History YMMV / RickAndMorty

** "Vindicators 3" is a fine lesson in that you should probably never meet your heroes, or even better, you shouldn't even ''have'' [[HoldingOutForAHero heroes to start with]]. Or that intoxicated people are still very much accountable for their actions (especially when they harm others) (though Dan Harmon has made it clear that Rick is very much not healthy and should not be looked at as a hero, meaning that aesop could easily have been intentional).

*** Likewise one could draw a Main/TheFarmerAndTheViper Aesop about how helping a obviously untrustworthy/sketchy person will never end well for you because that person will just as quickly turn on you once they no longer need you.

** "A Rickconvenient Mort" could be a warning about giving an activist free rein to do what they believe to be the right thing. Leaving any cause up to vigilantes with no restrictions and ignoring the rule of law, even someone championing a good cause such as Environmentalism might commit mass murder and honestly believe they are still doing the right thing.

** "Meeseeks and Destroy" teaches us that adventures aren't always fun, and that looks can be deceiving. It also teaches the opposite from Rick's perspective, that even the silliest or dumbest sounding ideas can be exciting in practice (although he gets a severe AesopAmnesia in season 3).
** "Get Schwifty" teaches us not to let religion control your life. True, it could lead to being a better person, but let it rule over you and it could lead you to do horrible things while believing you are doing good.

** And Season 6's "Bethic Twinstinct" adds Beth to the mix as well [[spoiler:by having the two versions of her, Earth and Space Beth, fall in love with each other, and indulge in a threesome together with Jerry by the end]]. This means that, as of Season 6, Morty is now the ''only'' member of the main cast who's been exclusively portrayed as straight.

*** What's more, Season 4 also indicates that Summer is at least bi-curious if not outright bi herself, as one of her dating app matches in "The Old Man and the Seat" is a woman and she has no problem with making out with her, too. And Season 6's "Bethic Twinstinct" adds Beth to the mix as well [[spoiler:by having the two versions of her, Earth and Space Beth, fall in love with each other, and indulge in a threesome together with Jerry by the end]]. This means that, as of Season 6, Morty is now the ''only'' member of the main cast who's been exclusively portrayed as straight.

** "[[Characters/RickAndMortyEvilMorty Evil Morty]]" is a charismatic, cunning and pragmatic version of [[Characters/RickAndMortyMortySmith Morty Smith]] [[spoiler:from Dimension 79⊢⊇V]], who grew tired of his role as his grandfather's sidekick and planned to break free from Rick's control by escaping to the beyond of the Central Finite Curve, where Rick isn't the smartest man. [[spoiler:Enslaving his own Rick, after getting him blackout drunk]], Evil Morty proceeds to use him as a scapegoat to kill other Ricks for their knowlegde and kidnap their Morties for torture, so their screams would make him undetectable for the [[Characters/RickAndMortyTheCitadel the Citadel]]. He soon hacks into Rick C-137's portal gun to lure him out, but once Morty Prime rallies his selves into defeating Evil Rick, Evil Morty hides amongst the kidnapped Morties to go to the Citadel, where he wins the election for president with his sheer charisma, and then wasting no time in eliminating any opposion. After reconstructing the Citadel into a giant portal gun, Evil Morty invites Rick C-137 to complete his brain scan, before [[TheBadGuyWins successfully breaching the Curve]]. Once his retirement is interrupted by Rick and Morty's attempt to track down Rick Prime, Evil Morty is willing to work along with them, because Prime has technology that threatens his existence, being the crucial part in Rick finally getting revenge on Prime. Matching Rick's intellect and even outwitting him, Evil Morty manages to in escaping the Central Finite Curve and destroy it.

** "[[Characters/RickAndMortyEvilMorty Evil Morty]]" is a version of [[Characters/RickAndMortyMortySmith Morty Smith]] who grew tired of being [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]]'s sidekick and planned to break free from his role by escaping the Central Finite Curve to enter a multiverse where Rick isn't the smartest man. Evil Morty mind controls one universe's Rick, proceeding to kill other Ricks and kidnapping Morties, torturing the Morties to make a force-field to prevent the [[Characters/RickAndMortyTheCitadel the Citadel]] from finding them while framing Rick-C137 and his Morty for the crimes, luring them to their hideout where they scan Rick's mind. Making his brainwashed Rick his scapegoat, Evil Morty hides amongst the kidnapped Morties to go to the Citadel where he runs for president, using his charisma to get the majority to vote for him and killing anyone who could pose a threat to him. Using his position to modify the Citadel into a giant portal gun, Evil Morty invites Rick-C137 for dinner to complete scanning Rick's mind before having the Ricks and Morties killed to use their blood to activate the Citadel's portal gun for him to escape the Central Finite Curve. Matching Rick's intellect and even outwitting him, Evil Morty manages to [[TheBadGuyWins succeed]] in escaping the Central Finite Curve and destroy it.

