#c-137 did NOT abandon his beth.

[rez-urrection]

sometimes it feels like im the only one in the r&m fandom that actually and actively dislikes Jerry and Beth tbh

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Fear No Mort" was constant whiplash. In fact, I struggled to evaluate this episode at first because it was one twist after another. Throughout the episode, I had flashbacks to "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" (the rap scene might've been a direct reference) and the Rickbot reveal in "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation."

For better or worse, season seven's had a lot of callbacks and episodes that mirrored previous ones: "That's Amorte" played out like "Mortynight Run"; "Air Force Wong" brought together Dr. Wong, the president and Unity; "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" was a "Get Schwifty" sequel.

Seasons six and seven have also piled on the fanservice. The first four seasons stubbornly refused to give us what we want, dangling fan theories or a gentler Rick in our faces before yanking it away. Rick started to change in season five, but it's another ten episodes before you get Rick in a suit and tie, Rick announcing that Rickcest is canon, Rick regularly going to therapy, Space Beth joining the family and other content that's floated around the fandom since 2017.

And let's not forget the big one: C-137 Rick and Morty, Prime Rick and Evil Morty in one episode, fighting and teaming up after we saw Evil Morty's once-forbidden backstory.

Some call it cheap thrills, but I call it a gift to the fandom that's patiently waited for the fakeouts to end. And now that I've said that: "Fear No Mort" was one giant fakeout.

But was it, though?

This is the most unpopular opinion in the world, but I'm not invested in Rick and Diane's relationship. As a gay woman, I just don't connect with opposite-gender couples. Also, I dislike the trope of the idolized dead wife that the audience only learns about through her widower. She's not her own character, just an extension of the male protagonist.

When the fake Rick and Diane reconnected, I thought "Oh boy, this is getting cheesy." They're falling for each other again: check. Rick feels guilty about her death: check. We see how similar they are: check. Rick doesn't want to leave: aaaand, check.

I'm also a little lost after the ending. Morty was the only one in the hole, so why did we see all these scenes from fake Rick's perspective? Was an NPC really that busy?

How much we learned about Diane is debatable, too, since Morty never met her. I guess his ideas came from whatever Rick's told him and maybe the ship's voice since she's based on Diane.

I did like how the episode kept reminding us that Morty's still in the Fear Hole. I mean, we didn't know that, but we knew that. No "Are they in the Fear Hole or not??" until all the twists in the third act.

Aside from that, I don't want the show to revisit the past too much because Rick needs to let go. If you're a Marvel fan, you saw the backlash to Steve Rogers traveling back in time to spend a lifetime with Peggy in "Endgame." He had a life in the present, but he refused to move on.

Nostalgia makes us yearn for earlier years, but if Rick abandoned his family to live with Diane in another reality, I wouldn't call that a sweet ending. I'd call that a disappointment and a waste of his character.

Turns out, Rick never had that option at all.

Well...in a way, he did. And when Morty told him what he saw in the Fear Hole, Rick ran back to the restroom. He looked into the hole. He thought about it. And then he did what I wanted him to do, which was walk away. In this moment, he chose the present.

Admittedly, Morty's fear came true: Rick didn't jump in the hole after him, he did just sit there and watch, and he didn't want to say that Morty's irreplaceable out loud. Plus, Rick was bewildered when Morty hugged him. But for the first time, instead of standing stiffly or gently pushing him away, Rick started to hug him back.

We also saw what Morty didn't: Rick smiling to himself after hanging up the picture of Morty that he kept in his wallet. He had the chance to wallow in shadows of the past, but he didn't take it. Rick chose him.

"Fear No Mort" could've ended with Rick just saying "Let's go" and leaving, but it didn't. Seasons one and two Rick would've bitched and moaned about Morty taking so long. Season three Rick would've left him there for a while to torment him. Season four Rick would've found a way to take advantage of this.

But seasons five, six, seven? That's real character development. That's what all the Twitter users saying "Wow, Rick and Morty is actually good" have been missing out on.

And for the first time in the series, a season didn't end with Rick relapsing or getting a (well-deserved) ass kicking. Is Morty going to get the grandfather that he deserves? Or will he move on, too, now that Rick's releasing his iron grip? Speculating is fun, but for now, let's focus on today.

[hazelnut-u-out]

Considering it’s implied that there was an amount of time between the death of Beth and Diane C-137 and the erasure of all Dianes, I always come back to the question of which Diane would’ve been put into the Omega Device to erase her.

Sure, it could’ve been a random Diane, but I think it’d bring a whole new level of callousness/complexity to Prime’s legacy if it was his own Diane; if he killed his own wife in person; if the only reason he came home was to orphan his daughter and never come back for her.

The worst part is that it would totally be in line with his character…

I mean, remember this line?

If you assume he had issues with his own Diane, it makes the ‘only person we like’ bit stand out. Diane was an exception for C-137, and (at least to Prime) that was an insult to himself.

(Honestly, considering C-137’s attitude towards Prime, I wonder if his love for Diane was just used as a petty insult in the real version of events.)

Keep in mind, I do think it’s possible that Prime missed his Beth— or that he did care but unknowingly trapped himself in a never-ending cycle of self-preservation where the best way he could protect her was to abandon her. There’s gotta be a reason the Beths weren’t erased, too… right?

After all, in the wise words of Evil Morty, ‘using a weapon like this doesn’t exactly get you left alone,’ and considering who actually outsmarted Prime in the end, I think that might’ve just been his unsuccessful goal.

[glitteringcrab]

It's complicated

Okay, I'm trying to construct a timeline of what happened with the creation of the Citadel in relation to the use of Mortys by Ricks.

1. The first time we've seen a Morty appear in Rick's crybaby backstory is after his breaking up with Bird Person, when Rick C-137 resumes his hunt of Rick Prime.

We don't know Morty's age in this, but it appears the Rick who is being spied on has nearly the same age as our "current" Rick. Some time shenanigans might have taken place (did Rick C-137 move forward in time???), BUT when our current Rick mentioned having a grandson, Memory Younger Rick (unclear how young) recognizes there is a pattern of "creep Ricks" moving in with abandoned adult Beths for non-benign reasons...!

2. In the spied Rick's garage, Rick C-137 finds a location that could be traced to Rick Prime:

3. And he begins trying to follow a trace of Prime-follower Ricks back to Rick Prime (what a weird phrase to say lol)

(interesting thing: who the heck are the people whose photos are pinned on the background? One of them looks kiiiiinda like Morty)

4. Eventually, Rick C-137 discovers this... network of Ricks, who I assume were Rick Prime Fans, and begins hunting them down one by one.

I suppose he did it half-hoping one of them would be Rick Prime, half-hoping one of them would be able to lead him to Rick Prime.

5. It seems Rick Prime was leaving behind clues, building elaborate mazes and traps, I assume to give his followers an opportunity to reach him, but with no one ever actually succeeding.

6. Rick C-137 went on with his increasingly desperate Rick Prime hunt, to the point where he became infamous to other Ricks and they just tried to off him:

7. All those Ricks banded together in some sort of headquarters (which at first, appears to be the Citadel. The guy talking wears Council-of-Ricks-like clothes). Notice the suspicious absence of Mortys:

Also notice the red color motif, which is a Rick Prime thing.

Also notice the insignia on this dude's clothes is identical to the Rick Prime insignia we've seen up to now (one big, fat, narcissistic R surrounded by three tiny stars)?

8. Rick C-137 kills all the Ricks gathered there, which... makes sense only up to a point.

From what we know of Rick Prime now, we can safely say there was exactly ZERO chance he was among those Ricks gathered there. So what would killing them achieve, exactly? Was Rick C-137 simply throwing a tantrum, destroying Rick Prime's fan club in a fit of pettiness? Was he retaliating, pre-emptively killing as many Ricks as he could before they had a chance to attack him (as they inevitably would)? Was he acting mindlessly? Was he simply wayyyy too drunk?

9. Anyway, it appears he recognizes the futility of his actions, because he eventually stops:

10. And what happens next is interesting, and is what prompted me to write this post.

The precursors of the council of Ricks show Rick C-137 the Citadel design...

...and Rick C-137 looks surprised. Shocked, even.

Like, why?!

Isn't that their current location (that red place Rick C-137 burnt down)? Didn't he know where he teleported himself to?

...Well, afterwards we see him passing by the Citadel-under-construction as he leaves this meeting:

He passes by it. So, no. This meeting did not take place in the Citadel. Rick C-137 was leaving another place (the red place he trashed). And is not happy about the Citadel being there. Even though it was his idea.

11. Okay, the Citadel wasn't the location of their meeting and Rick C-137 was obviously aware of his own location, but why seem surprised when they showed him the schematics? He's the one who designed the Citadel!

He remembers its schematics (and notice how the Citadel insignia is similar to the Rick Prime symbol, only the "stars" are now connected to the R? I read this as Rick C-137 impersonating Rick Prime when he made sure the Rick Prime Fan Club got the schematics). Why design it if the didn't want to make sure they got it?

And when the pre-council of Ricks offers him to lead (apparently), he trashes the table in distaste (at the time I assumed it was because he hates Ricks and wants nothing to do with the Citadel, but... well...).

12. We've already seen Rick C-137 go into complete black out when severely drunk, to the point where he not only performs cruel, poorly-thought out plans but also completely forgets his actions, which he later regrets:

(see also the whole Vindicators fiasco, where he presents his black-out self as a different person.)

13. My take on this is that Rick C-137 either came up with or designed the Citadel of Ricks idea when drunk drunk, and that it was a poorly thought-out, morally dubious plan (and might I say, it's interesting that we have no confirmation yet about what the Citadel was for, exactly). He drunkenly executed his plan, sent the schematics to the Rick Prime Fan Club, and then drank some more. (Interesting note: in Rick's crybaby backstory there is no flashback of him actually designing the Citadel. Evil Morty just got a flashback of him looking at the end design. Was it to conserve storytelling time, or was it a hint that he was blackout drunk and had no memory of the designing process?)

Once sober he seems to realize (and regret) the consequences of his actions, but it's too late by then. The Citadel is under construction.

14. Given that:

Eyepatch Morty said "[they] built a wall around infinity" (they! Plural! Ricks! He blames Rick C-137 for building the Citadel, but he recognizes that the Central Finite Curve was a collective effort of many Ricks)

it appears once the Citadel is down the Central Finite Curve is more easily breach-able

it was possible, with modifications, to use the Citadel's dimensional drive to bring down the Curve

...the conclusion we reach is that the Citadel was used to build the Central Finite Curve in an attempt to trap Rick Prime... But given Rick C-137's distaste towards his own plan, it seems that this is not the whole picture.

I mean, the Central Finite Curve does not seem that bad... by itself... Only when combined with the abusive Rick-Morty dynamic did it become a horrible prison for countless Mortys.

15. After leaving that unsettling meeting, Rick C-137 crashes on the Prime dimension (so he has known where Prime's original reality was, at least for a while...!)

And he begins bonding with Morty Prime, his enemy's grandson.

It's also unclear why he decided to squat in the Prime dimension. Did he really hope Rick Prime would return home?

Or was it an action of possessiveness, of stealing, of sullying everything of Rick Prime's? (in a "you took my family, I'm taking yours" fashion?) Was it a taunt?

16. And when we next see the Citadel, it's full of Mortys.

A stark difference from the previous Rick Prime Fan Club Headquarters.

...

A) Hadn't all those Rick Prime fans at the Rick Prime Fanclub Headquarters known about the brainwaves thing back then?

I mean, we know that occasionally some "creepy Rick" would move in with an abandoned adult Beth, yet it seems that the brainwaves thing was not widespread knowledge.

Who told everyone?

B) Rick C-137 said that if you create a matrix of Mortys and put them in agonizing pain, it creates a pattern that can hide Ricks not only from the government, but from other Ricks.

He said that he fiddled with a concept like this once, on paper, and that five Mortys and a jumper cable would yield adequate results.

Yes. Totally on paper.

C) And why was Rick and Morty DNA necessary to bring down a wall that was designed specifically to separate universes where "Rick is the smartest man in the universe"?

D) And why did Rick C-137 claim that the Morty Market, as presented by Eyepatch Morty, wasn't "the whole truth" and was "complicated" (as if there was a misunderstood, positive aspect to the Morty Market) and yet refused to elaborate further?

