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I-I'm getting confused, Rick.

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    Love Potion 
  • In Rick Potion #9 why doesn't Rick fix the love potion stuff with human DNA? He basically rewrote the human love instructions with vole love (specifically for Morty) instructions, so couldn't he have just re-rewritten the vole love instructions with normal human love instructions?
    • Perhaps, at that point, he just didn't care anymore?
    • Knowing Rick, he just got too far up his own asshole and wanted to test out the crazy animal combination just for the sake of it.
    Giant Summer's voice 
  • In The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy why does giant Summer's voice become masculine? In other shows, when a character gets huge and the body proportions remain the same their voices remain the same as well (besides becoming louder), unless it's a short joke. There are real life women with gigantism and manly voices, but their body proportions including their vocal boxes are different from most women. Also, Summer didn't have any trouble moving, if gravity wasn't affecting her movements it shouldn't affect her vocal cords either.
    Million Ants is Trans? 
  • If Million Ants is male but his individual ants are female...is he a trans man?
    • I would say no, since humans are technically made of up millions of asexual cells, yet the collective product is male or female. No matter what he's composed of, the collective result is apparently male.
    • Million Ants is a sentient colony made up of both male and female ants. The bulk of ants in an ant colony are female and sterile (fertile male ants are usually born on a seasonal basis) and apparently Million Ants' sentience is connected to the cosmic queen, which is obviously female. So if one wants to get technical, than yes, Million Ants could be considered trans (though "man" is arguable).
    Birdperson literally eating dirt 
  • Why did Birdperson put dirt in a bowl instead of throwing it in a trashcan(or the alien equivalent of one)?
    • He does not know what humans eat. He probably assumed they eat random debris like wild birds.
      • Even bigger question: If Birdperson has known Rick for a long time (as we see in the picture, since Rick was possibly in his 30s), how is it that he doesn't know what humans eat when he's hung around a human being for a long time?
      • Birdperson may not be familiar with humans but it doesent take a genius to guess Rick is not a typical example of ones, we see him eat, drink, and snort things most humans have never encountered, which also means Birdperson has probobly seen him eat random debris
      • Also, it could be that he doesn't know well what humans eat, not that he doesn't have a clue about it. Keep in mind, we humans are huge omnivores. We eat a large variety of food, not to mention that we usually cook it or prepare it. Maybe his species doesn't have such a varied diet and even if it has, it would still be hard to remember most of humans' diet and it could be that his planet doesn't have the (exact) same sources of food like us.
    What did the other Ricks do? 
  • According to Rick in "Rick Potion #9," only a few dozen of all the Ricks in the multiverse managed to solve the Cronenberg problem. What about all of those Ricks that didn't do what C-137 do and find a perfect reality to take refuge in?
    • They could end up surviving on their own in the Cronenberg reality, reunite with the rest of their family, be torn to pieces by the Cronenbergs, relocate to another planet, find another dimension vaguely similar to their own (even if not entirely perfect to the one the C-137 pair found), murder and replace the Rick and Morty of a reality with non-ideal conditions (in that the murdered pair could have found a way to fix the Cronenberg problem but didn't die shortly afterwards) or find a dimension with a deceased Rick and Morty pair without the Cronenberg situation, find some method of time travel (even if heavily inferred by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland to not be going to occur), amongst other possibilities.
    • I get the impression the Cronenberg Virus didn't hit most Earths, but in those same Earths, Rick and Morty are alive and well. They can't just take their places. They needed a reality where the Cronenberg Virus didn't exist as well as one where Rick and Morty died somewhat recently so they could go back to their lives without missing a beat.
    • Speaking of which, considering most Ricks are at this point aware of the multiverse and there wouldn’t be any issue if they saw another Rick, why didn’t our Rick just go into one of the dimensions where he cures the Cronenberg virus and ask him how he did it?
      • For the same reason he went back for Summer and Morty when they were in the post apocalyptic Earth, and the same reason he decided to go to the new dimension in the first place. He's lazy and it would take too much effort to fix the dimension he was in, or find a new Summer and Morty, so he just decided not to do it at all.
  • Also in "Rick Potion #9," why didn't Rick select a universe where the whole family died and not just him and Morty so that they could rescue the rest of the family too? If there are infinite universes and therefore infinite possibilities, one would definitely need to exist.
    • Maybe it's better this way. Jerry and Beth's marriage has never been this good!
    • He was in one hell of a hurry at that time. Morty was already there with him (and he needed to keep the Mortywaves going, especially after trashing an entire dimension), but he'd have to care a lot more than he does to risk his love to save replaceable Smiths. There are also probably way more worlds available where the dangerprone primary protagonists die than where the whole family goes at once.
    Saving a deer? 
  • In A Rickle in Time, Beth and Jerry run over a deer and try to save it. Why is Beth so hell-bent on saving the deer's life, despite the fact that she's a horse surgeon and therefore cannot help it? What causes her aggression?
    • Half personal responsibility, half spite. Doctors take an oath to help any patient that needs it, and by the time Beth got really fervent she had many people telling her she couldn't save the deer. She had something to prove.
    • Beth also has a tremendous ego (She is Rick's daughter after all) so not being able to save the deer would make her lose face.
    • Actually, if you rewatch the episode, you'll notice it isn't about the deer at all. She even begins to say they would just have to let it die, but Jerry interrupts to her to ask her what she, as a horse surgeon, could do for a deer anyway. THAT was what set her off. Jerry himself even realized this mistake, as when she escalates he immediately responds with a despondent 'Oh god...'
    Dr. Xenon Bloom 
  • Dr. Xenon Bloom is... what, exactly? Are all members of his species sentient cells or was he genetically engineered by Rick? Or... didn't the creators of the show even think about giving him a backstory?
    • I assumed that he was a white blood cell living in Reuben's body or something. Albeit an intelligent one... him being so unusual could probably be chalked up to the same fictional magic that made the diseases solitary giant monsters instead of simply a whole lot of tiny bacteria/viruses. The weirdest part was how he acted like he would be growing to normal size and leaving Reuben's body like the others. How would that work?
      • He said "I wanted to sacrifice myself anyway!", so...
      • I'm pretty sure he said he DIDN'T want to sacrifice himself anyways; it was right after he discovered there really WAS an autopilot and was begging the train not to leave without him.
      • No, he tried to sacrifice himself, realized he didn't need to, realized it was too late, and said (possibly as a bit of self-consolation) that he wanted to do it anyway.
    • I thought he was a scientist who transformed himself into a white blood cell to better function in a human body, and to have a level of comfort that the others did not.
    • It's an amoeba.
    Scary Terry transporting through dreams? 
  • When Rick knocked out the little girl and went in her dream how did he come to the to conclusion that Scary Terry can transport through dreams? They ended up in the exact same place.
    • The little girl's dream happened to be the same place. Then Terry said, "Nothin but FEAR from here on out BITCH." Meaning he'd follow them wherever they went. This let Rick in on the fact that he could travel through dreams.
    • Besides, Rick's a genius. As seen later in the episode (and several times in future episodes) he can easily figure out exactly what's going on from a quick glance.
    Mr. Meeseeks 
  • What happens if you tell Mr. Meeseeks to explode?
    • …He'll use dynamite. And then what remains of his guts will vanish.
      • Or he... explodes. They're fine with that.
    • If you're looking for things to not end well, tell him to draw a four-sided triangle. Well, explaining why it's impossible might be enough for it to be considered completed (whereas their inability to improve Jerry's golf game cannot be explained away).
      • They fail and go insane. They're not gods, just somewhat superhumanly competent and utterly dedicated.
      • CAaaANNNNN DoOOoOO!! Poof.
      • Shenanigans, tetrahedron=/=triangle.
      • It's also possible that Mr. Meeseeks can deny requests that he deem outside of his scope and ask for another request.
  • Speaking of Meeseeks, they all disappeared when Jerry's golf game improved, but what about the one(s) summoned to kill another Meeseeks? Just because they all disappeared doesn't mean that task was accomplished.
    • Their tasks were to kill other Meeseeks. They disappeared, and were therefore dead, which was their task, meaning they could die too. How is that a problem?
    • In order for a Meeseeks to die, they must complete their task. Therefore, the Meeseeks summoned to kill the other Meeseeks would disappear last. If anything, this raises the question why there was only one Meeseeks left that cared about Jerry's swing instead of it and a chain of Meeseeks ordered to kill.
      • The Meeseeks may be able to end their existence at will after completing their task, but tend to vanish immediately due to the apparent, "pain," they experience through existence. The Stickler Meeseeks may have just been such a stickler that he was willing to experience extreme pain just to sate his petty need to seek perfection.
  • On the topic of Meeseeks, what happens if you tell a Meeseeks to live a full life of seventy years or so?
    • It'll probably do it, but it will more than likely be in extreme pain by the end of it.
    • Depends on how much of a Rules Lawyer. It could decide to go by Mercury years. Or invent a new calendar. Of course, if you really just wanted to torture a Meeseeks, and specify earth years, then yeah, it'll just have to wait. Though considering that one Meeseeks that lived two days looked like it had liver spots, they might not even live that long.
    • Mr. Meeseeks responds to a command with "can do!". Maybe that's a signal that the command is one that his programming will allow him to accept. I suspect that he may be programmed to only accept assignments that he can achieve in a short time, a couple of days at most. The trouble starts when he accepts an assignment that takes longer than he thought.
  • So...what would happen to a Meeseeks if you were able to completely destroy its entire body? It's said that they can't die until they complete their task... But they're also not shown to have any form of regenerative capabilities. Would complete destruction of their entire being before they can complete said task be able to put them down for good? Or would they still be alive... just without a body?
    • Probably And I Must Scream.
    • Rick probably meant they can't do the self-terminate explosion until they complete their task, not that they were literally immortal even if burned down to a single atom. Like Rick says, they're not gods.
  • A Meeseeks is designed to complete a relatively simple task, and then explode when it's finished. What would happen if you asked a Meeseeks to have sex with you? Is a Meeseeks capable of having sex of any kind? How would it work?
    • I don't see why not. Personally, though, I think a better request would be "give me an orgasm", as then the Meeseeks will stop at nothing until you're completely satisfied, in any way that works. Just asking for sex is unspecified how good it should be to you. Alternatively, if they were incapable, Rick would have made sure they were, but then again, why would he?
  • If someone requests something of a Mr. Meeseeks, and that person dies, what happens to the Mr. Meeseeks? Does it die, or are they doomed to live forever?
    • It dies. Remember that was the whole point of them trying to kill Jerry in the series ("We'll take ALL the strokes off his game by killing Jerry!"). I'd imagine Stalinism (remove the man, remove the problem) is a failsafe in a Meeseeks so they're not alive forever.
    Beth's mom still alive? 
  • Is Beth's mother still alive? Everyone assumed she was dead from Rick's egg comment in the pilot, but it's revealed in "Rick Potion #9" that Rick left her. Has there been any other comments in any episode that would indicate she's not dead but instead alive but divorced?
    • To be honest, she could be dead. Maybe the divorce happened before she died. One thing doesn't exclude the other. No character said a thing that confirms her being alive.
    • Given that Beth teared up after Rick made that comment about the eggs, I always assumed that Beth's mother is dead. Also, her death could explain why Beth is so determined to keep Rick living with her despite the chaos he invokes; she already lost one parent and doesn't want to lose the other.
      • That seems more of a Daddy's Girl moment though. Beth loves her father dearly and wants approval from him since he was so wayward throughout her life.
    • Of course with the ending of "Rick Potion #9" they could now be in a universe where she is still alive. The show does seem to like episode foreshadowing, maybe we'll have a flashback (if she's dead) or an appearance by her (if she's alive) in the future.
      • The alternate realities are likely the same up to the point of the accident, otherwise Rick could just find a reality where there he didn't make any love potion at all. He states he found one where he fixed everything after the accident despite the poor odds of doing so.
    • It's possible that she's alive as it is never said that she is dead. She could just not come around much.
      • As of Season 7, we know the real truth: Rick Prime used a weapon to erase every Diane from every single universe in existence in one stroke. Barring some crazy future plot device, she's gone for good.
    Going back and saving everyone? 
  • If Rick can travel to a universe where he cured the Cronenbergs, why didn't he just steal the cure from his dead alternate self and go back and save everyone?
    • Because it's easier for him to just take the other Rick's place. He doesn't give a shit about fixing the previous universe.
    • Alternatively, the cure might be finicky enough to not work in another reality, or just very time dependent. Or the whole thing was just done to introduce Morty to the concept.
    • One wonders how many times Rick has done this in the past, probably one of the thoughts that has Morty freaked out at the end.
      • Not more than three or four times. This isn't something that can be done every week.
    • When is it ever stated that he cured the Cronenbergs in any reality?
      • The imminently dead Rick and Morty that Original Rick and Morty replace talk about their Rick's unspecified "crazy solution" right before blowing themselves up. Then Original Rick explains to Original Morty that they're taking the place of a Rick and Morty that fixed everything somehow, and also just happened to die at a convenient moment. This implies multiple realities where Rick came up with a cure. The projected number of such realities depends on the likelihood of any given Rick and Morty meeting a sudden end during their wacky adventures.
      • The newspaper on the front porch has the headline "GENETIC EPIDEMIC AVERTED" along with a picture of a Cronenberg. So it had to have been a cure (and not it just going away) because there would be no picture to print.
    Misandrists making male-centered cartoon? 
  • Why would a race of men-hating women make a cartoon about a civilized man and his male cat?
    • You mean the cartoon whose only episode we see consists of him being brutally insulted by said cat?
    • The show was from an alternate universe. Who knows what Gazorpazorp was like there?
    • It could have been made by anyone who's aware of their race. They are also clearly from a different evolutionary timeline.
    Doofus Rick 
  • So what's the deal with Doofus Rick? It's clear that he doesn't have the same level of intelligence as the other Ricks but he doesn't seem to be an idiot.
    • In every group there is a hierarchy, a pecking-order. None of the things the other Ricks say about "Doofus Rick" are necessarily true; it just happens that he's on the bottom of the pecking order and thus gets picked on by everyone.
    • Well, considering that almost all Ricks are assholes the fact that Doofus Rick is simply of above-average intelligence and comes from the shit-eating reality still makes him a loser in their eyes.