** Rick Prime, the GreaterScopeVillain of the entire series and the one who [[spoiled: killed main Rick's wife and daughter]]. He's a complete bastard who lacks any of main Rick's redeeming qualities, however he still shares main Rick's [[BlackComedy dark sense of humor]], making him hilarious to watch.

* EvilIsSexy: Believe it or not, [[spoiler:some fans like Evil Morty for this reason]]. It goes even further in [[spoiler:"The Ricklantis Mixup", where Evil Morty dresses up in a snappy suit and tie for his takeover of the Citadel]].

* LoveToHate: Evil Morty, for being a very effective and rare KnightOfCerebus in an AnimatedShockComedy, [[TheBadGuyWins actually managing to succeed in his plans,]] and having a memorable {{Leitmotif}}.

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* AnticlimaxBoss: Despite being a major villain and a highly-trained Galactic Federation agent, [[spoiler:Tammy is taken down rather unceremoniously by Rick and Summer]].

*** What's more, Season 4 also indicates that Summer is at least bi-curious if not outright bi herself, as one of her dating app matches in "The Old Man and the Seat" is a woman and she has no problem with making out with her, too. And Season 6's "Bethic Twinstinct" adds Beth to the mix as well [[spoiler:by having the two versions of her, Earth and Space Beth, fall in love with each other, and indulge in a threesome together with Jerry by the end]]. This means that, as of Season 6, Morty is now the ''only'' member of the main cast who's been exclusively portrayed as straight.

** Unity when she reappears in "Air Force Wong". She is made out to have been wronged by Rick for not responding to her calls after her last appearance, except she basically did the same to him after their breakup, and worse, she [[HiveMind possessed the entire state of Virginia to get his attention]]. And yet she has the nerve to tell him she doesn't trust him. While Rick was pretty negligent as usual, that in no way excuses what Unity did this time.

*** What's more, Season 4 also indicates that Summer is at least bi-curious if not outright bi herself, as one of her dating app matches in "The Old Man and the Seat" is a woman, which she has no problem with and even makes out with her. And Season 6 adds Beth to the mix as well [[spoiler:by having the two versions of her, Earth and Space Beth, fall in love with each other, and indulge in a threesome together with Jerry by the end]]. This means that, as of Season 6, Morty is now the ''only'' member of the main cast who's been exclusively portrayed as straight.

** Though Rick has been stated by the creators to be pansexual, and Jerry's romance with the memory parasite Sleepy Gary in "Total Rickall" hinted that he's probably bi as well, some fans have pointed out that their portrayal falls under ButNotTooBi. Though this is more justifiable in Jerry's case due to his love for and marriage to Beth, in Rick's case, the only non-female love interest he is shown to have throughout most of the show is the genderless HiveMind Unity, and even in its case, its main body (and thus, the one Rick hangs out with the most) is a woman. Season 5 changes all that; in "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", Jerry is seduced by Mr. Nimbus and jumps into the threesome with him just as quickly as Beth does, and in "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort", Rick is explicitly revealed to be in love with [[spoiler:his best friend Bird Person]].

** Beth Smith as she got redeemed in the season 3 première when she divorces Jerry. Part of the reason why fans have hated Beth beforehand was because she and Jerry took too much of the show's screen time bickering with each other but Beth made perfectly clear that this bickering wasn't going to continue on into the third season. [[spoiler:If Rick really did set up the divorce like he claimed, [[StrawmanHasAPoint then this could be one implication that he actually had some valid reasons for doing so]]. Even though Beth does eventually get back together with Jerry by the end of the season, this is after she has HeelRealization and resolves to become a better person and a better wife and mother, which she has been consistently sticking to in Season 4 and Season 5 so far.]]

** The incest jokes. Either they are funny and on par with the show's other jokes or they are unconfortable and a very blatant case of AuthorAppeal.

* RootingForTheEmpire: [[spoiler: Evil Morty may be a [[TheSociopath mass-murdering sociopath]], but he's so cool to watch as he [[MagnificentBastard flawlessly puts his plans into motion]] that some people are actually rooting for him to win. It helps that Rick and his infinite other versions [[HeroicSociopath aren't a whole lot better.]]]]

