WMG / Rick and Morty

Rick Sanchez and his Backstory

Rick is a human/alien Uneven Hybrid.

Rick killed his wife and Beth via time-travel

Rick hates time-travel, but we know from the snake story that he knows how to do it. At some point, he will discover that he is destined to use time-travel to create himself, because without that trauma he won't be motivated to achieve absolute mastery of science and become the smartest man in the universe. He is so narcissistic that he will be tempted to go through with it, because his ego can't bear to be anything less than the smartest man in the universe. But in the end he won't, and time will unravel because of it, erasing the entire series in the last scene of the final episode. The last moments will be set in the new universe that results, in which Rick lives quietly with his wife and daughter.

• Jossed with Rickmurai Jack, which shows that the "totally fabricated origin story" from The Rickshank Redemption is in reality more or less happened.
  • Not jossed, since the Rick from the "totally fabricated origin story" could easily be future Rick 137 disquised as a younger Rick.
  • Jossed for good as of "Solaricks".

Rick had a stepmother who was none other than Susan Pevensie.

After her family's deaths in The Last Battle, she became so disillusioned with Aslan that she went ahead and dug up the yellow and green rings herself, plunged into the Wood Between The Worlds, and kept walking until she left her home universe entirely and ended up in a completely different forest/universe. Eventually she married a widower named Sanchez and together they unravelled the powers of the rings and made the prototype for Rick's portal gun (Rick never said that his parents WEREN'T divorced. This disillusionment with Aslan why Rick is an Athiest and says things like "My God's the biggest Dick that's never existed!". Yes, I know that in The Ricklantis Mixup Rick and Morty go to Atlantis (which features heavily into the origin of the rings) and the police bust a bunch of Mortys making what looks like portal fluid, but who's to say that it's the same Atlantis and the correct method of making portal fluid?Also, Rick knows of a world where time runs much faster than on Earth, and which Morty calls Narnia, populated by cow people. Perhaps they evolved after the humans were wiped out in Aslan's apocalypse.

Rick is a descendant of Albert Einstein.

They look similar, they're really smart, and the Testicle Monsters even mistake him for Rick.

Rick's eyes are brown and Morty's eyes are blue.

Just for symbolism: Morty's color scheme is yellow/brown while Rick's is blue/white and having their eyes colored like the other's main colors contributes to the "there's no Rick without a Morty and there's no Morty without a Rick" thing that seems to be going on with them. Blue eyes symbolise innocence(and sometimes can be creepy)and brown eyes symbolises down-to-earthness and are quite ordinary in humans(which is ironic in Rick's case, because he's anything but ordinary). Since Rick is also implied to be Latino, him having brown eyes would also be appropriate.

• A Rick with yellow eyes would be just as spooky as his personality.

Rick's asshole-ish tendencies are a direct result of his pursuit of science.

He's shown to often mean well (he makes a legitimate attempt to drunkenly bond with Morty before pulling a knife on him) and is curiously assertive about his apathy, making it seem to be a defence mechanism. Perhaps he abandoned attachment after finding that progress on the type of scale he manages forces him to leave everyone else behind, or maybe it was simply the isolation from being apparently the only figure in the universe as smart as he is.

Rick doomed Earth at least twice.

He traveled to another better reality after every screw-up...and that's also the reason why he's an alcoholic.

• This could be why he left his wife, she's wasn't his original wife.

Rick comes from an alternate dimension.

He fled from his home dimension, because it was a Crapsack World, at a young age as a Teen Genius. Traveling through dimensions and galaxies for a while until he settled down on earth with a wife and had kids.

• He's also on several 'Most-wanted'-lists across galaxies and universes resulting from crimes he committed on those travels.

Rick comes from a dimension where he is just an old man of average intelligence and where everybody knows how to travel through dimensions.

Rick is Morty from the future

• That would explain Rick' savviness.
  • And an in-universe explanation for them having very similar voices. Not to mention they both have speech impediments.
  • Jossed. Rick created a younger clone of himself around Morty's age and it looked nothing like Morty.
    • ...Because he doesn't want Morty to know.
  • So he married his grandma.

Rick is not Morty from the future: Summer is

Rick is a Defrosting Ice King.

• That much is apparent. Since lately he's been shown to care for Morty.

Rick's super-intelligence comes from some sort of potion made from the Mega Seeds.

• He says he'll be able to do all kinds of things with them, and that he's smuggled them up his ass many many times; and of course dissolving in someone's rectum causes super-intelligence; what if he found a way to minimise the side effects and extend the duration of the effectiveness. It would explain why that task was so particularly urgent and why he's done it so often.
  • He could have also figured out how to make some sort of super intelligence elixir with them
  • This could actually explain Doofus Rick. he comes from a dimension where he never invented his own portal gun, and thus never discovered the Mega Seeds.
    • Actually, Doofus Rick isn't stupid at all; he's just a Ditzy Genius. He's only stupid when compared to the other Ricks, and then again nothing can tell us he's not just as capable as them.
    • These theories are further supported by the Ricklantis Mixup. Following Evil Morty being elected president, you can see Mortys being made to collect megaseeds in accordance to new policies set out by him. It's probable that Evil Morty is endeavouring to increase the intelligence of all the other Mortys in order to overthrow Ricks.
  • He would have to be a genius already to discover the Mega Seeds' dimension, but it would explain why he's the World's Smartest Man-an average Morty became a genius, so a genius like Rick become contender for "smartest being in the universe". Doofus Rick is a Nice Guy who doesn't seem like the kind of guy to substance abuse so he would reject the Mega Seeds for being "intellectual steroids". In other words, he's how intelligent Rick naturally is.

