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Rick and Morty S3 |OT| Keeping Summer Safe - Sundays on Adult Swim

I genuinely couldn't expect the quality to keep up after the last couple of episodes. And honestly, this episode didn't do much for me.

- I appreciated that Beth finally took a moment of self-reflection and realized she's a monster, but I didn't feel the conversation between her and Rick over their relationship was the central focus, just a byproduct of the throwaway plot.

- Jerry being exactly how I expected him to be is extremely disappointing. I understand that their message is that people aren't going to change from one moment to the other, but an indescribable amount of time could have happened between the Rick and Jerry episode and this. Between a rock and a hard place I can see why the kids ultimately chose Beth. Jerry is manipulative and can't face the music. I'm disappointed in his character more than any other.

- The ambiguous decision by Beth was a nice touch... if they intend to follow this up later. I don't even want to discuss the curve ball they threw with her friendly personality when the kids arrived as the writers can go any way with that.

- As to the preview for the finale
this isn't necessarily a curve ball. I was hoping for a highly personal finale similar to season 2, but we gotta remember that the season 1 finale was a house party main plot with a titanic b plot. So it could just be as simple as Rick and Morty assisting this univerese's president of the US
.

Over-all I leave disappointed but even if the finale is also not something I wanted, I can safely say this is one of the stronger seasons for me.
 

MartyStu

Member
People on Reddit are saying that 'those' fans are gonna take Ricks speech to be talking about themselves, and make it like a code to live by. Dear god if so...

Literally the only human being Rick was referencing there was himself. He (and his spawn?) are the only creatures capable of 'taking the universe for ride' he's not talking about some guy who got an A in science class.

I liked it because it felt true from Ricks point of view on life, and it makes sense with what his character has seen and done.

Wait, what?

That speech was toxic horseshit. Like, how can a human being hear that and think that should serve as a creed?
 
The speech absolutely makes sense in the context of the show, or if you have a depressing outlook on life. But no one should be taking words to live by from a television show.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Apparently not.

This thread is the only time I ever discuss this show with anyone else. Going by what y'all are suggesting, I should really keep it that way.

Lmao this

At best, I'll laugh about it with my friends, but I never thought about it being a show that I'm pressed to discuss in-depth with others. Guess it was the right move...
 
At best, I'll laugh about it with my friends, but I never thought about it being a show that I'm pressed to discuss with others. Guess it was the right move...

Generally speaking, I don't talk about television shows with people very much aside of mentioning scenes that were interesting or particularly funny. If we both saw it, I feel there's not a whole lot to talk about.
 

Amalthea

Banned
Wait, what?

That speech was toxic horseshit. Like, how can a human being hear that and think that should serve as a creed?
Ever since South Park it should be clear that there are always some idiot wannabe smart edgelords who will take a satirical cartoon as their lifes ideology.
 

MartyStu

Member
Ever since South Park it should be clear that there are always some idiot wannabe smart edgelords who will take a satirical cartoon as their lifes ideology.

At least this show's deeply cynical and dark worldview is consistent.

How does one even pull meaning from the schizophrenic mess that is South Park?
 
Maybe not.

But the show absolutely makes it clear that we should want to be like Rick.
That's an....interesting take.

Rick is probably my favorite TV character of all time. But he is the furthest thing from a role model that I can imagine.

If I become smart enough to be hanging out with my family in other dimensions then maybe I can adopt Rick's outlook on life. But until then only assholes would do it.

I don't think the show gives a different message than that.
 

Xe4

Banned
Maybe not.

But the show absolutely makes it clear that we should want to be like Rick.

Uhhh... no? It makes it clear that Rick is a horrible monster and probably the true villain of this show. He comes into peoples lives and ruins them for his own selfish benefit and is an alcoholic deadbeat asshole who only gives a fuck about himself and anyone who will help him further his selfish goals in life. The show in no way wants people to be like him.