E) And which Morty is this one, whose DNA is being taken without his knowledge???

Is it a nobody Morty chosen completely at random, or a specific Morty chosen among the infinite Mortys for a very specific reason?

F) Why, oh why were the Cult Mortys so quick to title Morty Prime as "the one true Morty" right after he introduced himself as "Morty from earth dimension C-137"???

G) If the spectrum of all Ricks is real (and if my theories are correct), what on earth is our Rick C-137 doing up there right next to the likes of "super weird Rick" and "Evil Rick"?

What are Rick C-137's crimes? Sure, he's a jerk, but up till now we haven't really seen him do anything worse than the average Rick, quite the opposite really.

There are still puzzles pieces missing, but I don't like the picture that is being painted.

I can think of two scenarios, which can complement each other.

Scenario 1: The purpose of the Citadel was not simply to wall in the universe where Rick Prime was, but to cancel out as many Ricks as possible if one were to scan the multiverse for Rick brainwaves (well, we do know Rick Prime operates alone. No chance he'd have a grandson around). This "function" of Mortys' brainwaves was advertised and the use of Mortys was deliberately promoted to the Ricks arriving in the Citadel. The Morty Market was not a naturally occurring conclusion of Ricks' discovering Mortys' complementary brainwaves; it was a designed, pre-determined goal in-built with the Citadel's very reason of existence.

Or, well, something sorta along this lines, because the above scenario doesn't really explain why Morty DNA was necessary to bring down the Curve (i.e. were Mortys used to calibrate what consists as "smartest" by Rick C-137 and therefore Eyepatch Morty had to use them too?). And given that there are infinite Ricks, "using Mortys to aid the search for Rick Prime" seems kinda doomed to fail no matter how many Ricks you cloak (but, well, following the timeline presented above, it appears that Rick was drunk when he designed the Citadel. He even criticized his own craftmanship at S3E1, where he says that "it's a bad idea to have [the Citadel] designed [with an area for teleporting the whole Citadel with only buttons and dials]").

There is also the "hundred years" thing to consider, which unnerves me a lot now.

Anyway, in this scenario using Mortys was an inseparable part of Rick C-137's "Citadel Plan", the suffering of countless Mortys (clones in body and essence of some one Morty) only a predicted, unfortunate (but ultimately deemed acceptable by drunk drunk Rick C-137) byproduct of Rick C-137's plan, not the goal of it.

Scenario 2: A specific phrase told by an angry, bitter old man. A very chilling phrase, so extreme in its magnitude that it sorta passes right under our radars...

...but which I now find unsettling in how easily, thoughtlessly came out of Rick's mouth. Almost like he already knew the WORLD would know when he tries to hurt Morty.

Why would he say that? Why would he even think that...?

...Rick, what have you done?

[dirty-bear-rick-sanchez]

All The Pretty Little Horses

Two fics in one night? It's almost like I wrote them ages ago and am only now getting round to actually posting them 🤔

Of course we're all disappointed that we never got to see Rick and Beth actually have the conversation about what happened to Beth C-137, so I wanted to write it. Takes place after Solaricks.

Summary: Beth confronts Rick about the revelation that she's not his original daughter. ~1100 words

Rick’s exhausted from the day’s events, but he’s buzzing with so much restless energy he can’t even sit still, let alone sleep. He’s tried, unsuccessfully, to channel it into a project, or to dull it with alcohol, but neither have worked. His room feels even smaller than normal, like a cage, and he knows he has to get out.

He stumbles out of his room and down the stairs, not really sure where he’s going, driven by a vague need to escape. As he reaches the bottom, he notices a light on in the kitchen. He didn’t know anyone was still up, but company is just the distraction he needs right now. He doesn’t particularly care who it is - he’ll even take Jerry’s company over his own at this point. Rick speeds up as much as his inebriated body will let him.

As he enters the kitchen, a piece of his heart tears itself from his chest at the sight of his daughter slouched over the table, glass of wine in hand. She looks up at him and smiles sardonically.

“Like father, like daughter, huh?”

Rick doesn’t know what to say, but Beth clearly isn’t interested in waiting for him to respond.

“So. I’m not your real daughter.” she begins, picking up the bottle to refill her glass. Rick swallows, knowing he should tell her that she is his daughter, that it doesn’t matter about their realities of origin, that he loves her, but the words won’t come out. Beth continues,

“You know, at first, I was actually kind of relieved to find out. You know why? Because if you weren’t my original dad, it meant that you weren’t the one who abandoned me.” 

She stops to drink, but Rick can tell she’s far from done with the confrontation. 

“But then I got angry again, because I realised that you did abandon me. Just not this version of me.” Rick wants to protest, or apologise, or cry, but he’s frozen.

“What did she do? To deserve being abandoned?” Beth’s tone is cold and forceful enough that it temporarily unblocks Rick’s throat just enough for him to choke out two words.

“She died.”

“So, she died, and you decided to just replace her with another Beth? That’s all I am to you, right? Just another infinite daughter.”

“Beth, i-it wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like, Dad?” Beth snaps. Rick flinches. 

“My original Beth… she was killed as a child. By another version of me.”

Beth’s face softens slightly, and Rick realises he’s crying.

“He wanted me to abandon you, and your mom, and travel everywhere without consequences. I told him I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay with you, and raise you. He didn’t like it, and… and he killed you, Beth. He took my little girl from me. And he almost did it again today.”

“Dad… I don’t… what do you…?”

Rick takes an unsteady breath. 

“That’s where I was when you were calling for help. I… I had my chance to kill him, Beth. To finally take out that bastard. I tried to do it for decades, even after I knew I had no hope of finding him. I didn’t move in with an adult version of you until I’d given up all hope of ever finding him. Today, I had that hope again…”

He trails off. Beth slowly drops her hands from where they’re clasped over her mouth to finish his sentence. 

“But you chose us?” 

Rick nods. 

Beth sits in stunned silence for a few moments, before beginning to move towards him so slowly that Rick’s hardly sure she’s moving at all. He reaches out his arms and takes her in them, clutching her to his chest.

“So, if your original daughter got murdered for refusing to abandon me, and I’m still alive, that means my original dad…”

“Accepted the offer.”

There’s another painful silence as the feelings wash over both of them. When Beth breaks it, her voice is low and shaky.

“All this time, I thought that’s what you’d done to me. I thought you were him. All the times I blamed you for leaving… why did you let me?”

“I guess… I felt like I deserved it. I couldn’t save her… I couldn’t save you.”

“You did save me. You came back for me.”

Rick can’t help the sob that slips out.

“I almost didn’t, Beth. I was so focused on getting my revenge, even if it killed me. I wasn’t thinking.”

“I’m glad you came back.”

Rick’s too choked up to speak, so he simply pulls Beth tighter to his chest. He feels her squeeze him in return.

Eventually, Beth pulls away, and they both pretend not to notice the other wiping the tears from their face. Beth opens the cupboard and pulls out another glass before pouring them both some wine. Rick accepts, downing the majority of the glass in one go. When he sets it down, he dares to look across at Beth once more, and the sight of her swollen eyes and tearstained face breaks his heart all over again. He reaches a hand across and rests it on hers.

“Lo siento mucho, mijita.” Something about the Spanish feels more meaningful to him, although he has no way of knowing if Beth understands it. She smiles weakly all the same.

They continue drinking in silence until the bottle runs dry.

“Guess that’s our sign to head to bed.” Beth mumbles in a tone that clearly says she wants nothing of the sort.

“I-I dunno if we should risk the stairs, in this state.” Rick offers.

“No. But I think I could make it to the couch.”

They stagger towards the couch, drunkenly leaning on each other, and sink down into the cushions. Beth’s head comes to rest on Rick’s shoulder and he droops an arm around her, pulling her in closer.

Talking about his original Beth has awoken a memory for Rick, and suddenly it’s the most important thing in the world for him to know if it’s one that this Beth shares.

“Did-did your mom… your original mom… did she ever used to sing you the song… ‘hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, go to sleep you little baby. When you awake, you’ll have cake’-”

Rick trails off as Beth joins in. 

“And all the pretty little horses.” 

Suddenly, it strikes Rick that he’s never heard an adult Beth’s singing voice before. It reminds him painfully of Diane and he feels tears spilling down his cheeks, the alcohol lowering his guard. He swallows hard through the lump in his throat to continue singing along with Beth.

“Dapples and greys, pintos and bays. All the pretty little horses. Dapples and greys, pintos and bays. And all the pretty little horses.”

[zeep-xanflorp]

The headcanon thing for Rick Prime? Please?

@abed-with-a-knife

headcanon A: realistic

prime and c-137 have teamed up in the past. they both make mentions to being engaged in a sort of "team up" and i'm pretty sure it was with each other or w other ricks. i just know that the secret society thing of ricks that prime gave the portal guns to was the predecessor to the citadel. but with c-137, i think they had a more unique relationship. bc our rick didn't need the portal gun formula bc he invented it himself, i think prime had more respect for him in that way and i don't think our rick was privy to whatever it was the secret society of ricks was doing in the background. still, their team up mainly consisted of exploration. prime showed rick infinity, guiding him through it, but not like a god or even a teacher. more like another traveller who was slightly more experienced. they were equals.

headcanon B: unrealistic but hilarious

while they were teamed up, our rick was in a relationship right? but c-137 being MARRIED and all, i imagine he had reservations about a rickcest relationship. but i think rick and diane had a multi universally shitty marriage so eventually he overcame it. either way, i think bc of the respect he had for rick, prime developed a special bond and attachment to him unlike any of the others. i think they did have a relationship but it was mostly unrequited. prime being emotionally invested in c-137, writing little love letters, wanting to give him everything he could but rick saw it as basically glorified masturbation. nothing more. he was loyal to his family and it broke prime's heart. basically, rick prime is a lovesick puppy and that heartbreak turned him cold and cruel.

headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful

rick prime left his wife. he literally found the secret to interdimensional travel and abandoned his family. beth prime confirms this. he was a shit father and a shit husband but diane didn't stand for it. that's why he makes all the diane bots to be cruel little things that mock ricks specifically about sexual aspects of their relationship bc it's the cheapest shot but also the easiest to take offence to. but he also resents her bc they could never make it work. he lacks the self awareness to see where he went wrong as a father and a husband which is why he just up and left. i don't think he had zero feelings about this. i just think that instead of reflecting on what he did wrong, he became so resentful towards his diane to justify the use of the omega device.

also, c-137 was the first rick whose diane was killed by prime. he finally realised it was prime and went to seek revenge. only then did prime wipe diane from the multiverse, to teach rick a lesson for trying to oppose him. as a way of saying "this is what you get for crossing me" even if he KNEW it wouldn't fulfil him and only make our rick and many many others determined to destroy him. therefore, he cemented himself as the rickest rick - the most evil, forced to be unfeeling, apathetic, antisocial being different from even other ricks because he let all the diane's in the multiverse burn like the sun to teach one rick - a rick he was close to, no less - a lesson. his exile, his isolation was all self inflicted. he knew it would come to that and yet... he had to do it still so that he could be the superior.

headcanon D: unrealistic

he was as obsessed w our rick as our rick was with him. calling him the "wife guy" was a way to undermine the grip that c-137 had on him. knocking him down to just the first rick whose diane he killed. not the rick who stole his heart, not the rick who he respected above all, not the only other rick to actually invent portal travel - just "wife guy", because any title beyond that is too good for him.

also his regenerative abilities are somehow linked to c-137. don't know how but i say so.

leave more suggestions in my ask box PLEASE

[conanssummerchild]

i finally gave in and im making some rick and morty oc's >:))

we have:

Rick Sanchez A-26M

Morty Smith L9-DD

Summer Sanchez X-22 (she changed her surname to sanchez after escaping her dimension. maybe her jerry was abusive or something. in reality i just want her to be summer sanchez. might find a way to make morty morty sanchez too.)

