Line #161 Recap/RickAndMortyS3E4Vindicators3TheReturnOfWorldEnder


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_return_of_world_ender.jpg]]
2
3	'''Original air date:''' 8/13/2017
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5	Rick and Morty team up with a bunch of heroes to battle a villain called World Ender.
6	----
7	!!Tropes:
8
9	* AffectionateNickname: Million Ants and Supernova call each other "Snuzzles" and "Tittybean" respectively, notably only after Alan Rails dies.
10	* AfterlifeExpress: Alan Rails has the power to summon ghostly trains by blowing on his ghostly whistle. They can smash through solid rock easily.
11	* AirVentEscape: Vance tries to get out through an air vent, but Rick anticipated that and he's killed by booby traps.
12	* AllForNothing: The final test Drunk Rick sets up for the Vindicators was meant for Noob-Noob, to show he appreciates him for laughing at his jokes earlier. But Noob-Noob was not even present because he had to clean up the mess Rick made instead of going on the mission. Also, by the end of the episode, Rick doesn't even remember who Noob-Noob is, making everything he did while drunk and the deaths of the other Vindicators pointless from the start.
13	* TheAllSolvingHammer: Rick snarks about Alan's limited offensive repertoire which consists of ghost trains and little else.
14	* AlreadyDoneForYou: Rick already killed World Ender while black-out drunk.
15	* AndShowItToYou: Supernova rips Million Ants' queen ant from his chest and holds it for a few seconds before vaporizing it.
16	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
17	** Supernova and Million Ants allegedly had a baby that died in the womb... which was half a dying star and half a million ants.[[note]]It's your guess whether it means that the baby was partially made of 500,000 ants or one million ants that were half dying star.[[/note]]
18	* AscendedFanboy: Morty becomes this when Vance gives him an official Vindicators jacket. By the end of the episode, he's no longer a fan.
19	* 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 traits or do some terrible actions shortly before death.
20	** 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.
21	** Crocubot reveals the Vindicators killed a planet full of innocents just to kill one shapeshifter among them. The others [[IDidWhatIHadToDo feel some regret for it]], but Crocubot [[LackOfEmpathy just seems proud that he knew the answer to Rick's question]]. Then he is crushed to death because it wasn't the right answer.
22	** 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.
23	** Million Ants kills Alan Rails for trying to attack him, even though Supernova had already immobilized him. Then, Supernova destroys his central queen ant for objecting to executing Rick and Morty.
24	* AsYouKnow:
25	** Morty explains the importance of the Vindicators to Rick who would already know about it.
26	--->'''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!
27	** Rick also explains the origins of each Vindicators but in a way that implies that they aren't familiar with each other.
28	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Subverted. The final test is for the Vindicators to put in "the one part of the vindicators he values". Rick theories it might mean Morty, which Morty takes as a coy confirmation. Sure enough, the test ''does'' accept Morty and plays a message detailing Rick's genuine love and respect for... Noob Noob the janitor.
29	* BaitAndSwitch:
30	** 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.
31	** 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." Mid-episode, however, Worldender is killed by a drunken Rick the night before he returns with Morty and the Vindicators.
32	* BatSignal: The Vindicators are summoned by a blinking Vindibeacon.
33	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Rick [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] that a whole lot of "heroes of color" died on the mission he and Morty missed. It's then [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], as the only white non-Hispanic male on the team dies immediately when the real trouble starts.
34	* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Rick has 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.
35	* BrokenPedestal:
36	** 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.
37	** Even before that, Morty is disappointed that the Vindicators never called him for their second adventure.
38	* ButtMonkey: Noob-Noob is treated as a janitor by the other Vindicators, being left out of the mission to clean up Rick's diarrhea. Rick is the only one to show him any respect and has a whole elaborate video at the end of the Saw rooms calling him the only part of the Vindicators he likes and respects... only to not even remember him the next morning.
39	* CallBack:
40	** 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.