      • It was never actually confirmed whether or not Doofus Rick is from the shit-eating reality. The other Ricks might just say that to taunt Doofus Rick.
      • While there surely is a Shit Eating Reality, it hasn't been mentioned in the show besides in reference to Doofus Rick. They do feature a commercial for a movie about a guy who eats shit, however, why would he have to stop if it was normal? "This is a court order, they say you have to stop eating shit" I'm assuming the Other Ricks would be implying a shit eating reality meant they ate it for sustenance, which surely wouldn't be illegal.
    • Nothing shows him as lesser in intelligence, and "The Ricklantis Mixup" underlines the point that all Ricks are geniuses. The other Ricks bully Doofus Rick because he's friendly, polite, and doesn't use his intelligence as an excuse to treat people like shit — and to them that marks him as a victim.
    Where exactly is Dimension C-137? 
  • Is Dimension C-137 the one the show's Rick and Morty come from, or the one they live in now?
    • Reddit discussion on this topic.
    • Further clarified in Mortynight Run. Note that Jerry is "N/A". Dimension C-137 is the dimension that Rick accidentally Cronenberg'd in Rick Potion #9. Where they live in now is irrelevant and even the Council of Ricks classify him by his home dimension and not his adopted dimension.
      • The Council of Ricks didn't know Rick's home dimension, they just assumed he was from the one they found him in.
    • Given what we've learned in seasons 5 and 6, its not impossible that C-137 was our Rick's original dimension, the one where he saw his Diane and Beth die. And the dimension he moved to (the one the show started in) is only labelled C-137 because thats where Rick C-137 is currently residing (and by extension, the Morty we started the show which is only Morty C-137 because he's with that Rick).
      • For whatever it's worth, the show's wiki considers C-137 to be Rick's native universe.
    Why did Beth and Jerry have Morty? 
  • So Beth and Jerry had Summer when they were both 17 years old. The pregnancy was an accident, and the abortion was apparently avoided thanks to a stroke of fate when they blew a tire on the way to the clinic, which made them either reconsider the abortion or closed off Beth's window to have it performed. Considering all that, why exactly did they decide to have Morty three years later? 20 years old is still young to have your first child, let alone your second one, and Beth was most likely still in veterinary school at the time.
    • I think Morty was yet another accident and after him they learned their lesson.
    • I don't think Morty was an accident. They probably figured that after having one kid and deciding to get married, they might as well have another within a few years as opposed to waiting and having their second kid 15 years after the first. Better to "get it out of the way". Jerry probably wanted a son.
    • As of the season 5 finale, the question is answered: Because the Citadel engineers for Beths and Jerries to reproduce and make more Morties.
    Dozen out of Infinity? 
  • Exactly what is a dozen out of infinity? Seriously, the wording of that is quite possibly the only Plot Hole in the series thus far.
    • That's not exactly what Rick meant when he said that line. 12/x is an irrelevant variable. The issue is that all the Rick and Morty in these realities would also want to do the exact same thing, and they would need far more than a few dozen to accomplish this. "There are a infinite realities, and in a few dozen of them I got lucky." No problem with the 12/x, considering infinity has nothing to do with the few dozen realities. Broken down, be basically said, about 36, after simply explaining the nature of the multiverse.
    Morty always being called an idiot. 
  • Why is Morty consistently called an idiot? Sure, he doesn't do well in school, but apart from that, he's honestly no dumber than the average 14 year old... so, what? Calling him outright stupid just seems a bit extreme for a little book dumbness.
    • Because almost everyone on this show is an asshole, and Morty is implied to have a learning disability.
    • In the pilot, he's taking a math exam which consist in two-digit additions. At 14. Go figure.
    Just spy on the other Rick & Morty 
  • In Rick Potion #9, why didn't Rick just spy on the other Rick and Morty, take notes on how to make the antidote, and then just avoid what got them killed in that timeline? It would have probably saved Morty a lot of mental anguish if he just cured everyone in their universe of being Cronenberged and then just made sure not to adjust that highly unstable device afterwards.
    • Rick isn't exactly known for common sense.
    • Or for giving a shit.
    • The alternate timelines are nonetheless parallel, so presumably Rick missed the time window where that would be possible or simply couldn't be bothered looking for a timeline where a successful cure was yet to be made.
    Morty calling Rick by his first name 
  • Why does Morty only call Rick by his first name and never "Grandpa" or "Grandpa Rick"?
    • He has been confirmed to not be the most paternal guy in the world. He almost certainly became a grandfather when he was in his 40s. It's not particularly uncommon in Real Life for younger grandparents to decide to not go by "grandpa/ma" because it makes them feel old.
    • Actually, if "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" is correct and Rick is 80 years old, he would have had to become a father at 46. Still, he has a youthful spirit and a fear of growing old, so he might have insisted on having others drop the "Grandpa" address.
      • Though, to be fair, his current age might have more to do with his shenanigans than his actual age from Beth's perspective. Case in point, Rick knows how to freeze time and what to do in such situation, meaning he has done this a couple times already; they stay frozen a couple of months, but outside, couple seconds have passed, at worst. Now imagine how many times Rick has done that. Related to that, considering the time he's spent frozen and then in the Teeny Verse, Morty is technically 15 now.
    • Morty does use "Grandpa Rick" at one point.
    • It's an indicator of their relationship. They are more like best friends than grandfather and grandson. Summer calls Rick "Grandpa" because she is more distant from Rick than Morty.
    • Rick has also spent time in dimensions where time moves differently. In the pilot, Morty broke his legs, Rick left and came back in a few seconds from Morty/our perspectives, but then says he's been gone for months in the dimension where he got the 'unbreak legs' cure.
    Timeline of Rick coming back into Beth's life. 
  • Exactly when did Rick come back into Beth's life? Some of the first episode implies that it hasn't been particularly long since he returned, but "Close Encounters of the Rick Kind" explicitly shows that Rick first saw Morty when he was baby.
    • Rick may have left her life sometime after Morty's birth, meaning he was gone for 13-14 years. Alternatively, the Rick we follow now might not actually be Beth's father or Morty's grandfather, but one from an alternative universe who was involved in their lives, but was forced to jump realities for some reason and start over with a new version of his family. This may actually explain Rick's drinking, his poor mental state, why he doesn't seem to mind stealing the lives of other Rick's, and his obsession with 'his' grandchildren.
    • According to season 5's finale, the first episode's implications are correct. He may have at one point stopped in one reality to see a Morty's birth, though.
    • season 6 implies that this is something he does with our Morty then runs aways or did it with another Morty because the failed trap

    Timeline with pancakes 
  • Just want to see if I'm missing anything with the start of "Close Rick-counters". It starts with Beth promising Rick she'll make him flying saucer-shaped pancakes tomorrow to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his return. Then a bunch of Ricks raid the place. After the title sequence, it's definitely the next day, ("Oh, I get it, pancakes are already shaped like flying saucers," so it's not a recap of what happened before the title), and... a bunch of Ricks raid the place as if this is the first time they did so. Is there something more to this, or is it just a parodic take on Viewers Are Goldfish?
    • You seem to be forgetting it was Evil!Rick the first time, and he killed that other Rick. The bit after the title sequence is our Rick in a different reality which runs closely parallel to the one Evil!Rick attacked.
    Last scene in "Mortynight Run" 
  • For the life on me, I can't figure out the last scene of "Mortynight Run" (in my defense, it's 4:30 AM right now); the other Rick and Morty asks for Jerry 5126, 5126 was "our" Rick and Morty's Jerry, so does that mean they got the right one or the wrong one?
    • It's implied they each picked up the wrong Jerry, which is why they switched them around.
    • I think the other Rick and Morty were asking if our (C-137) Rick and Morty had the *ticket* with 5126 on it, implying that other R&M had the *Jerry* with 5126 and realized they had grabbed the wrong Jerry.
    • I took it as "Rick doesn't really care which Jerry he gets" - so they just swapped because "whatever, close enough." Technically neither of the Jerries is "their" Jerry anyway since this episode is after "Rick Potion #9."
    • Alternatively, the Rick who asks for the '5126 Jerry' is our usual C-137 Rick. Meaning that the Rick and Morty we have been watching all episode are actually from an alternate reality.
      • It gets better: Toward the end of this episode, you can see Rick loading up the car with fluorescent green rocks with purple pods in them. Fast-forward to 'Total Rickall', and Rick can be seen tossing the same rocks in the bin. Maybe the real reason that we (the viewers) don't remember Mr Poopybutthole is because 'Total Rickall' takes place in a different reality to C-137 - namely, the same reality we followed in 'Mortynight Run'.
    • As of Season 6, it's confirmed that "our" Rick and Morty brought the wrong Jerry home with them, and it's reinforced that Rick just didn't really care.
    Power of an antimatter bullet 
  • I remember reading somewhere that a softball-sized ball of antimatter can level a city. How powerful is an antimatter bullet?
    • About 817.2 terajoules, or the equivalent of about 195 thousand tons of TNT.
      • Maybe a better question would have been; "How little antimatter would the pistol Rick sold Krombopulos Michael need to shoot to keep from vaporizing the planet it's on, yet still kill Fart"?
      • Fart doesn't seem to 'explode' from the anti-matter so much as just dissolve around the area of impact. We're probably talking about a downright minuscule quantity of anti-matter, with the "beam" that comes out of the pistol being an energy field to keep the anti-matter from interacting with anything before it hits the target.
    Real Morty in M. Night Shaym-aliens? 
  • So... does real (non-simulated) Morty actually appear in M. Night Shaym-aliens at all? If not (as is implied by the ending), why is he so confused about the simulations in the first scenes, and what's with the bonding moment between Rick and Morty with the crystals? Are the aliens actually much better at simulation than they're given credit for - considering they were able to simulate a very realistic Morty?
    • No, he doesn't. The only "real" characters that appear in the episode are Rick and Jerry. Sim!Morty is so confused about the simulation in the first scenes because Real!Morty would be confused as well, and the Zigerions are trying to trick Rick into thinking that he's trapped in a single simulation with Real!Morty, not two simulations with Sim!Morty. As for their skill at simulations, remember that the initial simulation was supposed to fall apart - by making Rick think he had outsmarted the program, he would drop his guard in the second simulation and fail in his hubris. At least, that was the plan...
    What is Mr. Poopy-Butthole exactly? 
  • If Mister Poopy-Butthole isn't one of the parasites... Then what IS he? And why is he living with the family?
    • Considering that Rick and Morty regularly visit alien planets and alternate dimensions and have a penchant for bringing back companions with them, it's not that surprising.
    • And how longs has he been living with them that he would be considered as good a friend as all the parasite!characters? No one mentions his appearance as being recent. Has he been part of the show in-universe since the very start and we just haven't seen him?
      • There is a character on Ball Fondlers who resembles Mr. Poopy-Butthole.
      • They wouldn't consider his appearance as being recent if he's filled their heads with memories going back many years.
      • It can also be said that Mr. Poopy-Butthole is a prime example of evolving to ensure to continuation of his species. Before they were incapable of creating a bad memory, however now that that cat is out of the bag, he has learned that bad memories must now be created along with the good. The first bad memory he decides to create? Beth nearly killing him. Remember what the nurse said? "He told me to tell you he's 'sorry you don't have any bad memories of him'". Well now they do have a bad memory.
      • This could not be the case, is said outright that if the parasites manage to get out they would take over the Earth, and Mr. Poopy-Butthole was seen in the hospital, they even call the ambulance. If he was a parasite the Earth would have been destroyed.
    • Or does this episode take place in an alternate universe than the one we've been following, one where Poopy-Butthole has been part of the cast the entire time? Based on the opening including him in every scene, this would seem to be the case.
      • What makes this a supreme headscratcher (or Mind Screw) is that Poopy appears in the opening scene with the fake butler, but does not appear in the same flashback in the episode itself. Huh?
      • The addition of him in the opening sequence is a joke.
    • We can assume Mister Poopy-Butthole is a friend of Rick's, as he's the most outright friendly person, followed by the rest of the family (Jerry and the kids freak out as he bleeds out and calls him a 'family friend') the only person who doubts his existence is Beth, as she raises the suspicion he isn't real, and Poopy-Butthole does the same, which leads to the end of the episode. So we can assume that the rest of the family definitely knows him, just he and Beth don't really know each other, which is the punchline. The Viewer assumes Mr. Poopy-Butthole is fake because he was introduced to us in the episode about fake quirky characters, but there's no reason they could not have met previously and he came to stay with them that day.
    • Mr Poopy-Butthole is a parasite, but he is a benevolent one. He is also a more advanced energy-being based one according to Harmon.
    Other parasites? 
  • So Rick kills the first parasite, Jerry's brother. Writes down the fact that there's six of them. At this point the viewer is assuming Mr Poopy-Butthole is a parasite and starts replicating to create the other ones. Except Mr Poopy-Butthole isn't a parasite as seen by the ending. So where did all the other characters come from? Was there some unseen parasite replicating them and is it still there?
    • The parasites could've just been hiding and used their flashback to create the Cousin Nicky persona and then continued to take form until there were enough of them to convince the family to turn on Rick. By the end, they probably had all taken shape and were killed in the shootout.
      • Mr. Poopy-Butthole created Cousin Nicky. (HE'S WALKIN' HERE!)
    • That still doesn't explain what he is. In the hospital, the physical therapist doesn't consider his biology to be out of the ordinary. In fact, the therapist even has a walking rail made exactly for his height. Is Mister Poopy Butthole's species common on Earth? Does the hospital regularly admit strange creatures like him?
      • That walking rail could be used for children or people with dwarfism. The biology could be very similar as he only appears to be hairless and have a elongated head.
      • The humans in the setting seem to have a very large Weirdness Censor, such as during "Ricksy Business" where the human party guests don't seem to question the presence of the alien ones.
      • Well this troper was under the impression that Rick and Morty's world is a post-First Contact Earth, e.i. an Earth where humanity knows of the existence of alien life already although aliens are not such a common occurrence in average life, otherwise other episodes would make no sense like the Earth's government negotiating a peace treaty with the giant spiders, no one bathing an eye for the Warrior Priestess from Krootabulon in the restaurant or when Earth becomes a member of the Galactic Federation. Thus, Mr. Poopy-Butthole's existence although uncommon is not unheard off.
    Mr. Beauregard is real? 
