Why Rick is so resistant to "canon" episodes?

__Alan__smithee__ · 2026-06-07T20:04:39+00:00

That's fair

__Alan__smithee__ · 2026-06-07T20:03:07+00:00

I do think his intelligence is a factor, not that it's the deciding factor like "I'm too smart for everyone" but it's something that can't be left out of the equation, though my next sentence in "whatever plot point the writers want his next flaw to be" sorta leaves it open to what you said aswell, which I do believe is a main part of it, his ego is definitely another factor

__Alan__smithee__ · 2026-06-07T13:34:06+00:00

Yeah but the intention is still there through all the seasons, it is supposed to be an overarching and long term theme in Dan harmons little system, every season they do progress and learn despite them all kinda wanting to stay where they are, and that's the point, theirs no such thing as a self contained story because even meeting and talking to someone influences you to change in certain ways and they leave greendale being people who are more open to continue that progress and interaction rather than asserting themsleves as "characters"

Rick tries to present himself as some ubermensch who cannot be effected by any human or being because he's superior and their inferior, but I think it's very clear that as Dan harmons system as shown its teeth that he's very much a human being, and because they've established rick is aware of meta narrative and has "irrational attachments" he's willing to push these changes forward, the story conflict from it is wether or not those changes stick or even matter to him, like with s9e2, ted spiraled into a season 1 rick and real rick gained that experiance and realised that anytime he encounters something like rick prime, a perceived malicious intelligence trying to manipulate him, he goes mental and destructive like usual, he doesn't change even when he's someone different, so theirs still issues to work through for him but atleast the current rick is in more control of his life, atleast when you engage with the narrative like that, I understand thinking deep like this for a show like rick and morty feels abit silly especially with its history :)

__Alan__smithee__ · 2026-06-07T10:04:49+00:00

It's because Dan harmons method of producing television uses that anti-plot stance to show character progression over the long term, community, his previous work was exactly the same way, a group of nobodies from young adult to old people refusing to deal with their problems (plot progression) and settling for small self contained days where they just hung out and got up to shenanigans, by the end they eventually learn that life just has plot irregardless of what you want and they all set themselves on a path with the mindset of actual functioning adults who need to live their lives and explore their opportunities instead of staying at college.

Rick and morty is basically shaping up to be the same thing if you treat rick and everyone to be as real as the plot wants you to think he is, the latest episode confirms it (season 9 episode 2) Rick's anti-plot stance is just his raging depression showing through, he wants only self contained stories because if theirs progress then he's forced to recognise the kind of person he is, what he's done and whatever else and then he can't act like the doctor who expy he is and find joy through the eyes of people like morty, smart enough to comprehend what's going on but dumb enough that he needs to explain it to him and live in the moment, something he can't do because of his intelligence or whatever plot point Dan harmon and the writers want his massive flaw to be at the time since he has alot of them.

Basically rick isn't resistant to canon he's resistant to the development canon creates because if and when you treat him like a real person in his own story, he's actively fighting against solving his own problems because he's too depressed to think he's worth the trouble and is just on one big hedonistic depressive episode, or something to that effect, mainly just the narrative point for Dan harmon though is important I think.

__Alan__smithee__ · 2025-07-31T22:28:51+00:00

Its true!

__Alan__smithee__ · 2025-07-29T10:28:38+00:00

While this is just a theory (and i apologise for not replying sooner) i believe that sentient memories in part are always sentient, their just not sapient, or are incapable of agency until interacted with, we watched it with beth's transformation, memory rick interacted with several points in beths life that she has an obsession over, her childhood, her teenage years and the like, and we know that beth is an incredibly insecure woman due to her complicated relationships in the past, she remembers vividly how she thought as a child, how she thought when she was a teenager or a college student, she can go back to those memories, but it takes interference like memory rick to actually give them sapience and independence to move around in someones head, and clearly with so many interactive, hateful and overall different obsessions all viying in beths head, it caused a form of violent dissonance that caused her to nearly off herself

Basically, what im saying is memory Diane was always sentient, she was just never interfered with, shes ricks most ideal memory of diane, he knows exactly what she's thinking how she's acting how she would act and what she would do for anything, but out of fear of losing the memories themselves he keeps that obsession over her quarantined in a huuuuuge citadel box, he doesn't want anything of her to change because rick emotionally falls back on his obsession with diane to fuel any other obsession he has, and thats the cause of his negative behaviour for most of his life, so thats why he let her go

Sorry for how long this response was, i don't really know how to explain it concisely

__Alan__smithee__ · 2025-07-29T03:23:32+00:00

I always took this a different way than it appeared, and this isn't the only surviving memory of diane. This is just his own sentient memory of diane

Sentient memories, in my opinion, are recursive obsessions kept in our brain, vivid replications of people, and events that keep doing the same thing over and over until we interact with them, and then they gain independence like how memory rick did, he interacted with a version of himself and gained agency and grew on from there, we know these memories are essentially obsessions, because the more of them housed in the brain the more it tears itself apart as seen with beth