Rick had at least one Sadist Teacher at some point.

It would explain his utter distaste for school and his eagerness to stand up to Scary Terry's own teacher.

Rick is a Morty from another universe.

After somehow being responsible for the death of "his" Rick (or not being able to save him), Morty buckled down, studied Rick's work and became a brilliant scientist in his own right (growing up to look like Rick as well), then traveled to a universe where the original Rick had died in some other way and replaced him, mentoring himself in an effort to try and make things right. Part of his treatment of Morty in this universe owes to his self-loathing and guilt over the incident. His resentment of Jerry stems from allowing him to grow up so callow.

• It doesn't have to do with how hard Rick tries, Ricks and Morties are two separate creatures. If that was the case then Rick wouldn't need Morty anyway, as he would give off "Morty Waves" himself.

Rick's wife died on an adventure with him.

That's why he's so against girls going on adventures with him. He tries to chalk it up as "chicks just can't handle it" because it's a lot easier to believe that his wife died because she was, by virtue of being a woman, too incompetent to go on adventures with him than to process all the self-blame he's trying to hide because he wasn't able to protect her.

• Jossed by Dan Harmon, who states that Beth's mother was an unremarkable woman.
  • Maybe, but the fact that she was unremarkable could be the reason why she died during the adventure.
  • His wife could've been just as much a badass scientist/adventuress as he was, which is probable considering Rick tends to be distant from people who he doesn't consider as being on his level (thus why he dated a Hivemind). When Rick left his ex-wife, she may have given up her similar pursuits or hidden it from Beth in order to not scare her into thinking she'd leave as well or give her the impression of being similar to Rick (who she'd probably come to fear becoming like and felt bitter hatred for). She probably would've wanted to give Beth some sense of normality. Beth then may have not fully realised the extent of her own mother's intelligence. Furthermore, the stress of raising Beth on her own and being abandoned by Rick could've made her jaded, bitter and exhausted, causing her to perhaps not have time for Beth or to treat her with an impatient attitude or high expectations due to her efforts in raising her well, which would then cause Beth to harbour resentment. There are countless possibilities.

Rick is Anti-Morty

This is another version of "Rick is Morty from the future." Remember when Rick explained how Morties 'camouflage' Ricks? Ricks project a Genius Wave, which is cancelled out by the, uh, Morty Wave. Presumably, this means that the two waves are identical, but reversed. Maybe Morty is destined to undergo some weird nonsensical mumbo jumbo that somehow inverts him, 'negatizing his positrons,' to invoke Inspector Spacetime. This flips his Morty Wave, creating the Genius wave.

And Evil Morty? Well, maybe a "cocky Morty" is one whose brain wave is inverted too early. Most Morties are supposed to evolve into Ricks sometime after age 14. But if one sinister Rick decided to accelerate the process, perhaps trying to get a leg up on the Council by giving himself a head start . . . he'd create a monster, a being with the immense IQ of a Rick and the emotional immaturity of a Morty. Without age, experience, and a family to give him perspective, he'd collapse under the weight of his own genius, and emerge as some kind of nihilistic supervillain, not unlike Owlman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Rick was raised Catholic

Rick has a Spanish last name, which means there's a good chance he has Latino/Hispanic heritage. If so, he likely grew up in Catholicism (possibly with very devout parents) This explains why he's a staunch atheist, but was quick to bring attention to the fact that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus.

• "A Rickle in Time" has more evidence for this theory. In one of the many time singularities, Rick actually prays to Jesus while trying to fix his stabilizing collar. In another singularity, he begs God to be merciful with him "if Hell exists". He takes it all back in the end.

Rick is Latino, but doesn't show any signs of it because of his Disappeared Dad

Rick had a White mom and a Latino dad. His dad left or died when he was young so Rick wasn't raised in his father’s culture. Rick is relatively White-passing so it doesn't come up very often.

Rick was, and may still be to some degree, suicidal

It's no secret that he's depressed, it can't be easy to see your life as meaningful when there's infinite copies of it out there, and it's obvious that he's coping with a combination of substance abuse, pursuing science, and a protective wall of not giving a crap about anything. But who knows; maybe all it'll take is one big emotional blow to his last remnants of humanity (like, say, something happening to Morty) or somehow losing his status as the "Rickest Rick" to get him to start eyeing a gun.

• Sadly confirmed in Season 2, Episode 3. Rick makes an unsuccessful attempt at suicide after Unity leaves him.
• This probably still applies to even after that episode, as in the episode immediately after that one Rick goads Morty into fatally shooting him. Morty assumes that Rick was just trying to help him realize a way to detect the impostors, but Rick's Sure, Let's Go with That response implies that he expected to die.

Rick is bipolar

In addition to the trauma that has come with the multi-verse, Rick also has untreated bipolar disorder which he often self-medicates with alcohol. A lot of Rick's behavior can easily be seen as manic and he might just get drunk off his ass when he's depressed or even simply go off on his own.

• Season 2, Episode 3 gives a disturbing explanation of what Rick does when he gets depressed.

Rick has vitiligo

His skin tone is a bit out of place in a setting where almost all of the human characters have realistic skin tones (whether they be dark or fair skinned) Perhaps it may be shorthand for him having unusually pale skin, while he was possibly born with dark skin.

Rick's knowledge that he is in a TV show is part of the reason for his poor mental state

He doesn't just use his catchphrase to hide his depression and anguish - he yells it, to the audience, when he breaks the fourth wall. He knows that all the stuff he has to put up with is a result of being trapped in a world where every messed-up, disturbing thing that goes on is done for our entertainment, and he's begging us to let it stop.