  • For that matter, Mr. Beauregard has technically showed up in the Season 2 title sequences before Total Rickall. However, he turns out in the end to be a parasite, even though Mr. Poopybutthole is real and has had cameos in the previous episodes as well. What's different about him/it?
    • The difference with Mr. Poopybutthole is he's real. That's it. Mr. Beauregard showing up in the opening is just an example of the opening showing weird stuff that may or may not happen in the show, like in Season 1 when a part of Anatomy Park was seen.
    • It was also probably a deliberate ploy on the part of the showrunners to mislead sharp eyed viewers.
    Rick knowing Annie's vagina 
  • How does Rick know what Annie's vagina looks like?
    • According to the creators it's a rumor circulating in the break room.
    Healing Jerry's penis 
  • If the alien hospital can heal Jerry of 57 bullet wounds (Including one that exited out his forehead and likely destroyed his BRAIN) "Like it's removing a splinter", why is there any dilemma whatsoever in removing Jerry's penis to make a new heart for an alien diplomat? Regenerating a penis that's been carefully surgically removed seems way less complicated than healing 57 random bullet wounds and a human brain. And why in the world(s) didn't they just go for the artificial heart option to begin with rather than shaming Jerry into surrendering his genitalia?
    • Probably just Rule of Funny.
    • Possible that a human penis transplant is probably cheaper and more convenient than having to make an artificial heart.
    • The artificial heart was presumably extremely expensive, since it required donations from aliens all over the galaxy in order to fund the operation. Jerry also Lampshades this when he asks why they didn't go for that alternative in the first place.
    Rick joining the purge? 
     Are the security checkpoint Ricks just dumbasses? 
  • ...Did the security checkpoint Rick breaks into never receive any news or mugshot of one of the most wanted criminals?
    • A classic case of humans all look the same to aliens just as all the bug aliens manning the checkpoint look the same to the human viewers. Rick describes it best in Auto Erotic Assimilation: "Cops are racist."
    Planet Unity not united? 
  • If the planet Unity assimilated has been made totally efficient and all its citizens including drug addicts and sex offenders are now contributing members of society why is there that homeless person with the guitar?
    • Unity wants her planet to be accepted into the Galactic Federation to absorb more planets. Having an a perfect planet with no poverty or crime might look suspicious in a chaotic place like the universe. So in short they are there as camouflage to fool on-lookers and tourists until it is to late.
    • It could also just be Unity's way of doing things. Compare the people of its planet to the Beta-7 ambassadors. They're all identical and act simultaneously; despite being a hivemind Unity seems to enjoy giving "themselves" some kind of individuality, like a kid playing house with her dolls on a planetary scale.
    Cob Planet horrifying? 
  • Can someone explain to me what was horrifying about the planet where everything was on a cob? I figured the joke was that the planet itself was on a cob and they were going to be eaten, but I'm thinking I misunderstood that.
    • I believe the implications are that the world was a normal planet before some horrific cob-themed Eldritch Horror turned everything on the planet into things on cobs. The ants and birds on a cob looked unnatural, as if they were somehow assimilated into the cob. Rick seems to have dealt with this before, and I think it's implied that if they stayed on the planet they would wind up grafted to their own cobs, forced to live as a person-on-a-cob forever.
    • The joke is that it's not explained. Simple as that.
      • ^This. It's even lampshaded by Jerry's line immediately after the scene where he expresses confusion as to why everything-on-the-cob is a problem.
    • Could just be Rick being a lunatic.
    • Rick's reaction to it is the joke. We've seen some really weird things before in the series but I don't think we've ever seen Rick with such an "oh crap we're in trouble" face.
    • One Youtube commenter said that they would quickly get sick of everything on a cob.
    • There is a scientific explanation: If everything native to the planet is on a cob down to the molecular level, that means that those molecules aren't compatible with the human body. Oxygen molecules could bond to the molecules in the lungs, but wouldn't be able to be processed, in much the same way that carbon monoxide kills people. The same issue would be present with cobbed food molecules.
    • Rick is aware that he is on a TV show. He does things, like inventing catch phrases, to make the show more popular, because cancellation would be like death for him. He can't afford to let the jokes become too corny.
    • he react the same way in season 6 so the assimilation isn't that strange (actually is strange even for Rick)
    Sleepy Gary's pleasant memories? 
  • If the parasites can only create pleasant memories, then why do half of Sleepy Gary's memories involve him barging in and telling everyone to shut up so he can sleep?
    • Because that's only 'bad' in a wacky sitcom hijinks sense, not actual bad like Summer getting clubbed in the head with a wine bottle by her mom. It's not him being human, it's just him doing his shtick.
    "Total Rickall" Parasites 
  • In "Total Rickall", why does it never occur to anyone to simply prick their fingers to check the color of their blood?
    • At that point, the family could easily be ruled out as the parasites. With a hundred parasites with purple blood and only 6 real people with red blood, they would be the minority and then all of them are in danger as opposed to just Rick.
    • They could beat that by implanting a memory to make them 'remember' that time Rick made needles that could turn people into monsters for an April Fool's Day prank. They got past the written-down number of real people in a similar fashion.
    • Also, not all of the parasites disguised themselves as humans. Several of them claimed to be monsters or aliens.
  • For that matter, what do the "Total Rickall" parasites even DO? They're posed as some sort of imminent threat, but aside from mass confusion and a house that became massively overcrowded, they showed no real ill effects.
    • All that's mentioned there is that they live in your house and eat your food. But if you think about the fact that they reproduce so quickly, rapidly becoming a huge crowd, all of whom are people you have been tricked into thinking you have to feed and provide accommodations for, you start to see how it's a problem.
    • They do exactly what Real Life parasites do– exploit host organisms in order to survive and reproduce. For all we know, these aren't even sentient and don't have any higher goal. Their memory tricks might just be a highly evolved defense mechanism to placate their hosts. And that would make them more dangerous, because without an actual goal, they would just keep reproducing until they overrun everything.
  • If the parasites can overwrite existing memories (displayed best when the try to convince Rick he wrote down "6" for no reason), why didn't they just make Rick forget about all of them being parasites?
    • I think that's because they can't make someone forget about something, the parasites can only gaslight someone into thinking that the reasons behind certain actions are stupid. Now, Rick has already killed one parasite in front of his whole family, that's something that must be really hard to forget or to replace with another memory.
    Car's A.I. doing stuff while the battery is dead? 
  • In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", how can the car's A.I. do all those crazy program-fulfilling things—like committing murder, severing a spinal cord, and gestating a melting human child—while its battery is dead?
    • It might have more than one power source. The amount of energy it would take to run the engines on a single-stage-to-orbit flying saucer is psychotic, and the pocket dimension battery might be entirely dedicated to powering those engines. Other ship systems might be run on less exotic power sources.
    • Speaking of less exotic power sources, why bother with populated miniverses at all? Wouldn't it be more efficient and less of a hassle to just build a miniverse with a Dyson-sphered star or two? Plenty of power for minimal effort.
      • Why in another episode create a tiny sentient robot only to pass him butter? Because Rick does what he must because he can, that's why.
    Captured by Nazis a happy memory 
  • In "Total Rickall", how is being held captive aboard a Nazi submarine a positive memory?
    • Because it was a wacky adventure.
    • The positive memories tend to ignore the situation and instead focus the positivity on a parasite's supposed reaction to it. Mr. Beauregard saving the family is considered the positive memory. Same goes for Beth's memory of having a compatible kidney with the mobster bear parasite- losing a kidney or going into renal failure isn't positive, but the act of giving to save a life or receiving one is considered a positive memory.
    Teen!Rick still has grey hair and same voice? 
  • In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", how come Teenage Rick still has his gray hair and gravelly voice?
    • Why shouldn't he? Maybe you are but I'm personally not familiar with the anti aging technology they use.
    • Rick made the clones that way on purpose to retain his trademark style.
    • Additionally, he also could have accidentally caused irreparable damage or mutations to the genes controlling the pigment in his hair sometime throughout his life, probably through all the experiments he's performed, exposure to chemicals or from visiting significantly diverse dimensions and planets to his own. This would explain why even as a baby, his clone is shown to have silver hair- he might not have been born that way, but because his current DNA would be programmed and overwritten to not produce any hair colour, his clone would inherit the mutated genes as opposed to his original, natural hair colour (for which a genetic combination to produce may no longer even exist in his genes due to the aforementioned factors).
      • Actually, we see considerably younger Rick in a band with bird person. Even if he's middle-aged, that's still pretty early to go gray. It might be save to assume he's just always been that way. Some people can go grey as early as twenty. Maybe Rick was just born like that.
    • In Season 5, we see a flashback of Rick at age 12, and his hair is still that same blueish-grey, just slightly more blue. Maybe it's genetic?
     Jerry Daycare Center 
  • What is up with the Jerry Daycare Center? While I understand the premise... Why are so many Ricks there? Wouldn't they have their own daycare and NOT have to travel to a different dimension?
    • The episode implied that it was omni-dimensional, if you pay attention to the clues.
    • Exactly. And it's noted that a single Rick came up with it as well as monopolized the concept and not the Council. Think of the harassment the Jerries would get if Jerryboree Inc was run by other Ricks. Jerryboree Rick gets more Flerbos and less of a headache by leaving all the Jerries with his competent employees.
    The Intergalactic Government actually sucks 
  • Soooo... Is the Intergalactic Government just the worst thing ever? Birdperson said the guest list included only 17 people on Government's watchlist... and Temmy just decides to start a freaking shoot-out at the reception, where there are innocent women, children, and people who don't even know that the government exists. On that note, why did she shoot Bird Person? He wasn't showing any threat, yet Rick was readying his Portal gun to escape, so shooting Rick in the arm would've been justifiable. But other than that... yeah. The Government allows shoot-outs where innocent people are involved. No wonder Rick hates them. They are the real criminals.
    • Rick and his friends are intergalactic terrorists and war criminals. Imagine if the USA learned that there was a wedding where the top 20 real life terrorists were guaranteed to attend - of course they would send in soldiers to kill everyone.
    • How many real-life drone attacks have killed suspected terrorists and a lot of civilians located nearby?
    Fart's telepathy 
  • Sure, he was doing a musical number at the time, but if Fart is telepathic, why didn't he catch that Morty was going to shoot and kill him? Does Fart's telepathy just not work when he's doing a musical sequence?
    • Fart says something along the lines of how he senses that Morty believes that all life is sacred. "You said yourself that life must be protected, even though sacrifice. You haven't changed your mind about that. I can sense your thoughts." The part that Fart misses is where Morty realized he needs to kill Fart to protect all Carbon-based life. Morty sacrifices one life that he valued because it means protecting the rest of his universe.
    Dr. Glip-glop is offensive? 
  • "Interdimensional Cable II" starts with Rick taking a very sick Jerry to see a doctor named Dr. Glip-glop. But, isn't that the horribly offensive term from Ricksy Business?
    • It is mentioned to be offensive in the language of a Traflorician. So the doctor unfortunately has a last name that would be considered extremely vulgar to Trafloricians but is otherwise considered fine in every (or most) other alien languages.
     Inter-dimensional Customs 
  • What about Inter-dimensional Customs from the pilot? In the season premiere they claim the Galactic Federation needs to steal the secret to interdimensional travel from Rick, yet they were running an interdimensional travel center in the pilot.
    • The portals seen at the station are initially blue. Its been demonstrated several times since then that blue portals are "teleportation" while only green portals are inter-dimensional. Note that the portal turns green after Rick tinkers with it. Most likely its not really inter-dimensional customs but the Galactic Federation just calls it that.
    • Federation Inter-dimensional travel is ludicrously inefficient needing an entire space station to deal with the power needs and whatever other consequences that sort of travel has. That and it has limited endpoints tied to other portal generating facilities or else their portals don't work where as Rick can go anywhere, be anywhere, from a device in his pocket.
    • The Federation might know how to perform interdimensional travel, but Rick can do it on an entirely different scale. The Federation has facilities that can travel to different dimensions, but it probably requires so much power it needs to be in a fixed position because it has a generator the size of a school bus. Rick can travel to any dimension he wants using a gun that fits in his pocket.
    • Why is it even a secret they need to steal in the first place? Why doesn't Rick just publish the blueprints for the portal gun if people want it so badly? I know he only cares about himself and wouldn't be motivated by others being able to benefit from the technology, but doing so would surely be much easier than dealing with everyone trying to get the information from him by force.
      • Because Rick is still a criminal. The Federation isn't only after him for his tech, he's apparently committed 'everything', and his portal gun is how he avoids them.
    • The dimension with the megatrees was Dimension 35-C. The most likely case is that the Galactic Federation of 35-C has access to and knowledge of inter-dimensional travel, whereas the Galactic Federation of the Replacement Dimension did not.
      • Unlikely considering the Citadel of Ricks were worried about the Galactic Federation getting inter-dimensional capabilities.
    Szechuan Sauce 
  • If Rick wants his Szechuan Sauce so bad, couldn't he just travel to a universe where McDonald's still sells it? Surely there must be one?
    • Rick seems to be claiming he was motivated to invent the portal gun for this purpose. The three possibilities are 1) Rule of Funny 2) Probing different universes for such specific details is extremely difficult and he hasn't been able to locate one yet, and 3) It was just an excuse and he actually has a different motivation. Given that Rick was able to quickly locate a perfect universe to flee to in "Rick Potion No. 9", The answer is most likely 1 or 3.
    Hungry for Apples a bad slogan? 
  • Is "Hungry for Apples?" really that bad a slogan?
    • On a site released to promote Season 3 and to provide backstory to the gap between 'The Wedding Squanchers' and 'The Rickshaw Redemption', it is revealed that the advertising company who rejected 'Hungry for Apples?' was taken over by a alien businessman, who then realized that the campaign Jerry had failed to promote was so bad it would appeal to a galactic audience. He then used it to make apples one of the most popular galactic commodities. In fact, he might be responsible for the 6 promotions Jerry received by doing nothing at all.
    • A slogan that simple really needs to be promoted with confidence and some kind of analysis of why it would be effective. Jerry was really bad at selling the slogan, both in the simulation, and later in the stinger.
