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glitteringcrab · 5 months

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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?

#and now I'm wondering if Rick C-137 hanging out with Morty Prime was originally an attempt at redemption #an attempt to make sure that at least this ONE Morty --who he originally tried to hurt infinite times-- is safe from other Ricks #scenario 3: Rick C-137 designed the Citadel but changed his mind and didn't send the schematics anywhere #Rick Prime is the one who actually sent them as a taunt to show how much he DOESN'T care #scenario 4: I'm overanalyzing this and the above are completely unconnected #it's complicated #citadel of ricks #rick c-137 #rick prime fan club #rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty clones #rick c137 #rick c 137

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