Beth Smith N0T (thats a zero but it is reffered to as dimension not or the not dimension or smth)

Jerry Smith N0T

and they all live on Earth dimension N0T

backstory:

ive never made an oc before literally ever in my life (let alone 5) but im working on the lore rn and maybe sometime this month i'll do character designs but im really busy rn. definitely by the end of summer tho

additional info:

rick has paranoia depression anxiety adhd and autism (but he refuses to go to therapy so most of these arent actually diagnosed, but im literally his creator so i know, with the exception of paranoia (due to his psycotic break he was briefly forced into citadel therapy or whatever) and depression. i dont think he knows about the anxiety/he refuses to acknowledge it and he self medicates his adhd. he knows about the autism) hes also still an alcoholic (like most ricks i think) his beth jerry and summer's whereabouts are unknown (at least until i think of smth better 😭)

morty's rick is dead but when he was alive he was lowkey kinda nice (if overly and unhealthily dependant on morty) so morty misses him dearly :( morty tried to help his rick recover from dianes death and stop him from destroying himself finding rick prime but he couldnt and he blames himself for ricks death, he has a lot of abandonment issues and maybe some ptsd too. hes a bit more prickly than your standard morty until he really gets close to someone, hes less immediately trusting. after his rick died he ran away from home to the citadel, trying to find another rick but after a few years and about 5 ricks he realised it was useless and he would never be able to really replace his rick. his family was assigned another morty after he split and they're fine. he hung around the morty town locos for a while until finding summer x-22

summer's whole family is alive still but she ran away from home due to her jerry being abusive, as i mentioned earlier. she stole ricks portal gun and portalled over to the citadel, but the portal gun was damaged and she couldnt go anywhere else. morty l9-dd found her crying behind the creepy morty and tried to steal her portal gun (bcs the morty town locos fw portal fluid) but she pinned him against a wall and told him she'd slit his throat out if he didnt help her so he agreed. they bonded after that and became pretty much inseparable.

summer confided that she hadnt had a good relationship with her morty bcs he always turned a blind eye to the abuse and excused jerry. morty told her he spent so much time trying to keep his rick from spiralling that he never formed much of a relationship with his summer

when they get to dimension N0T beth and jerry seem perfect but they soon find out that the rick of this dimension was dead of suicide or smth and that beth tried to commit to after his death maybe. beth here is also an alcoholic, like c-131 is and jerry is in charge of keeping up appearances, which is harder once you have 3 new people living in your broken home.

im not sure a lot of this still might change it needs a lot of work

defining traits (both personality and physical):

rick: more quiet, often zones out and seems like hes not even there, but still bitchy when he does talk. when they first get to N0T he barely leaves his room for 2 months and beth keeps panicking bcs shes worried he'll kill himself like her rick. even tho she doesnt know him he looks so much like her rick did (bcs theyre both ricks duh) and its just stirring back up some stuff for her. his hair is a little flatter than c-137. perhaps he has a fringe. maybe he wears a soft wool jumper. je has self harm scars but always wears long sleeves, so theyre not visible

morty: his tones a bit sharper, hes more skeptical of ppl than morty prime is. hates rick prime almost as much as a-26m does. darker yellow t shirt (like the mortys in mortytown) scars across his eye (I KNOW IM NOT ORIGINAL OK i didnt want to put the scar down his lip bcs i didnt want to assosciate him with evil rick and morty, he has nothing to do with them) maybe the scar is across his cheek idk

summer: always a bit on edge, carries a knife on her at all times. incredibly mistrusting of jerry N0T when they got there. still weary of him and doesnt let him get too close. jerry is too tired trying to keep up appearances to really do much to try and ease summers mistrust of him. black tank top instead of pink. hot pink belt on her jeans tho maybe. loose hair bcs a ponytail is too easy to grab, sharp nails, painted pink. bruises on her arms that start to fade in the beginning of her time on the citadel with morty

beth: often out of it or drunk, more so the more time rick morty and summer stay bcs she cares less and less about keeping how shitty shes doing from them. at the beginning she seems like a perfect housewife, or someone putting on a performance of one. looks pretty much the same if not a little more disheveled, in the beginning wears one of those fancy white frilly aprons with a red heart embroidered. drops the apron as she drops the act

jerry: tired, dark circles maybe (rick and morty also have these, summer and jerry wear makeup to cover them, beth and rick have eyebags also) starts wearing the apron when beth stops lol, defeated demeanour, kinda depressed a lot of the time. lonely

anyway a lot of this is probably gonna be changed idkkkk

ooh also how long it took for a bond to form between characters:

rick and morty: about 2-3 months. both desperately missed their old partners which sped it up a bit but morty was scared of getting attached and rick at the start was too out of it most days to really form any kind of connection also he was scared of getting attatched too but for different reasons (morty was scared he'd lose another rick, rick felt like everyone he got close to ended up worse off (diane, his prev morty))

rick and summer: like maybe 5 months, they didnt interact much at first, like i said rick was too out of it and summer didnt really trust rick and saw him as unstable, but as rick grew closer to morty, summer slowly became a little less suspicious and maybe rick helped her with smth and they bonded over that idk

rick and beth: their initial relationship was not healthy, beth trying desperately to prevent rick from killing himself and rick not being willing to work on himself healthily, causing beth great panic and anxiety, but after like 6 months or so they become drinking buddies, still not the healthiest father-daughter relationship but it eases beths mind and makes rick feel less alone

rick and jerry: even after like 10 months living at the smith house rick and jerry dont have much of a relationship, both are too caught up in their own exhaustion to make an effort to bond, may change at some point

morty and summer: started to form a relationship within the first week of meeting eachother, maybe 7 or so months before they encountered rick (i need to make a timeline) probably the strongest relationship of all of these listed

morty and beth: surprisingly quickly, within the first 1 or 2 months, morty misses his mum and he wants to try and help beth a bit

morty and jerry: mutual respect for eachother, morty helps jerry out around the house and with things, started like this after anytime between a few weeks and 2 months

summer and beth: 4 months, took a while but eventually they formed a bond, its easier for summer to relax around beth and beth likes having a daughter

summer and jerry: still distrust after 10 months, will likely take a long time for any kind of relationship to form, no matter how minor

beth and jerry: pre established relationship obviously but its not a very good or happy one, maybe after 9 months they start trying to work on it again

[bubblegumr1ck]

Piggybacking off of @trucknoisettes here, but I think it would be really interesting if Prime was already on the run when he met C-137. It would explain why it's so hard for C-137 to track him down, especially when it's implied he was running a huge organisation of Ricks.

I also find this bit of dialogue intruiging:

Because while it very well could indicate that Prime intended to give C-137 the push he needed to create portal travel by malicious means, he could also simply be making reference to the obvious fact that many, if not all Ricks abandon their families at some point. Prime is, well... the prime example of this, since it seems that he abandoned his family the first chance he got and never looked back. It's not that strange to assume that Prime expected C-137 to follow that path, even if he didn't manage to convince him then.

And some questions that might poke some holes in the confidence that C-137 has that Prime was the one who dropped the bomb into his garage: How did Prime know when to drop the bomb, if his intention really was to kill C-137's Diane and Beth? Did he even intend to kill them in the first place?

And that's what really makes me doubt that Prime was the one who killed them. Because even if it wasn't done intentionally and the bomb was meant for C-137 instead, that begs the question: Why bother?

Prime, like a lot of Ricks, loves fucking with people. That much is evident in his behaviour in 6.01. But that wouldn't explain him making an attempt on C-137's life, especially since he doesn't even return to witness the outcome. And while I'm sure he's petty, like many Ricks are (including C-137), I'm not convinced that he'd go through the effort just to kill the guy.

Also to note, the time between Prime leaving and the bomb dropping is not actually that long. And, as @trucknoisettes pointed out, it drops not far from where he was last standing. So the idea that it was meant for him is actually not that unbelievable, either.

[amanda-519]

The Smith family moving dimensions in Solaricks was very weird to me when I first watched the episode. Considering the fact that literally 3 episodes prior Rick made a point that his version of Birdperson was special to him, and that he wouldn't go to a different reality to replace him (Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort S5E8)

So why was Rick so ready to move dimensions when his Birdperson was still in that dimension looking for his daughter? Morty's original dad even made a point about Morty abandoning his family and moving to a different dimension. So having Rick do the same to Birdperson? When he just got him back? It was very weird for me.

But after a few weeks of thinking about the episode, and waiting for Birdperson to be brought up in the leading episodes, I came up with a theory why the Smith family needed to move dimensions, from a writting perspective.

Firstly, I think Prime Rick is going to use multiple characters as leverage against Rick C-137. One character being Rick's original Birdperson. Since Rick abandoned his Birdperson because of the whole Mr Frundels thing, Prime Rick now has the chance to go into that universe and kidnap Birdperson.

Possibly letting Birdperson's child go, and C-137 running into her. Or Birdperson somehow teleports his child to Rick while he willingly gives himself up to Prime Rick.

Which would lead to the Smith Family and Rick needing to take care of Birdperson's child. Which is a very cute concept I've seen brought up in the fandom before. Especially considering that the child has a violent streak just like Beth did as a child. So now Rick has the opportunity to bond with the child like he did with his original Beth.

Another character I thought could be used against C-137 Rick is space Beth. A theory in the fandom is that space Beth is the clone, as domestic Beth has a straighter nose than she does, and the original Beth also had a straight nose.

Space Beth has also been making frequent appearances this season. In Solaricks, Bethic Twinstinct, Final Desmithation, Juricksic Mort, etc. Even though she basically finished her narrative purpose. So, why the frequent pop up? Well, it's a classic writting tool that when you're preparing to kill off a character, give them frequent minor appearances so the audience will grow attached.

Prime Rick killing off Space Beth would also mirror him killing off C-137's original Beth. It's also the biggest narrative shakeup I think the show will be willing to do. I've seen some other people theorize that Prime Rick might kill off Summer, as she reminds Rick of Diane. But I don't think that will happen. It would be too much of a shakeup to the status quo in my opinion, and I don't think the writers are willing to kill off such a prominent character.

The writers are usually careful with introducing different dimensions, and the notion of Rick and Morty moving to a different dimension was something that was taken very seriously in the past. So I don't think that it was done as some sort of joke, but rather it was a writing need to progress the story along.

So, in conclusion. The Smith family and Rick needed to move to a different dimension in season 6, from a writting perspective, so Prime Rick could kidnap C-137 Rick's original Birdperson with C-137 noticing. So he could gain leverage over C-137, along with killing space Beth.

[aviculor]

What we learned in the Rick and Morty season finale:

The “Central Finite Curve” is the collective name for every universe where Rick is the smartest being, a walled-off branch of the multiverse where Ricks reign supreme.

Evil Morty wasn’t C-137′s ‘original Morty’ or anything similarly poignant, just an above-average Morty who got sick of Rick’s shit and any Morty could have become like him given enough time. His goal was to escape the central finite curve by moving to a universe outside of it, and this was easier said than done because he had to puncture a hole through the aforementioned wall in spacetime. He did this by turning the citadel itself into a giant portal gun powered by pureed Ricks and Morties.

Morties are cloned in the Citadel after Ricks engineer Beths and Jerries getting together to create a fresh batch of Morty DNA. This means there aren’t as many Beths and Jerries and Summers compared to Ricks and Morties in the finite curve as we initially assumed: it’s actually uncommon for there to be a full Smith family unit in any given universe, which is something I had extrapolated from the reveal in Rickternal Friendshine. We already knew Ricks treated Morties as expendable and that the Citadel interfered with universes within the curve, but now we’ve really seen the level of control they exert. I had assumed the name of the racket was creating “real estate” universes for Ricks to move into to cope with losing Beth, but it turns out most Ricks don’t even have that level of pathos to them. It’s always been about propagating Morties for use as disposable sidekicks, and Rick C-137 lives in what is essentially a disused breeding farm.

Rick C-137′s backstory was established. The Rickshank Redemption’s flashback was completely real, just embellishing how long it actually took to create portal tech. He then spent decades chasing down and killing Ricks, searching for the one who killed Beth and Diane. Along the way he ran afoul of The Federation, did everything seen in Rickternal Friendshine, became a jaded alcoholic in his despair of never managing to avenge his family, killed even more Ricks who were retaliating against his rampage, and helped design the Citadel when the Ricks who would become the Council begged him. He abandoned the Citadel rather than joining it, crashed his ship into the garage of a Smith family, and that’s where the series started.

As a direct consequence of Rick C-137′s Beth dying as a small child: not only is our Morty not Morty C-137, there is no Morty C-137.