Rick's father, if he's ever seen, will be voiced by Christopher Lloyd

Seeing as how Rick is based off of Doc Brown, having the man himself voice Rick's father would be a nice Mythology Gag.

• Furthering the Mythology Gag, Rick's father could be a brilliant scientist and Rick became interested in science in the first place because he wanted to live up to his father.

There will be a flashback to Rick's childhood and his interactions with his parents

Rick's father's treatment of young!Rick will be disturbingly similar to how Rick's (at least somewhat abusive) treatment Morty before Rick's Character Development.

Rick was sexually abused as a child

Rick can often be oblivious to suffering Morty goes through, but he quickly picked up on the fact that Mr. Jellybean tried to rape Morty. Perhaps Rick went through a similar experience and it's one of the reason he has emotional problems.

Rick's Backstory Actually Makes Sense

Rick got his original universe family killed, then entered the Pilot universe, accidentally grew too attached to Pilot universe Morty, decided to take that Morty with him away from the Pilot/Cronenberg universe, and now lives in the current universe with a bunch of people he feels distant from, and unwilling to develop an emotional attachment to, due to fear of losing them again.

Ricks probably need Morty-Waves to counteract something involving the wormholes. It's possible the Council of Ricks only exists to protect themselves from some outside entity that could find and kill all of them.

The real question is, how did Rick get that barcode-reader wormhole-opener? It's possible they all stole it from someone who would kill them to get it back, and they managed to acquire more and more intelligence by putting the Mega Seeds from the Pilot up their butts repeatedly, and figured out how to retain that intelligence. So now they aren't just criminals on the run from the law trying to make money for their families (as shown with Rick selling a gun to a bounty hunter to spend that money at Blitz and Chitz with Morty), but super geniuses capable of traveling universes and doing random cool shit, who created a Council out of self-preservation.

Bird-Person might've been Rick's old accomplice who helped him steal the wormhole-generator in his youth who then went straight and got out of that life but Rick still cares about and feels almost indebted to, so they've been friends ever since. The universe Bird-Person lived in was destroyed in the same way that Rick accidentally ruined his own and now they're both the last of their kinds.

Rick left the family in order to protect them.

While that might not make a lot of sense, remember that Rick has a lot of enemies in the universe, not to mention potential enemies of his alternate selves. As seen from flashbacks, Rick left for good probably not long after Summer's birth and probably right after Morty's birth. Since it's implied Rick cares more for his family than he lets on, he most likely left in order to keep his enemies from tracing him to his family, since it would be very difficult to protect two small children from alien threats. He doesn't come back until both Morty and Summer are old enough to fend for themselves.

Rick was close to his father and the latter died prematurely.

It definitely had a huge emotional impact on Rick and it would explain as well why, despite his dislike for Jerry, he still doesn't want him to die (hence why he drops him off at the Jerry Daycare in "Mortynight Run" and is just as horrified as Morty and Summer in "Interdimensional Cable 2 : Tempting Fate" when Jerry gets shot down by the alien bodyguards). He simply doesn't want Morty to suffer the same kind of loss of a loved one !

• Since he wanted every man who remotely resembles his father to cheer him on while he has sex with Unity, it's possible that Rick resents his father outwardly but internally still suffers because he wasn't able to achieve his father's approval and resultantly has a subconscious complex of wanting to be close to his father finally receive approval despite the fact that his father's almost definitely dead. Rick's father could've treated him similarly to how he treats Morty (though more extreme).
  • Supported by the fact that he may either subconsciously or deliberately repeat this cycle of abuse in order to keep Morty constantly seeking his approval while Rick has the freedom to bully him and order him to do whatever he wants without fear of Morty abandoning him.

Rick is actually a Christian.

He was the only one concerned about the birth of Jesus Christ in "Anatomy Park". It would also explain why he hates the devil so much in "Something Ricked This Way Comes". Granted, his ego prevents him from actually admitting his faith as shown in "A Rickle in Time"

• He needs a reason to hate the Devil?
• He's not above praying when he sees no other option either.

Rick isn't actually a freedom fighter

He got on the Federation's bad side through his illegal activities and joined up with those who call themselves freedom fighters so he could keep the Federation off his back. It just wound up that he made friends with them so he stuck around to help.

• So, the fan art of Rick dressed like Han Solo was closer to the mark then they had planned?

Rick used to work for the Federation

Maybe he was the genius responsible for most, if not all, of the technology that helped the Federation become so powerful in the first place. Eventually he grew disillusioned with them and became a terrorist/freedom fighter opposing them. The reason he's been able to evade them for all this time is because there's almost nothing they can come up with that he can't counter, since most of their best tech is stuff he invented. And the real reason they wanted to capture him wasn't just because they wanted to punish him. They want him back as a Boxed Crook working for them again.

Rick was part of the Manhattan Project

As a young, brilliant scientist, Rick was commissioned by the US government to work on the Manhattan Project and assist in the creation of the atomic bomb. He would later go on to use this technology in his fight against the Galactic Federation. His ability to leave an entire universe behind for the sake of saving his own skin speaks to a level of emotional detachment and psychological damage that having dropped an A-Bomb wouldn't be out of place. Especially considering he's now a raging alcoholic afraid of developing emotional attachments to people, always hiding behind a layer of cynicism and snark, but intensely devoted and committed to his friends who he fought alongside in the war-effort. If Area 51 exists in this universe, it wouldn't be crazy to assume that's where Rick met many of his alien friends for the first time. He was also well versed in contacting and negotiating with the U.S. Government in Get Schwifty. Also, after exposure to radiation, re-growth of hair is usually thinner or a different texture and, while human skin will gradually return to its normal color, it can sometimes become a slightly deeper tone. This could explain Rick's appearance rather well, seeing as his appearance seems dramatically affected from a relatively young age.