    Looking for a new Earth 
  • In "The Wedding Squanchers", when Rick was looking for a new Earth, he only found three, all of which had some major problem. Why didn't he look in other dimensions as well? If they find a dimension where the Galactic Federation doesn't exist or isn't looking for Rick, they wouldn't even need to find a planet like Earth; they could just live on that dimension's version of Earth. It wouldn't even be the first time they've done it.
    • If for some reason they couldn't live in another dimension, why not look in another galaxy? It's the Galactic Federation, not the Intergalactic Federation.
    • Earlier in the episode, Rick self-destructs his portal gun to prevent the Federation from getting it, so they couldn't hop dimensions unless he could build a new one from scratch. Also, from episode 1.10: "As you know, Morty, I've got a lot of enemies in the universe that consider my genius a threat. Galactic terrorists, a few sub-galactic dictators, most of the entire intergalactic government." So apparently, their reach may extend past the Milky Way, or Rick has plenty of enemies in nearby galaxies as well. Also, so far the show hasn't really said much about intergalactic travel, but it's probably safe to say it takes a lot longer and uses a lot more fuel than travel within the galaxy. Rick most likely needed a closer place to hide for a while in order to figure out what to do next.
    Jerry's 7, 000 Fed Credits? 
  • Where did the 7,000 fed credits that Jerry owes come from?
    • My guess is that he was (still) unemployed.
    • It was implied that the pills he took worked out to be worth 7000 fed credits. It's sort of a play on how you get screwed over by people and corporations that put on the guise of helping you and then come around later asking for a favour. Or payment.
    Tammy's origin 
  • When we learned that Tammy Gueterman is really a deep cover agent from the Galactic Federation, this left me wondering about her true origins; She appears to be a normal looking teenage girl from earth, but she's actually a member an alien government and her parents were robots used to cover her identity, which means she may not be from earth at all. Oddly, we never see any other Human Aliens throughout the whole series.
    So many Mortys! 
  • Why are there so many Mortys? It's implied there is a Morty in every reality or at least close to it. Early in the series, we learn that there are very few Summers in the multiverse because in most realities, Jerry and Beth had an abortion and never got married. With Summer being the oldest child, it stands to reason that in those realities, Morty would not exist either. How can there be more Mortys than Summers?
    • "Most universes have a Rick, and most Ricks have a Morty." - Remember there are infinite realities. We happen to see more Mortys on screen because most of them travel between universes with their Ricks. Part of why we only see the one Summer is to underscore how special the Rick we are following is: he takes his Summer on adventures while most of them don't.
    • This troper assumed that a Morty could have been created in the alternate realities where Jerry and Beth got together later (i.e., like in "Interdimensional Cable" where AU!Jerry declares that the abortion that eliminated Summer was a terrible idea and he always loved Beth). If they got together then and decided to have a kid, it stands to reason that they'd have a Morty. And given that there are more dysfunctional Beth and Jerrys than functional ones...
    • It's never said that there are less Summers overall, just that their lives tend to be boring. Doofus Rick states he was assigned a Morty because he never had children, so the omnipresence of Mortys is probably Rick council intervention.
      • Summer saw darkness inmost of her alternate realities. Granted, the ones she did find were boring, but she directly mentions there are very few versions of her, so she asks her parents why that is, which resulted in them confessing they almost had an abortion with the implication being that she isn't alive in most realities. The idea of Mortys being regulated by the Council of Ricks seems like a strong possibility, though.
    • Because a new universe with a new Rick and Morty is created every time Rick makes a decision, and he makes a lot of decisions.
    • It's eventually revealed that many, many of the Mortys, including the one we follow, are actually clones grown in a lab by the Citadel of Ricks.
    Really dumb control panel 
  • Why did the Citadel of Ricks decide to put every last button needed to teleport the station on one control panel? Rick C-137 says it's a really dumb design idea, and all the other Ricks are literally him.
    • Ah, but while they are him they're not exactly him. Our Rick expresses annoyance more than once about the Citadel of Ricks and has said that they're effectively less Rick than him because they formed a Government. We've also seen that there's a sliding scale of Ricks, and that our Rick was just evil enough to only be one Rick away from 'Evil Rick'. It could be possible that due to their lack of 'Rickness' they aren't quite as intelligent as him anymore. Or maybe they never were in the first place, since Doofus Rick is a thing.
    • To paraphrase Agent K, A Rick is smart. Ricks are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.
    Mr. Needful? 
  • Where the hell did Mr. Needful come from? (...phrasing...) The Devil seems so out of place in the Rick and Morty multiverse, but not only does he exist, Rick is the one to recognize him, and he doesn't seem at all fazed.
    • He isn't really out of place, the Earth of Rick and Morty also has vampires and other supernatural/psudosupernatural weirdness unrelated to the titular duo. Rick is unfazed by most things, some guy selling cursed items calling himself The Devil isn't something that would flip his world upside down.
    • Several other episodes have supernatural/psudosupernatural stuff that looks far more out of the realm of sci-fi than Mr. Needful, but they're ultimately explained by science through context. (Froopyland, Tinkles, the Zeus) Rick seems unfazed in these situations too. So it's likely that all of these occurrences are explainable/achievable through scientific means, but simply look so fantastical that they're just assumed to be "magic" by the normal people who witness it, just like Adventure Time. That said, Mr. Needful is either a regular human scientist that "curses" objects by placing nanobots on them, or an extraterrestrial capable of "cursing" objects by placing his own toxic microorganisms on them. Calling himself "The Devil" is just an act, no magic is involved.
     Opposite of "Wubba-lubba-dub-dub"? 
  • On Gazorpazorp, Rick, after being strangled, asks "what's the opposite of wubba-lubba-dub-dub?" The fact that "wubba-lubba-dub-dub" means "I am in great pain" can be incorporated into most of Rick's uses of the phrase one way or another, but Rick's explicit invocation of its meaning in this instance makes it difficult.
    Summer and Rick's muscles 
  • Most likely of no other cartoon would I ask this, but given Rick and Morty's history of following up on elements other shows might discard (cf. the destruction of C-137, the Jerry switcheroo vis-à-vis Mr. Poopybutthole) what happened to Summer and Rick's muscles after their rampage at the end of "Something Ricked This Way Comes"?
    • The show does occasionally have Negative Continuity gags. The very first scene ended with a world-demolishing bomb about to go off, for example.
      • It wasn't a world-destroying bomb, it was a neutrino bomb. Neutrinos are harmless.
      • The Neutrinos aren't being exploded out like shrapnel; they're likely used as an energy source for the bomb. In the same way that a Hydrogen Bomb uses Hydrogen to power the explosion.
    • Possibly the injections they give each other were some serum Rick made that would wear off after a short time, instead of actual steroids.
    All dogs leave Earth? 
  • Didn't all the dogs on Earth leave at the end of "Lawnmower Dog?" I'm pretty sure they've been fairly consistent with not depicting dogs since then, but at the end of the newest episode Jerry is confronted by a wild dog.
    • It might have been a coyote, although a dog is also seen in the credits scene of 'Something Ricked This Way Comes'.
      • It was just the dogs that were in a shelter. There's no reason to believe Snowball took every dog.
      • "Lawnmower Dog" is Episode 2 in the series, "Something Ricked This Way Comes" is Episode 9. My point? "Rick Potion #9" occurs between those two episodes, ending with Rick and Morty leaving the dimension in which Snuffles/Snowball gained higher thinking and transported dogs off-world.
     Healthy Rick's plan 
  • So, Healthy Rick wants to merge with back with his toxic self, and wants to force Morty to do that too, because he considers them persons and believe it's wrong to just lock them away... but then his plan to defeat Toxic Rick it's based on risking Toxic Morty's life. Which is something regular Rick would do, but since Toxic Rick was shown as the cynic one, Healthy Rick shouldn't have had the cynicism left to follow that strategy, just like Toxic Rick had no sense of humor in him.
    • Healthy Rick has two chief assets in this situation, empathy and pragmatism; he can get a good read on what Toxic Rick wants and feels, and is also cold blooded enough to follow through. Toxic Rick got everything Whole Rick considers "bad", including his excessive attachment to Morty, and knows that if he puts Toxic Morty in imminent (but reversible) fatal peril, Toxic Rick would back down first. He's also pragmatic enough to know that Whole Rick has better overall survival chances than either Toxic or Healthy Rick does alone, and essentially volunteers to destroy his existence as a unique individual. Healthy Morty, meanwhile, is effectively a very high functioning sociopath, doesn't give a shit about Toxic Morty or Whole Morty, and bails before Whole Rick can re-merge them.
    Citadel of Ricks having regular jobs? 
  • Why does the Citadel of Ricks even have blue-collar jobs for Ricks to fulfill? Ricks have the intellect and going by the size of the Citadel definitely the resources to simply automate factory drudgework. Or alternatively they could make the Morties or some other kind of cultivated lifeform slaves do it.
    • Some of them (such as Cop Rick) clearly prefer that job, while they all share intelligence, it's made clear not all Ricks have the exactly the same personality and outlook in life. Some are going to be better soldiers, salesmen, farmers etc. For others, it entirely possible the jobs exist simply so the more ruthless Ricks (such as made up the shadow council) can keep the rest of them in line. A society composed of all Ricks, where they are all equals, would probably be something they didn't want.
    • It could be that there's a requirement that Ricks have to work in order to be allowed to live in the Citadel (maybe not a bad idea considering that our unemployed Rick spends a lot of his time getting drunk and building world ending Neutrino Bombs). There aren't enough intellectually challenging jobs around (and even though jobs like President might be considered intellectually challenging for most people, they're going to quickly bore a Rick anyway) so the Citadel can only provide enough jobs for Ricks by requiring them to undertake other types of jobs. Even if a Rick could easily automate their menial job (and even non-menial jobs) if it ultimately meant they lost the job and have to leave the Citadel then they probably wouldn't.
    • Same reason modern society has so many menial jobs that could realistically be automated. It's cheaper to pay someone to do it then to pay to develop a machine that would do the job and being employed at a mind numbing task with very little financial breathing room keeps people from realizing they could have so much more if whoever is in charge weren't hogging most of the product/profits from everyone's work to themselves.
    Evil Morty's plan? 
  • Why did Evil Morty do what he promised to do as President, that is creating a society that improves the lives of common Rick and Mortys alike? It doesn't seem like he lied about that, given we saw the Mortys in school getting a new curriculum and fruit, and Cop Rick getting a break after his Trauma Conga Line. We don't know his endgame, but he essentially is doing more good than the Morty and Rick we know, but he's supposed to be the evil one? Mind Screw here.
    • Dictators often run on appearance of helping the people, it's what cements their powerbase before they go for the real changes, and it's a lot easier to rule by having the people love you than to rule by forcing them to do what you want, hence Bread and Circuses. Second, as we don't know the actual details of his changes yet, we have no reason to assume that his changes are actually making regular Rick and Morty's lives better, or if they just seem to on the surface. The fruit the Mortys are getting is forcibly confiscated from that farmer Rick, Cop Rick hasn't just got a break, he's had the legal structure over turned so he's absolved etc..
    • Because his main motivation is that he hates Rick because, in his words, "Ricks don't care about Mortys."
    • Why are we assuming he's evil? Maybe his goal really IS to make the Citadel a better place? The show seems to be all about grey morality. Just because he murders a ton of people doesn't make him a bad guy.
    • We eventually find out Evil Morty's plan is to slaughter all the Ricks and the Mortys who stand by their Ricks, then travel to the universes where their Ricks aren't the smartest men in the universe.
    The Intergalactic Government is villainous? 
  • Why is the Inter-Galactic government agreed to be villainous after "The Rickshack Redempton"? Rick is a guy who creates and enslaves universes for the lowest Mundane Utility, creates and destroys life without a second thought, sold at least anti-matter weapon for no real profit (since he isn't interested in money), turned unwilling people into guinea pigs, destroyed planets by accidents, and it's a bad night from committing mass murder, or genocide, if not worse, and that's when he's not malicious, so we can only imagine what he could have been capable when actively trying to hurt the federation. Hijacking a wedding is, as pointed out, it was to catch him and sixteen terrorists of similar magnitude, and not different from what real-life governments would do, and even keeping prisoners in a And I Must Scream situation, that would make it at most a Grey-and-Gray Morality between to horrible sides, and yet it seems to be agreed that the federation is the wrong side. Is there any reason for this, other than Rick being the main character?
    • Almost everyone inverse would agree Rick is a terrible person (even his best friend more or less admitted it), and he does cause incredible amounts of destruction, but that is mostly through a combination of unintended side effects and apathy rather than any malice. The galactic federation on the other hand turned out to be an imperialistic empire which had conquered most of the galaxy, and was blatantly abusing the native populations. While no one is arguing that Rick is a hero for bringing them down, he still comes across as A Lighter Shade of Black, the only people who declared Rick and his friends terrorists was said Galactic Federation (Birdperson only said they considered them terrorists, not whether they had ever done anything to deserve it). To put in perspective, Rick enslaved an entire universe by posing as a benevolent entity and giving them the means to improve their lives, while secretly siphoning off the majority of the power for himself. The galactic federation forcibly overthrew the native governments, keep the population in line through a combination of drugs, debt and executions, as well as casually experimented on the natives just for their own viewing pleasure.
    Food source in the Beth-friendly pocket dimension? 
  • Rick created a childproof pocket dimension for his daughter so that she wouldn't devastate the neighborhood. This was actually all good and practical, considering what we learn about Beth, but the only food in the world he developed was a honey swamp? That Tommy never used as a food source because he didn't think of it or he was too traumatized after Beth tried to drown him Or even worse, that because Rick proved that you can't drown in the rainbow river that if Tommy couldn't drown, then he couldn't eat the honey when he got hungry?
    • The honey might be real, but it's mostly just sugar. It will provide energy in the short term, but after a time malnutrition will set in. Without essential amino acids, a human will eventually die. Tommy needed to eat his Froopy-human-hybrid children to consume protein.
    • Of course the human body needs more than protein. If we examine this too closely we get questions like "why didn't he die of scurvy?"
      • It's a myth that humans need plants to avoid scurvy. It's been proven that humans can live on a purely carnivorous diet and not get scurvy. The myth is rooted in sailors being given nothing but hardtack(basically crackers) to eat. Lime was one of the cheapest ways to get them vitamin C, but a carnivorous diet would have technically worked just as well, for a much higher price.