41	** Morty reminds Rick that he is allowed to choose his own adventure for every 9 Rick takes him to, as per the conditions of Morty winning their bet in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E5MeeseeksAndDestroy Meeseeks And Destroy]]".
42	* CallToAdventure: Rick lampshades the trope by name when saying that he refuses to answer the Vindicators' "literal call to adventure".
43	* CaptainObvious: Million Ants announces that the strung up and badly injured World Ender is about to die, which Rick promptly mocks as blatantly obvious. In general, most of his "sensed" observations are fairly obvious ones.
44	* CasualDangerDialog: As Supernova {{Psychic Strangle}}s Rick and Morty in an attempt to kill them, the two spend the time [[DeadpanSnarker snarking.]]
45	-->'''Supernova:''' It's the galaxy's ''faith'' in the Vindicators that keeps the galaxy secure!\
46	'''Rick:''' Yeah, I feel safer already.\
47	'''Morty:''' No doubt. Who do we make the check out to?\
48	'''Rick:''' I will say, we ''are'' getting some good licks in while choking to death.\
49	'''Morty:''' Right?
50	* CompositeCharacter: Vance is an egotistical alcoholic who wears PowerArmor, shows up to Vindicator briefings whenever he wants, and quips about being late because of "happy hour", all behaviors associated with [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]. When solving Drunk Rick's first challenge, Morty puts the "Doesn't play well with others" placard on Vance's portrait, referencing one of the recurring complaints other Marvel characters have with Tony. Vance tries to present himself to Morty as a mentor, even giving him a Vindicators vest just like his own (much like Tony did with Peter Parker). Vance's own vest and the title of "Renegade Star Soldier" adds in a nod to [[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord]].
51	** Million Ants' alien personality and shapeshifting powers resemble those of ComicBook/MartianManhunter. His being a sentient ant colony makes him look like a humanoid BlobMonster similar to the ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' villain Clayface.
52	** Alan Rails is a combo reference to multiple incarnations of the Franchise/GreenLantern. His first name, backstory and train theme are a reference to [[ComicBook/GreenLantern1941 Alan Scott]], the original Green Lantern who was a train engineer. Alan's appearance and personality are based on [[ComicBook/GreenLantern John Stewart]]. His defunct marriage to Supernova references Hal Jordan through her reference to Hal's LoveInterest, Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire.
53	* ContinuityNod: Morty says he is invoking his right to choose one in every ten adventures. This is what he got for winning the bet he made with Rick in "Meeseeks and Destroy".
54	* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Combine the entries for AssholeVictim and CaptainErsatz.
55	* CosmicDeadline:
56	** Inverted. Blackout Rick, tired from a long night of activity, makes a third "trap" that simply challenges the heroes to sink five 3-pointers in five minutes.
57	** Played straight later when instead of taking the time to accurately measure the contents of the punitive neutrino bombs, Rick "eyeballed" them, probably making them powerful enough to destroy the whole star system they're in rather than just the planet.
58	* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Rick was not invited to the Vindicators' last gathering, which ended with them killing an entire planet's population to get one shape-shifting 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.
59	* CrazyPrepared: Morty just happens to have pliers on hand to disarm a neutrino bomb, apparently because Rick drunkenly improvising such bombs is fairly common.
60	* CreatorProvincialism: In-universe, Rick's test asks the Vindicators where they'd never go. Crocubot assumes it was a place where the Vindicators did something horrible. The answer Rick's test required was "Israel", a place most of the Vindicators have never heard of because they're not from Earth.
61	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Several are meted out through Rick's drunken antics, but the worst goes to Alan Rails, who's blown up from his insides by Million Ants, and then Million Ants himself, who is killed when Supernova crushes his central queen ant.
62	* DancePartyEnding: Organized by Rick.
63	* DarkerAndEdgier: In Vindicators 2, the one Rick and Morty weren't part of, at least three heroes were killed, and the surviving ones destroyed an entire planet to stop a shape-shifting villain.