Like, watch this scene and tell me that it's possible to come to any sort of different conclusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KmzJZUqpj4&ab_channel=RickAndMorty
 

Zubz

Banned
Apparently not.

This thread is the only time I ever discuss this show with anyone else. Going by what y'all are suggesting, I should really keep it that way.

I have real life friends who don't parrot every TV show speech & associate it with themselves despite the show blatantly stating not to & that the speech was meant specifically for a character who could not, let alone should not, be emulated.

That said, on the Internet? I agree. GAF may be a bit of a bubble, but holy shit, it's like every active site has a huge, unavoidable cesspool that seeps into everything & detracts from the whole experience. I didn't even realize people take the same perspective these people do towards Rick towards Bojack Horseman, from a show where 90% of the conflict is easily preventable catastrophes caused by Bojack's difficulty/resistance towards coping with depression, until recently. There's a reason GAF's been my most used site since undergrad.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Maybe not.

But the show absolutely makes it clear that we should want to be like Rick.

Never got that impression? I prolly knew that once and for all with that episode where Rick got Unity, a damn hivemind, to break up with him because he was just that toxic. Then the same episode has him attempt suicide, so yea...
 

Zubz

Banned
Maybe not.

But the show absolutely makes it clear that we should want to be like Rick.

How so? He's got a God Complex & is still self-loathing & miserable. The only lesson that I've seen them try to teach with Rick is that, in the scenario where you are able to learn everything, you'll end up miserable & can only rely on hedonism to push you forward. Also how that hedonism directly harms others.
 
That's an....interesting take.

Rick is probably my favorite TV character of all time. But he is the furthest thing from a role model that I can imagine.

If I become smart enough to be hanging out with my family in other dimensions then maybe I can adopt Rick's outlook on life. But until then only assholes would do it.

I don't think the show gives a different message than that.

Rick is a power fantasy through and through. I think it's impossible to deny that actually. He's an unstoppable nigh invincible impossibly smart ubermench, who destroys whatever annoys him without impunity. Sure he's toxic, vulgar, abrasive and depressed, but so are most action heroes.

But most importantly? He's always right. Always. Even when he fucks up and makes things worse, it's for comedic value, and the universe of the show quickly warps to make whatever he messed up completely justified. Any and all misery he suffers is only a temporary stopgap. The show offers no meaningful counterpoint to anything Rick stands for outside of Jerry, and Jerry is a spineless small minded hypocritical dipshit who cowtowed to the aliens when Rick sacrificed himself.

Now, thinking about all this, do you really think the show would stop dead in its tracks to have this character deliver a spiel about his worldview without any counterpoint, and expect your takeaway to be "Rick is totally wrong"? Why? He's not wrong about anything else. How was this speech anymore toxic than Morty's "nothing matters, go watch tv" from interdimensional cable?
 

Sou Da

Member
Rick is a power fantasy through and through. I think it's impossible to deny that actually. He's an unstoppable nigh invincible impossibly smart ubermench, who destroys whatever annoys him without impunity. Sure he's toxic, vulgar, abrasive and depressed, but so are most action heroes.

But most importantly? He's always right. Always. Even when he fucks up and makes things worse, it's for comedic value, and the universe of the show quickly warps to make whatever he messed up completely justified. The show offers no meaningful counterpoint to anything Rick stands for outside of Jerry, and Jerry is a spineless small minded hypocritical dipshit who cowtowed to the aliens when Rick sacrificed himself.

Now, thinking about all this, do you really think the show would stop dead in its tracks to have this character deliver a spiel about his worldview without any counterpoint, and expect your takeaway to be "Rick is totally wrong"? Why? He's not wrong about anything else. How was this speech anymore toxic than Morty's "nothing matters, go watch tv" from interdimensional cable?

Yeah I've never felt that Rick was anything but a power fantasy.
 