• Since Rick is 80 in 2014, he would have been about eleven years old during the Manhattan Project. Before he hit puberty, he would need to be able to work with Nobel Laureates and giants of physics like Oppenheimer, Feynman, and Fermi. He would have to deal with the fact that he helped create the Atom Bomb as he turned twelve. The adults on the project had difficulty dealing with the fact that they created a doomsday device. Some of them fell into depression, some of them turned to drugs and alcohol, and some of them headed up the effort to make a bigger bomb. It's surprising that more members of the project didn't turn into the ball of self loathing and alcoholism that is Rick Sanchez. WMG accepted, especially if it could lead to Sanchez's solution to Fermi's Paradox, which might go something like, "Oh they're out there. They're just waiting for us to stop being such huge *** before they say hello."

• Rick confirmed himself to be 70 years old, so it's unlikely, unless he was born earlier and somehow managed to transfer his consciousness into a younger clone, making his chronological age 80 and his biological age 70.
  • He could still be related to someone involved in the Manhattan Project(his father, uncle or older brother), which might have influenced his path to science.

Rick is an albino.

Which could explain his weird skin tone and the fact that he's always had white/light blue hair even when he was in his prime. He could also have had surgery performed on his eyes to get rid of the sight problems that typically come with albinism.

Rick is a cyborg, or was genetically enhanced at the very least.

Because how else could a scrawny, 80 years old man pull off the crazy stunts and feats of physical prowess Rick exhibits throughout the show? Think about it: Rick may be an adventurer, but he's a scientist before all, which means he should have favoured brains over brawn. Yet he's arguably one of the biggest badasses on the show, being able to go toe-to-toe with highly trained soldiers, mutants, Ax-Crazy killers and still have enough energy left to make out with a football stadium filled to the brim with horny redheads ! Not to mention that getting shot in the liver during the course of Who's Purging Now?, instead of being a durable, crippling injury, inconvenienced him at best and didn't even have any lasting consequences. Given Rick's outstanding intellect and the fact that, judging by the events of Big Trouble In Little Sanchez He's researching a way to extend his life despite his suicidal tendencies, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that Rick isn't completely human anymore.

• Confirmed - sort of - by the Season 3 opener "The Rickshank Redemption". Rick is certainly a cyborg now, because he transferred his mind to another Rick who had cyborg augmentations. We still have no information about the body he had before this.

Rick is more evolved than other humans

Rick has an unusual appearance given the show's animation style. His skin is a weird grayish color, he's got blue hair, a unibrow, and a slightly odd facial structure. In the episode "Get Schwifty," the giant floating heads all look like giant versions of Rick's head. Rick states that they are very advanced, evolution-wise ("they feed off of the talent and showmanship of less-evolved lifeforms"). Rick being more advanced than most other humans, but not quite at the level of the heads, would explain his unusual appearance and the fact that he's smarter than everyone else on the show.

The dribble on Rick's lower lip...

...is from a bio-luminescent drink that Rick had once, and stained his skin. Now and then it glows of its own volition. This explains why Rick always has it, it's always the same pattern, and it disappears completely now and then.

Rick granted himself immortality.

He looks rather young even for an 80-year old, he can heal unnaturally fast, he seems physically 50 and his hair is obviously permanently stuck at the start of thinning, so it's inferred at that age, he could have realised he would expire in a few decades, and gave himself immortality. It would NOT have been an easy task, for he could have used many advanced techniques of genetic engineering on himself as well as countless home-made anti-aging drugs, which could have put his own life on the brink of ending in the process.

Rick's wife was a (figurative) monster, and he's working hard to avoid her.

Yes, I know Word of God says she was unremarkable, but consider: if Rick actually misses her, then he would have no problem finding a good match to replace her among the infinite number of "Mrs. Sanchezes" that should exist. It's been either stated or heavily implied that there are infinite Ricks, Mortys, Summers, Beths, and even Jerrys, but not one of her of any kind has been seen. Even if Rick doesn't care one way or another, then she should pop-up somewhere instead of being entirely absent. He's actively avoiding her, and if she ever appears in the series expect her to be someone Rick can't beat easily, and she's coming for him. He knows it, and this is the cause of his despair.

• The Mrs. Sanchez seen in The Rickshank Redemption doesn't count, since she was fabricated from Rick's imagination to mess with the agent interrogating Rick.
• Given how dark this show can get, and the fantastic settings and characters, she might even have become a literal monster of some kind.

Something bad did actually happen to Rick's wife.

Something happened to kill Rick's wife, or make it so he could never see her again. This is why he always seems so cold and unfeeling, he's trying not to grow attached. This also explains why "Doofus Rick" is so happy, he never married, and the other Ricks might pick on him because they're jealous that he never went through the heartbreak. He may not have completely made up the whole "wife died" backstory after all!

• Confirmed. Rickmurai Jack reveals that the backstory shown in Rickshank Rickdemption is mostly true in that an alternate Rick killed his wife and Beth.

Rick Sanchez isn't from C-137, but from another universe.