All things considered, the most shocking twist is that after 5 seasons of seeing Rick C-137 as a heartless miserable bastard, it turns out he’s actually the most loving and heroic version of himself.

[evilmortys]

okay,  so,  here  are  my  thoughts  on  the  finale,

i’m  gonna  start  with  the  things  i  didn’t  like,  just  because  of  who  i  am  as  a  person!  my  feelings  are  mixed,  but...  looks  lovingly  at  evil  morty.  he  truly  was  the  only  exception  as  usual  ♥

i’m  not  going  to  lie,  this  whole  thing  felt.  rushed.  although  some  of  rick’s  meta  commentary  about  not  touching  citadel  shit  because  it  was  canon  and  he  and  morty  were  supposed  to  be  going  back  to  lighthearted  one  off  adventures,  and  “the  second  he  reveals  that  he’s  evil,  we’re  out”  made  me  laugh,  it  also  felt  very  disingenuous  and  ham-fisted.  having  him  do  all  these  fourth  wall  breaks  honestly  took  away  from  the  impact  of  what  this  episode  could  have  been,  but  whatever.  

i  just  got  the  vibe  that  they  wanted  everyone  to  stfu  about  the  citadel  and  evil  morty,  so  they  quickly  stuck  together  this  episode  that  dealt  with  fans’  demand  in  one  fell  swoop  so  they  could  move  on  from  the  existence  of  both  plotlines.  i  honestly  thought  it  was  a  bit  wasteful  since  tales  from  the  citadel  resonated  with  a  lot  of  fans  and  it  was  an  interesting  bit  of  worldbuilding  with  compelling  narratives  going  on.

you  already  all  likely  know  how  irritated  i  am  with  morty’s  character  degrading  so  much  once  again.  this  entire  season  has  been  building  him  up  to  becoming  so  much  more  capable,  only  to  wrench  it  away  from  him  again  by  instead  having  his  co-dependency  with  rick  ramped  up  to  the  point  it  was  literally  out  of  character.  this  has  come  out  of  nowhere.  at  no  point  in  the  show’s  entire  run  has  morty  ever  been  this  needy  with  rick.  

again,  i  feel  like  this  may  have  been  written  around  what  eventually  ended  up  happening  at  the  citadel,  with  the  revelation  that  mortys  are  ‘bred  for  forgiveness.’  it  would  have  been  far  more  compelling  for  our  morty  to  have  continued  to  go  down  the  path  of  being  decidedly  unforgiving  of  rick’s  bullshit,  thereby  making  him  deviate  from  the  norm  in  a  similar  way  to  evil  morty  himself  and  implicating  that  the  cycle  of  a  morty  going  to  these  extremes  is  going  to  be  repeated  once  again.

rick  did  not  deserve  or  earn  voicing  the  recognition  that  his  dynamic  with  morty  was  toxic,  and  abusive.  are  you  fucking  kidding  me?  the  smartest  man  in  the  universe  only  JUST  clocked  onto  that?  bullshit!  he’s  known  all  along,  and  he’s  been  using  it  for  his  own  gain!  he  doesn’t  get  to  just  say  it  with  that  regretful  voice  as  if  he’s  been  clueless  /  oblivious  to  it  this  entire  time.  they  just  wanted  the  audience  to  feel  sympathetic  for  him  by  throwing  in  this  tidbit  and  a  tragic  backstory,  as  if  that  even  sort  of  makes  up  for  everything  he’s  put  his  family  through.  

abandoning  the  people  you’ve  hurt  is  ALSO  abusive  and  toxic  behaviour!  he’s  done  it  time  and  time  again!  how  is  acknowledging  the  fact  that  you  hurt  people,  that  you  hurt  your  family,  the  people  that  love  you  despite  the  fact  you  objectively  don’t  deserve  it,  then  ditching  them  once  again  instead  of  staying  with  them  and  improving  as  a  person  and  helping  everyone  heal  from  what  you’ve  put  them  through,  ANY  BETTER??  he  never  changes!!

i  also  couldn’t  really  process  the  fact  that  rick  just  handed  morty  his  portal  gun  like  it  was  nothing--  i  feel  like  him  topping  it  off  and  using  it  behind  rick’s  back  should  have  been  a  bigger  deal  than  what  it  was.  also,  morty  would  not  break  a  guy  out  of  a  mental  asylum  without  a  second  thought.  he  simply  wouldn’t  do  that.

we’ve  fallen  right  back  into  the  status  quo  of  morty  being  stupid  and  rick  being  the  smartest  one  in  the  room  who  always  knows  what’s  going  on,  even  when  he  actually  shouldn’t  for  the  sake  of  a  few  meta  jokes.  which  is  more  annoying  than  i  can  put  into  words  tbqh

obviously  i  hated  all  the  parallels  they  were  attempting  to  make  between  rick  and  morty  having  a  romantic  relationship  and  “breaking  up.”  never  has  morty  behaved  so  uncharacteristically  in  any  other  episode  of  the  show.  it  honestly  felt  disrespectful  to  all  the  growth  he’s  had  as  a  character  to  reduce  him  to  something  so  pathetic.

i  guess  this  is  less  of  a  thing  i  disliked,  and  more  of  a  commentary  on  rick’s  character?  but  once  again,  his  hypocrisy  really  leapt  out  at  me  once  it  was  revealed  that  he  always  has  a  hand  in  bringing  together  beths  and  jerrys  in  order  to  ensure  that  more  mortys  will  end  up  in  the  multiverse.  i  find  it  unbelievably  sad  that  he’ll  willingly  ensnare  the  two  of  them  in  the  throes  of  a  relationship  that  he  knows  is  likely  to  become  toxic  and  cause  the  both  of  them  to  be  miserable  throughout  their  time  together;  they’re  rarely  happy  /  compatible  together  and  always  end  up  sticking  it  out  for  the  kids.  it  also  makes  his  constant  shitting  on  jerry  even  more  egregious  and  almost  serves  to  call  his  love  for  his  daughter  into  question  for  me.  he’s  using  her  as  a  means  to  his  own  ends  by  manipulating  situations  so  she’ll  meet  jerry  and  they’ll  likely  end  up  together.  

don’t  get  me  wrong,  i  actually  really  loved  the  fact  he  had  a  hand  in  founding  the  citadel  he  now  loathes  so  much,  and  i  think  the  constant  creation  of  mortys  as  grandsons  ‘bred  to  forgive’  ricks  is  so  fucked  up  and  awful  in  the  most  intriguing  way.  it’s  akin  to  him  fiddling  with  the  concept  of  keeping  mortys  in  constant  pain  to  cloak  his  comings  and  goings  around  the  multiverse  (on  paper,  morty,  on  paper!),  except  this  time  he  did  it  in  reality.

evil  morty.  oh  my  god,  evil  morty.  my  saving  grace.  my  ray  of  light.  i’m  so,  so,  so  pleased  with  the  way  he  was  handled.  while  i  admit  i  was  looking  forward  to  more  of  a  slow - burn  thing,  getting  a  bit  of  insight  into  his  presidency  and  possibly  exploring  a  dynamic  with  him  and  c-137  (we’ll  get  to  that)...  i  honestly  still  really  loved  what  ended  up  happening  with  him,  even  though  i  still  believe  on  some  level  that  they  just  wanted  to  tie  up  his  narrative  thread  so  fans  wouldn’t  remain  fixated  on  him.

of  course  he  did.  of  course  that  motherfucker  rick  created  a  boundary  within  the  infinite  multiverse  that  ensured  he’d  always  be  the  smartest  man  within  it  as  far  as  mortys  and  other  people  in  his  life  were  concerned.  i’ve  always  found  it  odd  that  such  universes  were  never  brought  up  even  in  passing;  the  nature  of  infinite  possibilities  always  dictated  that  someone  smarter  than  him  must  exist  out  there,  and  that  worlds  existed  where  he  was  nobody  special.

him  being  morally  gray.  i  could  cry.  i  was  clinging  on  to  the  hope  that  it  would  be  shown  he  hates  ricks  more  than  he  looks  down  on  mortys,  and  it  absolutely  was.  while  he  was  okay  with  killing  and  hurting  mortys  to  achieve  his  own  “selfish”  ends,  it’s  clear  that  he’s  unhappy  with  the  cycle  of  abuse  from  their  infinite  grandfathers  that  pushes  him  to  these  extremes,  loathes  the  concept  that  mortys  are  not  supposed  to  defy  their  ricks.  “if  you’ve  ever  been  sick  of  him,  you’ve  been  evil  morty  too.”  he  hates  ricks  FAR  more  than  he  does  mortys,  and  you  can  pry  that  from  my  cold,  dead  hands.  he  believes  mortys  are  beyond  help  because  of  the  way  they  stick  by  rick--  the  fact  they’re  literally  created  with  being  yes-men  for  rick  in  mind.

he  didn’t  seek  to  make  changes  for  the  greater  good  of  other  mortys  within  the  citadel.  i  think  he  understood  on  some  level,  it  was  impossible.  i  think  he  has  this  belief  that  other  mortys  are  part  of  the  problem,  because  they  perpetuate  the  cyclic  dynamic  of  toxicity  and  harm--  they  don’t  move  to  break  free  from  it  the  way  he  does,  and  so  he  feels  no  guilt  leaving  them  behind  while  he  breaks  into  the  aspect  of  the  multiverse  where  rick  has  no  power.  it’s  honestly  heartbreaking  that  he’s  come  to  have  a  mindset  like  that.  

i  think  seeing  c-137  reach  out  to  help  rick  up  once  again  instead  of  accepting  what  i  hope  and  pray  was  a  semi - genuine  offer  to  join  him  as  he  departed  was  just  yet  another  instance  of  him  witnessing  a  morty  doing  the  most  to  save  the  man  who  makes  their  lives  a  living  hell.  if  he  was  truly  unsympathetic,  he’d  have  made  no  such  offer.  if  he  thinks  a  morty  is  capable  of  pulling  away  from  the  hold  ricks  have  on  them,  he  wants  them  out  of  this  shit  just  as  much  as  he  himself  wants  to  break  free  from  it.  i  think  he  has  the  mindset  that  i  know  they  tried  to  play  it  off  with  “haha  the  other  seat’s  a  toilet,”  but  i  don’t  think  that  was  the  case  and  they  were  once  again  just  undermining  the  moment  for  no  good  reason.  SCREAMS!!  don’t  get  me  wrong  what  he  did  WAS  selfish  and  evil.  but  in  a  way  you  can  understand  where  it  derives  from

again,  it  REALLY  irritates  me  they’ve  undone  so  much  of  morty’s  character  just  to  ensure  he  wouldn’t  end  up  taking  evil  morty  up  on  his  proposition.  if  morty  had  retained  even  a  tenth  of  the  character  growth  he’s  been  having  from  late  season  four  until  towards  the  end  of  season  five,  wherein  it  began  to  unravel,  he’d  have  left  rick.  undeniably.

the  yellow  portal.  oh  my  god............

it  made  me  so  fucking  emotional  to  see  that.  he’s  won.  he’s  free.  

[nataliedanovelist]

GF - We’re Coming Back Home

A Drifting Stars AU one-shot, the last one I plan to do, in collaboration with @clownwry.