Xe4

Banned
Rick is a power fantasy through and through. I think it's impossible to deny that actually. He's an unstoppable nigh invincible impossibly smart ubermench, who destroys whatever annoys him without impunity. Sure he's toxic, vulgar, abrasive and depressed, but so are most action heroes.

But most importantly? He's always right. Always. Even when he fucks up and makes things worse, it's for comedic value, and the universe of the show quickly warps to make whatever he messed up completely justified. Any and all misery he suffers is only a temporary stopgap. The show offers no meaningful counterpoint to anything Rick stands for outside of Jerry, and Jerry is a spineless small minded hypocritical dipshit who cowtowed to the aliens when Rick sacrificed himself.

Now, thinking about all this, do you really think the show would stop dead in its tracks to have this character deliver a spiel about his worldview without any counterpoint, and expect your take away to be "Rick is totally wrong"? Why? He's not wrong about anything else. How was this speech anymore toxic than Morty's "nothing matters, go watch tv" from interdimensional cable?
If he is a power fantasy, it's a power fantasy taken to its logical extreme. That is, his intellect and abilities have been used only solely to his benefit and nobody elses. Shit, you just need to take a look at a few episodes to see exactly how he abuses everyone in his life for his own benefit.

In one episode he destroys the planet because he can't be assed to give more than a second of thought to his experiment because its not for or about him. He then leaves the planet and everyone on it to suffer a horrible fate because he didn't care about any of them an only use them to serve his own selfish ends. He even implies he's done this similar sort of world hopping before and would do so in the future, if only rarely because it only has a limited number of uses.

In another, he destroys both the Citadel of Ricks and the Galactic Government, leading to the deaths of unaccountably many sentient beings, simply because both got in his way. In literally the next episode he takes Morty and Summer to an insanely dangerous post apocalyptic wasteland and while not even giving enough of a fuck to keep an eye on them just so he can get his hands on a useful power source. This is while both were reeling form a divorce that he caused, just because he didn't like Jerry.

Morty on multiple occasions has called Rick out as being a horrible excuse for a human being who only gives a fuck about himself. And in literally every case he's right on the money. The only reason he is around anyone at all is because he uses them for his own selfish needs. In the literal first episode of the series, it is shown that his adventures with Morty are not only horribly dangerous but also are wreaking havoc on Morty's school life, all while he lies to Morty's parent's faces about the characters intellect and need to go to school. And this is all so he can have a human shield to keep from being detected by the galactic government. He has only shown genuine emotion towards pretty much anyone like three times in the whole series, nearly all towards Morty, and he considers that a "toxic" aspect about himself. And that's only talking about stuff that's shown in the series. The shit that's implied about Rick is even worse, painting him as actually abusive towards pretty much everyone else around him.

He's constantly depressed and suicidal, a horrible alcoholic, and instead of actually getting help for his problems, he uses people to achieve a bit of fun or to provide an escapism fantasy for himself, doing god knows what kind of damage to their regular lives.
 

Lautaro

Member
These family drama episodes don't do it for me.

Show is still awesome of course but I prefer when they go crazy sci fi than full people-talking-about-their-feelings kind of stuff.
 

____

Member
These family drama episodes don't do it for me.

Show is still awesome of course but I prefer when they go crazy sci fi than full people-talking-about-their-feelings kind of stuff.

Agreed.

Although I kinda liked this episode I could definitely do without all the feelings/reflections-on-life/who-am-I type stuff. Leave that to Bojack and let R&M give me hilarious sci-fi/other-dimension/crazy antics.
 

Banzai

Member
Not a fan of this episode. Jerry-plot was weak and predictable and the guy who rapes and then eats the babies is just low as you can go when striving for shock value. Just something to make you think how gross and fucked up it is. Few funny moments inbetween.
At least the A-plot was a vehicle for Beth development, I hope that goes somewhere.

What struck me most, though, was how ...slow the episode felt. I mean there were actually extended scenes of just Beth and Rick talking. This is not a bad thing at all, but it felt a bit jarring compared to some of the previous episodes that went though 10 story beats a minute.
 