** "The Rickshank Redemption" features both the Council of Ricks and the higher-ups of the Galactic Federation as villains. You ''think'' that'd make an incredible villain team-up, or a spectacular double threat. Nope, both are merely {{Mooks}} for the original Rick to toy with, splitting the screen time in a way that lessens the threats for both of them. They're easily pitted against each other, and Rick eliminates both factions' leadership without breaking a sweat (''Summer'' is the only one in danger during that confrontation). It just feels like a waste of two powerful and interesting enemies. Even the Earth being now under the Federation's control is shown at the beginning, then again at the end to show them leaving, and is never mentioned again.

** ''Rick'' can come off as this to some people, such as the time he got neutralized or his nicer Alternate Universe counterparts.

** This also applies to Beth a lot of the time. While it's understandable that her father abandoning her caused her issues and that she didn't have a very good role model in him, she also allows him to get away with way too much, including traumatizing her own children. She gets worse in Season 3, and while she was supposed to be a hate sink then, some people felt like it was supposed to be a somewhat downplayed trope, due to the sad aspects of her life, but it failed in that regard. It doesn't help that it turned out she always knew (or at least suspected) that the current Rick and Morty aren't her own and she can live just fine with that. Also, the expansion of her backstory in "The ABC's of Beth" felt like an unconvincing FreudianExcuse, as it's heavily implied that she trapped her best friend Tommy for years in Froopyland because she was jealous of his close relationship with his father. Until then, there was no indication that Beth had psychopathic tendencies and while Rick indeed was a bad influence on Beth (he did agree to build dangerous toys for her and he only created Froopyland to keep her from terrorizing the neighborhood so that he wouldn't have to fix her messes), he's at least honest about what kind of person he is and even he doesn't purposefully attack innocent people out of jealousy (at least not as long as they stay out of his way).
** Many fans will not forgive Arthricia for her actions in "Look Who's Purging Now" of shooting Rick, stealing his and Morty's ship, and leaving them to die as Morty puts it. She tries to justify it while being held at gunpoint by saying she needed their ship to stop the Festival. Thing is, she could have simply asked Rick and he would have participated happily as he does in the end. We are supposed to forgive her in the end and be happy that she and Rick reconciled, but after what she did, most viewers find her beyond deserving of sympathy or forgiveness.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: Unity is a hivemind that takes over the bodies of males and females, leading to confusion whether or not the men it controls identify as female by proxy, or not - and that's even assuming Unity identifies as a female at all. Rick being canonically pansexual doesn't help matters. The lead person she controls is female and has feminine characteristics, but Rick uses gender-neutral pronouns to refer to Unity, so it might not identify as either gender. Perhaps it's best to take Rick's typical advice and "[[MST3KMantra not think about it]]".

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The show seems like an innocent children's cartoon at first, being about a young boy and his adventures with his MadScientist grandpa, along with a simplistic art-style to match. However, '''''it isn't'''''. It contains plenty of violence, gore, threat, and peril that's better off in teen and adult entertainment. It also has several sex jokes, a good deal of cursing [[note]] The syndicated and streaming versions are TV-14 and bleep the f-bombs (but "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" and "Bethic Twinstinct" are still TV-MA in spite of the fact), but the Blu-Ray/DVD releases don't, and thus carry a TV-MA rating.[[/note]] and adult themes, up to including a disturbing AttemptedRape at the main character, and the aforementioned scientist is an uncaring sociopath and raging alcoholic who always puts his family and grandson in danger due to his bizarre experiments. Despite the "super-scientist on an adventure through the universe" plot, it's ''definitely'' not ''Series/DoctorWho''. It doesn't help that there is an innocent spinoff {{mon}}s parody game called ''VideoGame/PocketMortys'', that is only rated E10+, or that that it occasionally starts the [adult swim] block after Cartoon Network ends. Both season sets also appear in the children's section of Overstock.com, even though other Adult Swim shows have managed to avoid this, and have also appeared as sponsored items on Amazon listings of [=DVDs=] aimed at kids such as ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.

