Rick and Morty's Ultimate Fall into Inconsistency

It’s so weird that the writers aren’t afraid of making an entire episode about morty’s sperm, while simultaneously being utterly terrified of changing the status quo

my favorite thing about the inconsistency of season 5 is that MatPat did a theory on them being a different Rick and Morty than the ones we've been following because they were so blatantly inconsistent, and I actually kinda believed it lol

'Rick basically became a redditors OC and it ruined the show' is what I got from this.

I think the episode in season four where Morty uses the death crystal would've worked so much better if it focused on him just not wanting to die a horrific death. Like, yeah dying old with Jessica would be cool and all, but is it justification for not bringing back Rick? I feel like they should've had him realize his mortality and have all the danger he's been in come crashing down on him. The crystal is basically telling him "you are going to die an agonizing and sorry death and there's nothing you can do about it." That's a terrifying concept, imo. Wouldn't have saved the whole season or anything, but I think it would make the episode make much more sense

Rick and Morty is a constant cycle of baiting the audience into caring about Rick, making it a joke and try to make the audience feel stupid for caring in the first place. And then AGAIN baiting the audience into caring, just to show the same feeling of superiority over their audience over and over again It's like an abusive/toxic relationship

I feel like the writers focused too much on Rick's badass edginess. Instead of the crazy ass sci-fi concepts.

I think one issue is you equate Smartest with Wisest a lot. Rick is a lot of "So busy seeing if he can" and not so much "knowing if he should."

The world hopping from Rick also shows something else about him - this version of him is incredibly quick to give up. Instead of going to a universe where he found the cure and copying the cure from there, he specifically looks for one where he and Morty immediately died so he could replace them. He decides that actually saving their world is just too much work

Wow, I never considered the fact that an uncertainty split didn't happen when Rick - as far as he knew at the time - gave his life for Morty's. That's a pretty touching detail.

The growing nonchalance with everything that happens is what killed it for me. None of the characters can really engage with the situation because it doesn't register emotionally. It's just 'life' to them now. Every concept gets undercut.

Rick went from a "quirky grandpa struggling to deal with his own feelings" to "that one always edgy, sarcastic, douche that is always trying to be different cause everything is beneath them." I'm hoping in Season 7 we get to see the slow return of Rick's old season 2 personality.

Rick: "I can do anything" Also Rick: "Well I can't cure death"

It feels like Rick & Morty constantly changes itself not because of any genuine sense of progression, but because the crew don’t want the show to be viewed as predictable. So things being inconsistent is just their way of trying to keep the show fresh.

Rick and Morty is a perfect example of when you let fan reception affect your writing

I fully believe that a big reason why this show is so inconsistent especially around season 3 is because it got so popular so quickly around that time. Before that it was just another adult swim show, not a part of the cultural zeitgeist. You can really see that the first two seasons almost had a "we might get cancelled at any time" type of feel to them, in the sense that they kept things tight because they didn't know when they would have to stop. From season 3 on, the show kind of leans into what it thinks the audience really wants to see; a unfeeling Rick and a cynical and jaded morty. I don't really have a problem with most of it because I never really watched this show for its serialized storylines. It is referential and there are small story lines that do pay off over multiple episodes but that's never really been the main focus of the show. The main precedent that they really set up in the first episode is that the show can really kind of go anywhere and do anything without much consequence to the characters. For the most part I think that's fine if the episode has a good conceit; for example, the vat of acid episode can almost be watched without any kind of knowledge of the previous seasons. In the episode itself there seems to be some major character growth for Morty specifically but that gets ignored in later episodes. In a way it almost feels like they're trying to do a sci-fi animated version of Seinfeld but they don't seem to be able to fully commit to that.

It's important to remember that just because Rick says something about himself that doesn't mean it's true. Like how he said he meant to take down the government from the inside. He contradicts his own actions with his words constantly. It's one of his biggest character traits.

I once told my friends that Dan Harmon and The rest of the creators have this commitment problem where they want to have random adventures but they also want to have a deep story but the moment the fans are invested in a mystery, the show gets offended of the idea of wanting to tell a story. Its like someone playing an open world in a stream except they dont bother to do any challenges or missions or ANYTHING and the streamer gets annoyed when chat tells them to atleast do SOMETHING that isnt just random open world bullshit. Poor analogy but you get the point.

Couple years ago, we couldn’t get enough of this show.....

What I've realized about Rick and Morty is it distracts you from the bad writing by using a couple of tricks. Being constantly meta, fourth wall breaking and parodying everything with this nihilistic tone which tricks you into thinking the show is clever. On another related note I think we as an audience tolerate this bad writing because it's so bloody prevalent. It's everywhere in our media that I think we're just numb to it and it's making us dumber.

Jesus Christ Rick and Morty is ten years old??? I'm gonna go fade into dust now. I've lived too long.