History Recap / RickAndMortyS3E4Vindicators3TheReturnOfWorldEnder

* DesignatedHero:
** Morty notes that "Whoever defeated the Worldender is an even greater threat!" Then Million Ants senses the presence of "an even greater evil" when Rick's Saw-game starts.
** Over the course of the episode, we see that the Vindicators aren't much better.

* FearInducedIdiocy: Vance Maximus, Renegade Starsoldier was a member of ''[[WesternAnimation/Vindicators2 The Vindicators]]'' and presented himself as the suave and calm leader of the group. [[spoiler: When he goes to fight Worldender with his team, he finds out a drunk Rick already killed him and set up death traps in order to make Morty lose faith in them. Maximus was the first to die as he [[DirtyCoward immediately cracked]] from pressure and revealed himself as an [[BitchInSheepsClothing anxious]], [[GloryHound image-conscious phony]] who saw Morty as a means of publicity. He dies frantically trying to escape through a vent, where he succumbs to a booby-trap that gruesomely bisects him off-screen. [[AssholeVictim But let's face it, he and his team are even worse than Rick.]]]]

*** Keep a close eye on Rick when Vance calls Morty "retarded". He goes from apathetic to a DeathGlare.

* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Morty asks Rick if he set up a ''Film/{{Saw}}''-type scenario for The Vindicators, Rick denies he would do something so hackneyed, followed immediately by the recording of Rick's blackout self excitedly stating that the traps he set up are just like in ''Saw''.

* ButtMonkey: Noob-Noob is treated as a janitor by the other Vindicators, being left out of the mission to clean up Rick's diarrhea.

* DarkseidDuplicate: The Worldender is what, as the staff noted, "if Thanos fucked Darkseid and, like, had a baby, and that baby then fucked some other giant creature monster, that's Worldender". Like Darkseid, he's a hulking [[TheDreaded and feared]] OmnicidalManiac who has conquered and destroyed many worlds. When his minions are found dead, the Vindicators assume he has Darkseid's tendency [[BadBoss to kill his own minions for petty reasons]]... Turns out that he and his minions were killed by a drunken Rick just to show the Vindicators up.

* {{Expy}}: Supernova is based on [[Characters/GLStarSapphireCorps Carol Ferris as Star Sapphire]]. She wears a lot of purple, the same shade as Carol's New 52 Star Sapphire uniform. Supernova's GravityMaster powers as shown in the episode amount to roughly the same abilities as Star Sapphire's manipulation of HardLight constructs; telekinesis and energy field projection. She's the ex-wife of Alan Rails, an obvious parody of multiple Green Lanterns. The Star Sapphires' power is fueled by love, and Carol is Green Lantern Hal Jordan's LoveInterest. The fact that Supernova cheated on Alan with a teammate harkens to Carol seeking romance with other men during times when she and Hal weren't together. Supernova plays a hand in Alan Rails' death, and murders Million Ants; the Star Sapphires were originally a villainous faction, and Carol in particular was a recurring antagonist to Hal Jordan.

* UnInstallment: There was no "Vindicators 1" or "2".[[note]]At the time. The latter has since been made as a series of Website/YouTube shorts.[[/note]]] It happened InUniverse, but [[NoodleIncident we didn't get to see it]], and apparently Rick and Morty weren't even invited to the second one.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Rick claims Crocubot is a living redundancy, asserting that both a crocodile and a robot are already [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent cold]] and [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul unfeeling]] independently.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mostly Rick in this episode. Primarily, even ''he'' is disturbed at the lengths his Blackout Drunk self went to for the death trap he made for the Vindicators.
** Keep a close eye on Rick when Vance calls Morty "retarded". He goes from apathetic to a DeathGlare.
** Even Rick is sort of worried that he might regularly go on anti-Semitic rants while drunk, and is relieved when Morty states all he does is ramble about defense budgets.
** He is a little disturbed by Morty's SeenItAll attitude when it comes to the "neutrino bomb" he made for one of the tests.
** Rick theorizes that for the final test, maybe he wanted Morty to go on the platform that could trigger another DeathTrap. When Morty goes, Rick genuinely warns him not to risk it because the death traps have done NoKillLikeOverkill.
** As much as he hates their guts, the episode suggests that Rick didn't mean for any of the Vindicators to die. He had a party waiting for them at the end of his game, seemingly in celebration of their success.

