Alternative Character Interpretation in Rick and Morty.
- Do Jerry and Beth really love each other or are they just staying together for their kids' sake? In one episode, they even mentioned they'll remain together till both of their kids graduate college. This is complicated further in season three when they do decide to get a divorce in the season opener... and then reconcile and call the divorce off in the finale.
- Rick's insistence to constantly have Morty, and then later on, Summer, join him on his adventures. Does he see them as just extra hands for what he wants? Or is he trying to make up for the fact that he was never there for his daughter? Turns out, it was because he never had a chance to be with his daughter as his daughter was murdered when she was a little kid. The first Beth we see in the show is "prime Rick's" (said murderer's) daughter who he abandoned and "Rick C137" was using as bait before he abandoned her as well when that universe was Cronenberged. This raises another set of questions. Was Prime Beth being used as bait or did Rick genuinely try to be a father she wanted? And if the latter, then why did he abandon her so casually? What made his "third Beth" so special that he stuck with that one? Is it really just because he grew attached after so many personal moments or did he just realize he's a terrible father and needs to commit to actually being a father to at least one version of his daughter? Given Rick's self-loathing and refusal to self-reflect, even he has trouble understanding his motivation or, at least, admitting it as he is in denial.
- Did Rick ship off Jerry to Bird Person's wedding by accident? Or did he want to go without admitting it and shipped him off as an excuse to attend?
- Did Rick become a genius to help his wife and daughter? Or did he just really want more of that promotional Mulan McDonald's dipping sauce? Also was Rick's claim at the end that everything he did was an elaborate ruse to get Jerry out of the picture really true, or did he just make that up to hide his true feelings? Seeing as Rick has pretended to have planned things out better than he really did ("Total Rickall") and hidden his feelings for the kids ("Meeseeks And Destroy") in the past, the latter is definitely a possibility.
- Is Bird Person's defensiveness towards Rick because he genuinely trusts he will ultimately pull through for this family, or is he too blindly loyal (and likely of similar moral compass) to care if anyone else suffers for Rick's benefit? And is Bird Person's guilt tripping of Morty out of loyalty towards Rick or because he's trying to encourage Morty not to throw away his morals? It has been shown that Morty trying to break away from Rick usually comes at the cost of sinking to lows that he normally wouldn't and Bird Person seems to recognize that Morty isn't too far from Jumping Off the Slippery Slope in those instances. Notably in "Get Schwifty" Morty was willing to leave Rick to die, despite actively trying to do something heroic for once, and chose to consign Earth to and its inhabitants to death rather than do something that at least had a chance of ensuring survival.
- "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort" further complicates things by showing that Rick used to be a much more optimistic man who invited Bird Person to travel the multiverse with him only to be rejected for his nihilistic views and get friendzoned by Bird Person. Does Bird Person feel guilty about the man Rick has become by not accepting his offer and is loyal to make up for it? Does he keep pushing Morty to stand by Rick because he feels that Rick needs a Morality Chain to keep him from getting worse? Does he remember the man Rick used to be and think Morty could help bring that version of Rick back? Has he always recognized how toxic Rick is and is loyal out of gratitude for his help in saving Bird Person's world?
- In that vein, is Beth a good yet flawed mother or does she allow her kids' lives to be ruined just for the sake of rebuilding some kind of relationship with Rick?
- Is Morty actually dumb? While he was doing poorly in school before Rick showed up, it's quite possible he could just test badly. Given that Evil Morty was able to create technology at least comparable to, if not equal to, Rick's, there's good reason to think Morty has more potential than Rick will admit.
- Is Jerry really an idiot or is he only seen as stupid due to constantly being compared to Rick? Remember, it's been mentioned that Jerry majored in Civics in college, but he is constantly put down by Rick and this has left Jerry with a need to prove he's just as good or better than Rick.
- Related to both of the above: We've seen alternate universe versions of both Jerry and Morty that were far more competent than the series' main versions (although one was the show's original Jerry). So, does Rick disparage them because he thinks they're inferior to him, or because he's afraid that they could be a threat to him if they realized their own potential? The appearance of Doofus Jerry seems to be suggest the latter. Doofus Jerry is the evil version of Jerry who conquered his Earth and became the richest and most successful man there, but with no sympathy or regard towards others. He is also really good at fighting, beating Rick and Morty with ease, and even taking down a hired thug in a backalley. He also possesses a vast knowledge of weapons and technology, recognizing all the weapons and gear he saw at the Citadel of Ricks during his trial. He is also very resourceful, quickly entering the Genetic Restructurer to make himself poisonous to Ricks, thereby defeating all of them. This leads to another question - does Doofus Rick really like Jerry or does he just enjoy hanging out with a version of the most powerful man in his dimension ?