Ashhong

Member
The family stuff is some of the best Rick and Morty !

I do agree that it felt much more slow. Very jarring compared to the previous episodes. Love that
 

Amalthea

Banned
At least this show's deeply cynical and dark worldview is consistent.

How does one even pull meaning from the schizophrenic mess that is South Park?
Well the kind of people who do take meaning out of current SP do. And it shows.

South Park was once supposed that young, punky show that offended the kind of old people who delibrately sink themselves into "moderate apathy" because they would otherwise be offended by everthing new (because they "are not with it" anymore) but Stone and Parker very likely have become the latter over time wich results in this (as you aptly said) schizophrenic mess.
 
If he is a power fantasy, it's a power fantasy taken to its logical extreme. That is, his intellect and abilities have been used only solely to his benefit and nobody elses. Shit, you just need to take a look at a few episodes to see exactly how he abuses everyone in his life for his own benefit.

In one episode he destroys the planet because he can't be assed to give more than a second of thought to his experiment because its not for or about him. He then leaves the planet and everyone on it to suffer a horrible fate because he didn't care about any of them an only use them to serve his own selfish ends. He even implies he's done this similar sort of world hopping before and would do so in the future, if only rarely because it only has a limited number of uses.

In another, he destroys both the Citadel of Ricks and the Galactic Government, leading to the deaths of unaccountably many sentient beings, simply because both got in his way. In literally the next episode he takes Morty and Summer to an insanely dangerous post apocalyptic wasteland and while not even giving enough of a fuck to keep an eye on them just so he can get his hands on a useful power source. This is while both were reeling form a divorce that he caused, just because he didn't like Jerry.

Morty on multiple occasions has called Rick out as being a horrible excuse for a human being who only gives a fuck about himself. And in literally every case he's right on the money. The only reason he is around anyone at all is because he uses them for his own selfish needs. In the literal first episode of the series, it is shown that his adventures with Morty are not only horribly dangerous but also are wreaking havoc on Morty's school life, all while he lies to Morty's parent's faces about the characters intellect and need to go to school. And this is all so he can have a human shield to keep from being detected by the galactic government. He has only shown genuine emotion towards pretty much anyone like three times in the whole series, nearly all towards Morty, and he considers that a "toxic" aspect about himself. And that's only talking about stuff that's shown in the series. The shit that's implied about Rick is even worse, painting him as actually abusive towards pretty much everyone else around him.

He's constantly depressed and suicidal, a horrible alcoholic, and instead of actually getting help for his problems, he uses people to achieve a bit of fun or to provide an escapism fantasy for himself, doing god knows what kind of damage to their regular lives.

The thing about Rick is, even if he is right, and he's constantly taking from everyone around him and not giving anything back to the world, he's still incapable of growing from the ills of our nature.

The council of ricks/citadel is a perfect example of that. He took every version of himself and still managed to create a completely stratified society lol. And with our Rickest Rick, who somehow manages to do a lot of "good" for the universe while destroying everything in its wake finds himself incapable of showing any genuine love to anyone or anything because he's come to completely disregard the value of anything around him.

We can chose to see everyone as ants or give respect to every ant that walks the plane of existence.

Because its all meaningless anyway.
 

Xe4

Banned
The thing about Rick is, even if he is right, and he's constantly taking from everyone around him and not giving anything back to the world, he's still incapable of growing from the ills of our nature.

The council of ricks/citadel is a perfect example of that. And with our Rickest Rick, who somehow manages to do a lot of "good" for the universe while destroying everything in its wake finds himself incapable of showing any genuine love to anyone or anything because he's come to completely disregard the value of anything around him.

We can chose to see everyone as ants or give respect to every ant that walks the plane of existence.

Because its all meaningless anyway.