64	* DeadlyGame: Rick set up a series of challenges for the Vindicators that are mostly meant to humiliate them, though by the third game he got lazy and simply has them play basketball (and they can't even do that without killing each other).
65	* DecapitatedArmy: Million Ants can survive anything as long as the queen ant in his body lives. Destroy that and his ants scatter, leaderless. It remains to be seen how permanent this is, given that real ant colonies who lose their queens can create more, and [[NeverFoundTheBody the remaining ants of Million Ants presumably escaped to safety]].
66	* DefiantToTheEnd: As Supernova chokes Rick and Morty with the intent to kill them, they begin bantering about her "keeping the galaxy safe" speech.
67	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Rick claims Crocubot is a living redundancy, asserting that both a crocodile and a robot are already [[EmotionlessReptile cold]] and [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul unfeeling]] independently.
68	* DidntSeeThatComing: Rick says this when Alan Rails is killed by his teammates in a lover's quarrel instead of a death trap. Unfortunately, Supernova thinks he is being sarcastic and [[NeverMyFault blames him for Alan's death]].
69	* 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.
70	* EasilyForgiven: Rick doesn't mind inviting Gearhead despite his betrayal, and Gearhead accepts even though their last encounter ended with Rick feeding him his own balls (in a manner of speaking). Rick lampshades this, pointing out that he winds up getting high with half the people who try to kill him.
71	* EurekaMoment: During the second test (involving picking the one place where evil is that the Vindicators ''never'' mention), hearing Drunk Rick say "C'mon, guys, we're all thinking it. Don- (cough) Don't make ''me'' say it." has Morty realize (albeit somewhat reluctantly[[note]]"Oh. O-okay. This again?"[[/note]]) that the intended answer is Israel.
72	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
73	** 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.
74	*** Keep a close eye on Rick when Vance calls Morty "learning-disabled". He goes from apathetic to a DeathGlare.
75	*** 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.
76	*** He is a little disturbed by Morty's SeenItAll attitude when it comes to the "neutrino bomb" he made for one of the tests.
77	*** 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 TheresNoKillLikeOverkill.
78	*** 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.
79	** In a non-Rick example, Alan Rails was the most vocal opponent to calling on Rick for Vindicators 2, but even he was not okay with the fact that the Vindicators ''exterminated an entire planet'' just to avoid needing Rick's help.
80	* {{Expy}}:
81	** 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.
82	** 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.
83	* 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. 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.]]
84	* 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.
85	* 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. 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.]]
86	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Rick's final challenge is for the Vindicators to place the one thing about their team that is worthwhile on a pad. Morty assumes it's a trick question, as Rick sees no value in them, while Rick guesses he might have meant Morty. Morty, however, wasn't part of the Vindicators when Rick made the recording. Noob-Noob is who he meant, as Noob-Noob was the only one who laughed when he cracked jokes mocking the Vindicators.
87	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Rick is largely hated by the other Vindicators and is only tolerated due to being useful.
88	* FromASingleCell: Million Ants can regenerate from any injury provided his queen survives. Unfortunately for him, that "single-cell" can be targeted.
89	* GoKartingWithBowser: Apparently Rick gets high with half of the people who try to kill him.
90	* 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.
91	* GoryDiscretionShot: Vance's fate is only shown through sounds effects and the spatters of blood and bits of LudicrousGibs falling off the vent around his flailing legs.
92	* GreenEyedMonster: While Rick's contempt for the Vindicators is very much deserved, Morty realizes that at least some of Rick's grudge against them is jealousy that they (initially) have Morty's adoration. Rick himself admits this might be the case when they get to the final test and Drunk Rick's recording tells them to give him the one thing both he and the Vindicators value, which he assumes is Morty. The valued person that the test asks for is actually Noob-Noob, but only Morty learns of this, and the fact that Rick believes Morty might have been the answer indicates that Morty was still right about him being jealous, even if he wasn't in the moment when he set up the test.
93	* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: Between Million Ants and Supernova, resulting in their unborn child dying in the womb due to being half a million ants and half an exploding star.
