Rewatching Rick and Morty (C137cest for the WIN Summer understands me) and yeah I know it's not that deep but I really think that Rick was kinder to Morty in the earliest days because he fucking adored the wide-eyed innocence that Morty displayed then, the open admiration, the simple worldview, because despite what he claims Rick envies early Morty's naivetyβhe then proceeds to ruin it because his intellect tells him that his partner needs to be at least somewhat learned if he wants Morty to stay alive, and Rick proceeds to ruin that naivety with what he sees as nonchalant relish but in reality he knows is just a natural consequence of being around Rick Sanchez. He's like poison gas and everything good and pure and happy rots and wilts into cynicism and violence if he hangs around it long enough, because Unity was right; Rick is better at shaping people into his own mold than a literal hivemind could ever be. And even as Morty grows jaded and he loses that precious ignorance Rick is still dependent on him because Morty has now been molded so perfectly to be at Rick's side that he's become another limb, one that Rick both sees as a nuisance and also knows that he can't bear to be without even as they hurt each other and abandon each other only to circle right the hell back into the same cycle of codependence they've been rocking since Rick first dragged Morty by his ankle into a spaceship. Rick treats Morty like shit more and more as time goes on because he knows he can take it, and Rick hates Morty for succumbing to a Rick-centric worldview almost as much as he hates himself for forcing it on him.