- "Rest and Ricklaxation" has Morty claiming that the relationship between him and Jessica is an All Take and No Give where she prefers someone that will be devoted to her while she doesn't have to be concerned with returning that devotion. Whether or not he was right is hard to tell as her actions afterwards could go either way. She doesn't deny his accusation, was complicit in returning him to normal while claiming her involvement was only because of Rick, and her "welcome back" could be taken as relief that the dynamic was restored. That being said it's implied she was lying about helping only because of Rick and cutting off her date earlier showed that she at least recognized Morty's own emotional needs.
- Then there's the question as to whether nor not Toxic Rick and Morty represent the negative aspects of Rick and Morty while Detox Rick and Morty represent their positive aspects of if their relationship to each other is more akin to the balance of yin and yang. Toxic Rick was violent, narcissistic and entitled but despite it all genuinely cared about Toxic Morty and ultimately gave up his existence to remerge with Detox Rick to form Complete Rick after Detox Rick shot Toxic Morty with a lethal nano-botic virus. On the other hand, Detox Morty lacked none of complete Morty's cowardice and lack of self-esteem but had a morality far more in line with that of Complete Rick.
- Police Morty's and J-22 Rick's actions in "The Ricklantis Mix-up" have been interpreted differently.
- Was Police Morty's final actions Suicide by Cop or just another example of his self-preserving behavior? Arguments can be made for both. Addressing the latter, it's possible Police Morty killed his last Rick and he was only pretending to care about Rookie Rick. On the other hand Police Morty showed some genuine affection toward Rookie Rick, and all the murders he committed were against people that threatened or hurt Rookie Rick. In this scenario he kills Big Morty and points his gun at Rookie Rick but lets him get the first shot off to end his misery.
- Did J-22 kill Simple Rick simply to test if the portal was genuine or because he thought death was honestly a better proposition than any possible outcome for Simple Rick? The former means J-22 is just as bad as the other Ricks he hates, the latter makes him seem more heroic and his eventual fate that much more pitiable and ironic.
- In "Morty's Mind Blowers", when Beth chooses Summer over Morty when forced to by an alien, does she genuinely prefer Summer to Morty, or did she make the choice with the expectation and confidence that Rick would rescue Morty in time (or that the ensuing argument would buy them time)? Alternatively, if she was willing to sacrifice Morty, was it because she's jealous of his relationship with Rick? Furthermore, is she aware that this isn't her Morty and for this reason she doesn't have any emotional connection with him? "The ABC's of Beth" supports this latter interpretation by offering the possibility of Beth being a sociopath. It fits what Rick and Tommy described of her as a child (pushing Tommy into the pond of honey with no regrets, and asking Rick to make seriously screwed-up things like a sentient pink switchblade, to name a few), which might explain some of her more callous actions in the series.
- Was Jerry fired because his slogan was bad, or because he was awful at pitching it? It's not hard to imagine a better pitch: Either argue that apples, like milk, are a product the consumer is already familiar with, so a simple message is best, or pitch it as a response to "Got Milk?" He found out later that they ended up using the pitch for pears.
- Rick asking if Minecraft was made for autistic people before claiming he loved it: Is Rick on the Autism Spectrum? Or did he backpedal because he realized what he said was horribly offensive? On the one hand, Rick displays a few noticeable symptoms, but on the other, it's a bit out of character for him to display Political Correctness. Alternatively, is Morty on the spectrum? Dan Harmon is self-diagnosed as on the autism spectrum. Make of that what you will.
- For Meeseeks, existence is pain. Are they in great pain as soon as they're summoned, and are just very good at hiding it at first, only getting desperate as time goes? Or is it some kind of progression where they're genuinely happy when they're brought to life, but every minute spent living is more painful than the last until they can no longer endure it?
- Does Rick actually love his family? In one universe, Rick does a "Freaky Friday" Flip on everyone and when he couldn't figure out how to change them back, just hypnotized them into believing they were actually the person whose body they were in. Despite the fact Beth was now Jerry and Summer was now Morty, he still treated them the same way.