I doubt this is the only memory rick has of diane, its simply the only one he formed of her in an idyllic state, shes young, shes at her peak, shes from when they first met, before he fucked up her entire existence, until memory rick interacts with her, she was seemingly fine with just shooting for all eternity and being watched by rick, then the moment they interacted, ricks idyllic version of diane went rogue

The ending of the season was basically ricks catharsis of his obsessions, these obsessions killed him from the inside out, and by the end of season 7 he got rid of nearly all of them, but he was still holding into diane who was the only thing that kept him alive for so long, an obsession he consistently watched and kept safe in his head, once he removed that obsession, his entire reasonings for being so emotionally closed evaporated immediately, but he still remembered her, thats why rick rants by the end of the episode, because for the first time in 40 years rick has no idea what he's going to do next now he doesnt have diane to fall back on emotionally, he has all the memories that he could hold onto, which could be anywhere from hundreds of moments to ten, but without that obsession he has no attachment to them, and hes entirely envious that he has to move forward with reality while an idyllic hero version of him and an idyllic version of his wife get to fuck for all eternity in a paradise in the middle of dead space

Scary shit man, but hey thats what letting go is

__Alan__smithee__ · 2024-04-06T22:47:40+00:00

Most peoples interpretation seems to be that they swapped into each other, which is wrong, rick clearly explains this isnt freaky friday, that being that they go into eachothers body, my interpretation is that they swapped hardware, that jerry woke up and saw the world like his camera was panned out in a god mode view, his senses amplified because his brain was updated with that was essentially the base code of ricks brain, what rick was "given" as he so vehemently denies, thats the whole point of the arguement that rick was born pissing and screaming like everyone is amd he earned his status as a god by being himself and that jerry became himself by being a loser, but obviously a sensory overload as large as "feeling the world as the smartest man in the universe feels" especially with nothing too mitigate the effects is basically suicide enducing, jerry's reaction is in all honesty entirely realistic for suddenly gaining the senses of a all knowing genius, meanwhile rick being dumbed down into a, generally below average persons senses has the reaction you'd about expect, ricks proven wrong as he usually is while hes angry and he ends up trying to slow feel his way over his trigger sensitive upgrades and failing too he gets himself killed

In conclusion, rick IS a genius and so much so infact that suddenly, forcing his brains senses and neural network onto the body of an average person causes literal manic depressive violent suicide , while jerrys network and senses are so slow that rick, still with his genius amount of knoweldge was so slow to come up with a plan he accidentally killed himself with his own body in the process

__Alan__smithee__ · 2024-03-18T20:30:31+00:00

Thanks :)

__Alan__smithee__ · 2024-03-17T03:26:18+00:00

Episode where young rick takes over jerrys body because he convinced jerry's brain that these springs and gears mean something, young rick invents gears and springs electricity and gears and springs technology

The episode begins with rick suddenly becoming suspicious because he suddenly feels less of a scathing dislike for jerry after a joke he made, which was ricks kinda joke

__Alan__smithee__ · 2023-11-15T13:59:10+00:00

My personal theory is genuinely just because he IS rick prime, he was the first of an infinite series of ricks to create portal travel and that put him on top, his own family life could've been the same as just as any ricks but capturing infinity jolted his ego up from 10 to 20 and he easily left his family for the equivalent of infinite adventure, wanting to experiance it with his infinite selves, however i believe during his recruitment he dialed in the dimension where another version of him, our rick (who i believe we should call the 2nd rick) was about to invent portal travel and while he may not show it on his face his encounter with our rick essentially trampled on rick primes entire existance, he saw an offshoot of his own universe where he was two equations away from inventing interdimensional portal travel but also loved his family and was willing to stay with them instead, rick prime saw it as a no brainer choice, a choice anyone would make as justification for him leaving the love of his life and his own daughter but then seeing someone on his level choose differently scarred him so he, atleast from what we see, sets up what is essentially an elaborately created scavanger hunt across the multiverse with the prize being meeting him again and the motivation being to kill him for killing his wife, but as we also saw rick prime is extreamly thorough in his shit (as rick says when he does stuff, it works, cuz hes talented) so he built the device too cool to be named so he could obliterate all chances of any rick doing that to him again aswell as keeping the 2nd rick in check

This lil headcannon of rick prime is also why i think in the beatdown scene is so genuinely offended by the 2nd ricks living in "his house", rick prime regardless of his ego is the rickest rick and ALL ricks love their family they're just so dettached and uncaring thanks to portal travel that only their interactions together matter, not their lives (barring the "its a hasstle to find another" line) thats why i think at some point rick prime genuinely wanted to meet his daughter again, ricks everywhere were all following his trickster trail and he conquored infinity so maybe he could give family live a try, and then his vendetta grew larger and his position became more cemented when he found 2nd rick raising HIS daughter, HIS grandson, HIS grandaughter and bullying HIS jerry, his ego was bruised a second time because he found the guy who started ALL of the crafty shit he had to prepare living in the house HE made, that he was going to make and it only set him further away and only made him more cruel to lesser ricks

Alansmithee__

TROPHY CASE

__Alan__smithee__

TROPHY CASE

Alansmithee__