escape from Ricks’ because he was sick of them, and yet went back to the CFC to do exactly what he claimed to have wanted to escape. There was the gross incest jokes, but those jokes were ultimately built off of Morty’s ever-present fear of being replaced by Rick, which returned in episode 10.

Episode 2 was a plot that implied that Rick was destined to become like Rick prime (going off of prime’s whole speech about him just walking into C-137’s garage first). It also had Morty acting as a parental figure, speaking to Rick as if he were a toddler. The ending kinda shows Morty trying to save Rick emotionally (to no avail), and Rick realizing that his attempts at living a peaceful, normal life are futile because he can’t escape himself. This is once again a sorta plot-point in episode 10 with MIT Rick becoming just like C-137, ricks are destined down the path of alcoholism and a questionable relationship with their grandson.

Episode 3 showed the highs of Morty and Rick’s relationship. They cooperate to defeat a common enemy and Rick provides comfort towards Morty, although he only had to provide comfort to Morty because Morty got hurt from a situation Rick somewhat out Morty in.

Episode 4 showed Morty and Rick once again being at arms with eachother. There’s the scene where Rick tells Morty it’s already inside him, and I, along with most other fans, took it to immediately mean alcoholism, but upon reflection I think it’s deeper than that. I think Rick meant that Morty already has generally substance abuse and dopamine seeking tendencies (as given to him by Rick and Beth). Most fans, along with me, think that Morty will most likely have an episode where he drinks in the future, but he’s already got a dependency on Rick for validation, and is willing to take things like the sympathid to cope with the general shittiness of his life.

I also think what’s interesting that isn’t talked about a lot, is the after credits scene where Morty kills that neighbor character despite that not being one of Rick’s robots. When Morty decided to kill the robot, he would have gained nothing out of it except for the satisfaction of pissing Rick off, and the saved emotional energy from coming to learn that he befriended another one of Rick’s robots. The guy turned out to not be a robot. While Rick still has another one of his password bots come, Morty immediately presumed that Rick would build another robot and return to his poor behavior of getting horrendously drunk and building a password bot despite Morty’s protests. Morty presumed automatically the worst of Rick, and that happens again in episode 10 with Morty doing things like asking if Rick’s gonna yell at him or if his wife’s a robot.

I’ll get to the other episodes soon! But these are my thoughts for now!

i was invited to once again do a piece for the dndads pride zine, and i spent about 2 hours in a panic with no idea what to do. and then i was struck by inspiration and knew exactly what i wanted to do. so go buy the zine and then you can see this piece in the real life whaow!