1st, 2nd, 3rd.

~~~~~~~~~~

Somehow, miraculously, through all of Ford’s traveling, through countless dimensions, his Quantum Destabilizer remained on his back and fully intact.

Okay, well, mostly intact. Partially intact. 

When he was finally ready to attack Bill and put an end to his reign of terror, his plans had been put on hold when a crack in space-time opened. He didn’t dare hope that it was a way home, but maybe if he aimed correctly, the shot would not only kill Bill, but fly him home. But no, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young girl fly out of the hole, and with reflexes he developed over thirty years of staying alive in the worst circumstances, he hooked his Quantum Destabilizer onto his back, caught the girl, and swam through the gravity-less air for safety, hiding behind an asteroid, putting a hand over the girl’s mouth and hissing for her silence, swearing she would be okay, and they barely made it out as Bill’s words echoed through the Nightmare Realm.

“Sixer’s caught a Shooting Star, boys!”

Ford had no idea what that was supposed to mean at the time, but now a month later, he thinks he finally understood. His niece, Shermie’s granddaughter, Mabel, loved stars, and was very much like one herself. Always shining. Always so bright and full of hope. Many times in history, and even today in other dimensions, runaway slaves used the stars as maps to guide them to a better place. Ford often wondered if Mabel was his star, maybe not guiding him physically to a safe haven, but guiding him to a happier mindset. Guiding him to a life that isn’t completely isolated. Guiding him to a life that included love.

The last few weeks have been challenging, sure, but not that much more challenging than traveling alone; Mabel was a fast learner, and while she refused to use a knife or gun (“Cuz those hurt, Grunkle Ford!”), she was perfectly comfortable with pop-rocks and making foes lose their footing and fall down so they couldn’t attack. And she was very good at hunting for food and water and other reliable resources. 

In fact, Ford would easily say the last few weeks have been the happiest of his life. Maybe only tying with when Fiddleford joined him in Gravity Falls, before work on the portal became dangerous, but after he realized that maybe the woods had been too quiet the last six years.

After just a day and a half, Ford was fully-aware of his attachment to his niece and how much it would ruin him if he lost her. Mabel was everything a good person strives to be: kind, sweet, a pleasure to be around, but not a pushover, either; Mabel Pines knew how to stand her ground.

And so the last month was littered with so many happy memories. Ford was a little hurt when she “borrowed” two broken fishing poles and fixed them up so they could fish, but he very quickly enjoyed sitting on a log by a river and fishing with Mabel. Ford found it brought her much comfort to brush her hair, and he also discovered he enjoyed a calm brush himself. Ford found he didn’t mind the extra weight of his niece on his shoulders; quite the contrary, he found it comforting, and he was always swallowed with peace when she was so relaxed with him that she fell asleep, using his fluffy gray hair as a pillow.

No longer was Ford met with suspicious looks when he walked down the street of a market alone, face hidden. Quite the opposite. He was always met with smiles and warm greetings, and sometimes a little extra food was thrown into a purchase for free. Be it because people saw him as a parent with an adorable child, or because of Mabel’s charm. Or both.

The dimensions they came across were random and different, just like it was when Ford traveled alone. Some dimensions were like an alien sci-fi movie, completely different with no humans. Some dimensions were scaringly like home, with a small difference here and there. Ironically, the alien-like dimensions were typically safer, because they were used to travelers and weird-looking creatures. 

But Ford guessed it would be okay if he and Mabel stepped into a normal grocery store to buy some food.

They had come across a “normal” dimension, and while Ford’s first thought was to retreat for the woods, he heard Mabel’s stomach growl, and he decided her health was more important. So they stepped in and kept to themselves.

Ford and Mabel were picking up crackers when the little girl grinned at rows of cereals behind them. “Grunkle Ford, can I please pick a cereal?” She asked politely.

The old scientist thought about it for a moment. Cereal would definitely cover a few meals and be light and easy to carry, and it wouldn’t get hold too quickly, and he had wanted to get her at least one nice thing while in the store, so he nodded and said, “Yes, dear, you may pick one box. Any flavor you want.”

“Thank you!” And Mabel took the time to hug him before skipping over to the cereals to look.

Ford chuckled and picked some crackers, then decided to browse the fruit snacks, debating if it would be wise. Probably not, because if they get stuck in another desert climate the gummies could melt and make a mess, but they could make a good snack for Mabel. He held his chin, debating the idea, while a couple was also looking over the cereals.

“Which do you think Dad would want?” The yellow-haired woman asked.

“Honey, who cares what Rick wants? Just get a cereal you’ll like.” The husband said with an eye roll.

Ford froze at that name. No no, that was most definitely a different Rick. It was a common enough name, and there were billions of dimensions. There was no way Ford and Mabel somehow managed to stumble into C-137. He ultimately decided against gummies and he then looked at the trail mixes and granola bars. Both were always a good option.

“I know, but I want him to feel welcome, you know?” The wife said as she picked a box. “He’s been travelling in space alone for years…”

Oh no. No, no, no. Ford quickly chose some packets of trail mix and several granola bars and hurried back to his niece. He was not going to do this today. Nope.

Mabel grinned at him, a box of cereal in hand, and she held it out to him. “Look, Grunkle Ford, do you like this flavor? I can pick a different one if you want.”

“Oh, thank you, my dear, but I like the one you picked.” Ford did a decent job masking his uneasiness and he took her hand and smiled. “Why don’t we pick up some fruit for today, and then we’ll go fishing for dinner?”

“Yay! Sounds great!”

Ford didn’t miss the yellow-haired woman smiling at them as they left the aisle. If that was who he thought it was… She really didn’t look anything like him. She might have just favored her mother. Who else would have spent years traveling space? Bastard.

Ford may have hated him for many reasons, but choosing to abandon his girls was at the top of the list.

At the checkout line, Ford nervously watched the total of their purchase go up with each beep. He recounted their cash and made a small list of items in his mind for them to go down if they couldn’t afford everything. A few granola bars can go. And, maybe they could find band-aids elsewhere and “borrow” them.

The worker rang up the last item and Ford smiled when he saw the total was 29.89. He had thirty. But then the worker pressed the total button and taxes were added. Shit, right. That made their total 35.45. Ford winced. Mabel looked up at him worriedly, but she smiled and stood on her tippy-toes to see the worker better.

“Hi, I’m Mabel! Can you please put the cereal back? We don’t really need it.”

Ford looked down at her, surprised and also a little disheartened. He had really wanted to get her at least one nice thing, but truth be told the cereal was the most expensive item, so it made sense to get rid of it first. Still, it sucked.

“Total’s now 32.14.”

Ford bit his lip. “Very well, may we please put the band-aids back, too?”

The worker nodded, seeming tired and annoyed, but they didn’t say a word. Blissfully, the total went down to 29.99.

With hands full of bags, Mabel and Ford paused at the beginning of the parking lot to move their groceries into their backpacks. While they worked, the old scientist said, “I’m sorry I could afford your cereal, Mabel.”

“Oh, it’s okay!” The girl said instantly. “I’ve got something even sweeter.” And she grinned at her grunkle and gave him a warm smile.

Ford smiled back at her tiredly. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Yes you do.” Mabel insisted and hugged him around the neck, nuzzling her face into his shoulder and determined to sink as much comfort as she could into his skin. “I love you Grunkle Ford. Please don’t beat yourself up, m’k?”

Ford hugged her back and petted her short brown hair. It was certainly easier to feel better with a ball of sunshine in his arms.

They both heard rustling behind them as a buggy rolled from the door to the parking lot. They both looked behind Mabel and saw a bag with the cereal and the band-aids in it. They looked around and saw no one, except for the yellow-haired woman and her husband going to their car.

Mabel grinned and hollered to them, “Thank you!”

They didn’t respond, but the woman did smile and wave before putting groceries into her car. As appreciated as Ford was for her kindness, he wanted to get as far away from her as possible. No offense to her. She seemed like a very lovely lady.

But then it hit Ford like a pile of rocks. What was it he had said before he had pulled out his gun and left Ford to travel alone? “And hey, if you ever wanna travel without customs or waiting for wormholes to open, don’t come looking for me.” And then he winked and fell backwards into a pool of green, leaving Ford to curse his name.

If this was like before, when Ford was alone, he wouldn’t dare. But if he could help get Mabel home…

Ford took Mabel’s hand and muttered, “Come with me.” And she followed without question.

Beth felt good helping the old man and the little girl, and she didn’t expect anything more. Really, it was only five dollars worth of stuff. But she was happy when they started to walk towards her, so she trusted Jerry to finish loading up the car and she smiled at them.

“Excuse me, miss, I just want to thank you for what you did.” The old man said.

“Oh, you’re welcome, it was no trouble at all.”

“I… I hope I’m not being too invasive, but… but I believe you know someone I know.”

Beth smiled. Small world! “Really? That’s great! Oh, are you a relative of Dave’s? Or, you know, I do know a lot of people indirectly from the horse-track.”

“Er, no.” The old man gave her a more serious look, and then asked quietly, “Do you know Rick Sanchez?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Beth was so excited to give Stanford Pines and his niece, Mabel, a ride, and to invite them to dinner, not only because she thought seeing an old friend might make her dad smile, but maybe she’ll learn more about what he’s been up to all these years. The man was very polite and the girl was as sweet as can be, both of whom looked rough and in need of a cozy bed and maybe a soothing bath. Jerry was a little unsure, not wanting “more Ricks” into his house, but after a huf from the girl and a cheerful greeting, Jerry couldn’t help but tell the girl she was more than welcome, so now he was roped in.

Mabel noticed that her uncle looked distracted. He was looking out his window, but his eyes were elsewhere. He was thinking. So she decided to try to help him with his thoughts. “Grunkle Ford, who’s Rick Sanchez?” She asked quietly.

Ford looked at her, sighed quietly, and muttered, “He’s an intergalactic scientist. He’s ridiculously intelligent and clever, and… a bit…” Ford pursed his lips. All the words that came to mind he didn’t want Mabel hearing, so he settled on. “... mad.”

“Oh. Is he like a real mad-scientist?” Mabel asked, eyes sparkling with interest.

“Yes, but with less laughter, more slurs and sluggish demeanor, and even less consideration of other living things.”

Mabel noticed his cold tone and grew concerned. “You don’t like him, do you?”

Ford bit his lip. No, he didn’t. But there was a more important reason why he didn’t want to see Rick today. 

Mabel leaned in closer and whispered, “Is he mean?”

Trust Mabel to sum it up perfectly for her uncle. “Yes.” Ford said just as quietly. “And I don’t want him meeting you.”

“Why?”

Ford hesitated. But being blunt and honest seemed to be working, and it was best for Mabel to prepare herself for the lion’s den they were walking into. “I don’t want him to hurt your feelings.” a bit elementary, but it was the best way to explain it to a child without scaring her too much.

Mabel, however, grinned. “Grunkle Ford, no one can resist the Power of Mabel.”

Ford smiled and ruffled her hair softly. “We’ll see…”

“So, if you don’t like Mr. Sanchez, then why are we going to go see him?”

“He’s an expert on interdimensional-travel.” Ford informed her. “He might know how to get us home.”

Mabel’s eyes widened and she “oh”ed as she realized what was going on. 

~~~~~~~~~~

The garage door was open to let in good lighting and fresh air. But that wasn’t an invitation to come in whenever people feel like it; Rick will have to work on a security system to keep nosy neighbors away. He was opening a box and getting organized when he heard his daughter’s car roll into the driveway. He didn’t bother to look up, instead waited for the sounds of car doors opening to say something.

“Hey sweetie, welcome back.”

“Dad,” Beth said, sounding giddy. Rick hated giddy. But he had only been here for a week and he didn’t feel like making his daughter hate him just yet, so he settled for rolling his eyes and continuing what he was doing. “I have a surprise for you!”

“Wow! You have a nice house! Cool garage, too!” A young voice said.

Rick was halted. He turned in his chair and raised an eyebrow to find a young girl with short brown hair and braces holding hands with an old nerd with fluffy charcoal hair, glasses, and six fingers.

“Oh my God!” Rick laughed. “Holy-...” A dark look from the old traveler made Rick stop; he can piss him off later. First he needs to figure out why the hell he is here and what the hell he wants. “Jeez, you look terrible, Fordsie.” The mad scientist snorted as he leaned against his desk with his hands in his pockets.

Ford rolled his eyes and said, “And you still look like a soft breeze will blow you away, Sanchez.”

Mabel bit her lip and quietly, “Oooooh”ed, like she was listening to a rap battle.

“So,” Beth stretched, clearly hoping for more information or a more satisfying reunion, but she wasn’t getting it naturally, so she decided to push a little. “How do you two know each other?”

“The Multiverse is a pretty big place, sweetie.” Rick answered. “Don’t worry, I’ll have this nerd gone before you finish unloading the car. Don’t want to risk another mass genocide.” He sneered.

Ford’s face turned red and he yelled, “I didn’t know it was a planet! It looked too similar to a sandwich for it to be a planet!”

Rick laughed and looked at the little girl. She looked maybe a little younger than Morty. “Who’s that you got with you?”

Ford closed his eyes, debating if he should tell Rick it wasn’t any of his business, or get the introduction over with. But before he could make a decision, Mabel beat him to the punch.