      • I think a better question here would be "how did Tommy not starve to death in the time it took him to realize he had to mate with the Froopyland creatures to produce offsprings (remember, this is a little kid we're talking about, not an adult who knows how sex and reproduction works) and for said offsprings to develop and be born in the first place?" When you think about it, Tommy would've had to stay for weeks at best, and months at worst without a suitable source of food before he could start feeding on his offsprings.
      • Actually this is explained in-episode by King Tommy's badly-written play. To take his mind off hunger, he was walking around sticking his dick in random things and happened to rape a froopy-land creature. We later see that it only takes minutes for this creatures to gestate and give birth. This means he could have figured it out in hours or days.
      • The bigger question, then, is how old were Beth and Tommy when this happened?! Tommy had to be old enough to produce sperm, which means Beth should have been easily old enough to remember that Froopyland was a real place!
      • He might have just been a couple years older, old enough for that to be the case but not so much older that it would be weird for them to spend time together. Maybe his parents thought him being slightly older meant he would "watch over" the younger Beth and keep her safe, oblivious to the fact that he needed to be kept safe from her.
    International censorship? 
  • A question on censorship. On Netflix in Australia the show is censored so that "fuck" is bleeped, "shit" is usually not bleeped and other swearwords ("ass", "piss", "dick", etc.) are allowed to run free. (Dicks themselves are pixelated.) Is that the same for other countries?
    • Yeah. Same thing in the U.S..
    The Citadel of Ricks escaping? 
  • So, considering how the Citadel was thrown into chaos at the end of "The Rickshank Redemption", how did they manage to get themselves untangled from being stuck in the Galactic Federation prison without most senior leadership? And the Citadel clearly managed to stabilize itself with atmosphere, political reinvention, etc.. So how did they manage to escape without being destroyed like the federation did?
    • Rick intentionally destroyed the federation by ruining their economy, and as they were such a greedy empire they could no longer function, at least in their present form. For the Citadel they mostly just suffered massive structural damage and population causalities, making them weaker but not necessarily dead. All it would take is enough Rick's and Morty's surviving, or even simply escaping the battle, for them to rebuild. Likewise despite the physical Citadel taking such a beating, the idea behind it is still pretty strong. It was created as a safe haven for Rick's, to keep them safe from their many enemies, there are an infinite number of Rick's so no matter how many join, there are always more ready to join up. How they rebuilt so fast, simply Ricks are just that brilliant. Also don't forget it was revealed that the main council was just a front and the shadow council who really ran things behind the scenes, apparently got through the battle undamaged. As final note there is the implication the federation isn't as destroyed as Rick believes, with a still powerful fraction of it being led by Tammy.
    No other Smiths at the Citadel? 
  • How come there aren't any Beths, Jerrys, or Summers living on the Citadel?
    • Maybe the Ricks help the Beths and Summers get home? Or find new homes? But they need the Morty's. On Jerry's end, at least, it seems most of them get left off at the Jerry Daycare. A Jerry that happened to find his way to the Citadel would probably end up there or killed in general.
    • Beths, Jerrys, and Summers are useless to Ricks, who only keep Mortys around because of their value as human cloaking devices. They're probably left at home, or pawned off on somewhere else like the Jerry Daycare.
    • "Radicalizing a Summer" is a crime on the Citadel.
    Leaving Beth a perfect clone of Rick? 
  • Rick gave Beth the option of letting a clone take her place while she went off to explore the universe/multiverse, plus he said that may have had to clone some of Beth's victims in her early childhood. So, when he divorced his wife, why didn't he clone himself? Why didn't he leave Beth a perfect clone of her "perfect" father behind to spend time with her.
    • As much as Rick denies it, it's clear his break up with his wife and abandoning his daughter did leave some emotional scars. As such it's difficult to tell what his emotional state was at the time. It's entirely possible he simply just wanted to get as far away from them as he could, and only thought about what he could have done after he calmed down when it was too late. Also, Rick really hates himself; the idea of creating another Rick, one who could succeed where he could not, might be something he simply wasn't capable of. All his previous clones are implied to just be blank slates, whose body his mind would possess.
    • That was decades earlier; he probably just hadn't invented his cloning tech yet.
    Beth, Jerry, and Summer's development between dimensions 
  • I can't believe I didn't see this the first time, but in "Rick Potion #9," Rick takes Morty to a new universe that had, up until the point that the Rick and Morty of that universe died, been exactly the same as their own. Or at least, we're led to assume it is. However, in C-137 Beth and Jerry reconcile and are insanely attracted to one another before the Cronenbergs show up. Then, in the new universe, the first thing we see Beth and Jerry doing is arguing over something likely tedious. And Summer is just watching TV. And none of them ever mention it. Did the new Universe's Rick also erase everyone's memories of the event? If so, what happened to the death and destruction? And why wouldn't Beth, Summer, and Jerry question looking like they just got out of a cannibal's basement? If all that is the case why not just go to a universe where there was no end-of-the-world Cronenberg event at all, since the event had no effect on the rest of the world? Why was it so important that Rick find one that had gone through the same events?
    • This troper doesn't remember Beth and Jerry reconciling until after Jerry saves her from the mantised Devin and there's no guarantee that in the new universe the situation got as bad before Rick fixed it. As for finding a universe with a near identical history it's probably laziness on the point of Rick since he doesn't want to worry about slipping up and mentioning events that never happened or having to bother to put in the effort to remember new events.
      • OP here; When the 'new day' starts there's a newspaper thrown onto a porch that says "Genetic Epidemic Averted" with a picture of a Cronenberg on it. That makes it look like the world was Cronenberged, but even if it wasn't it was clear that the Praying Mantis event at least occurred. Even if the fix came before their reconciliation, and before he saves her from Devin, Summer and Jerry still would have seen the Mantis monsters, right? I suppose it's not solid to know exactly when they fixed things, but still...
    Happy ending for Cronenberg!Rick and Cronenberg!Morty? 
  • How is coming to the cronenberged world a happy ending for cronenberg Rick and Morty? Sure, everyone looks like them, but the inhabitants are insane and cannibalistic. Since cronenberg Rick and Morty appear to be pretty normal, wouldn't this be like coming to a world infected with the Rage Virus for them? That is to say, a world of physically normal berserk psychopaths?
    • There isn't any evidence that the cronenberg are still cannibalistic or in love with Morty after Rick removed the praying mantis DNA. The real question is why cronenberg Morty said the disaster was turning their world into regular normal people when cronenberg should be his normal.
      • That's likely an example of the exposition-dialogue parody the show engages in periodically. Most stories have at least some dialogue that is slightly unnatural because it contains exposition, but there is usually an effort to at least make that unnaturalness as subtle as possible. The show likes to parody that by having some bits of dialogue be utterly unsubtle examples of exposition dialogue.
    Beth grieving over her dead father and son? 
  • Beth is implied to know that this isn't her Rick and Morty, so why isn't she angry or grieving about the death of her son?
    • This assumes she cares any more about the infinite sons than Rick does. Or Morty, for that matter. He accepts this version of the family as his own, and seems to show no remorse what-so-ever for the family he left in the Cronenberg world when he sees them again. He was even prepared to just leave with the new Summer, giving the old family just a "well it was good to see you". Beth is very much like Rick, so if even MORTY is aware of and doesn't care for which family he's with it's safe to say Beth doesn't care, either.
    • Is difficult to predict how people would react in real life if multiple universes are ever confirm to exists and we can interact with other versions. Is people really going to grieve over dead love-ones or would people feel they are still around in other realities that they can visit and interact with?
    Noob Noob being the key? 
  • In "Vindicators 3", it turns out the final puzzle is to put Noob Noob on the panel, only it still activates when Morty is placed. Is it just for the joke, or was drunk Rick savy enough to still hide his true feelings?
    • It could be argued that Morty and Noob Noob are about the same weight, so it could have been based on that.
    • It was based on their weight; the line explaining that was cut.
    • It's probably that Rick designed the whole thing for Morty, but realised afterwards that he'd never live it down, so he recorded the Noob Noob speech to avoid admitting it. Adding weight to that, everything else in the episode is filmed in the lab area, but the Noob Noob speech is filmed in a cave, implying that it was hurriedly done after the fact.
    • Also is possible that Rick didn't expect Morty to be there, he probably expected he and Morty to be excluded from the mission, and/or he expected to take the portal gun (haven't he forget it in the bathroom) and escape away with Morty. The one he had to be worry about was indeed Noob Noob.
    Being scared of squirrels? 
  • Why is Rick scared of the squirrels when it's been well established that he has pretty much crossed over Clarke's third law?
    Devaluing currency 
  • If Rick was capable of devaluing the galactic currency by simply getting into their database and changing one number, why didn't someone high up in the Federation's chain simply reverse it? "Level 9" clearance pretty obviously isn't just some hypothetical "emergency powers" clearance, considering they have a bathroom on a prison, so there must be someone in the entire galaxy smart enough to realize that it was just one number.
    • Rule of Funny: Everyone freaked out because they're greedy bastards, and in their moment of panic, couldn't think clearly. Alternatively, they decided that life was better that way.
    • That's how money value works in real life. Someone randomly decides what the coin's value is on a computer. Is the same like asking why the Venezuelan government has hyperinflation if they can just change the value of the Bolivar from 3 million dollars to 1 dollar. The reasons why this can't be done are too complex to be discussed here, but exist. Of course what they don't know is that this was not a natural occurrence and that was provoked artificially by Rick, they just think the economy crashed and their coin has no value.
    Mr. Needful paying Summer with what? 
  • What was Mr. Needful paying Summer with if everything in his shop was free?
    • The answer would probably lead to Unfortunate Implications.
    • Mr Needful probably has lots of money to fund his ventures with. He had to lease the property, for example.
    • Either nothing, with counterfeit money, or with money he stole. Since he's the devil, all explanations would be in character.
     Making money off Anatomy Park? 
  • How did they plan to make money off of Anatomy Park even if things hadn't been sabotaged? The place is grotesque, and expecting entire lines of people to hold their breath during the shrinking process day after day is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, someone, probably a child, is going to forget to do it, and die horribly.
    • Lots of waivers and armies of lawyers. As for getting people to visit, the grossness isn't necessarily a turn-off; there's a reason the Gross-Out Show became popular enough to get its own trope. Combine that with the pretty major Weirdness Censor average people seem to have in this universe, and you could probably at least get some modest crowds.
    Rick needing a disguise? 
  • In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", why does Rick need to wear a disguise to look like an alien, when he already has a drastically alien appearance compared to the native inhabitants?
    Beth and Jerry enforcing their rules 
  • In the pilot, how exactly do Beth and Jerry intend to enforce their decision to send Rick to an old folks home if they had not changed their minds? Talk about mugging the monster. That would be more like mugging Godzilla.
    • Because in their eyes, he's still family, so they expect him to be swayed just a bit because of that fact. Also, Rick doesn't entirely ignore their decisions, so he does indeed listen to them. Just not always.
    • It's also likely that, at that point, they didn't yet understand just how powerful Rick was. They didn't see him much, and thought of him more as an old man who happened to have some advanced tech, kind of a kook and not the One-Man Army we know him to be.
    Rick's backup system 
  • Do all Ricks have a backup system in place to create a clone under the garage? If so, when why did the Rick of the current universe (the one 'our' Rick replaced after he solved the Cronenberg incident and died from an explosion) never come back as a clone?
    • Maybe Rick only started working on Project Phoenix after the whole Cronenberg thing? After all, he tried to commit suicide later on (after Unity broke up with him again), which would've been pointless if he was just going to come back as a clone.
    • Who says he didn't?
    • All but the fascist Ricks eventually gave up on the idea, due to the way that coming back in a younger body would alter his personality, and destroyed the machinery. The fascist ones were more paranoid and more desperate to stay alive, and kept the tech despite potential drawbacks.
    Rick scheming to make money? 
  • Why is Rick so often scheming to make money? He can create pocket universes, so surely it would be a simple matter to mine those pocket universes for wealth, or simply create perfect counterfeit money, or use super-science to get incredibly rich effortlessly?
    • It seems like even with his super-science Rick can't really get rich easily. As powerful as he is, the only thing he has that no one else does is inter-dimensional travel. This leaves him with only niche projects like selling the anti-matter gun to Crombobulous Michael (which we see was only enough fun an afternoon at the arcade). His best get-rich quick scheme was to imprison Blim Blam, a Korblockian in order to find a cure for his "Space Aids". We can assume at any given time Rick has dozens of schemes going on but most just don't work out.
    • Rick's so jaded to everything that he doesn't care unless there's an immediate benefit to him, or he can get some kind of adrenaline rush. As the psychiatrist in the Pickle Rick episode put it some "people would work, and some would rather die".
    Monogotrons wanting Earth's water? 
  • Why do the Monogotrons want Earth's water? Water is one of the most common substances in the universe. Any species capable of traveling to other planets could harvest it from places that do not require them to grift a species with a relationship-app.
    • There's a trope for that: Planet Looters. It's pretty common in sci-fi for aliens to invade Earth wanting some resource that, realistically, they should be easily able to obtain in any number of better ways. The Monogotrons are a parody, their goals and methods being even more ridiculous than usual.
    Universes where Beth and Jerry never met? 
  • So if all the Ricks and Mortys in the Council of Ricks Citadel are variations of Rick and Morty, that means they all have their Beth, Jerry, and Summer. What about the Ricks where Beth never met Jerry, or never had a Beth?
    • Ricks needing Mortys seems to be almost an immutable law of the universe. So even if there is a Rick out there without a Morty in their own world (say, the Rick from the dimension where Jerry and Beth follow their dreams in Interdimensional Cable) they will likely be assigned one from another dimension by the Citadel.
    • It's eventually shown in the Season 5 finale that the Citadel manipulates both Beth and Jerry, including hypnotizing and drugging them, into getting together no matter what, at least within the Central Finite Curve.
    Summer worshiping Rick? 
  • Why does Summer worship Rick? In the pilot, she saw that Morty was so exhausted that he fell asleep in his breakfast, which she knew that Rick was responsible for, and the first adventure that she goes on with Rick almost got her raped. Based on all that, she should want to avoid him at all costs.