* PyrrhicVillainy: Rick succeeds in exposing the Vindicators as a bunch of overpowered jerks that were patronizing Morty for a photo-op. He also worsens his relationship with Morty, learns his grandson is too used to the smartest guy in the universe getting blackout drunk, and ''murders'' half the team by accident. Rick considers that he may have gone too far before Supernova tries strangling him and Morty.

* UnInstallment: There was no "Vindicators 1" or "2". It happened InUniverse, but [[NoodleIncident we didn't get to see it]], and apparently Rick and Morty weren't even invited to the second one.

* DarkseidDuplicate: The Worldender is what, as the staff noted, "if Thanos fucked Darkseid and, like, had a baby, and that baby then fucked some other giant creature monster, that's Worldender". Like Darkseid, he's a hulking [[TheDreaded and feared]] OmnicidalManiac who has conquered and destroyed many worlds. When his minions are found dead, the Vindicators assume he has Darkseid's tendency [[BadBoss to kill his own minions for petty reasons]]... or maybe [[GreaterScopeVillain possesses an even greater evil]]. Turns out that he and his minions were killed by a drunken Rick just to show the Vindicators up.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Vance's fate is only shown through sounds effects (see ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill below) and the spatters of blood and bits of LudicrousGibs falling off the vent around his flailing legs.
* GreaterScopeVillain: This is the idea everyone had when World Ender is defeated. It turns out to be Rick. [[VillainProtagonist Whether or not this makes them correct is a bit ambiguous.]]

* FallenHero: Supernova, by the end of the episode, is driven over the edge by the deaths of 3 of the Vindicators. As a result, she tries to kill Rick and Morty, whom she blames for their deaths (even though Morty wasn't the one responsible for any of them--and in fact tried to prevent them--while Drunk!Rick was arguably only directly responsible for 2 of them), and murders her lover, Million Ants, when he tries to talk her out of it. Though she was already well on her way to becoming one anyway after destroying an entire planet to take out one shape-shifting villain.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Drunk!Rick's test was meant to prove to Morty that The Vindicators weren't all they were cracked up to be, but it worked better than even Rick could have expected: It was only meant to prove that The Vindicators were a bunch of incompetent narcissists, not that they were murderous psychopaths. Also, Drunk!Rick probably never intended to be caught in the death traps himself.

** Drunk!Rick is apparently very concerned with Israel's geopolitical circumstances. The way Morty talks about it, Rick has clearly gone on more than one drunken rant about the subject.

* SherlockHomage: At one point, Drunk!Rick is seen wearing a [[Literature/SherlockHolmes deerstalker hat]].
* ShoutOut: ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' is referenced by name as being the source of Drunk!Rick's series of tests. While succeeding in the tests guarantees survival in the episode, the ''Saw'' movies have most tests cost AnArmAndALeg if, or other body parts, if a victim escapes, or outright dying if they fail.

* AbsenteeActor: Jerry once again does not appear in this episode.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:

* UnwinnableByMistake:
** The second test is meant to show the Vindicators something terrible and hypocritical about themselves, but because Rick reaches the "rambling incoherently" point of being drunk, the answer to the test is Israel. The Vindicators would never have passed this test without Morty's help since none of them have ever been to Earth and have no idea what Israel ''is.''
** The answer to the last question, what The Vindicators have that Rick holds dear, is Noob-Noob for reacting positively to Rick's zingers. However, he was left behind for the mission, making the trap impossible to answer by intentional means. Fortunately, a deleted line reveals that the trap confirmed their answer by weight, and Morty's is the same as Noob-Noob's.

* BaitAndSwitch: Morty is thought to be what Rick holds dear, the platform in the final test leading to a cutesy roller coaster where a recording of Rick tells Morty how much he means to him and how afraid he was that the Vindicators would take him away. Then Rick [[WhamLine says they barely know each other]] and then finally refers to the ride's intended passenger by name: Noob-Noob, the Vindicators' janitor who laughs at his jokes.

* BrokenPedestal: By the end of the episode, almost all of the Vindicators have been killed off by their incompetence and their infighting proves Rick right about their flaws. The SoleSurvivor, Supernova, is a remorseless traitor who betrayed her teammates and tried to kill Rick and Morty. It's safe to say Morty doesn't look up to them anymore.

** Morty reminds Rick that he is allowed to choose his own adventure for every 9 Rick takes him to, especially following their bet in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E5MeeseeksAndDestroy Meeseeks And Destroy]]".