He definitely has a very nihilistic, sociopathic personality. Though I'm not sure if he's gotten it because he's so smart and been so many different places, or whether he's always been like that. Either way, the result is the same, and it's not pretty when you consider the ramifications to everyone else in the multiverse.
 

Belfast

Member
Maybe not.

But the show absolutely makes it clear that we should want to be like Rick.

In this episode alone he admits several times how shitty he is.

I don’t think you’re wrong that some edgelords will conveniently ignore those facts to justify how smart/above others they think they are, but the show in no way *promotes* the idea we should be like Rick. And none of us can, because he’s impossibly smart.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Apparently not.

This thread is the only time I ever discuss this show with anyone else. Going by what y'all are suggesting, I should really keep it that way.

That's probably the right choice

I only started watching last week and just finished the last episode available (Morty's Mind Blowers), and have no idea what this is referring to.

Could someone give me a one sentence summary?
 
In this episode alone he admits several times how shitty he is.

I don’t think you’re wrong that some edgelords will conveniently ignore those facts to justify how smart/above others they think they are, but the show in no way *promotes* the idea we should be like Rick. And none of us can, because he’s impossibly smart.

Yes, admitting, but not learning. He's in total control of this. The actual revelation comes from Beth, who realizes that her indictments of her father are toothless and impotent (because every indictment of Rick's character is toothless and impotent) and that his way of doing things is best. And it's only after this revelation that Beth earns the right to spend some time with her father. That's the lesson of this episode, and most of the series; Rick may be a shitty person, but he's right. Always right.

Rick's speech at the end was not something to be disagreed with. Rick & Morty very much subscribes to the notion that the universe is inherently meaningless, chaotic, and unfeeling. Only you as the individual have the power to make your own meaning. Rick realizes this, and as such is an ideal.

Again, Morty said this exact same thing to Summer at the end of Interdimensional Cable. Why is Rick saying it supposed to be bad?
 

ISee

Member
Wait, people are taking a fictional comic character as a philosophical role model and think they are the smart ones?

Hahaha, that made my day.
 

Sblargh

Banned
Man, I don't know if this episode will grow on me or not, but this is probably my least favorite in the entire series. Might be the only one I actively dislike. I think for two main reasons:

Beth is a completely new character on this episode. It is based on nothing informed by previous episodes. No hints, no behavior, no nothing. I mean, she can be petty like every character in the show, but serial killer? Where did this come from other than this one episode?

Rick's speech, oh my god, isn't this show attracting enough internet edgy dudes who are nihilists because they are so fucking smart for society and it's rules, man?

Up until this point, this series found many, many brilliant ways to show the kind of nihilistic cosmic terror that comes with many sci-fi concepts, but to hear Rick actually say something like "you are a sociopath because you are smart and nothing matters, but you because you are soooooo smart, look at how smart you are for understanding the concept that nothing matters, also because you are so smart you can do whatever you want". Like, is this a self parody?

Writing right now, I am thinking. I said last week that the writers are probably messing with fans who take continuity too seriously, and so... is this a self parody for real? Is Rick's speech designed to be bad and contrived and aimed at the lowest of the edgiest? Because if they really wrote this hamfisted fuel for internet tough guys with a serious face, holy shit.
-
And to be clear, the themes of being a nihilist, and "too smart for your rules, man", and an edgelord, has always kind of being in the show, but then the show itself was written in a way where it was presented in either a funny or intelligent way, but good lord, to hear Rick actually say that being a sociopath and a smart person is one and the same thing is so, ugh. It is either bad writing or I just didn't got the joke.
 
Man, I don't know if this episode will grow on me or not, but this is probably my least favorite in the entire series. Might be the only one I actively dislike. I think for two main reasons:

Beth is a completely new character on this episode. It is based on nothing informed by previous episodes. No hints, no behavior, no nothing. I mean, she can be petty like every character in the show, but serial killer? Where did this come from other than this one episode?

Rick's speech, oh my god, isn't this show attracting enough internet edgy dudes who are nihilists because they are so fucking smart for society and it's rules, man?

