History Recap / RickAndMortyS3E4Vindicators3TheReturnOfWorldEnder

* DarkseidDuplicate: The Worldender is what, as Tthe 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.

* AsYouKnow: Morty explains the importance of the Vindicators to Rick who would already know about it.
-->'''Morty''': Rick, the Vindicators only call when the universe itself is at stake. They're the first line of defense against evil. They're the guardians of the unguarded!

{{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.

* CaptainErsatz: The Vindicators are one for Comicbook/TheAvengers and the ComicBook/JusticeLeague.
** Vance is a "sexy drinker" like [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] while closely resembling [[ComicBook/StarLord Star-Lord]].
** Million Ants is a more literal version of ComicBook/AntMan, with powers and personality akin to ComicBook/MartianManhunter.
** Supernova resembles [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Starfire]] with a similar name motif and powers, with a splash of ComicBook/{{Raven}} in her too.
** Alan Rails is a combination of two different incarnations of the Franchise/GreenLantern. His backstory and train theme are taken from the original Green Lantern [[ComicBook/GreenLantern1941 Alan Scott]], who was a train engineer. His appearance and characterization are from [[ComicBook/GreenLantern John Stewart]].
** Crocubot is a parody of ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} and AnimalSuperheroes.
** Worldender was described by the show's staff as being the spawn of ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} and ComicBook/{{Thanos}}.

* PetTheDog: Rick warns Morty to not risk his life unnecessarily for the final DeathTrap. It's not just that he needs Morty as a mind-shield; his blackout means he might have just been a dick and Morty is pretty broken as ti is.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Rick is proven right in that the Vindicators aren't everything Morty thought they were (though his point was that they were incompetent glory-hounds rather than outright bastards), but the Vindicators were also correct in that Rick is impossible to work with and can easily cause as many problems as he solves. Reluctantly deciding to team up with him leads to the team's death.

* OnlySaneMan: Morty is the only one in the group who actually gets stuff done, as Rick is decidedly unhelpful in getting past the traps he made to disparage the Vindicators and the Vindicators are too busy proving Rick right to do anything.

* TooCleverByHalf: When Crocubot is asked where the Vindicators would never go, he confidently picks the logical solution to the actual questions, which was a place whose inhabitants they killed. However, he failed to account for who was ''asking'' the question: Rick, who did not know about said event and was actually setting up a punchline to a political joke Crocubot wouldn't have understood.

* AssholeVictim: All the Vindicators but Supernova are killed, directly or indirectly, by Rick's actions. However, the group is revealed to have extremely loose morals when it comes to accomplishing their goals. On top of this, all of them show some incredibly negative trait or do some terrible actions shortly before death.
** Vance reveals himself as a vain coward and calls Morty's inclusion a publicity stunt, despite claiming he valued his membership, and insults him to his face. Then he gets killed by a BoobyTrap while trying to escape.

** Alan Rails becomes [[CrazyJealousGuy violently jealous]] when he finds out his ex-wife cheated on him, even though they're long-since divorced. Granted, it's not clear how far Rails planned to take the thing before Million Ants kills him, but Rick had relatively little culpability in that situation.

** Rick previously made a neutrino bomb while blackout drunk in the pilot. Evidently Morty learned how to disarm it and several others, enough to claim that Rick has a roughly 60% success rate at making them while drunk.

** Alan Rails is a combination of two different incarnations of the Franchise/GreenLantern. His backstory and train theme are taken from original Green Lantern [[ComicBook/GreenLantern1941 Alan Scott]], who was a train engineer. His appearance and characterization are from [[ComicBook/GreenLantern John Stewart]].

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Rick was not invited to the Vindicators' last gathering, which ended with them killing an entire planet's population to get one shapeshifting villain. Rick points out he could have easily found the guy without such desperate measures. Of course, Rick may have refused to go even if invited, and when he comes along this time, he proves they had very good reasons to leave him out.

* 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 shapeshifting villain.

* FromASingleCell: Million Ants can regenerate from any injury provided his queen survives. Unfortunately for him, that "single cell" can be targeted.

* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: It's revealed that the Vindicators once exterminated the population of an entire planet just to take down ''one'' shapeshifting villain. Though Rick points out that it ''wasn't'' the only way to be sure and that he could have developed a tracking device that would help the find the villain, had they bothered to call him.

** Alan Rails does have a right to be mad at Supernova for cheating on him while they were still married. The only thing that make him a Jerk concerning it was bringing it up at an inappropriate time.

* TheLoad: Inverted. Rick is the one who put everyone in danger and does little to actually help them afterwards, and the Vindicators are at each other's throats too much to get out. As a result, Morty is the only person who consistently helps the group escape, despite being written off by both the Vindicators ''and'' Rick as a useless hanger-on who's only around for the press.

* NeverTrustATrailer: A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3xxurI3Z-Y TV spot]] played up World Ender as the most terrifying villain the show's creators have ever made. In the actual episode... not so much. They conveniently leave out any actual footage of World Ender, showing only concept art of the character.

** Apparently, Rick and Morty have gone on an Vindicators 1 adventure before which we never saw, and Morty is disappointed that the Vindicators have gone on a second adventure without him.

* OverlyLongGag: Vance get [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill mangled various way]] in the vent for about 10 seconds... then his severed legs fly around for about 5 more (at least until Crocubot decides to cut it short by disintegrating them mid-flight).