94	* IronicEcho: Attempted by Supernova, mocking Morty's claim that "there is no right and wrong" as she kills him, which would have been more effective if Morty had actually said that.
95	* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Morty asks Rick if he set up a ''Franchise/{{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''.
96	* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: It's revealed that the Vindicators once exterminated the population of an entire planet just to take down ''one'' shape-shifting 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 them find the villain, had they bothered to call him.
97	* JerkassHasAPoint:
98	** The Vindicators may be self-absorbed assholes, but they weren't wrong on how difficult Rick is to work with.
99	** {{Deconstructed\|Trope}} with Rick. Morty does admit Rick was right about the true, unsavory nature of the Vindicators, but [[DiscussedTrope further points out]] that he's such an asshole that no one wants to give him the satisfaction of being right. Rick simply brushes this off, acknowledging how people would rather listen to someone they like (even if that someone is stupid) [[InsufferableGenius over someone they hate (no matter how smart or useful they may be)]].
100	** Alan Rails does have a right to be mad at Supernova for cheating on him while they were still married. The only thing that makes him a Jerk concerning it was bringing it up at an inappropriate time.
101	** Morty also gets a moment where he yells at Rick for how many times he's had to disable neutrino bombs.
102	* KarmaHoudini:
103	** Supernova murders Million Ants and was going to murder Rick and Morty, only stopping because of the party. She dances uncomfortably into the crowd and disappears. Rick apathetically allows her to leave, justifying it by stating that twenty people try to kill him every week and he winds up getting high with half of them.
104	** Rick is responsible for the entire mess and gets away scot-free (as per usual). The universe even sees him as a hero because [[NominalHero he happened to have destroyed a dangerous supervillain in the process]], and Supernova did enough horrible things herself to be unable to rat on him.
105	* TheLoad: Inverted. Rick is the one who puts 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.
106	* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Rick's drunken antics cause the Vindicators to go crazy and start killing each other, eventually making Supernova a full-on villain.
107	* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: 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.]]
108	* MeaningfulName: The name "Vindicators" signifies both that they try to excuse their own actions and prove Rick's complaints to be right.
109	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Except for Noob-Noob (who is more like a glorified intern than a 'real' member) the male members of the Vindicators are slaughtered while the lone female survives to become a KarmaHoudini.
110	* MisplacedRetribution: When Supernova tries to kill Rick for the multiple deaths he causes ([[NeverMyFault and the one she helped commit]]), she further decides to also kill Morty, who was the only reason ''anyone'' survived. Either Supernova genuinely thought [[VillainByProxyFallacy being associated with Rick made Morty guilty]], this was just a pretext [[HeKnowsTooMuch to cover up her own misdeeds]], [[ForTheEvulz she just revels in killing]], or she was too angry to be thinking straight.
111	* MundaneUtility: Million Ants and Supernova use their powers to make three-point shots in basketball.
112	* MyGreatestFailure: When faced with a DeadlyGame where the answer is a location they never speak of, Crocubot deduces the answer is Dorian 5 due to the Vindicators exterminating the planet's population to weed out a shapeshifting villain named Doomnomitron. Unfortunately for Crocubot, the real answer was Israel due to it being a recurring subject of Rick's drunken rants.
113	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Million Ants can sense incoming danger and the physical condition of other beings, though it verges on CaptainObvious at times.
114	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Rick is sleeping half-naked on a table surrounded by his diarrhea after blacking out and killing World Ender, and making ''Saw''-inspired death traps for the Vindicators.
115	* NeverMyFault:
116	** Rick refuses to take any responsibility for the situation he himself engineered, as he doesn't think of blackout-drunk Rick as himself.
117	** When Alan Rails realizes Supernova cheated on him with Million Ants, he starts a fight and is immediately killed by the other two. When Rick points out he had little to do with that ''particular'' death, Supernova insists that even that was entirely Rick's fault. Given that she was part of the tryst that led to that scuffle in the first place, [[{{Hypocrite}} she of course is full of crap]], and really was more at fault for that one.
