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  • "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 theyre 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 SophoclesOedipus Rex, a prophecy says that the baby Oedipus will kill his father

  • and marry his mother.

  • All of his parentsefforts 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 well 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!"

  • TheArchnemesis Dadnarrative has already been overtly featured on Rick and Morty in

  • the Evil Morty storyline.

  • Here we saw a bitter, cold Morty who hatesRicks of all kindsand 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 charactersdifferences.

  • 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.

  • Theyre 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. Youre 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 Plutoniansfake 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 kidsfantasy 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 youll 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 thenormieof 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.

  • Do you sometimes get the urge to yell?

  • "I'm pickle Rick!"

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  • Their clothes run a little small, so size up one or two sizes.

"Go to school, Summer. I'll go in Morty's memory and do a little."

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