    • The Grass Is Greener. In the show, Summer is established a a reckless hedonist who wants to be loved, popular, and happy. Part of it is that her parents bluntly said they didn't want her and take her for granted. Summer envies that Rick actually wants Morty around, and she gets thrills from engaging in dangerous antics; why else would she work for the Devil, who screws everyone over? She's addicted to the thrill and the desire of being wanted.
    • Well, that was a different Summer in the pilot (and maybe in "Raising Gazorpazorp", not sure if there's a production/release discrepancy for episode order or anything)... but admittedly her experiences of Rick are probably comparable enough. As a teenager she's probably not too worried about things that keep her up late.
    • This video explains how Summer is a Rick with positive qualities. This would explain why Summer also calls Rick "grandpa" unlike Morty, who doesn't respect him the same way as Summer. On a certain level they share the same goals and motivations.
    Hating on pop culture 
  • Maybe I'm reading into this too much, but is there some kind of "New Pop Culture Is Inferior" message going on the series? We got an early episode where Inception gets hijacked by Freddy Kruger, an episode that parodies The Purge but is a more direct parody of the Trek episode "Return of the Archons" ...Rick himself is a sort of aged, bitter Doc Brown who is utterly contemptuous of the Vindicators (obvious expies of modern movie superheroes), and some of Rick's friends appear to be parodies of Hanna-Barbera cartoons... is this possible?
    • It's possibly more that the writers are using what they know. Rick is a fan of Minecraft thanks to Morty introducing him to the game.
    • Rick and Morty is ultimately a satire, and satire is generally only effective when it makes fun of what is popular at the time.
    • It's not that Pop Culture is Inferior, just that Rick likes to point out the logical flaws in the tropes these genres are known for. He is the smartest human in the universe for a reason, the first one being that most of the time (obviously not when he is overreacting to something or being overly dramatic) he is very logical and does a lot of deductive and inductive reasoning, and most movies and TV shows don't have a lot of that for the sake of, well, entertainment and drama.
    Killing the original Morty? 
  • Did Rick kill the original Morty in "The Vat of Acid Episode"? He straight up murders him, but then it's okay because he uses the save point device to revive Morty. But then later in the episode it's revealed the save point isn't actually resetting time, just sending the user to an alternate timeline where they can act differently. So does that mean the original Morty is actually dead?
    • Maybe, but if you look closely right after he shoots him, that Morty appears to still be breathing. Rick might've just said "kill" to scare him beforehand since he was pissed off at him at the moment. Although he definitely murdered an alternate Rick in cold blood from pressing the button though.
    • Although if he did leave C-137 Morty alive, that does open another question; won't there be two Morties in that dimension now since he brought the first "save" Morty back with him? (As in the alternate Morty from that first time Rick pressed the button, which is presumably the one we follow through the whole episode)
    • While we're on the topic, how is it that Morty could put himself in situations that lead to life-threatening injuries only to teleport to a new dimension unscathed? Rick explained that it was always a different Morty that died when the main Morty made the switch, so he should be riddled with bullet wounds, frostbite and broken bones from the gorilla enclosure.
    • Simple answer to all of the above? Because Rick was lying about how it works to screw with Morty - the entire episode is him getting even with Morty. The giveaway is his whole handwave of 'Ha, and now I will combine all those realities into one' - something that has never before even been hinted to be possible. HOWEVER the device actually works, it seems pretty obvious it isn't actually working how Rick claimed - the logical conclusion is he's simply lying to Morty to make him feel horrible and guilty as further punishment for making fun of his Fake Vat Of Acid.
    Family photos 
  • In "Total Rickall" why doesn't Rick just look at the family photos around the house? Sure, there was some confusion with photos on the phones with Beth, Summer, and Mr. Poopybutthole but there's clearly displayed family photos around the house that only show Rick, Jerry, Beth, Summer, and Morty. It probably would've led to the same tragic conclusion but it could've spared the parasites spreading so much.
    • The parasites would have inserted a memory to explain it away like with the number on the wall. "Hey, remember that time we were invaded by religious zealots that hate photos and shredded like 90% of the ones in the house? Wow, we had so many memories in those photos, remember those?"
    • But they can only make happy memories. Is there a happy reason for there to be no photos of them anywhere in the house?
      • The parasites are very creative. Maybe the memory would've been something like: "Remember when we saved the world by shredding photos?"
  • This WAS an idea they came up with and attempted in the episode, albeit with photos on their phones instead of around the house. It was dismissed as ineffective after they realised it's entirely possible for a real family member to simply not be present in photos with the others, as Summer pointed out.
    Jerry winning Beth back 
  • Why does Jerry have to win Beth back? I mean, she did choose her father over him and her devotion to and fear of her father leaving again was the rift that finally destroyed their marriage. I get Jerry is a leech, but he was completely right about Rick. Wouldn't that have made more sense for Beth to realize Jerry was right, humble herself of some of her arrogance and work to get Jerry back?
    • Jerry is a lot worse than just a leech (and also doesn’t really qualify as one even). He’s cowardly, mediocre, egotistical and tends to shift blame or occasionally disrespect Beth. Also, he apparently comes across as even more pathetic than he even is to garner sympathy. Jerry may have had a point about Rick, but both he and Beth had to work on themselves, which they sort of did.
    • Jerry and Beth both have a huge amount of baggage to work through and neither of their criticisms of the other are unfounded, but Beth is at an advantage in regard to their relationship. For one, Beth can fulfill the needs Jerry thinks he has while he can't do the same for her, since she craves affection and validation specifically from Rick. Second, Beth is both the breadwinner and homemaker of the family. Third, Jerry is the one who set the ultimatum for Beth, so he has to be the one who has to live up to the consequences of not being chosen.
    Fat Morty's nickname 
  • Why does Fat Morty think "Left-Handed Morty" would be a distinctive nickname? I get that it's a joke, but we've clearly seen that C-137 Morty is left-handed, and it looks like Candidate Morty uses his left when shaking hands with the crowd, suggesting that it's sort of the default for Morties.
    • Maybe most Morties aren't really left-handed and Evil Morty used his left hand simply because he's left-handed himself. Also, even if the majority of Morties are left-handed, it could be that Fat Morty is the only left-handed from his group of friends.
     Jerry getting a new job 
  • Why doesn't Jerry find a new job? The family has been giving him shit for being unemployed since Season 1, so why doesn't he just get off his ass and find a new job. Or is he too pathetic to be hirable by this point?
    • You answered your own question: He's too pathetic to be hirable.
    • It's also likely that, with Rick around, the family doesn't actually need Jerry's income, leaving him less motivated to seek a job. He'd feel useless either way; damned if you do, damned if you don't. They just badger him about it because they don't like him sitting around. Later on, he still doesn't seem to have a job, but he's taken up hobbies like beekeeping and isn't just sitting around all the time, and they seem to give him less shit.
    Rick coming back to his family? 
  • Why did Rick come back to his family? He goes to fairly great lengths to not have Beth find out about some of his more dangerous adventures with Morty and sometimes Summer including the use of threats. He seems to not want Beth to hate him or kick him out her life even though he's an admittedly terrible father and hasn't been in her life for more than a decade. So what's his endgame? Why did he bother coming back at all?
    • Because that's where Morty is. And because even a Rick needs a place to live. He needs a bed, a shower, a place to keep his clothes. He has to live somewhere and it might as well be in his daughter's home.
    • He's a miserable person who loves and finds comfort in his family.
    • He's depressed due to his wife and daughter dying. He tries to fill his self with getting revenge, but that failed, so he decides to live with another universe's Beth and her family in order to fill the hole in his heart.
    • Answered in Season 6: The Rick (named Rick Prime by Word of God) who murdered Main!Rick's family is native to Main!Morty's home universe, the one that got Cronenberged. Rick came to live with that version of the family as a gambit to kill Rick Prime, presumably planning to ambush him when he came back to the house. But Rick Prime didn't give a shit about his family and so never showed up, and Rick eventually just stuck around, likely because, as much as he doesn't want to admit it, he grew attached to Morty.
    Rick's hatred of sci-fi/action tropes 
  • Is Rick's dismissive-at-best, disdainful-at-worst attitude towards various sci-fi and action tropes (such as time travel and heists) supposed to be an Author Tract on either Harmon and/or Roiland's part as the creators of the show and the latter even doing the voice for him, or a Take That! towards people who would be critical of such tropes as the show makes it clear Rick isn't exactly the kind of guy whose example one should follow?
    • Yes.
    Morty knowing about Mr. Nimbus beforehand? 
  • Why doesn't Morty know about Mr. Nimbus before his Season 5 debut? Didn't both of them go to Atlantis offscreen in the Ricklantis Mixup?
    • Real life answer: Because the writers hadn't created him yet. As for in universe, you'll note that they went to Atlantis via the portal gun. Barring a few rare exceptions, they only ever use that to jump dimensions. This suggests they went to a parallel Atlantis where perhaps Mr Nimbus doesn't exist.
    • It was unlikely to be a parallel Atlantis, as Rick later taunts Mr. Nimbus about the incident, and Mr. Nimbus responds with "I knew that was you!". It's more likely that Morty didn't know about him because Rick didn't mention that Mr. Nimbus rules Atlantis, even after their adventure there. Rick would also want to avoid Mr. Nimbus, given that even going to Atlantis was a violation of The Sacred Treaty Twixt Land and Sea.
    • Also, Rick's embarrassed of Nimbus, he likely specifically picked a time when Nimbus would be away so he wouldn't have to explain him to Morty. Just because he's King of Atlantis doesn't mean he's there at all times.
    Morty breaking up with Planetina 
  • Why is Planetina's mass-murder a deal-breaker for Morty? He puts up with Rick, and Rick has slaughtered planets and genocided micro-universes just out of spite. Planetina's kill-score is in the hundreds. Rick's kill-score is well into the trillions.
    • On the surface, it's mostly because Rick is family and family is unavoidable most of the time. On a deeper level, I think it's because Morty saw Planetina as the ultimate antithesis to Rick. Rick is nasty and apathetic, while Planetina is kind and compassionate. When Morty saw that Planetina wasn't any better than Rick when it came to the crunch, he realized she was just one more toxic relationship, only this one would be easier to break away from.
    • What's more hurtful? Your asshole grandpa being an asshole like you expect, or a woman you love and think is above that sort of thing engaging in the same behavior?
    • Morty was in love with Planetina because she was a compassionate and sweet person who cared for others. That's the kind of person he wants to be in a relationship with. When she broke, she wasn't the same person he was in love with anymore and he couldn't be with her that way. Morty clearly has his problems with how Rick does things, but it's not like he's in love with Rick. He expects different things out of the relationships, and what he would put up with in one may not be something he would accept in the other.
    • Morty also killed some people in the same episode, plus a bunch of duplicates in the episode before, a few dog people in the season premiere (over wine!), and only last season helped Rick do "a Pearl Harbor." Think this is an example of the show pricing itself out of the emotional gut punch they wanted, with Morty coming across as a hypocrite. Doesn't help that Plaentina's development for the worse happened abruptly over the course of a short montage. Dan wanted Morty to break up with Planetina by the end of the episode and this was the somewhat clumsy way they got there.
      • Morty killed four corrupt former child stars who were selling Planetina to a shady figure who was clearly onto something evil and who had captured baby seals (a protected species) to be killed. In the dog people from another dimension episode all deaths were the results of self-defense; the dog people was attacking him because they blame him for the absence of one of their own which was by no means Morty's fault (he didn't know time was different nor he force the guy to come with him, quite the opposite, he told him not to bother, only when he insisted he accepted). Yes, the dog people were in a misunderstanding and after generations Morty became a demon-like creature in their culture centered around the fear they have to him (which is a very clever take on religion and superstition and how in real life whole human groups have been hated and persecuted by cultural misconceptions and old taboos lost in time). The dog people never took any effort to talk to him or see what was happening and yet they frozen an innocent teenage girl in time for thousands (of their) years. And in the "Pearl Harbor" episode he was helping to kill alien parasites who use living bodies as hosts taken away their will and who, at least from Morty's perspective at the time, were planning on an attack on Earth. He and Rick even mention that if feels good to kill without remorse (because they were doing it to save Earth and other worlds). Yes, Morty was wrong with the information (they were actually sending a peace message to Earth under Summer's influence) and yes, they were getting more civilized but they were still parasites forcing other life forms to be their hosts. Bottom line, no there's no hypocrisy. Is very different to kill innocent miners who are only workers and although not polluting is important hardly killing people is the way, and even more, IF you think killing people is the way then killing the blue-collar workers and not the high ranking executives responsible is still not the way. Morty's outrage is fully justified.
      • You should revisit those episodes, because you got a lot wrong. First, Morty does know that time works differently in the dog dimension ("So time moves faster in there? It's like a Narnia thing?"). Second, not all of his kills were in self-defense; the third or fourth time he goes back he loads up on Rick's weapons and starts mowing them down before they have a chance to respond (again, all for wine). In Promortyus, Rick and Morty comment on how the parasites are a civilized race even as they kill them ("Pick a lane, are you face-huggers or industrialists?"), and Morty celebrate their deaths even after they're neutralized. In "A Rickonvenient Mort", Planetina is no longer in any danger the moment Morty gets his hands on the fire ring, but instead of pulling back and deciding on a non-violent solution with Rick's arsenal of the universe's most advanced technology, he *decapitates and skins Eddie* and uses his skull as psychological warfare by way of bad punchline. Morty's not the starry-eyed innocent he was in the series premiere. He's a murderer who has killed to protect his loved ones, out of apathy, out of frustration, for fun, or to impress girls. He has no moral high ground to judge Planetina's (also really awful) actions.
      • Actually, the reference to Narnia would imply that time does not necessarily run faster than Earth, but is simply inconsistent with the amount of time passing on Earth. A year in Narnia is still 365 days, however between the creation of Narnia and the events of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” a millennium has passed while only about 40 years on Earth. Yet later on, a whole week spent back on Earth was merely 10 minutes in Narnia. While overall the average time appears to be faster, that is only based on the lives of characters we know from Earth. However, whether Morty understands this assumes that Morty actually read the books and didn’t just watch the one movie they keep remaking. Nonetheless, this was probably a clever nod by the writers that subtly foreshadows Jessica’s time god speech at the end.