She let go of Rick’s hand, hopped to him, and looked up at his bean-pole stature and smiled and waved. “Hi! I’m Mabel! You’re a scientist, too? Cool! I like your hair! How old are you? Have you ever met a dinosaur? What’s your favorite food?” 

Rick blinked like a startled lizard at the girl, glanced up at Ford, and then looked back down at Mabel. Rick smiled and sat in his chair to be closer to her level, and held out a hand to shake, which she happily accepted and shook a little rough. “Hey there, I’m Rick. Yes, I’m a scientist. Thank you, I like your hair, too. Yes, I’ve met a dinosaur, several in different dimensions. And, pancakes.”

Mabel’s eyes sparkled. “I love pancakes, too! Maybe we can make some together!”

“Maybe, but I’ve got the feeling that’s not why you’re here.” Rick suggested kindly. And no, Ford wasn’t at all suspicious that he was being kind to Mabel.

“Oh! Yeah! Grunkle Ford thinks you can help us get home.”

“Huh. You’re great-uncle, huh? Sure, okay, let’s get started.” Rick rolled over to a cabinet and took out an odd machine. It came with a tiny needle and was attached to the machine by a small black wire, and the boxed machine had a screen of some sort on the side. “Mind if I prick your finger?”

“Sure!” Mabel held out her finger to him and Rick carefully held her wrist and pricked her finger, so small she hardly noticed it. “What for?”

“I need a blood sample to find your home dimension. Gotta send you to the right dimension.” Rick explained. “Fordsie, lemme get yours, too. How’d you two find each other, anyways?”

“I was in the Nightmare Realm when some idiot opened a portal and this little starshine fell into my arms.” Ford explained, stepping forward and giving Rick his finger.

“Okay, got it.” Rick said. “Well, there’s a possibility that you two come from different dimensions. Nothing too different about your homes, but there’s millions of dimensions. The probability that you two came from the same timeline and reality… there we go. It’s a match. That makes things easier.”

The small heart attack Ford was having went away. The idea of his starshine not being his was a nightmare. His life was complicated enough; he didn’t need his girl to not actually be his.

“Dimension 41’\. Huh, okay, gimme two seconds…” Rick pulled out his trusty portal gun and plugged it into the machine. A long list of dimensions popped up, and Ford prayed 41’\ would be on the list. “You two are lucky. I can go as far as 42’\, but the other 40s are out of range. Huh, i’ll have to work on that.”

“So,” Mabel grinned. “You can get us home?”

Rick smiled smugly and shrugged as he stood. “Yeah, sure.”

“Grunkle Ford!” Mabel cheered and hurled herself into his arms. “I can’t believe it! I’m gonna see Dipper again! I can’t wait for you to meet him!”

Ford smiled softly. He couldn’t believe it. It was all happening so fast and effortlessly. He was going to get Mabel home. They were both going home. Suddenly the idea of seeing Stanley again, meeting his grandnephew and all of Mabel’s friends and her pet pig sounded… a lot. He didn’t realize it, but he was becoming anxious and spacing out. But Mabel noticed, and she kissed his stubbly cheek and brought him back to reality.

Rick shot at the wall with his gun and an oozing green portal appeared. “There we go, 41’\. Wait, sh-oot, gimme a location.”

“618 Gopher Road.” Ford stated as he let go of Mabel. “Gravity Falls, Oregon. USA.”

“Got it.” Rick made the last portal disappear and shot a new one. “There. Now get-... Go on home.”

Mabel stepped up to Rick and said sincerely, “Mr. Sanchez, thank you for helping us.” And she hugged him around his tall skinny legs.

Rick pursed his lips awkwardly, unsure of how to respond to such positive energy and kindness. The old scientists looked at each other, Ford giving Rick a warning look, but something hidden in his face or eyes told the drunk that the nomad was actually grateful for his illegal device.

“Uh…” Rick settled on patting Mabel’s head and said, “Y-Y-You’re welcome.”

Mabel let go of Rick and held out a hand to Ford. “Ready?”

“Nope.” Ford took her hand and squeezed it. “Let’s do this.”

And without another word, the Pines walked through the green portal.

[thesoftboiledegg]

"How Poopy Got His Poop Back" was OK. The plot was generic, but after 61 episodes, I'm not going to expect every outing to be a mindblowing sci-fi spectacular. Sometimes, it's nice to have a lowkey episode that catches up with old characters, especially since we thought two of them died in season two.

"Squanch! Told you he wasn't dead." The writers knew what we were thinking. I also thought Gearhead died at the end of "Mortynight Run," but I guess he's harder to kill than he looks.

I enjoyed checking in with Bird Person and Bird Daughter--looks like he's got his hands full--and was glad that Rick continued his character development from season six. He's still a hot mess, but he tries to do the right thing for his friends and even the robot ("Hang on, let me go upstairs and grab the business finisher.") The subtext gave the episode some depth so that it wasn't just twenty minutes of pointless hijinks.

Rick's new voice actor nailed his characterization, too. His voice stood out a little at first, but I'd forgotten about the new actor by the second act, and his voice sounds "normal" upon rewatches. I guess it just takes a short adjustment period.

Whatever the case, any drunk guy at a bar can burp and stutter like Rick, but the new actor (whoever he is) picked up right where Roiland left off. He might not sound exactly like Rick 100% of the time, but combining Rick's trademark blunt raspiness with his lower, gentler tones from the past few seasons is more impressive.

Speaking of actors: who voiced Mr. Poopybutthole? He sounded EXACTLY like Justin Roiland. Maybe it was the same actor who voiced Morty, who also did well.

On another note, I loved seeing Space Beth eating breakfast with the family. Ditching your kids to be a pirate/rebel/space badass/whatever isn't the feminist act that a lot of shows seem to think it is, and I'm glad that Rick and Morty subverted that trope. Space Beth can love her family AND save the universe. She's a modern woman who wants to have it all!

On to Morty. I don't have much to say about him, and this review suggests that he doesn't have much to do next week, either--which hints at a continuation of season six's biggest issue. Season six was great, but half the episodes were The Rick Sanchez Show. When Morty did appear, he didn't have much to do until he finally lost his patience in the finale.

I won't dive into his dynamic with Morty because you could write pages of meta on that one, but in summary: their dynamic is the core of the series, and I hope the writers don't keep separating them. C-137 Rick's attachment to his Morty is a sharp contrast to the other Ricks who treat theirs like disposable toys.

Back to this episode: Rick's doing better--he's dressing and showering, he's communicating with his family, and he's even willing to abandon his search for a few hours--but Prime's still the center of his universe. Season five also started small and concluded with insane twists that turned the show inside out, and I'm betting that this laid-back opener is the start of a similar acceleration.

This episode alone made up about a fourth of the trailer scenes, so goddamn: what aren't we seeing?

[galaxyknifu]

ive seen a lot of people wondering “if rick really does care about his family and he did all of this to get back beth, why did he abandon the version of her in c-137?” and i think theres a pretty good explanation.

in season one, rick was not attached to that reality, or those people. he had probably already hopped a few dimensions, looking for one that would suit him best. abandoning c-137 was just another tuesday afternoon for him. but, after that episode, things start changing. Rick begins including Summer in his adventures, he begins repairing and exploring his relationship with his daughter, and he realizes just how much he loves his current morty. he got attached to a family that wasn’t even his, something Rick Sanchez never truly expected he’d do. He told himself love wasn’t real, and that nothing mattered, and that his family was replaceable because he had lost the one that truly mattered to him a long ago. But, in the end, he got attached to the Summer and Beth and maybe even Jerry of this universe. We even see this change active as far back as season 2 and three. I also don’t think its a coincidence that Rick’s first adventure with summer was RIGHT after they hopped dimensions. Now, with the season finale being about this exact topic, Morty being “replaceable”, I think we’ll be shown directly just how much Rick loves Morty specifically, and how leaving him and the rest of his found family behind is something he never wants to do again.

[glitteringcrab]

me rambling about the Puppetmaster Rick is currently hunting Evil Morty theory

1. It's been implied (although never confirmed) that Rick C-137 became motivated enough to invent portal travel when Rick Prime killed his wife. In the same vein, wouldn't Puppetmaster Rick also be motivated enough to re-invent or fix portal travel for himself after Evil Morty broke it? (so let's watch out for any Ricks with different colored portal fluids)

2. When this happened:

I can see two ways it may have played out for clone Mortys:

...either they were sent to the dimension of the original they were a copy of (but... what about any clone Mortys that are a blend of more than one naturally occurring Mortys? If such a thing is a thing, of course)...

...or all clone Mortys who had ever been created in the Citadel, dead or alive, teleported right back in the Morty factory, their excess numbers vastly exceeding its capacity (as it was created for hosting a finite number of Mortys at any given time and then every Morty ever manufactured there teleported back in), until it became a massive pit of clone Mortys long dead, clone Mortys who recently died in the Citadel's ruins, and alive clone Mortys (who were lucky enough not to be in the Citadel at the time of its destruction, and then unlucky enough to be teleported back and crushed to death by the weight of their peers' remains), until the WHOLE MORTY FACTORY looked like this:

Doesn't this mean that (unless he somehow managed to halt his resetting) Evil Morty probably was among the Mortys teleported there and narrowly avoided getting crushed to death, maybe by willingly teleporting himself back in the Citadel moments before the resetting took effect (therefore "resetting" himself before everyone else) and then again immediately teleporting himself away?

Any excess clone Mortys who were alive in the Citadel's Mortyburg (that Rick C-137 had used to escape) were probably exempt from the resetting and remained there, surviving for a while.

In addition, a small number of clone Mortys might have also survived being crushed to death in the Morty factory.

All those few surviving Mortys probably starved to death... (and might I say, it seems like Space Beth, Rick C-137 and Morty Prime abandoned all the surviving excess Mortys in Mortyburg, we never saw them transporting any...?)

...Unless they were kidnapped and trafficked by scavengers (which... might be a thing, considering Ricks are still around and Mortys suddenly became a rare commodity.)

3. So IF Puppetmaster Rick is alive and well and trying to find traces of the Morty who trapped him in a fate worse than death, wouldn't he eventually find a way to visit the Citadel, searching for traces of his old sidekick? (So let's keep an eye out for any traces that someone has been tampering with the Citadel's ruins; such as security footage missing, indications that someone temporarily powered up the Citadel's servers to access records, etc)

Wouldn't he run through all the Morty corpses, scanning each and every one of them for cables and other identifying characteristics, before discarding them? (which for some reason is an extremely unsettling imagery to me)

If any Mortys survived in the Citadel's remains and were taken by traffickers, wouldn't Puppetmaster Rick try to locate each and every one of them, in case one of them was Evil Morty?

Wouldn't he also simultaneously search the multiverse for traces of Evil Morty? Like, maybe he has a sub-basement level like this one:

...only instead of a monitor of Rick Prime's stupid smug face he'd have a monitor of Evil Morty's bloodied and tear-stained face...?

(or, you know, maybe he's doing none of the above. Maybe he was so messed up from the worse-than-death fate that he had been confined in for so long, that he did not have the presence of mind for any schemes for a long time)

4. If the above described clone Morty massacre is what really occurred, it probably was the best shield Evil Morty could ever have. Since the remains of dead portal travelers were also reset, what would seem more likely to Puppetmaster Rick:

that his old sidekick kicked the bucket e.g. in the blender dimension and his remains were teleported by the resetting but are no longer identifiable

or that somehow his old sidekick miraculously escaped almost certain death during a time portal travel was broken and is currently hiding extremely well?

So Evil Morty may not be too worried about being discovered, because the likeliest scenario is that Puppermaster Rick is not looking for him too hard.

5. Now me tying my two theories (Puppetmaster Rick hunting Evil Morty down & Evil Morty being a clone of Morty Prime) together:

So maybe, after Evil Morty returned outside the Curve, he scanned for his own brainwave/dimensional signature and, after filtering for probability stasis (which seems to discard the copies from the search result and retain only the original) located the dimension where his original Morty is: the Par-mee-zee-an dimension. Okay cool. Whatever. He already knew he was someone's copy, doesn't really matter whose. And since portal travel was still broken (the Smiths had to go to through the Rift to reach the Parmeezeean dimension) he had no reason not to assume his original Morty was Parmeezeean Morty (lol).