Despite being out of Beth's life for twenty years, Evil Rick reveals he has memories of picking up baby Morty despite him being 14 at the start of the series. This was said by the Beth from the initial universe, C-137, we're introduced to at the start that later got Cronenberged. His reaction to moving to the new universe comes off as he's done this before. Whether it was something horrific like the end of the world, personally tragic like losing a loved one or maybe simply being so out of touch with normal life he couldn't stand being in his own universe Rick left and has been hopping to and from different realities for over a decade. Why hasn't the Council of Ricks figured this out yet? He switched bodies with the correct Rick of this timeline and left the other version to take the fall and/or die, either to complete the illusion, get the Council off his tail or maybe he was dying himself and took the opportunity to live again in his counterpart's body. Given his interactions with different versions of his family, it remains seen as to how Morty will react to learning Rick isn't his actual grandfather.

• He may not need to switch bodies. The Council of Ricks never specifically say that the now Cronenberg world is C-137, just Rick. Morty says he's C-137, but Rick could be lying to him.

The helmet isn't a suicide helmet

The object that keeps appearing (notable in "A Rickle in Time") is not, as some have speculated, a suicide helmet designed to kill Rick if he ever decides to end it. It's another memory helmet like the ones Morty and Jerry use to view their erased memories in "Morty's Mind Blowers." This one doesn't have a vial or a VHS tape like Morty and Jerry's helmets, respectively, so it can only play one memory: Rick's memory of how his wife died and who is responsible. He chose to forget once, but now he badly, badly wants to know and is always right on the verge of putting it on. Much of his uncertainty in "A Rickle in Time," which was causing timelines to fracture, is because he can't decide whether he's better off not knowing.

Rick doesn't have a Dark and Troubled Past. Rather, his adventures are why he's so messed up and alienated.

It's already stated by Word of God one of the reasons he's messed up is because he's experienced way too much for a human. An abusive parent, loss of a loved one or other tragedy seems too predictable and Rick even seemed to make fun of this. Rather, spending twenty years exploring the multiverse and its infinite wonders has completely changed his view on the value of human life. Why care about someone when there's an infinite number who are happy, sad, living or dead? What do trivial matters mean if you have access to all of creation? The reason why he's not with his wife anymore is because she couldn't deal with a husband who's becoming progressively less like the man she fell in love with. Thus she left him, causing him to feel even more alienated.

It is possible that something tragic did happen to his family, but that would've merely exacerbated his growing alienation. His wife could've died, but instead of being killed in an adventure she may have been Driven to Suicide upon witnessing the mess her husband had become, and all out of the initial noble goal of using science and invention to better the world. The other Ricks are jerks because they've gone through the motions of travelling too far into the multiverse. As for Doofus Rick, he wasn't as intelligent and thus didn't travel nearly as much, so like Morty he's a lot more grounded and thus nicer.

Rick's father is still alive, and nothing special.

Rick is supposed to be sixty years old, so its reasonable he could still be alive. Instead of being an abusive asshole or important person, Rick's dad is a blue collar worker who hasn't done anything that special in his life. Kind of like Jerry actually, which is why Rick resents him. Part of why Rick is the way he is comes from being resentful of his father's mundane, under-achieving personality and wants to stand out. Maybe Rick's grandfather was something a lot more interesting, a scientist like himself, and that adds to his disappointment, or his family has never been that interesting and the young Rick idolized more adventurous figures.

Rick created Beth as a clone before he invented the Portal gun.

In this theory, I'm proposing that Rick'a life is divided into the following chapters: Childhood to adult, does science, has Beth, gets portal gun and leaves Beth, returns and does adventures with Morty.

I propose that during phase 2-3, Rick never had a wife and Beth doesn't have a mother. Beth might be a clone or a creation of Rick implanted with extremely positive memories of Rick and mom and subservience to Rick.

My evidence:

(A) is that throughout the series, there are only brief mentions of Beth's mom (like at that dinner table with the eggs) but no other major proof of her existence (aside from maybe a memory when Rick's with Evil Rick). Even when Beth and the family use the alternative dimension googles, no mention of Beth's mom (even though In the Jerry Day Care, there's a guy that Beth Remarried.

What really spurred me onto this was Simple Rick, who apparently traded in science for woodworking, has a child Beth but no mom. (I also believe that the company pulled this Rick from a dimension where Simple Rick never got the portal gun so he could never leave Beth so the memory repeater will work better on a less cynical Rick.)

• In a commercial for Simple Rick's cookies, the narrator says something that is usually figurative, but if you take it literally it means exactly this.

Narrator: "His name is Simple Rick, but he's no dummy! He realized long ago that the greatest thing he'd ever create was his daughter."

• That same commercial doesn't show a "Mrs. Rick Sanchez" anywhere, even though she should be present when Beth's childhood is shown.

(B.) Beth's behaviour

If Beth is a clone and/or created and modified with memories (reminds me of Bioshock 1) it would explain a lot of her behaviour.

As we see in the Ricklantis (and the one where Morty turns into a car) episode, Ricks aren't above conditioning and biologically changing members of his family and creating baby clones of himself, so If Beth is modified, it would explain why when Rick mentions her mom, she starts crying and being heartwarmed, or how forgiving she is of Rick's destructive behaviour (especially to Morty), why she welcomes Rick into the family, why she's so talented in many different fields, why she looks up to and connects with Rick (and why Rick connects with her). It might also explain why she's the only family Rick has in every dimension because Beth was created before he went on his adventures so he ha Beth to go back to.

Beth is also alcoholic, has a strange love hate relationship with horses (to the point where she makes a dog sculpture out of horse hooves), and is quite good with weapons, has mood swings. Could these be by products of her cloning/creation?

Rick created a clone.