    • Sure, Morty isn't as innocent as at the start of the series, but he still wishes for goodness from other people. As for the episodes in which Morty also killed innocents, he did that after he got into danger and as established in the "Purge" episode, he has anger issues. In that episode he also killed innocents, but right after getting into danger. Planetina wasn't really in danger when she killed the workers, so maybe Morty believed she could be more violent than him. It could also be that he regretted the killings he did in prior episodes, those he isn't really a hypocrite for disagreeing with Planetina. Yes, he also brutally murdered Eddie, but Eddie was a monster and Morty did it at the spur of the moment. As stated earlier by another troper, maybe he thought the executives should've been killed, not the blue collar workers. Alternatively, Morty is a hypocrite, maybe even aware of it, but he pretty much has a Freudian Excuse and the reason he has high expectations of Planetina is because he wants normalcy. The theory of the writers not thinking things through could still be true though.
    Did Morty have sex with Planetina? 
  • She snuck into his room and had the ability to fly him all over the planet, and their relationship is implied to have lasted at the very least several weeks. We see them getting physical on-screen and the show makes no effort to downplay Morty's adolescent horniness.
    • It was shown through euphemistic imagery, but yeah, it's pretty clear there was sex.
    Girl surviving without food and water 
  • In episode "Rest and Ricklaxation" how does the girl trapped in the toxic waste tank survives several weeks without food or water?
    • We know nothing about how that dimension (or whatever it is) works. Maybe it keeps you in a suspended state where food and water are unnecessary. And technically, we have no way of knowing when that post credits scene takes place, it could have only been a few hours after Rick and Morty left it.
      • At the start when Toxic Rick and Toxic Morty first came about we were also shown quite a number of various Toxics. She could be killing and eating them.
      • I'll go for the after credits scene taking place only a few hours after, otherwise she would be looking much worst physically and mentally than just a couple of stains and screaming the safe word.
    Many Ricks living with abandoned Beths 
  • "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless" revealed a lot of information about Rick and his past. But it also brings up a lot of questions. Young!Rick called his older self "One of those creeps that live with abandoned Beths." So does this imply that there are a bunch of Ricks out there doing the same? Also Young!Rick revealed the their Beth was already dead at least by the time Rick was 35. So that implies that the Earth and family that we see the Rick we follow in Season 1, Episode 1 isn't his original Earth or family. And finally, when Rick is trying to revive Birdperson, his computer suggests going to another universe and getting a different Birdperson, which Rick rejects, indicating the he only wants this particular Birdperson. But this isn't Rick's original universe, so doesn't that mean the this isn't Rick's "Birdperson," so why fixate on this one?
    • There's literally infinite versions of Rick and his family out there, so it stands to reason that there's probably thousands, maybe millions of Ricks who "live with abandoned Beths", yes. As for Birdperson, I chalk that up to character development: Rick used to solve problems by just abandoning them at the first opportunity, jumping to another realm instead of dealing with the consequences (the fact that he was so nonchalant about leaving the Cronenberg universe is evidence of that, AND suggests he's been with a few families already before the series began). But now, he's making a concentrated effort to fix THIS Birdperson and come to grips with things rather than just cut and run for the who-knows-how-manyth time. He's growing.
    Better musician than Rick showing up? 
  • In "Get Schwifty," was there no one in between Grammy Awards attendee and random scientist who just showed up? There had to have been millions of people who would have made for better musicians than Rick, why did they decide to gamble everything on him?
    • There may be quite a number that would have made better musicians, but for the first performance they don't have time to find any of them, and after that the President decided to trust the guy that showed up out of a portal and turns people into snakes over chance that maybe they could find a better musician to perform an original song in less than a day. Even in-universe it was a disputed decision - the General DID point out that Rick's practice sounded like crap and he was likely to get them all killed.
    "C-137" Rick and Morty 
  • So, it's eventually revealed that "our" Rick is from a completely different dimension than "our" Morty and that the latter was born in a test tube anyways. So are either of the titular duo actually from Universe C-137?
    • The Citadel began test-tubing Mortys after C-137 Rick and Morty defeated Evil Rick, so unless Morty was replaced between S1E10 and S5E10, he isn't one of them. Rick may come from C-137 if it is his designation from his original universe before he made his first Portal Gun.
      • The point of contention seems to be that BOTH Rick and Morty are labeled C-137, despite being from different universes. If it's Rick's original universe, then Morty shouldn't have the same designation. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that when they make new Mortys, the Citadel simply labels the new Mortys according to the Rick they're assigned to. So C-137 is the main Rick, and then when he picked up his new Morty he was also labeled C-137 for consistency.
      • Given that the Citadel defines Morties entirely by their relationship with a Rick, and that even before the test-tubing reveal we knew that Morties could be "reassigned" to a new Rick, it's likely the latter: Morty just gets labeled with whatever universe his assigned Rick is from.
    When was Rick's Previous Brain Scan 
  • In Rickmurai Jack, Evil Morty mentions Rick's brain had been scanned long ago, hence why he only needed 10 seconds to scan the rest. One would think that was in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", except Stan-Rick Lee mentions explicitly to check out "Season 1 Episode 9" or Something Ricked This Way Comes. So, when and how did Rick receive his previous brain scan? Did Mr. Needful get a chance to scan Rick's Brain when he was being handed his Ray Bradbury telescope?
    • The pilot episode has the production code 000. That explains that discrepancy.
    The Creation of Froopyland 
  • The Froopyland episode indicates that Rick created Froopyland for Beth as a child. However, this contradicts two things: the fact that Rick hadn't even discovered interdimensional travel and the fact that this isn't even HIS Beth. Did he just stumble upon a universe where that Rick also created the same Froopyland? Is Froopyland consistent across most universes sort of like the Vat of Acid?
    • The simple answer is yes. Ricks who raised their Beth built her Froopyland, a fact that is constant enough that our Rick, whose Beth died as a young child, is well acquainted with it.
    • C-137 Beth was around the age we see in the Froopyland flashback when she died, so its entirely possible Froopyland is one of the few things we see that actually is still true in Ricks original dimension.
    Rick's Past with Morty 
  • Twice at least, we've seen that Rick knew Morty as a baby (he remembers Morty's Birth when Evil Rick extracts his memories) and Bird Person has a picture of a younger looking Rick with baby Morty. However, we learn in Rickmurai Jack that Rick never had a Morty, and, apparently, didn't show up at Beth's until around the time of the pilot episode when Rick is grown. Now this does explain a little why Morty is surprised at the existence of the picture (as far as he know, he never met Rick), but when could Rick possibly have known and been fond of baby Morty?
    • Best guess is he randomly decided to pop into some dimension where Morty was already born, spent a little time with him, then left again. Most likely some random dimension he had no plans to ever return to, and perhaps meeting the little Morty stuck with him enough that he eventually decided to permanently reside in a dimension with a Morty. Probably at random.
    • Bird Person has a picture of A RICK with A MORTY. There's absolutely no way to verify which Rick/Morty is in that picture. For all we know Rick picked it up at a gift shop in the Citadel.
    Bird Person's Backstory/Dimension 
  • We know that Bird Person knew Rick from shortly after he started hunting other Ricks. But we know Rick hopped dimensions multiple times since then (including from the Cronenberg world). One would presume we are dealing with a parallel Bird Person, but Rick makes it clear in Rickternal Friendshine that he finds the idea of an alternate version of Bird Person abhorrent. How can we be dealing with the same Bird Person throughout?
    • Presumably it's the same Bird Person and co, and Rick jumps dimensions whenever he wants to interact with him.
      • Alternately, with a bit of Fridge Horror thrown in, when Rick and Morty permanently jumped realities and every other time he permanently transferred, he went back and transferred HIS Bird Person to the same universe without his knowledge that he was in an alternate universe by dropping in and taking him on a quickie adventure, then returning him to the new universe. Rick without his very recent character development is absolutely selfish enough to do it. Which of course begs the question of how Rick got rid of the previously existing Bird Person that he didn't care about.
      • its also possible that his deeper attachment to THIS Birdperson specifically rather then seeing them as interchangeable is a recent development as a result of his character development
    • Another possibility: Bird World is cross-dimensional(like the asteroid that holds Jerryboree). There is only one Bird World. Remember that Morty gets to Bird World accidentally using the portal gun at one point.
    Rick, His Family, and Close Versions 
  • So apparently everything started because C-137 wanted to stay with his family rather than do science and join other Ricks. Then his family is killed, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, gets disillusioned since he never finds the culprit Rick, establishes a truce, finds a Rickless version of Beth and his family... and just ignores them to focus on science instead. He barely considers them, and is shown several times to consider them an annoyance compared to focusing on his project. He is even unable to just tell Beth he wants her to stay when asked and ends up creating Space Beth because he doesn't see an issue with having her abandon her family. That just doesn't make sense with Rick's primary motivation of wanting to be with his family.
    • Also, how can Rick so easily find close versions of himself to go to if he has such a unique backstory. Young Rick also asks C-137 if he is one of the Ricks that move with an adult version of Beth, which would seem to imply that Beth being killed is not uncommon for Ricks. So how unique is C-137's situation exactly?
    • You answered your question yourself. Rick got disillusioned. His quest for revenge became a twisted form of suicide by proxy, and when even that failed to bring him catharsis he gave up and helped form the Council of Ricks to lower the standard of the multiverse so he was the most special person in it. Running home to an alternate version of Beth wasn't some Come to Jesus moment for Rick, but another attempt to escape from his own self-loathing by surrounding himself with a superficial facsimile of his family. The Smiths aren't Rick's real family, this Beth isn't even the same Beth Rick crashed with at the end of his flashback, and on some level Rick knows people aren't interchangeable. Rick doesn't invest much in them the same reason he doesn't spend much time on any of his experiments or creations; they're just another tool he uses to avoid facing himself.
    • The Season 6 premiere gives us more details to explain this: Rick Prime, the one who killed "our" Rick's family and sent him on his quest for revenge, is the native Rick of "our" Morty's original universe. Rick originally moved in with that version of the family purely as a gambit to catch his target, supporting the idea that he would be detached and see them more as tools than anything else– by that point, he wanted revenge more than he wanted to actually be with his family.
    Rick doesn't time travel, yet there is a scene were rampaging young Rick visits a family with an old Rick 
  • In the scene where Morty downloads Rick's memories, we see a young Rick visiting the home of an old Rick. How is that possible? These are supposed to be alternate timelines, not time-travel...
    • Rick DOES time travel, he just hates it. There's a whole box in the garage labeled "Time Travel Stuff". And remember the time traveling snake episode? Rick hates time travel, but that doesn't mean he never does it.
    How did the Council know that putting Jerrys and Beths together would get them Mortys? 
  • The Ricks are shown manipulating Jerry and Beth into mating long before Morty was born. How did they know this would eventually result in Mortys way back then?
    • Time travel.
    Why do Ricks hate Jerrys for knocking up their Beths when they set them up so they could produce Mortys? 
It seems odd that in the recent season finale, it's revealed that the Ricks in the closed off finite curve purposefully set things up between Beths and Jerrys so that Mortys could be produced. If that's the case, why do any Rick, especially the Rick we typically follow (who had a hand in closing off the finite curve for those who are the smartest Ricks) be mad at Jerrys for "pumping 10ccs of dreamkiller into (their) daughter(s)", when they know they need Jerrys in order to have Mortys and purposefully set them up to make Mortys possible?
  • It's been shown many times that "our" Rick is very different from the Ricks in the citadel. So perhaps the citadel Ricks are fine with using Jerry, seeing it as a means to an end. Our Rick, on the other hand, hates Jerry enough that he frowns upon the whole process, viewing it as another example of why the citadel Ricks are boring sheep.
    • However, Rick was involved with those Ricks before they became the Counsel of Ricks. He had to be involved with the closing of the section of the finite curve where the Ricks were the smartest. So, he may be different, but he participated in the creation of the Morty factory (and even then, the other Ricks with the exception of Doofus Rick, also don't like Jerry). But, with what is shown, it's clear they knew they needed to engineer Beth and Jerry meeting so that Morty could exist. Yet Our Rick hates Jerry because he knocked Beth up, with Rick acting like it was solely Jerry's fault and not due to any outside circumstances. Even if Ricks are fine using Jerrys to make Mortys, they shouldn't have any anger towards them for doing so when the Ricks are responsible for the creation of Mortys. They should have a general dislike for how stupid Jerrys are, but hating them for knocking up Beths shouldn't exist because Ricks were the ones who set up all Beths and Jerrys to meet in order to create the Mortys. This should also apply to Our Rick. The only way Our Rick hating on Jerry for knocking up Beth makes sense is that the Jerry he's hating on is actually an exception to what we've been told (that this is the one in the infinite Jerrys that met Beth naturally, without any involvement of any Rick, and that he knocked her up on his own without any influence from any Rick anywhere. This idea itself is flawed because the Jerry that made Our Morty was in the Cronenberg dimension and Rick chewing out Jerry during the Whirly Dirly episode wouldn't work because The Reason You Suck he delivers to Jerry isn't the Jerry who created his Morty).
    • They resent the fact that they HAVE to use Jerry to get Morty, and they take it out on Jerry. They've obviously tried to cut Jerry out of the picture, but if they want enough Mortys to go around, then Jerry has to be in involved, and they HATE that with all of their genius, they can't find a solution that doesn't involve (from their perspective) one of the most worthless humans alive.
      • So, you're saying that Ricks hate Jerrys because they represent something they didn't have a solution to? So, it's not hatred against Jerrys, but it's more self-hatred towards their own shortcomings?
    • Also, the exact line Rick says to Jerry is, "She was RICK'S daughter. She HAD OPTIONS!" Doesn't that kind of conflict with what we learn later? If Beth had options, then why is Rick blaming Jerry when the Ricks took the options away? It seems like it applies to the above "self-hatred towards their own shortcomings" idea presented above.
    • It would be perfectly in line with Rick's character to hate a situation he both facilitated and directly benefits from. If Rick's real beef with Jerry was that he limited Beth's opportunities he'd have a bigger beef with the other Ricks for abandoning their Beths for sci-fi adventures, but it never comes up. The real reason Rick hates Jerry is because he's both in opposition to Rick's worldview (life is meaningless, the trappings of society have no value, etc.) and that he shares all of Rick's biggest weaknesses (he's a leech, he takes from others without giving back, he provides nothing of value, his relationships are all based on pity, etc.).