** Vance loses his cool and attempts to flee Rick's death chamber though an air vent. It does not end well.

* 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.

** Virtually every one of the Vindicators is a not so thinly veiled jab at numerous well-known superhero figures, with all of them being depicted as vain, selfish, and moronically incompetent. The entire episode may as well be one long middle finger to the superhero genre, and to the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' in particular.
** It also takes a few pot shots at ''Saw''.

** The Vindicators murder of an entire planet was likely a jab all the deaths accidentally caused by Superman and Iron Man in ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' respectively.

* TooCleverByHalf: When Crocubot is asked where the Vindicators would never go, he confidently picks the logical solution to the actual questions, which was a place whose inhabitants they killed. However, he failed to account for who was ''asking'' the question: Rick, who did not know about said event, and was actually setting up a punchline to a political joke Crocubot wouldn't have understood.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Morty thinks this of the last test, deducing that there is nothing The Vindicators possess that Rick holds dear, and that the bomb is designed to detonate no matter what answer is provided.

** 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.''

** Alan Rails may be based on [[ComicBook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]] and/or [[ComicBook/GreenLantern John Stewart]].

* ShoutOut: ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' is referenced by name as being the source of Drunk!Rick's series of tests.

* CallBack: Rick previously made a neutrino bomb while blackout drunk in the pilot. Evidently Morty learned how to disarm it and several others, enough to claim that Rick has a roughly 60% success rate at making them while drunk.

* YouOweMe: Morty pulls out a card that tallies the number of adventures Rick drags him to before being allowed an adventure of his choosing. He chooses one involving helping the Vindicators, and Rick is obligated to join him.

** Apparently, Rick and Morty have gone on an Vindicators 1 adventure before which we never saw, and Morty is disappointed that the Vindicators have gone on a second adventure without them in the time between the first one and this one.

* RefusedByTheCall: Noob-Noob is ecstatic to join the Vindicators in their adventure, but s forced to stay behind thanks to the antics of a drunken Rick.

** On a production level, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3xxurI3Z-Y the Adult Swim promo for this episode]] makes the plot look like a standard SuperTeam story with Worldender as the main villain, calling him "the most fearsome villain of the Rick and Morty multiverse" and "imagine Thanos fucked Darkseid and had a baby."

** Vance is a "sexy drinker" like [[Franchise/IronMan Tony Stark]] while closely resembling [[ComicBook/StarLord Star-Lord]].

* AffectionateNickname: Million Ants and Supernova call each other "Snuzzles" and "Tittybean" respectively, notably only after [[YourCheatingHeart Alan Rails]] dies.

* YourCheatingHeart: Supernova and Million Ants started having an affair while she was still married to Alan Rails, which comes to a head during the 3-point shot "test" and leads to a fight that ends in Rails' death.

* CaptainErsatz: The Vindicators are one for [[Comicbook/TheAvengers The Avengers]].

** Alan Rails may be based on [[ComicBook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]] and [[ComicBook/GreenLantern John Stewart]].

* CaptainErsatz: The Vindicators are one for [[Comicbook/TheAvengers The Avengers]]. Vance is a "sexy drinker" like [[Franchise/IronMan Tony Stark]] while closely resembling [[ComicBook/StarLord Star-Lord]]. Million Ants is a more literal version of [[ComicBook/AntMan Ant Man]]. Supernova resembles [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Starfire]] with a similar name motif and powers, with a splash of Raven in her too. Alan Rails may be based on [[ComicBook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]].

** The deaths of several Vindicators who were obviously CaptainEthnic, is a clear jab at ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'', where the only squad members to die were [[spoiler: the Native American Slipknot and the Latin American El Diablo]].

* ShoutOut:
** ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' is referenced by name as being the source of Drunk!Rick's series of tests.
** At one point, Drunk!Rick is seen wearing a [[Literature/SherlockHolmes deerstalker hat]].

* TheUnReveal: It is seldom shown or even talked about how Rick and Morty joined the Vindicators to begin with.

* HijackedByGanon: New villain, the World-Ender, gets replaced by the old VillainProtagonist, Rick.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The Vindicators treat Rick as this, not entirely undeserved since he is a smart aleck.

* EvilerThanThou: By the time the Vindicators get to World Ender he has already been [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome defeated offscreen]] and is nearly dead. They conclude whoever did this to him is an even bigger threat than he was, and shortly afterwards discover that Rick, while he was blackout drunk, was the one who killed him. Whether or not Rick is a villain is debatable, but "Drunk Rick" certainly proves to be far superior to World Ender not just by having killed him, but also with the traps he made for the Vindicators getting almost all of them killed.

* DirtyCoward:
** What does [[PhysicalGod Supernova]] do when confronted by a partying crowd that would possibly witness her killing two people? One a child? She immediately flees the scene without a second thought.
** Of course, Vance is also this in spades. At the first sign of pressure, he slowly breaks and becomes a hysterical, vain, desperate loser willing to save his own butt at any costs.

* CallBack:
** Morty gets to choose the adventure for one in every ten adventures he and Rick do, a deal they made in "Meeseeks and Destroy".
** Rick previously made a neutrino bomb while blackout drunk in the pilot. Evidently Morty learned how to disarm it and several others, enough to claim that Rick has a roughly 60% success rate at making them while drunk.