Ricks suggestion to Beth in season 3 is based on experience. He created a Rick clone to fulfill his parental obligations while he went off and had adventures. At some later point; he returned home to find his clone being a better father than he ever was. This caused him to permanently abandon his home universe; until he found a universe where he DIDN'T create the clone before leaving.

Rick's wife was a clone

Diane/Bonnie or whoever her name really was killed by the bomb the fell in the garage in Rick's "fabricated" origin story. What if she pushed Beth out of the way before she was killed instead of them both dying, but was knocked out.

After the explosion, instead of instantly building the Portal Gun to go out for revenge on the other Rick that killed her, Rick cleaned up the damage and made a clone of his wife, because he couldn't lived without her. But as time moved on their marriage started "failing". What if the reason for that is...its because the PTSD of Rick watching his wife die and the fact that clone wasnt "real", made him more sour and callous (not to the extent he is today), so that's the reason he divorced her and ran out on Beth.

• That's what happens when you open a can of clones. The best answer is "Don't think about it". On a Watsonian level it's definitely possible, on a Doylist level, it depends on what story the showrunners ultimately decide, if or when they choose to follow up. My personal feeling about the flashback and "fabricated origin" is that the Rick in that dream is not the one in the garage who built the Portal Gun and chose to stay with Diane and Beth, but it's the other Rick who comes in and tells him to become the "infinite Rick, a god". The other Rick is C-132, not the family guy Rick. Rick C-132 is the "Rickest Rick" and he was the guy who never married, never had children and grandchildren, and for Prime!Rick there is no Beth, no Summer, no Morty. The reason for his callous sociopathic and psychopathic behaviour to his family, is that on some level he knows that he doesn't have a family and they didn't exist, and he can't bring himself to tell that to them, or admit it outright.

The reason Rick's backstory was a fake.

Aside from the April Fools fatigue, the creators probably felt that the origin story in "Rickshank Redemption" wasn't enough to explain or justify Rick's transition into the messed up sociopath we all know.

• It's a little more than that. The creators have said that they will never do a straightforward "this is why Rick drinks" episode because they don't want to reduce his morality/amorality/immorality complex to a singular base moment. This troper's guess/hope for Season 4 is that we look into the backstories of everyone but Rick and see what we can glean about Rick's backstory from everyone else's. I think that they don't really need a backstory if they try to give Rick more moments that explore his damaged and regretful side that go deeper than other characters simply saying so, his kind moments to the rest of the family that he tries to pass off as "the logical thing," or sticking his head in a laser after his species-with-benefits outgrows him.

Rick is depressed, because he cannot find his way home

Why Rick hates himself? It could be because of losing his original Morty as seen in the opening scenes, but that doesn't explain why every Rick is self-hating.What if when (each of the) Rick(s) first discovered dimensional travel and made his first cross-dimensional journeys, he made the first jumps blindly? Then, when he tried to return home, he realised he couldn't find the right universe anymore. All those universes he visited were for all practical purposes identical to each other. With each universe there is exactly one in infinite chance that it is his home universe. Basically Rick is so self-hating, because he traded his family for infinite adventures in the infinite universes. He can have anything he can ask for, except the people he loves and left behind.Rick(s) keeps telling that everyone in multiverse is interchangeable and therefore nothing matters. To him(them) it's true, because to him(them) all the Mortys, all the Beths, all the Summers, all the Dianes and even all the Jerrys are just substitutes for the one Beth, one Morty, one Summer, one Diane and one Jerry that truly matter to him. It's like he is looking for a needle hidden in an infinite stack of for all intentions identical needles. Even the Cronenberg Rick, Cowboy Rick and Sea Person Rick have innumerable counterparts and duplicate worlds.This explains why the Council of Ricks banded together. They tried to pool their intellect to find some way to categorise universes in the Central Finite Curve to identify their "own" universes, but failed. The hang together despite the misery in the hope that they might one day succeed. This also explains why Rick disappeared for 20 years. He spent that trying to identify his own world, until he finally gave up and settled down on one world he picked at random. Every time Rick looks at Morty, Beth, Summer and even Jerry he is reminded of what he lost.That's why we only see those Ricks who invented dimensional travel. We never see those Ricks who didn't, because they chose wisely and stayed with their "own" families.

Rick fears pirates, because they raped him

Rick is afraid of pirates and mentions that the Pirates of Pancreas is very accurate depiction. He even points out that real pirates are very rapey.Also Rick's ass is very loose. He says it's because of Mega seed smuggling, but it could also be about having a too close encounter with pirates.

Rick murdered a copy of Unity at the end of Season 2's "Auto Erotic Assimilation."

Many have speculated that creature Rick thaws out and kills before his attempted suicide was possibly an experiment to create a child made up of him and Unity (many cite how it has green eyes similar to Unity when it takes someone over. However, this Troper thinks that it's actually a copy of Unity that Rick was working on. Rick may have been working on a body that it could inhabit on its own and no longer need to take over other living beings, but put it on ice after it left him when they were younger. And if Unity had stayed, Rick may have continued to work on it and ask it to stay with him as an individual being. However, due to having his heart broken, Rick decides to terminate it before his attempted and failed suicide. This, as a result, has an unintended side-effect. Unity feels the destruction of the copy and knows that it was Rick that did it. It explains why he was labeled as a "hostile entity." Unity was scared to death of him, thinking he had decided to try to kill it due to their breakup, unaware of Rick's attempted suicide.

Rick is a legitimately magical being.

He just doesn't know the difference between magic and science because if magic exists, then that too is a science.

"The Rickshank Redemption" wasn't the first time Rick jumped bodies.

