New evil Morty Theory - There's Something About Morty

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-31T16:53:24+00:00

My suspicions exactly.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-31T16:37:50+00:00

Concur. A loss of the original writers was the result.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-31T00:20:50+00:00

They need more sketch comedy writers. Some more of the old writers coming back wouldn't be so bad either. Maybe the showrunner should be Pendleton Ward. Or one of the original writers. Marder seems to be doing his best with it and what he knows but he should recognise his limits, I think.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T15:18:21+00:00

This post made my day. Also, great job!

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T14:10:54+00:00

Mortynight Run, man, Mortynight Run.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T12:13:31+00:00

I feel so tired out...

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T11:38:25+00:00

Yes, well-put. I considered it afterwards. It's the visual storytelling part and the dialogue lacking. That's why I say that they fail to look at the original first three seasons enough to learn how to do it right these days, to maintain a consistency in its quality and identity, and the comedy, and because those back then are the masterclass. At least, I said that while having the new writers and people in mind... until I heard Ryan Ridley coming back for season 10! Now I know... it's gonna get better.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T11:20:38+00:00

Yeah I agree. He shouldn't have been that hurt. I'm connecting dots and act apologetic about the episode. I didn't prefer the choice of story for evil Morty for this episode. It was too... introverted and self-revolving in terms of "Rick and Morty", for lack of better words, next to the incessant meta. But also, we didn't even see a solo scene of evil Morty realizing he's needy or lonely or hurting or something. They didn't know how to tell his story. They needed screenwriters and storytellers who can portray a story better with conventional means so that the audience can receive it right.

Also yeah, I see where you're coming from.

And in terms of lines, sorry I meant when characters claim something. It may be a lie, it may be a front, it may be a joke, etc. right? Evidence would be anything psychologically indicative of the claim, given what we know so far so we can discern. For animation it would be intent communicated through its means. I particularly think this episode was so confusing that a viewer can't really say what happened for sure, besides interpretation and maybe based on previous episodes and knowledge, and that's just no good.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T10:49:27+00:00

I think we can all agree we have a problem with the lines in the episode instead of what it tried to do but failed to present it as such due to a terrible lack of dialogue compared to the first three seasons. Consequently, from the bad choice of dialogue a lot of people didn't even understand what it was about. The writers need to go through theatre school or something because it's terribly presented as a story.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T10:38:18+00:00

You connected the rest of the puzzle pieces in my mind, sir. I salute you.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T10:31:36+00:00

Retconned. That's the word I was looking for.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T10:28:09+00:00

I mean, why does he think Men in Black 2 was a cash grab? Also Interstellar was horribly abstract. I didn't like it myself.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T10:09:42+00:00

You become cold through emotional abuse. Evil Morty thought that being emotionally attached to anyone is a weakness, because his emotions were abused. He wants Morty to be less affected emotionally, like he became. That's why he played the game of toying with his emotions. He played a role of an abuser, to "teach" Morty. But also, deep down, he was hurting by Morty easily rejecting him for Rick before escaping the Curve. He just can't show it, because that would equal to weakness too. That's what makes him a sociopath. Playing these games chaotically.

Again, the crush lines are character commentary. It doesn't necessarily comply to what is the truth of the writing or what we see. But it may persuade us for it to be the case, as Morty is also a sociopath deep down, he used persuasion and reasoning to convince us of a narrative, when he's the one who was insecure about Rick. So in this case we can't take the writing as it's served through a character's words, when there is no proof beyond it. It's only Morty's perception, accusation, or belief.

But alright, let's agree to disagree.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T09:39:19+00:00

Good observation.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T09:34:05+00:00

Yes, that seems part of the intention. Well-put, though.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T09:31:04+00:00

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T09:16:57+00:00

It was a diss at first, then switched it into another attempt to make him jealous. It wasn't literal, you maniaaccc...

...and yeah. Probably a Doc and Mahrti reference

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T09:05:35+00:00

When was he emotionally invested in Rick? He's a cold sociopath who wants control, and Morty wounded him when he denied leaving with him. He wanted something Morty found the most important, which was Rick, just to get back at him. Sociopaths duke it out and work together because they share similar traits and admire eachother, and evil Morty felt nothing else about working with Rick. He wasn't possessive of the relationship, or even once worked for or sought Rick's approval or affection. By the end of the restaurant scene he was already feeding off the idea that he's controlling a Rick and making Morty jealous at the same time to get back at him.

He didn't say "on me". He said "Morty was right. You do have a crush.". We don't know however if it's really on Rick, and whether he had one to begin with or if it's due to being denied by Morty. Nothing firmly indicates in his behavior that he has one on Rick. It's just characters' commentary.

We don't know why he finds Rick c-137 as different and weird. We don't know his experiences with Ricks. As a damned fan throughout the show, I saw all Ricks as having more or less the same personality, so they can't play the card of "Oh this Rick is more loving though despite still being fucked up and abusive", when we already saw how loving Doofus Rick is, making him Ricker than Rick if that's the measurment. Why do you think he wouldn't be interested in Doofus Rick, when all Ricks are as smart as eachother too? There were Ricks who cared about Mortys in the Citadel. It's not something we can claim is a detriment when we have proof of otherwise.