118	** Supernova also blames Morty for her team falling apart, even though Morty had solved most of the death traps and Supernova herself had just murdered her last remaining teammate.
119	* 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 the concept art of the character.
120	* NoodleIncident:
121	** Apparently, Rick and Morty have gone on a Vindicators 1 adventure before which we never saw, and Morty is disappointed that the Vindicators have gone on a second adventure without him.
122	** 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.
123	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Over the course of one night while blackout drunk, Rick slaughtered his way through World Ender's lair, set up an elaborate game, and organized a party.
124	* OhCrap:
125	** When the Vindicators fall into the trap Drunk Rick made, Rick realizes he forgot his portal gun and can't just leave.
126	** The OverlyLongGag of Vance's death is interspersed with two shots of the rest of the group watching in slack-jawed horror.
127	* 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. Rick actually looks guilty when Morty says he's defused ''TOO MANY'' neutrino bombs to narrow it down to a percentage.
128	* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Zigzagged. Drunk Rick is just Rick while he's blackout drunk and not actually another version of Rick from the Council of Ricks, but Rick refers to him as a completely different person, never addressing him as "I". He also comments on the poor work he did with the neutrino bomb, stating it's a miracle he's ever able to destroy anything.
129	* OverlyLongGag: Vance gets [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill mangled in various ways]] 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).
130	* 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 it is.
131	* PyrrhicVictory: 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.
132	* PlotTailoredToTheParty: A staple of The Vindicators. On the attack on World Ender's lair, Rails clears a path using a ghost train, and Million Ants slips through some bars to open the gates for the others. Rick's assigned specialty is using and disabling gadgetry, though, as he says, he can do anything he wants to, and indeed had already completed the mission while blackout drunk the night before.
133	* PopGoesTheHuman: Million Ants [[OrificeInvasion shoves himself down Alan Rails' throat]] and explodes him from within.
134	* PowerPerversionPotential: Million Ants can have sex, with some [[TooMuchInformation rather detailed theorizing]] by Alan Rails on the subject.
135	* PsychicStrangle: Towards the end, Supernova strangles Rick and Morty this way.
136	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Rick's tests for the Vindicators is supposed to be one long point about their flaws, with the solution to each puzzle being to admit terrible things about themselves, such as their lack of originality or pathetic-ness. Except Rick's so drunk that after the second test, the others rapidly devolve into nonsense. Morty then reverses it on Rick by summarizing his intentions in equally blunt terms.
137	-->'''Morty:''' Drunk Rick's point is that none of you are very special or different. That's always his point.
138	* RedBaron: Vance Maximus - Renegade Starsoldier, and Rick Sanchez - Tinkerer of Terror.
139	* RefusedByTheCall: Noob-Noob is ecstatic in being allowed to join the Vindicators in their mission, but is forced to stay behind thanks to the antics of a drunken Rick.
140	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
141	** Vance loses his cool and attempts to flee Rick's death chamber through an air vent. It does not end well.
142	** Rick also decides to leave, only to discover that he left his portal gun behind during his bender.
143	* SeenItAll: Morty is shown to understand what Rick was thinking in his extremely drunken state of mind and easily solves the puzzles Rick set up. He notes that Rick always babbles about defense budgets and Israel when drunk and has gone through "too many" neutrino bombs (or cleaning up the aftermath of his blackout drunk states in general), facts not even Rick himself was aware of. The only thing he was shocked by was that the one thing the Vindicators had that Rick claimed to value was Noob-Noob instead of the two other guesses, nothing or Morty himself. He isn't pleased when he finds out.
144	--> '''Rick''': W--Dude, Morty, what happened i-
145	--> '''Morty''': Shut up.
146	* SherlockHomage: At one point, Drunk Rick is seen wearing a [[Literature/SherlockHolmes deerstalker hat]].
147	* 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.