Even before the episode he had "Operation Phoenix" as a thing, and since then has showcased a number of ways to stop himself from being Killed Off for Real. It's likely before the show he's put himself into new bodies after they expired, and it adds a layer to his recklessness if very few things can actually kill him. Being stronger than a 70 year old man should be might come from some genetic tweaking on his clones. The tweaking also lets him handle more alcohol and might be the reason for his Gag Penis.

Rick is an Amberite.

All the dimensions seen are just Shadows. Rick can "invent" anything because he can manipulate shadow. Rick may not be able to Shadow-Walk, but can create artifacts that allow him to. All the other Ricks are shadow Ricks, and thus lesser versions of him. Beth, Morty, and Summer are also Amberites. They just have to try testing their real potential. Rick is so spry for an old man because Amberites don't effectively age.

Rick never found the assassin of his family because he was looking in the wrong places.
He made an obvious, simple, and mistaken assumption.

The Central Finite Curve is described as a "wall around infinity," such that in all of the universes inside of it Rick is the smartest being in that universe, and in all of the universes outside of it Rick isn't.

Why would any Rick build such a thing?

Rick was attempting to trap the assassin inside the "wall" so he could track him down, but this assumes the assassin was like the Rick we've been following: the smartest being in the universe he came from. He wasn't. He didn't need to be. He only needed to be smart enough to get in, make his proposition to give Rick the tech, and blow up his family when Rick refused the offer.

The assassin got what he wanted from an adjacent universe with a more cooperative alternate Rick, then went home. Rick could look forever inside the "wall" and ultimately fail, because the assassin was outside of it the entire time Rick was searching!

• If we ever see Evil Morty again, it may be after he finds the assassin by accident.

Rick tricked the brainscan with false memories to hide his origins.

Rick seemed aware that President Morty was up to no good. And he was already victim of the brainscan once. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

So he implanted himself a 'false origin story' based on what he told to the Federation.

One proof of tampered/created memories seems to be visible when he encounter Beth: The house he crashed has already the crack in front of the garage from the interdimensionnal travel in season 1 finale, which cannot be possible. If this memory is not real, why the others should be?

Rick comes from a universe where they really do say "take for granite."

For some reason, in Rick's original universe, the phrase "take for granted" is actually "take for granite" and this is why Rick erased Morty's memory of him saying it.

The Rick who killed Rick C-137’s original family did it because he’d also lost his family.

If you remember “Rickmurai Jack,” then you probably remember it confirming the flashback that was shown in “The Rickshank Redemption.” As it turns out, Rick C-137 losing Diane and Beth to an explosion really did happen after all.

Okay, so that’s out of the way. Now I want to share what the motive might have been for the Rick who killed Rick C-137’s Diane and Beth (we’ll call the killer Rick Rick C-000). Rick C-000 may have killed Rick C-137’s family because he lost his Diane in childbirth and Beth was stillborn. Losing your wife and daughter in childbirth is already devastating enough, but when Rick C-000 discovered alternate universes where his family hadn’t tragically died, it built up a lot of resentment in him. It didn’t seem fair to him that his family had died, but other versions hadn’t.

So he devised to kill as many versions of Diane and Beth as he could, making sure that the alternate versions of himself would know the pain he had been going through for years. This, of course, included killing our Rick’s Diane and Beth. Ultimately, our Rick would go on a killing spree of other Ricks and form the Citadel of Ricks before joining up with a Beth who’d been abandoned by her Rick. All this because the (original?) Rick lost his wife and daughter in a double tragedy.

• Jossed. Rick Prime (here referred to as C-000) is the biological granfather of the main Morty of the show, and from the original, Cronenberged dimension.

The Rick that killed Diane and Beth in a backstory near the end of season 5 is the Big Bad of the show.

As you can see, the Rick that killed our Rick's (aka C-137) wife and Beth had the ability to travel through other dimensions. Since Rick (C-137) was not able to find the Rick that killed his wife and Beth at the end of season 5, it's safe to say that the Rick that slain C-137's wife is the Big Bad of the show.

The Rick that killed our Rick's original family is the first Rick to invent the portal gun.

Relative to our Rick of course. "Weird Rick" invented the portal gun before any other Rick connected in the Central Finite Curve, before forming any noticable attachments. Because he's had interplanetary/dimensional travel for the longest, he became a desensitized asshole by the time most Ricks still gave a damn about their Diane and/or Beth. Hence why he's the Rick turning other Ricks into desensitized assholes like what he did for the most part with our Rick. His callousness is either because already saw it all before he could build any meaningful relationship...or "Weird Rick" was always The Sociopath, and it's that natural uncaringness that motivated him into making the portal gun before any other Rick.

Rick's entire backstory and character development is one big lie

Rick is smart. I know that, you know that, we all know that. And possibly he's smart enough to fool everyone, from the audience to his own family. He constantly hints that he's aware that he's an animated character and messes with the audience by coming up with fake backstories and "development" of his character. I mean, how could his backstory be at least partially true if it was specifically stated that he can't alter details of a memory? This means that he purposefully inserted false memories into his brain scan to fool not only Evil Morty, but his own Morty and other family members. The universe he travels in "Solaricks" is also not his, making sure he ends up in a dimension different from his home one just to mess with us, the viewers. Breaking the Central Finite Curve was also part of his plan to continue bringing his Morty on more dangerous adventures for his own benefit, just because he likes being in control, because he likes being a GOD.