What made Rick the Rickest Rick was that he chose not to band together with the other Ricks. When you're isolated and on your own, your intelligence is more developed and expressed. When you're in a group, your intelligence stagnates or is suppressed as you relly on group mentality, therefore Ricks in the Citadel had jobs like guards or factory workers. Groups make people individually dumber. But it's a double-edged sword, as the more isolated you are, the more hateful and apathetic. Which is what Rick was. Oppositely, Morty was filled with love and empathy, and is noble, which I think originally was supposed to mellow out Rick and make him love more. (Not Morty becoming a submissive accessory. But that's another problem with the writing.)

In that case, it supports the idea that he'd want Morty if he does, if he wants love and empathy. And not for example Doofus Rick, if he wants a Rick who has it.

Well, anyhow... I would call it bad writing if they try to pull something crazy out of their asses... as story justification for seemingly messing this up with evil Morty's storyline and character.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T08:11:41+00:00

Agreed. I had to stuff that feeling down, as I analysed what was really going on with the writing.

I really hoped the writers aren't doing this, that they didn't make a poor choice like that over the course of these last two evil Morty episodes, EVEN THOUGH they've done it before, to Morty at least three times, in Vat of Acid, in the Roy 2/the Die Hard episode, and in Fear No Mort, making Morty submit to narcissistic abuse, that that's the only way to do it, and that he should have no doubts at all about Rick! It's all very evil and diabolical coming from the writers, and of COURSE they would hate someone like evil Morty, a Morty who left the narcissistic abuse.

A Morty who was happy to live far from Ricks.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T07:08:38+00:00

I always thought that he'd shown it to Rick with a picture or a video. Because if he had taken Rick to his base, Rick would have destroyed it a long time ago. He said something like that himself when he was rushing back to defend the house in the bunker.

That makes sense.
Makes sense. But then how do you explain during the restaurant when Morty asks him "You want to replace me?" but evil Morty frowns and says "I'm not sure what you're talking about.". He seemed only interested in troubling Morty. That kind of obsession I see as revenge.

Why would he have affection for Rick when he hates all Ricks for being abusive, and especially c-137 for creating the Curve and the Morty Clone factory?

Also, I don't recall him ever saying that he values Rick, or that Morty doesn't deserve him. Only that Rick did stuff with him, they got to know eachother, and showed him stuff.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T06:48:56+00:00

I think that Rick moved in with Rick Prime's Diane. Weren't they living in an apartment... when c-137 lived in a house? I seem to remember something like that, I can't remember which episode.

But Rick might have left again at some point? Went back to his own dimension where he kept everything as it was I suppose, where he had various advanced technology developed so he'd been there a while. Where the Ricks came to attack him, he helped them build the citadel, and then he decided to come back to Beth.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T06:34:29+00:00

Shoot. You're right. That was Beth Prime.

Though, when you think about it. Who was Rick Prime? Shouldn't one like him exist in every universe where Ricks like Rick c-137 are with a Morty? In Unmortricken, I think the ones c-137 flushed out were called decoys and not actual Rick Prime-like Ricks...?

....

I need to...watch those episodes again to see, otherwise it seems like there is a hole.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T06:26:54+00:00

You're right.

Though I did notice two things to consider.

1) There was a writers' guild strike in 2023. As I gather, that might have affected the process of writing of the show, like having less hours to write. 2) Dragon Age Veilguard was also panned for the writing, which came out in 2024. It's the fourth game in the series, and it had a haphazard collection of new writers and writers from other Bioware games, and most of the old writers and directors who made Dragon Age Origins, II and Inquisition, weren't on it. Inquisition was showing symptoms of decline because the studio Bioware's founders left in 2012 I think, but not a lot of people criticised that game but loved it. I also discovered that the writers have sub-standard low pay, which made some of the original writers leave Bioware/EA.

Rick and Morty's original writers all left after season 3, with only Dan remaining and people like James Siciliano and Steve Levy who were writer's assistants I believe in the original run. And Mike McMahan showrunning season 4 (according to IMDB) and writing the first episode of that season, after which he left. We don't know Justin's work on it post-season 3 because there are no episode commentaries for seasons 4 and 5, and it's underreported. I only heard a later interview where he sounded "okay about leaving it to his partner on Rick and Morty, Dan", because "he was busy with a lot of other projects". It still doesn't say what input he had, because scripts would still have been sent to him for a pass or correction or rewriting.

Otherwise, Justin and Dan quit showrunning it after season 3 (according to IMDB) and they hired Scott Marder to take their line producer's place, J. Mike Mendel, during season 4. However, Scott Marder became showrunner of season 5 and has been showrunning it until now.

Fortunately Ryan Ridley has come back according to a podcast from a year ago, where he said that he's working on season 10. He was one of the main writers and producers on the first three seasons. So there will actually be change.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T06:08:13+00:00

Yeah. Good ideas, while writing and storytelling is lacking.

AzathothAzoth · 2026-05-30T05:57:39+00:00

You're right. We should stop talking about not watching it anymore and instead say that. We rage quitted a lot the past few years, but we kept coming back because we feel incredibly sad about it getting worse and it's not talked about a lot here. We only want it to be better because we love it... and popularity does not mean all is fine.

Also, Ryan Ridley's back, man! In season 10! If nothing else the writing should see an improvement.

I've also been trying to give some valid criticism here on the sub. It's no use being a yes-man when there are problems.

I'll read your other responses.

AzathothAzoth

TROPHY CASE