So he plopped himself down on the edge of the Parmeezeean dimension and built his home there. This way, in case Puppetmaster Rick scans for him, the two signals will be blended. Great.

...Provided, of course, that Parmeezeean Morty doesn't switch dimensions (how could he, given that portal travel is broken?) and that Evil Morty minimizes his stay away from the Curve, just as a precaution.

And this theory gives a different interpretation for this scene:

'Cause I thought of a couple of explanations yet none of them sat right with me:

Evil Morty did not seem upset while Rick was dragging Morty Prime with him through the portal, his expression only changed after they came to the other side (possibly explained because it was only then that he was safe enough to afford to be upset about anything).

He never seemed to even glance at Rick, Morty was the object of his attention.

I don't want anyone's decisions or reactions (including Evil Morty's) to be influenced by who is a copy of whom. It shouldn't matter. A lot of the clone Mortys in the Citadel probably originated from the same naturally occurring Morty that he did, and Evil Morty killed them anyway, so it's not like he has a soft spot for other Mortys simply because they had the same DNA and memories that he does. Plus I want his relationship with Rick C-137 to be defined over the actual interactions that they have (in which Rick is genuinely more respectful of him than any other Rick has probably ever been, but of course there is still zero affection. And while Rick C-137 obviously loves Morty Prime, he's still a toxic, fickle individual and Evil Morty has given up on the hope of a good relationship with a Rick for a long time now. I'm not sure he'd really feel jealous of Morty Prime's relationship with Rick C-137. Even if he's different than the other Ricks, it's only by a small amount. Plus he can't actually know if Morty Prime's loving memories of Rick -that were implanted in Evil Morty- were of Rick C-137 specifically; in theory, another Rick could have been living with Morty Prime originally) rather than implanted memories of someone else's interactions.

So. The other possible interpretation of Evil Morty's reaction that I can come up with is that, as soon as Evil Morty crossed the threshold of the portal that would bring them all to safety (that he had obviously no idea where it would lead because it was Rick who fired the joined portal guns), he received a notification on his eyepatch that he was now on the "home" dimension; the Parmeezeean dimension.

So he reaches the obvious conclusion, and glares at Morty Prime, because: "IT WAS F****** YOU?!"

...and then he gets over it because it doesn't really matter who is a clone of whom.

Points against this hypothesis:

Evil Morty never looks surprised as he passes through the portal. He goes straight from nervous to angry. I would have thought that he'd look surprised in between, as he reads the eyepatch's notification, but he... doesn't (possibly explained if the idea had crossed his head before and he just got confirmation).

Evil Morty is really cautious, wouldn't he be a lot more careful about the naturally occurring Morty he's using as a shield? Like, wouldn't he constantly and automatically check to make sure that his original Morty is still in the Parmeezeean dimension? Did Morty Prime not leave the Parmeezeean at all before the Prime Fight? (maybe... maybe he didn't! Even the spaghetti planet was not on a different dimension, it was on a different planet, which I felt was weird at the time. Naah, Rick did take Morty to Boob World once he fixed portal travel.)

We don't really know enough about how searching for another person's brainwaves/dimensional signature works. Would a search for Evil Morty and/or Morty Prime return data on the dimension they're currently in, without returning data on their dimension of origin as well?

[rickssugarplum]

Father’s Day

This is purely a vent fic. This holiday is never fun for me. Anyone who has to deal with father’s day with a sadness in their hearts, I want you to know you are loved. I hope you can make today a good one for yourself. Thank you for reading. ❤

Rick C-137 x Female Reader) SFW, Father’s Day, Angst, Hurt/Comfort. TW: Emotional Abuse, Depression, 4,400+ Words

Father’s Day is hard to deal with every year. Rick is there to help you through it.

Your eyes opened to the brightness the sun provided, peering through your bedroom window. Your ears were serenaded by the morning chirp of the birds in the trees. Taking the time to stretch out your body, you slowly got up out of bed and looked out. The sky crystal blue with flowers of all kinds bloomed and painting the world view with its various colors. Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, you saw that it was a beautiful June day. You looked down at your phone. Every good possible thing about today came to a screeching halt when you looked at the date on your home screen.

Sunday, June 16

Father’s Day

You shuddered as those two words caused everything to collapse and fall on top of you. To some, it was a wonderful day to celebrate the patriarchs who have done so much for their children. For you, however, it was a painful reminder. It reminded you of your past, the childhood you lost, the many tears you have shed, the love you were denied, and the years you will never get back.

You immediately felt an ache in your heart. A feeling you couldn’t tell whether it was from emptiness, or if it was simply broken. You placed a hand on your chest, trying to soothe the pain, but you couldn’t fix the damage that had been done so long ago. Your throat started to become tight, your eyes were welling with tears. Your head was filling itself with painful words and phrases that were spat out by one you had once looked to for love and comfort. Hearing them again in your mind, made your knees buckle, bringing you to your floor. Now on your knees, you began to sob, just like you had many times as a child. You could still hear the angry, scolding voice telling you to grow the fuck up and stop crying. But you never did, you never could. And today, you wondered if you ever will.

Hugging yourself, you let out a wail of anguish, as you were brought back to that painful time, thinking you were unworthy of love. If your own father couldn’t love you, how the hell would anyone else? For years, you held out for hope that he would one day see the affects he had placed upon you. That he would one day come and hug you and tell you he was sorry for all the pain he had put on you, that you didn’t deserve any of it and that you were worthy of love and he would show you how he would be better for you because that’s what you deserved.

But, years went on, and it never happened. One night, it had been made clear, that he would never change and you would never know the love of a father you had sought. When you were old enough, you had left and never went back again...

But it seemed to have never left you. You’d been haunted in seemingly odd ways. At night, you would sometimes wake up screaming as he taunted you in your dreams. Certain songs you couldn’t listen to without taking you back, you made choices to avoid following in his footsteps, and now; the inevitable. Every third Sunday of June, you would always be reminded of what you never had and your reaction was always the same. 

You wanted to be alone, but at the same time you wanted to be wrapped up and given the love you were denied long ago. But you knew that couldn’t happen today. 

Immediately, your mind went to Rick, who knew a little about your history, but enough to know this holiday would be rough on you. However, he’d probably be too busy as he would be celebrated by his family, including his daughter. While yes, Rick wasn’t the best father, part of you somehow envied Beth. Sometimes, you wish your father had left. Looking back, it would have saved you a lot of pain. At least then you wouldn’t have to deal with nightmares of his words at night. Silence would’ve been much more peaceful...

       ◇─◇──◇────◇────◇────◇────◇────◇─────◇──◇─◇

“Happy Father’s Day!” shouted the cheers of Morty and Summer. Jerry smiled from his seat at the dining table as he received hugs from them both. Meanwhile, Beth had been preparing a grand breakfast for both her husband and father of their two children, and she felt incredibly happy that she had her own father to celebrate with this year. She walked into the dining room with eggs, pancakes, and bacon, ready to eat. Going over to Rick, she kissed his cheek.

“Happy Father’s Day, Dad.” she exclaimed. Rick looked at his daughter with pride. “Thank you, sweetie. Man, you did a real great job on breakfast, Beth. C-c-can’t wait to dig in!” he declared with a smile. Beth’s smile went from ear to ear as she walked over to her husband, giving him a quick peck on his lips.

“Happy Father’s Day, Jerry.” She beamed. He smiled back at his wife, grinning wide as he soaked in the feeling of being back in their home. Everything was perfect. Well...almost.

To be blunt, tension was still thick in the air since his return to the house, to the dismay of Rick. Knowing that he had been the reason of the initial break-up a few months earlier. But now, it seemed like Beth was more sure of herself in what she wanted in her marriage and she was no longer afraid of her father leaving. Time will tell if that will last...

For now, Rick had to deal with Jerry back in the picture. Just as long as his buttons weren’t pushed, things would be fairly pleasant. He was stuffing his face with his daughter’s delicious pancakes, his grandkids celebrating a holiday made for greeting card companies to make an extra dime. Rick wasn’t foolish enough to pretend. He knew he was a bad father. Hell, he doesn’t consider himself a good grandfather. But he’d put up with today for their sake, They couldn’t help being so attached to these made up traditions. And plus, who could resist pancakes?

“So, what’s the plan for today, gang?” Jerry asked enthusiastic. Morty and Summer both looked at their Mom with pleasant smiles. Beth spoke up, sharing her kids’ happiness. “Well, since it is Father’s Day, I figured why not let the dads choose what we do!” she chirped.

Jerry spoke up immediately. “Well, I would like to go fishing today with my family today!” 

How simple. Jerry would find joy in going to a river five minutes away and catching some fish. Rick wasn’t keen to fishing, but he had anidea.

“There’s a place on planet Zxonculon where they have really good fish. We could travel there, no equipment required.” He stated flatly.

Beth’s eyes lit up. “Oh that’s great, Dad! We could have a little space trip too!” She exclaimed, so happy. This day was gonna be great.

“NO. I told you, Rick. I don’t want any science involved in our trips!”

Oh boy. 

“Jerry, I can guarantee that it would be much more exciting that catching some unlucky creatures that are swimming in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The tension added on as Jerry’s brows furrowed and arms. “I am the man of the house and I said it’s out of the question!” he declared.

Rick stood up from his chair, hands flat on the table. “And I heard Beth say, that she wanted the dads to decide. Dads. As in both of us.” he explained, calm but firm.

“Beth, you would agree that science would not be good for this fathers’ day would you?” 

Beth smiled nervously. “Well, I think it would be good if we all enjoyed today, maybe we could meet somewhere in between!” she suggested. Morty and Summer looked on awkwardly, fearing the worst was yet to come.

“How brave of you, Jerry. Couldn’t come up with your own argument, so you try to use my daughter against me.”

“Dad...” 

“..should be lucky she considers herself your daughter...” Jerry muttered.

The sound of silverware clanks on the table. The children’s frowns prominent, while Beth sat, horrified. Everything was falling apart at the seams. Rick glared daggers into the other man’s eyes.

“And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asks, coldly.

The two men looked at each other from across the table, challenging the other.

“C’mon tough guy.” Rick egged on. “We allll know what you wanna say. So just. say it.”

Jerry was not going to be intimidated. “You weren’t there for her as a father. You bitch at me for knocking her up. If I was such a horrible thing that happened to her, maybe you should have been there to stop it, but you weren’t. Were you, Rick?”

“JERRY!” Beth yelled out.

“Dad!” Shouted Summer.

“Aww jeez, Dad...” Morty muttered quietly. He couldn’t argue with him though. He was saying the truth.

Rick said nothing. He didn’t even flinch. Everything Jerry said was true. Sometimes he blamed himself for not being there. He could’ve possibly helped Beth with her self-esteem. But he couldn’t change the past. Not for anyone.

“I never said I was a good father, nor do I try to make myself out to be a good person. I know I’m not a good person. That’s why it was better for me to leave.”

Beth looked on, mouth agape as she listened to her father speak. Rick turned to her.

“Sweetie, can I talk to you alone?” Rick asked. Beth only nodded as she stood up from her chair. Jerry’s fist hit the table hard.

“No, NO! You will talk to me ab-”

“Shut up, Jerry!” Beth glared at her husband, who sunk back into his chair at her fiery gaze. She followed her father into the garage. Rick let out a long sigh.

“Beth, I know- I know this had all been really hard on you. I’m...sorry If what I did, made you feel you weren’t good enough, because you are.”

Beth’s throat tightened as her eyes started to water. She had struggled with the abandonment her whole life. No longer could she hold it in, and the tears started flowing down her face.

“Oh, sweetie...” Rick said as he walked to his daughter, embracing her as she needed. His fingers combed her honey-blonde hair, just trying to calm down his baby girl. He owed it to her.

“I love you, Dad...” she quietly cried out. Rick hushed her, trying to calm her down.

 “I know...I love you too, sweetie..”

They stayed like that for awhile. Beth had wanted everything to be perfect today, but it was just wishful thinking for her...She started to take deep breaths in her father’s arm and started to relax. “I’m sorry, Dad...”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” he stated. “I meant what I said out there.” Beth broke the embrace to look her father in his tired eyes. 

“I thought it was better for me to leave, to save you from anymore hurt I might have caused....” he confessed. Beth still couldn’t understand. “How can you ever think I was better off without you?” she asked, confused.