** Morty. Dear god, his life utterly sucks. The pilot spells out that Morty is a below-average student and possibly has a learning disability, he likely doesn't have a lot of potential to say the least, and contrary to what his parents are led to believe he's not learning anything about science from Rick. The adventures he goes on are almost never fun, and are usually disgusting, horrifying and traumatizing. The ending to "Rick Potion #9" probably seals the deal with [[spoiler:Rick's attempts at a love potion for Morty leaving 99% of the world as [[BodyHorror horrifying abominations]], which forces Morty, along with Rick, to abandon his reality and family for an alternate universe one where everything's normal.]] "Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind" then reveals that [[spoiler:the main reason Rick hangs out with Morty is because he's so stupid that he cancels out Rick's genius brainwaves, thus preventing the latter from being tracked. So not only is he dumb, he starts believing he is nothing but a tool of his grandfather (though it's hinted that he's not, despite Rick not wanting it to be known). Rickless Morties "play video games, date girls" which is apparently pitiable from a Rick's point of view.]] Morty actually lampshades this in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" after Rick passes out after threatening Morty with a knife, thinking he was a simulation.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Rick. Yes, he's a HeroicComedicSociopath who, ''at best'', only cares about his immediate family and even then is willing to use and abuse them, but we've seen his StartOfDarkness, his HopeSpot with Birdperson only to be rejected, his [[FailureMontage return to revenge, only to fail for decades]], his [[StrawNihilist increasing apathy]] and [[TheAlcoholic addiction]], before helping establish the Citadel and the Central Finite Curve and returning to the Smith family shortly prior to the first episode.

* MagnificentBastard: "[[Characters/RickAndMortyEvilMorty Evil Morty]]" is a version of [[Characters/RickAndMortyMortySmith Morty Smith]] who grew tired of being [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]]'s sidekick and planned to break free from his role by escaping the Central Finite Curve to enter a multiverse where Rick isn't the smartest man. Evil Morty mind controls one universe's Rick, proceeding to kill other Ricks and kidnapping Morties, torturing the Morties to make a force-field to prevent the [[Characters/RickAndMortyTheCitadel the Citadel]] from finding them while framing Rick-C137 and his Morty for the crimes, luring them to their hideout where they scan Rick's mind. Making his brainwashed Rick his scapegoat, Evil Morty hides amongst the kidnapped Morties to go to the Citadel where he runs for president, using his charisma to get the majority to vote for him and killing anyone who could pose a threat to him. Using his position to modify the Citadel into a giant portal gun, Evil Morty invites Rick-C137 for dinner to complete scanning Rick's mind before having the Ricks and Morties killed to use their blood to activate the Citadel's portal gun for him to escape the Central Finite Curve. Matching Rick's intellect and even outwitting him, Evil Morty manages to [[TheBadGuyWins succeed]] in escaping the Central Finite Curve and destroy it.

** Season 7--the first to air since [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor Justin Roiland's firing]]--has had a ''very'' rocky start, scoring just 50% with critics and 42% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, with the lion's share of the criticism going toward the recasting for the title characters. [[https://thedirect.com/article/rick-and-morty-season-7-bad-reviews-criticisms Other sticking points]] appear to be a perceived lack of edgy material in the storylines and characters like Summer or the Beths being pushed to the background.

** Jerry frequently falls into this, especially in the first three seasons, alongside his role as a DwsignatedMonkey. He's admittedly an arrogant jerk, but he's portrayed as in the wrong for his reasonable concerns and complaints. He's also villainized in the narrative as being just as toxic in his behavior as Rick and Beth, when his actual actions pale in comparison to theirs and most of the accusations thrown his way by them - especially Rick - tend to be hypocritical at best.

* WidgetSeries: The show explores some well-worn sci-fi tropes and warps them to hell and back. The Interdimensional Cable channels [[ShowWithinAShow take the trope to crazy extremes themselves]].

*** Likewise one could draw a Main/TheFarmerAndTheViper Aesop about how helping a obviously untrustworthy/sketchy person will never end well for you because that person will quickly just as quickly turn on you once they no longer need you.

*** Likewise one could draw a Main/TheFarmerAndTheViper Aesop about how helping a obviously untrustworthy/sketchy person will never end well for you because that person will quickly turn on you once they no longer need you.

*** "Pickle Rick." Even if one doesn't take into account the public outcry against the fandom that resulted from this episode, it has proven to be quite divisive: Some enjoy the a-plot of Rick being turned into a pickle as an intense, high concept parody of action movies but found the B-plot revolving around the therapy sessions to be dull, some find the therapy sessions a fascinating look at the family's messed-up dynamic but found the a-plot to be a shallow [[{{Gorn}} gore-fest]], some enjoyed both and considered it one of the series' best episodes, and some consider it one of the series' worst. Likewise, Dr. Wong's speech to Rick at the end is either an insightful and brutally honest takedown of his character or a pretentious slog that breaks the rule of [[ShowDon'tTell Show, Don't Tell.]]