148	* SixthRangerTraitor: Zig-zagged with Rick. He and Morty have apparently worked with the Vindicators offscreen previously, but they are not part of the regular roster. The Vindicators call Rick in for this mission to simply act as a GadgeteerGenius for them, but he ends up getting drunk the night before the mission and kills World Ender for them before setting up a ''Saw''-like trap for all of them.
149	* SpannerInTheWorks: Drunk Rick's ''Saw'' traps (apart from the "Israel" trap which nobody apart from Morty had any way of figuring out) were designed in a BatmanGambit-esque way to be nearly impossible to fail: if the Vindicators were ''actually'' as brave, selfless and so on as they claimed to Rick to be, no one should have had any chance of dying, to the point that he even had a giant party set up for them and Noob Noob at the end. It's only because they're cowardly, genocidal and paranoid wrecks that all but one of them ends up dead.
150	* TheStinger: Gearhead (who took Morty's Vindicator vest at the party when the latter didn't want it anymore) is boasting to some cute Gear-girls about being a Vindicator when they all hear an alarm sound. Rather than going to help, Gearhead [[DirtyCoward leaves his vest in a trash bin in the alley and runs away]], only to trip up and [[LaserGuidedKarma break into a bunch of little gear-pieces]].
151	* SuperheroTeamUniform: Semi-[[ParodiedTrope parodied]] when Vance gives Morty a Vindicators team vest even though Vance was the only one wearing one before that.
152	* TakeThat:
153	** 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 the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' in particular.
154	** It also takes a few potshots at ''Saw''.
155	--->'''Morty:''' Is this a Saw thing? Are you seriously Sawing the Vindicators?!\
156	'''Rick:''' Morty, I'm a drunk. Not a hack.\
157	([[HypocriticalHumor cue Drunk Rick comparing the test to Saw]])
158	** The deaths of several Vindicators who were obviously CaptainEthnic, is a clear jab at ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'', where the only squad members to die were the Native American Slipknot and the Latin American El Diablo.
159	** The Vindicators murder of an entire planet was likely a jab at all the deaths accidentally caused by Superman and Iron Man in ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' respectively.
160	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After he sticks himself in the vent, Vance gets successively (from [[SoundOnlyDeath what we can hear]]) machine-gunned down, burned to a crisp, and chainsawed, until his legs are finally severed from his (probably mangled beyond recognition) torso and fall off the vent. Drunk Rick clearly doesn't fuck around when it comes to setting up booby traps.
161	* ToiletHumor: Rick crapped all over the briefing room table at the end of his drunken bender.
162	* 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. Morty gets annoyed and enters in the correct answer: Israel.
163	* TooDumbToLive: Vance dies because he ignores Rick's warnings that the lair is most likely booby-trapped, and Crocubot dies because he assumes Rick's second test involves a personal failing of theirs Rick doesn't know about, ignoring Supernova's warning not to get ahead of himself.
164	* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Vindicators use Rick as a ScienceHero or a GadgeteerGenius, when in reality he's powerful enough to single-handedly take on their nemesis while ''blackout drunk''.
165	* 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.
166	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
167	** 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.''
168	** 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.
169	* 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.
170	* WeAreTeamCannonFodder: The Vindicators [[UnderestimatingBadassery treat Rick as just a]] GadgeteerGenius who can get past the World Ender's automated security. In reality, he's capable of single-handedly killing the World Ender and his entire army, and setting up a DeathTrap they can't force their way out of. All of this during a blackout bender. Rick also claims he could have easily tracked down the shapeshifting villain [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure they destroyed a whole planet to kill]].
171	* TheWormThatWalks: Million Ants is a sapient colony of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one million ants]] that usually takes a humanoid form.
172	* WrongGenreSavvy: The Vindicators think they're in a sci-fi superhero story like the Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy comic, with Rick Sanchez as just one more replaceable member with a specialty. They're not, and he's more than equal to the entire villain force ''and'' their whole roster put together.
173	* 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.

Context Recap / RickAndMortyS3E4Vindicators3TheReturnOfWorldEnder