“Sometimes, it’s better for someone so toxic to be apart. Some people think all parents should be with their kids no matter what, even if they’re pieces of shit. And that can do a LOT more damage than not having that person there. You could be like.....” 

He stopped. 

“Like what?”

Not what. Who. His mind thought of another. Beth couldn’t have possibly known. But he started to realize that today would have been hell for someone else.... Running a hand through his hair, Rick knew he had to do something. He took his portal gun out of his lab coat.

“Don’t wait up for me. Jerry can go on his dumb fishing trip. Let Morty and Summer spend time with their Dad today..”

“Are you leaving?” Beth said, sounding defeated.

“I promise I’ll be back, sweetie. I have to be somewhere quick.” he stated as he shot a portal. He told his daughter he loved her one more time before walking into it. With the portal closed, Beth was left in the garage; alone.

       ◇─◇──◇────◇────◇────◇────◇────◇─────◇──◇─◇ 

You felt the world was spinning at a rapid speed. On the floor, you had been bawling as thousands of thoughts and memories flowed through your mind. The ache, knowing you were completely alone today, was all the more reason to just lie in your misery. Your heart sped up and it was getting harder to breathe.

Rick had arrived from your living room. Wondering where you were, he didn’t have to long. He heard your wails coming from your room.

“Shit.” Rick muttered to himself. He wasted no time getting up the stairs to reach you. The closer he got, the louder your cries. He opened the door, to see you on the ground in the fetal position, face red and wet with tears. Your mouth was wide open as your voice cracked in agony. You couldn’t hear him come in, with your weak screams, but his presence was known as soon as you felt one of his cold hands touch your shoulder.

“Baby...”

His voice was so soft, you were only used to screaming and scolding ones. His fingers brushed your hair back away from your face. Your eyes stinging, you tried to open them, but tears had still flowed. 

“R-R-R-Ri-ick...”

“Shhhh...It’s okay...Just try to breathe...” he instructed. Your body had been brought into a warm embrace, Rick holding you close to his chest protectively. The overwhelming feelings were all too much. You were suddenly being rocked as a parent would to their newborn baby. As a father would...

Your heart felt heavier at the love you sorely needed...but never got. A father’s love, was one that would forever be foreign to you. All of Rick’s science in the world, could never reverse that. You erupted a muffled scream in his chest, as you pleaded to no one...

“Please....D-don’t le-leave me-e-e” you weakly begged.

“I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. You’re safe with me, okay?” he murmured in your ear.

“I-I-I’m s-s-s-sor-rr-ryyy.....” you croaked out, struggling to breathe in a steady pace.

“W-what are you sorry for?” he said, dumbfounded. There was nothing in his mind that you needed to apologize for. But there were hoards of reasons you thought of. For not being good enough. For not being perfect. For not being smart enough. Like Morty, you struggled with your grades. Your mind flashed back to a screaming man confronting you about not getting the perfect scores on your report card. You had always tried your best. But your best was a pathetic joke. Just like you.

“I-I-I...”

Rick didn’t know what was in your head, but he knew it had to have been hell. He waited for you to catch your breath.

“I-I-I’m a w-waste...” you meekly cried. Two hands grasped your face, making you look into his eyes. “HEY!” He shouted in your face. His furious tone frightened you to your core. You could smell the alcohol on his breath.

You were immediately brought back, where another man looked at you with such anger, drunkenness, and bitterness. He would pierce your little ears with hateful words and demands for respect... 

“NO! Please! I-I-’m sorry! Please.....” you pleaded, sobbing.

Rick eyes softened. He immediately regretted his loss of control as he saw your face contort into sheer panic. Your body was quaking as you begged for mercy. The sounds of your bawling had nearly broken his heart.

“I c-can’t t-t-take anymore...”

All your life, you had only been scolded, screamed, humiliated. You had never been good. You were never daddy’s good girl. Your chances had died before it could even be possible.

“I-I j-just w-w-wanted to be good...”

Rick was completely at a loss for words. But he tried to convey his thoughts through touch. Pulling you close to him again, he resumed to adorn you with soft caresses and placed soft kisses on your head.

“I never m-meant to be bad...I tried to be good...I tried.I tried.I tried...” you repeated.

The silence from Rick was no accident. He realized your demons were much more than he thought. He was no stranger to daddy issues, but bottled up ones, were never good to keep. He let you speak your peace. Whatever you needed to get out, was allowed now.

“But it-it wasn’t enough...I’m not enough...” you wept. 

In Rick’s mind, he wondered how anyone can treat their children so poorly, that they completely collapsed at the mere thought of them. He knew he left some damage in Beth, but he never tried to make her feel worthless or frightened by him. The fact that someone made you feel this way, let alone your own father, made his blood go cold. In the moment, he knew you needed the complete opposite of all you were afraid of, soft tone, kind words, and so much love...

"That is not true. You are not anything that piece of shit made you feel. I don’t give a fuck what he said. He didn’t know how good he had it.”

You listened to him. Here was the smartest man in the universe, a father himself, telling you this.

“I’m so sorry for what he put you through...I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt you...Whatever he told you to make you feel like you deserve this, he was completely wrong.”

Your shining eyes looked into his, wanting to see the words flow from his mouth. To prove you weren’t dreaming.

“I promise you, baby. You didn’t deserve any of it...”  

The way he said it. So sure, so certain. Everything you were told back then, completely disputed by the genius you loved so dearly. 

“I wish I could go back and take it all away from you, but I can’t...” With all his genius, time travel was still very difficult to perfect. You tried to stifle yourself for a moment so you wouldn’t miss a word of what he had to say.

“What I can do now, is show you how much you are loved, because that’s what you deserve.”

Your breathing patterns were starting to improve. Heavy gusts of air hit Rick’s chest, his shirt damp with your tears and snot. In and out, you kept telling yourself. Rick had noticed your efforts.

“Thaaat’s it baby...You’ve got it...” he encouraged you. His hand tenderly stroked your back, trying to soothe you. His gentle praise calmed you just a little more.

“Gooood girl...” he whispered as he pressed his lips to your forehead.

“I-I am?” you squeaked out. You couldn’t possibly believe that.

“Yes, you are. You are one of the kindest people I’ve ever known and incredibly brave.”

“But I didn’t face it...I just left....” you muttered.

“And that’s the smartest thing you could do. You had already faced it long enough.” he stated. “I’m no stranger to leaving things behind, b-believe me, but you knew that environment would do you no good if you stayed...” 

You were silent, unsure what to say...

“I’m proud of you, baby...” 

Your wet eyes went wide. Did...you hear that correctly? Rick gently grabbed your face with both hands, making you look up at him. “Look at me, baby...” 

In his eyes, they showed empathy, sincerity and...love. And not in a lustful way, a genuine look of pure, unconditional devotion. 

“I’m proud of you...” he repeated. His thumbs caressed your cheeks, wiping away tears that stained them. He leans to you, foreheads touching. 

“If there’s anything I can do to help or if you even need to talk, you come to me okay? I don’t give a fuck what time it is, what dimension or galaxy I’m in. I will come to you...” he softly declared.

Speechless, you simply nodded your head. You needed one thing right now.

“Please, just hold me..” you tiredly pleaded, falling into him. All you wanted was to feel safe. You felt his arms wrap around your frame.

“Of course, baby...” He resumed rocking you gently, trying to put you at ease. In his lap, you closed your eyes, letting yourself take in the comfort of his embrace. No one could get to you, as long as you were there...

Rick wanted you to feel comfortable, and while you were content, he figured it would be much better if you two were off the floor. “I-I wanna get you comfortable in the bed. Is that alright, babydoll?” he asked softly. You nodded and immediately were lifted up. It only took a few steps for him to gently lay you down on your soft mattress. He immediately joined you and held you close you, peppering your face with soft kisses. You hummed as you nestled in his chest.

For awhile, you both simple lied in silence. Only sounds you heard were breathing and his heartbeat. The only feeling was of his affection. The atmosphere was so serene. You were no longer alone. Rick’s gruff voice broke the silence.

“I-I know I never say this, b-but I think you need to hear it right now...”

You looked up at him, anticipating what it was. He leaned in close to your ear and whispered so delicately. 

“I love you...”

It felt like your breath was taken away. The rainbow had come shining through after the storm. Your dark gray world had been painted with color. The three words you’ve always wanted to hear...

Slowly, he leaned his face closer to you and press his lips to yours. You kissed him back, giving all you had to convey you appreciation. Suddenly, you felt his body roll on top of yours. Rick kept the kiss light and soft. He was attentive and patient, taking his sweet time with you. When you stopped to breathe, his lips gently brushed your cheek.

“I love you, angel...And I want you to see that so maybe...you can learn to love yourself...”

That would sure be a long road. You looked away from him for a moment. You didn’t want to tell him it wasn’t possible. 

“I-I-I know it’s a motherfucker, this pain you’re dealing with...It’s not a-a walk in the park...But you are not a lost cause...You’re a survivor, baby...” 

“Thank you, Rick...I love you, too...” you whispered. The day you always dread now had a silver lining this year. But it wasn’t without concern.

“W-why aren’t you with your daughter...?” you questioned.

Rick sighed. “Jerry was being a fucking idiot as always...I left and wanted to check on you...” 

You were not shocked. Of course. Rick always had trouble getting along with his son-in-law and you didn’t see that changing anytime soon. But it wasn’t about Jerry today...

“Beth needs you...” you simply stated. You felt you had no right taking someone else’s father away from them because of your own issues. Rick didn’t even appear to be conflicted. He was always low-key about his decisions, no matter how many light years away he would go.

“I want to take her to a stress-free planet, to give her the break she deserves. You could come with us. I don’t want you to be alone today...”

What other option did you have? It was that or cry alone in your house the rest of the day. No way would you make Rick stay away from his own daughter today.

“Okay.” you agreed with a shy smile. That plan sounded quite nice. He smiled back at you in relief. Things were appearing to come back together.

“Great.” He shot a portal. Standing up, he reached out his hand. You took it and he helped you up from the bed and into the portal.

       ◇─◇──◇────◇────◇────◇────◇────◇─────◇──◇─◇

In the Smith’s kitchen, Beth was sitting at the now empty table, still riddled with dirty dishes from breakfast time. She sighed thinking of all that went wrong earlier. It was so unfair. All she wanted was a nice day with her father on this mundane holiday. Goddamn Jerry couldn’t keep his mouth shut for once. He was now on his coveted fishing trip with Morty and Summer. He got what he wanted, while she was alone without her father and now her children. She felt like the sad little girl all over again. But, she was too used to it to cry about it anymore. She told herself she was no longer afraid. Still, he told her he would come back...

A buzzing sound emitting from the garage made her lift her head up. He came back! Her thoughts immediately turned around. They could still have a great father’s day together. It didn’t matter where or what it was, as long as her father was there, that was all she wanted.

“Hey, sweetie.” He greeted as Beth got up from her chair, embracing him.tightly. He hugged her back, rubbing her back to show his affection.

“Hi, Dad!” She chirped happily. They broke the embrace, and Rick gave a proposition.

“Beth, I wanted to take you on a nice stress-free trip for the day. We’ll go off planet, we can do anything you want there!” he proposed.

She placed her hands together in glee. “Oh that sounds wonderful, Dad!” Her curiosity peaked however when she saw you over her old man’s shoulder. You had been keeping a distance, not wanting to interrupt the moment.

“Oh, hi there!” She sounded surprised, but not unpleasantly so. That had to be a good sign. You simply greeted her back with a tiny voice and a kind smile. “Hi, Beth.”    

“Beth, I wanted to bring her along cause...I just thought it would make her day better too...”

It was a little confusing to her. In her head she wondered why you would spend time with them and not with your own father. She got a good look at you and noticed your kind eyes were red, lashes appearing damp. Then it clicked. She looked at you with the empathy and understanding you were never met with. While she didn’t know the details, she knew what it was like to spend father’s day alone.

She would not let that happen to you if she could help it. And who knows? Maybe, you could become good friends.      

With a smile, Beth agreed. “The more the merrier! I think we all could use a getaway.” 

All three of you wore content faces. This year, you had something to look forward to. And in time, with love and support, your heart could mend....and you could learn to love yourself again. 

❤