  • The real reason is that the show has no myth arc. When that first line was written the latter plot point has been conceived. They're just making it up as they go along. And the show is pretty clear about this, often expressing its distaste for serialized story telling.
    Frundles-proof cage ? 
  • How did Mr. Frundles, who demonstrates the ability to bite and assimilate anything, from Jerry, a carpet, the floorboards, all of South America and even the Earth itself, all in minutes no less, get contained by a simple dog-cage ?
    • On the topic of that, how did Rick even contain this thing?
    • I'd bet good money that isn't a normal dog cage. Like, the bars are made of some kind of special sci-fi material that prevents it from escaping/infecting others.
    • Rick is the smartest man in the multiverse– he found a way to contain it. Any more would go into WMG.
     Rick's Return to his Universe 
  • So when Rick resets the portal fluid in 'Solaricks', he's sent to his original universe where his family died. But he's switched bodies on screen multiple times (for example in the Season Three premier and the spa episode). Wouldn't he go to a completely different world?
    • Best guess is that it works in (for lack of a better word) a metaphysical way, like, based on the person's consciousness rather than the physical body. It worked on Morty too, after he got merged with all those other Mortys in the vat of acid episode.
     Space Beth's Plan 
  • So what was Space Beth's (SB) plan after revealing the affair with Earth Beth (EB) to Jerry? I know she told him out of spite and to just be a dick, but what was the plan afterwards? Did she think EB was going to leave Jerry and her family to be with her? That Jerry would just accept it and they could continue the affair? What was suppose to happen after?
    • She probably didn't have a plan at all. Space Beth is very much like Rick in this way: as soon as they stop getting a kick out of something, or it becomes too much work, they stop trying, like Rick burning his curse-removal shop down as soon as he wasn't amused by it anymore. In this case, the thrill of the affair was wearing off, and the fact that Rick, Morty, and Summer were confronting her about it made it an extra hassle. She went for an easy way out, only thinking about the short term. Tell him, then we won't have to keep putting in the effort to keep it a secret, and the rest of the family will stop bothering me about hiding it. She probably didn't even care what happened next.
    • It didn't occur to her that Earth Beth would choose their family over Space Beth, because Space Beth chose herself. When Rick severed the cord to her family, Space Beth was able to leave without looking back. She probably thought Earth Beth would be the same.
     Back to the Jerryboree 
  • How did Jerry get to the Jerryboree in The Stinger of Bethic Twinstinct? He's explicitly there alone, without Rick; and in the same episode, the portal gun is explicitly still not working. So how did he get there?
    • It's a throwaway bit in an episode stinger. You're probably not supposed to think about it too much.
    • It's placed on a cross-temporal asteroid, meaning you don't need to use a portal gun to get there. To back this up, we never see Rick or Morty use a portal gun to get there. You only need to learn to pilot a ship to the place to get there. Now the real question is, did Jerry actually learn how to use a spaceship himself?
      • Or did he talk Rick's ship into taking him there, since we know it can act independently, and he's clearly more assertive now? Either one would be impressive.
    • Given Rick's relationship with Jerry has noticeably improved this season, maybe he just dropped Jerry off as a favor.
    • Speaking of which, how did ANYONE get back to Jerryboree? Portal tech was messed up and no one could use it, some how did Jerry get there and how did all those other Jerrys get there?
      • As stated above, it did seem previously established that you can get there without portals. Alternatively, it could be Fridge Brilliance, maybe all those other Jerrys are there because their Ricks can't come get them.
    • Wait, do we KNOW the Jerry in the stinger is our Jerry and not some random other one? The joke works either way.
    • Considering the events that had transpired in the episode, it wouldn't be out of character for Space Beth to simply take Jerry there as a favor after he tells her that he's curious about selfcest too.
     Why Did Rick Care What Happened to the Dinos? 
I mean, Rick doesn't care about too much, so why would he try to force their hand in destroying the comets to save his live? Why would he care what happened to them?
  • Rick sees a kindred spirit in the dinosaurs. More than that, if they sacrificed themselves that would mean they "won," proving their selfless and giving worldview can withstand the harshness and cruelty of the universe. Rick's beef with the dinosaurs is primarily based on them having access to the same knowledge and abilities he has, but without the accompanying nihilism and self-loathing.
     Getting out of the Fortress 
In Full Meta Jackrick, after Rick and Morty's confrontation with the Self-Referential Six, they eventually get out of the fortress and reach a frozen winter area. But the issue is, Rhett Caan retconned the fortress such that there has never been anything outside of it. So, how is that they managed to get anywhere that isn't the white void we initially see almost fall into when Rhett declares this retcon ?
     Are we still considering Jerry pathetic? 
  • Are we still considering Jerry pathetic? He doesn't kick as much ass as Rick does but I mean, he did save the day when he and Beth went to that couple retreat, and he saved the day using Phoenix Person's dead body, and when the aliens took over after capturing Rick, he got a really high paying job to take care of his family. And when the dinos came, he wrote an international best seller. He didn't get credit for it but his family knew he did it. And he stood up to his wife and clone for cheating on him and he defended Summer's honor by fighting Piss Master. So can we really still call Jerry pathetic?
    • It would appear that the show no longer considers him to be pathetic, probably ever since he told off his original family in "Solaricks". This is immediately followed up by Rick being happy to receive him even though he was reluctant to save Jerry from his Season 2 style hell. Perhaps there's a connection in this with regards to Rick being the protagonist of the show, but regardless, the show itself doesn't appear to treat Jerry as a pathetic being anymore, just a guy with some rotten luck at times who has great hidden potential.
      • And with this out of the way, the fandom still treating Jerry as pathetic is basically a force of habit.
     Birdperson should've known the human diet 
  • In "Get Shwifty" Birdperson feeds Morty a bowl of random debris he got out of his carpet, explaining that he doesnt know what humans eat. Less than a second after this line, we see that his relationship with Tammy has developed enough that they're living together. How would it be possible that she never ate in front of him all that time? Heck, how would the subject of food have never come up between them in conversation? Yes, it is implied later on that she may not be a human or from Earth at all, but if it were true and Birdperson was told about it, wouldn't he be too suspicious of her to continue the relationship knowing that Earth is one of the few places not controlled by the Galactic Federation? This wouldn't be so confusing if Tammy was just over for the night or something, but the wiki explicitly says she was living with him at this point.
     Why Did Rick Prime Kill Rick C-137's Family? 
  • I don't think they really explained this. Why did he kill our Rick's family? Rick turned down portal tech yeah, but so what? Why was he so offended by that? Why did he care whether or not our Rick embraced portal tech or not? Care enough to kill his whole family?
    • Rick Prime clearly has a God Complex. He seems to have found purpose, and therefore power, in sharing his portal tech to other Ricks. He must have done it thousands of times by the time he reached to Rick C-137. This Rick's refusal of the offer was highly offensive to Rick Prime since it attacked his power over other Ricks. Therefore, he killed C-137's family as a punishment for this slight.
    • Or his massive ego refuses to allow anyone to say "no" to him, regardless of what its about.
    • Rick Prime is just that petty. We know Rick C-137 can be extremely punishing of minor slights (the Vat of Acid episode is all the evidence needed for that!), and Rick Prime is even more Rick... and so, more petty.

     Dinos and the non-violent solution to the asteroids 
  • With all their supreme powers and portal technology, wouldn't the obvious solution be to open a portal on the asteroid's path and redirect it elsewhere? It's an asteroid, it shouldn't be able to steer, even if it's (barely) sentient. Maybe send them into the gravitational field of some planet-less star so that they can orbit it peacefully.
    • The meteors wouldn't be able to target the dinos if they weren't able to direct themselves somehow. And Rick says they cause as much destruction on their path as they can, so the only way to minimize destruction is either destroying them or let them accomplish their goal of destroying the dinosaurs.

    Ricktional Mortpoons Rickmas Mortcation 
  • Since President Curtis already had access to lightsaber tech, as shown by him having the robots with lightsabers for hands, and the one with lightsabers for eyes, and the lightsaber gatling gun... why would he have a reason to betray Morty to steal his lightsaber?
    • Being a big Star Wars nerd, he wanted to have an authentic lightsaber that "makes the noises". While he does have weapons that function as lightsabers, he doesn't have actual lightsabers. It's basically a repeat of "The Rickchurian Mortydate", with him having advanced, yet comparably inferior tech to Rick.
      • That does make sense, though, the lightsaber tech President Curtis has access to does make the noises, so it would seem to not be a matter of Morty's lightsaber being materially technically superior in any meaningful way, just that it is authentic, which if anything, makes his reason for betraying Morty all the more petty.
  • In President Curtis' Star Wars rant he mentions a "bubble throat pompadour fuck", who is that meant to be referring to?
    • Very clearly to George Lucas, blaming him for the prequels, considering his hairdo and double chin.

    Spaghetty planet people 
  • How could they not know about the spaghetti thing? They're an advanced race, surely they happen to do autopsies on their dead, and if they do, surely they couldn't miss this radical transformation of the body tissues?
    • Explained in the episode: they're aware of the change, but no one ever tried to eat it. Its also a world where spaghetti was apparently never invented by traditional means, so they don't know that what the bodies become is a kind of food.
    • They know that their bodies transform but from their perspective it's still just guts & organs and it probably doesn't taste like spaghetti to them.

    Really heavy Rick 
  • Why did Rick Prime assume in his prerecorded message that his trap might contain a "really heavy Rick" instead of many several ones, if the tubes they get on to get to the next challenge are clearly made for regular-sized Ricks?
    • He doesn't care. At all. He decided that the bit about a fat Rick was really witty, so he left it in.

    Morty switch 
  • At what moment did Evil Morty switch himself for Main Morty? I don't think there's a single moment throughout the battle when they were out of frame for any significant amount of time. Unless E-Morty somehow did it before the fight even began and mind-controlled the M-Morty to behave exactly like him, and use his gadgets and skills, which sounds a bit implausible even for him.
    • I think Evil Morty and Main Morty switched immediately after Morty used the bisected Rick Primebot to save Evil Morty, at the last time they were seen together. The eyepatch is what EM uses to control his tech, but there's no indication that EM gave MM his tech, and MM could've just been wearing a costume eyepatch. This is especially made clear because EM took his eyepatch out of his pocket and used it on Rick Prime to download his code instead of taking it off MM. It never left his person, and MM was riding the drone EM was operating. Furthermore, after the last giant Dianebot blew up, there's a very clear Classic Morty scream, which EM would likely not make, as he hasn't made any sounds of pain like that, even when shot in the arm by Kuado Rick. It's possible that EM just put MM in his shirt and a similar eyepatch, threw him onto the controlled Prime drone, and made him fly around while he got in position on the platform. The confusion afterwards from MM would've been him not remembering what just happened in those seconds before the explosion.

    The Omega Weapon 
  • If Rick Prime killed all Dianes across the multiverse with the Omega Weapon, then shouldn't have all Beths vanished as well, if Main!Rick's Beth got caught in the blast?
    • Theres no indication our Rick's family was killed by the Omega Weapon, it was more likely just a plain old bomb. We don't know when exactly he used the Omega Weapon yet.

    Kuatos 
  • Summer turning Morty into her Kuato was an accident caused by messing with one of Rick's gadgets, so how is it that there's an entire subcommunity of people with Kuatos?
    • It wasn't a large community, and they were purposely being lured in by a Kuato trafficking operation. Evidently, it happens often enough across the universe that they have a name and a market for this exact condition. It's also possible that some people intentionally try to cultivate such "accidents" for personal gain.

    Feeding the Hole 
  • How exactly does the Hole work? It's more or less explicitly stated that the Hole functions by feeding off fears, but Rick and Morty begin to deteriorate when they confront their fears: Rick by being happy with Dianne, Morty by making himself vulnerable to judgement. Morty escapes the hole not by being afraid of his disposability to Rick, but simply by realizing that's the fear the Hole is interested in. Basically, the characters don't respond with fear to the things they're ostensibly afraid of, but the hole is sated anyway.
    • The "deterioration" is just an illusion the Hole creates to push the fear-exposing narrative. There's no evidence that it's actually a mechanism that it uses on everyone.
    • The Hole was only feeding on Morty. Anything to do with Rick was just to trigger responses from Morty. Morty's fear was being abandoned by Rick. Morty got over his fear the instant he realized that's what it was, because he was forced to face it right there: Rick had abandoned him. The final moments with the Hole speaking through Rick and Morty screaming was the catharsis, and Morty woke up right after because the Hole was fed.

    Is the Central Finite Curve really what it's meant to be? 
  • The Central Finite Curve is supposed to contain only universes where Rick is the smartest being. Evil Morty is originally from the Curve, and as we see in "Unmortricken", he is at least as smart as the two smartest Ricks, possibly smarter. One could argue that the Ricks are so dismissive of Mortys that they didn't even consider the possibility that a Morty may be smarter than them when they cordoned off the Curve... But in the Citadel we also see Slow Rick, who has genuinely low intelligence. Maybe the Curve was never as well insulated as we were led to believe?
    • It may be better to look at the CFC in terms or intent over results. There are beings or group of beings within the CFC that are at least as technologically savvy as Rick (the dinosaurs, the Narnia dogs), characters who are clearly more intelligent than Rick in areas outside of his expertise (Dr. Wong, Unity), and plenty of "stupid" characters that have outsmarted Rick in one way or another. It's less important that the Ricks' plan to isolate their portion of the multiverse wasn't completely successful (and in many ways, too vague to ever be completely successful) than it is that so many self-loathing and egotistical Ricks chose to butcher the multiverse rather than face a world they couldn't control through their intellects. Put another way, the story prioritizes the "why" over the "how".
  • It's likely that their gizmo just scans for inventing potential, and doesn't bother scanning for emotional intelligence, strategic intelligence, or accumulated technological knowledge. The few people who outsmart Rick have greater emotional and/or strategic intelligence, or greater accumulated knowledge of technology they did not themselves invent. As others have said, the important thing is that Rick would try to do this, not that his efforts failed because there is more to intelligence than inventing gizmos.
  • Different universes - different scales of intelligence, and smartest doesn't mean very smart - it only means smarter than all others. So, yes, Slow Rick can still the smartest in his universe. As for Evil Morty, he abducted and scanned several dozen Ricks, probably absorbed their intelligence somehow.

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