Echo✨

- M-Morty, can you understand me?…

creating rickbot? rick didn't want morty to be lonely or to worry about him, even when rick himself was upset at morty for "treating" him like he's "boring" during the knights of the sun episode

the fear hole episode at the end? he carries a picture of morty in his wallet. he LIKES being able to see an image of morty whenever he wants. it might even bring him comfort. him putting it on the board was to also show how proud he was of morty, at the end, to the extent that he would willing part with something he obviously LIKES. (tho tbh he prob just grabbed another picture at home and put it in his wallet. it was clearly a school photo and they prob do have multiple of those)

like, this is something that is really coming across more overtly in the later seasons. in the earlier seasons, we saw rick go through cycles of controlling morty and then discarding him when they either got too emotionally close, when morty expressed anger/displeasure with rick, and/or when rick felt like he needed to "punish" morty for either of the two previous things (think the vat of acid or the two crows).

rick's toxic treatment and abuse of morty can be considered him "caring" about morty in his own fucked up way, even though it's not true love and care as it disregards morty's autonomy and feelings. however, for someone like rick to willingly exert control over another person instead of just abandoning them the moment they express something he doesn't like? that's basically him admitting he wants morty in his life.