Up until this point, this series found many, many brilliant ways to show the kind of nihilistic cosmic terror that comes with many sci-fi concepts, but to hear Rick actually say something like "you are a sociopath because you are smart and nothing matters, but you because you are soooooo smart, look at how smart you are for understanding the concept that nothing matters, also because you are so smart you can do whatever you want". Like, is this a self parody?

Writing right now, I am thinking. I said last week that the writers are probably messing with fans who take continuity too seriously, and so... is this a self parody for real? Is Rick's speech designed to be bad and contrived and aimed at the lowest of the edgiest? Because if they really wrote this hamfisted fuel for internet tough guys with a serious face, holy shit.

Sociopaths often think they are the smartest people in the room, and are devoted solely to there own needs and pleasures, without empathy. Rick’s speech is consistent with his characterization, and I don’t read anything more into it than that.

Rick’s family is completely fucked up in multiple universes, by his own doing. He abandoned a Beth, Jerry and Summer with a world full of monsters. His own grandson wants to kill him, so he has to wipe his memory to keep him docile. His daughter apparently is a sociopathic murder machine (animal surgery =? Animal mutilation plus the horrific hoof sculpture could have been hints to that).

Rick may be the smartest man in the universe, but he’s a complete failure as a human being, and the show is quite clear on that. Edgelords that worship Rick as an ideal clearly lack the critical thinking skills to pick up on that.
 

Sblargh

Banned
Sociopaths often think they are the smartest people in the room, and are devoted solely to there own needs and pleasures, without empathy. Rick’s speech is consistent with his characterization, and I don’t read anything more into it than that.

Rick’s family is completely fucked up in multiple universes, by his own doing. He abandoned a Beth, Jerry and Summer with a world full of monsters. His own grandson wants to kill him, so he has to wipe his memory to keep him docile. His daughter apparently is a sociopathic murder machine (animal surgery =? Animal mutilation plus the horrific hoof sculpture could have been hints to that).

Rick may be the smartest man in the universe, but he’s a complete failure as a human being, and the show is quite clear on that. Edgelords that worship Rick as an ideal clearly lack the critical thinking skills to pick up on that.

Yes, but unless I am blocking something from my memory, the show so far has been smart enough to either show that as a consequence of the sci-fi concepts, especially multiverse travel, which does not bridge directly into our world, or as a consequence of Rick being a drunk idiot, or just as a simple joke in a cartoon.

To me one of the fun aspects of the show is precisely how it plays on ethics in absurd contexts in a way that we can't judge if Rick is good or evil because his enviroment is entirely other. A lot of "wrong" things do become meaningless in the specific context of "what about the universe where Hitler cures cancer?" but you obviously can't apply that to the real world and so it become a fun intellectual ride in a fun intelligent show.

I think what bothers me about Rick's speech in this episode is that is completely lacked anything that is either fun or intelligent. And when you are talking about how it is ok to try to murder people because it is all bullshit anyway, it doesn't come across as a tragic realization (like when Morty does the "let's go watch TV" speech) or as an over the top joke (like Rick's rant in the end of episode 1 of this season), it felt teenager in a way the show has avoided so far.
 

Sblargh

Banned
You know, the problems of this episode might just be the natural consequence of the lack of a Morty counterpoint to Rick?
So instead of something like "brain and heart" you have "brain and serial killer"?

But then again, tbh, this entire season, Morty has been kind of cold and uncaring either.
 

Shaneus

Member
Holy shit, this ad appeared for this very thread. Given Beth's crossroads... yikes:
PQtjNP5.jpg
 
Beth is a completely new character on this episode. It is based on nothing informed by previous episodes. No hints, no behavior, no nothing. I mean, she can be petty like every character in the show, but serial killer? Where did this come from other than this one episode?

This was what bothered me most about the episode. It doesn't feel like that was earned at all.
 
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