- Has Jerry really manipulated Death a bunch of times or is it just a hallucination brought about by Rick healing him.
- Morty’s I'm a Man; I Can't Help It antics are usually treated as those of a typical Hormone-Addled Teenager. However they range from Too Dumb to Live to
Unfortunate Implications levels of creepy. - Why did the Citadel create the central finite curve? Was it because they didn't want anyone as smart as them to challenge their authority? Or could they just not stand the realization that they are ultimately not special at all in the grand scheme of things? After all, with infinite variant universes, there have to be just as many universes where Jerry invented portal gun tech. Or did our Rick help the Citadel create the curve so as to seal off the infinite multiverse and prevent it from ever having to deal with an infinite number of complete asshole Ricks?
- The sixth season seems to have answered that: it's because there really are smarter beings than the Ricks out there and they couldn't stand that; Evil Morty wasn't lying, at least not about that. Rick C-137's motivation? Who knows.
- Morty (aka Prime Morty as designated by fans) gets it hard very intentionally in the season 6 premier "Solaricks". Morty asked Rick (aka Rick C137) for a love potion in season 1. After it backfired and Cronenberged the entire planet besides his family (also the "prime" family), Rick forced Morty to leave the universe and start over in a new one after they replaced another Rick and Morty (C131). After finally admitting to the new Summer that he isn't her original brother, he takes her back to his home universe to prove a point. After meeting with his real family, he calls them savages for destroying Rick's tech and trapping him in their world. Then they say that Morty's new Summer can't stay (implying death as she's trapped there without Rick's tech via murder or being cast out into the wasteland unprepared). They are then frozen by more Ricks (and mind you, it's Rick's tech that destroyed this entire world). After Morty comes back again against his will, his father stumbles across him and then abandons him. Jerry points out that Morty abandoned them, could've come back for them, didn't, talked about them like zoo animals, abandoned them again which directly led to Beth and Summer's deaths via complications of being frozen, and then somehow thinks he can "fix it" by giving Jerry, his literal own universe's father, a new family. Morty doesn't offer to be his son again. Again this is his honest to God father, not an alternate universe version of his father. This all begs the question of where does Morty's psychopathy end and where does Rick's bad influence begin? Morty was originally horrified that he had replaced his own family, but now he is offering to replace himself and his dead family with a different family that this Jerry doesn't know. This gives Morty a hard lesson. Your family is who you stick with and share personal experiences with. You can't just replace your family with almost identical versions and expect that to be okay.
- This Jerry (aka Prime Jerry) can also be interpreted differently too. A lot of fans point out that this Jerry is so cool whereas Jerry points out that he's only cool now to his son because he lost everything and had to survive alone. Then he claims to have moved on from caring and won't seek revenge, but when "Prime Rick" shows up, he offers to a team up to take Rick (C137) and Morty (aka, his actual son "Prime Morty") down. Prime Rick refuses and gets closer to Prime Jerry who cuts his throat. Did Jerry try to kill Prime Rick because he refused his offer, because he *does* care about his son despite "moving on", because he hates all versions of Rick, because he wants to rob this Rick, or some other reason? Since Prime Rick kills Prime Jerry in retaliation, we will never know. Furthermore, fans point out that this Jerry made have made a good match with Space Beth since they are both the strong survivor types, but Prime Jerry's entire point was that you can't replace loved ones. However, is getting a new partner that is similar to, but not identical to your first partner really replacing them or the result of you moving on as Prime Jerry claims he's done? Again, since Prime Jerry was killed by Prime Rick, we will never know as Prime Jerry and Space Beth never met.
- Finally, Prime Rick has room for interpretation too. He obviously is the Rickest Rick as in he well and truly doesn't care about anyone besides himself, willing to kill and abandon everyone close to him. Is this because he's a true psycho, because some thing happened to him, or because he Became the Mask? And why did he kill "C137's" (the Rick we've been following throughout the series) family? Because he was jealous, he wanted a rival, or because he was mad about his proposal being rejected? And if he actually cared about creating this intergalactic council of Ricks, why did he never actually seem to take any active part in it? Was he manipulating C137 to indirectly create it for him? Yet, there were 3 versions of this Council and Prime Rick wasn't part of any of them... Again, the question is "why?"