Rick Prime was framed

Strictly speaking its never actually confirmed that he was the one who sent the bomb that killed Beth and Diane, he just seems like the obvious suspect because A: it happened right after main Rick turned down his offer, B: the bomb came through an interdimensional portal, and C: he's a dick. The fact that the writers went out of their way to not show him doing the deed is kind of suspicious - What if its a hint he wasn't actually responsible?

Other Characters

Mr. Nimbus can control the police because he also has powers over the moon/the moon is one of the sources of his powers

Yes, the implication being that the police is a ''lunatic'' institution.

Mr. Nimbus' full name is Nimbostratus

Yes, "a multi-level, amorphous, nearly uniform and often dark grey cloud that usually produces continuous rain, snow or sleet but no lightning or thunder".

Why Jerry didn't notice all the... illusions and fake shit in M. Night Shaym-aliens

Quite simply, we've seen in future episodes that the world just seems to LOVE to shit on him, perhaps he knew it was fake, and chose to ignore it because for once, it seemed just like everything was... just happy. He couldn't care if all the people are quite clearly copies, or if the fake Beth was a statue, really. He was HAPPY, dammit, and things weren't hectic, and crazy, and... everything just... seemed good for once. I know if I was in his situation, I'd willingly stay in something like that just out of sheer desperation for something good to happen to me for once.

Morty possesses a type of intelligence not recognised by Rick.

It's demonstrated that Rick can be rather narrow-minded, and that Morty demonstrates occasional flashes of situational brilliance, or at least reason. The "Morty waves" described in episode 10 are likely not moron energy, but some form of underdeveloped foil intelligence (like emotional intelligence, for example). As pseudo as the science is, if Rick was cloaked by pure stupidity it would probably be in his best interest to take a rock along.

• ...or Jerry.
• To run with the emotional intelligence possibility, Rick is a logic inclined character, meaning the left side of his brain is more active, while Morty is the opposite, the right side of his brain is more active; incidentally, this might, in some way explain how he figured out how to weed out the parasitic aliens in "Total Rick-all". They work by appealing to emotion, so that gave Morty the advantage, thus outsmarting them. Rick and Morty are in many ways, incomprehensible to each other in how they reason things out. So their combined intense brain waves cause incomprehensible interference. Long story short, Rick is essentially making the mistake judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree.
• It's noticeable that even though Rick doesn't mind calling Morty an idiot, he doesn't use the term "Idiot Waves", instead calling them "Morty Waves", implying it's not JUST Morty being an idiot, it's something more.
• It's childlike innocence, something that Rick may not have had even when he was a child. Think about it: the man's been to every known corner of the galaxy and maybe a few previously-unknown ones; that's bound to cause a person to lose that sense of wonder and make them cynical. Morty and Summer still possess it, and Rick envies them for it (though he'd never admit it).
• Part of me thinks that it's equal parts innocence, emotions and intellect to balance out Rick. It can't be as simple as "Morty is stupid." If that were the case then Rick would run with Jerry all the time even if he can be annoying.

Morty looks like Rick's dead wife.

• Jossed. Now that we've seen her, she doesn't have a particularly strong resemblance to Morty.

Morty is his own Grandfather

It makes sense for them to go there, although Season 1 has no time-travel episodes according Word of God.

The Morty we know isn't our Rick's "first" Morty.

Some of the continuity regarding Rick and Morty's first meeting doesn't seem to make sense. (Beth implies that Rick just came back, while a later episode shows Rick seeing Morty as a baby) But it easily makes sense if you interpret the baby Morty seen in Rick's memories as an alternate!Morty. Perhaps what happened to our Rick's first Morty is one of the reasons he has so many issues.

• It's implied this may be true in "Get Schwifty". When Morty sees a photo of younger!Rick holding him as a baby, he expresses confusion, asking who the baby is, which implies that our Rick was never around when this/our Morty was a baby.
  • Maybe not, as most people can't identify themselves as babies (even if it's obvious to the audience) and Morty probably wouldn't remember anyway since he was a baby. If he did know, he would say something like "Rick was holding me as a baby?"
  • [[spoiler: In the Season 4 promotional short "The Delicious Taste of Ice Cream", during Robo-Morty's Ice-Cream dream, the dream!Rick accidentaly tells Morty that he had "Five Mortys", then says That's canon. This is similar to when in "Close Rick-counters with Rick-Kind" where our!Rick says something about "Five Mortys and a jumper cable", maybe this wasn't a hypothetical statement.

The Morty we know is the original Morty.

It's just that the universe we're presented to isn't his home. "Morty's Mindblowers" shows Rick erases traumatic memories, and they may have abandoned another universe. After accidentally nuking the world at the start of the show, Rick traveled with Morty to another universe, one where he's dead and Morty recently died in a way they can take their place and not look suspicious. He then erased his memory of this. He's probably done this with Morty other times, and each time tests how he'll react. Morty still remembers "Rick Potion Number 9" because it's the first "abandoning the dead universe" experience that didn't make him want to kill himself. This is why Rick seems to care more about Morty than Beth or Summer in either the pilot or current universe-neither were his actual relatives. Saying "we can only do a few more of these" is either a lie to hide this fact, or he's worried removing this experience too often might cause permanent brain damage.

Our Morty is the "Rickest Morty"

Aside from relative intelligence versus empathy, a major trait of the Rick/Morty relationship is that Rick is the leader, whose will and drive set the course for the adventures, and Morty is the sidekick, following orders and generally serving as a henchman. No Morty is involved with any of the higher level functions of the Council of Ricks, nor are there any demonstrated examples of the Rick/Morty dynamic being reversed. The Morty we've been following shows many Rick-like qualities, starting with his willingness to argue with Rick when he thinks a course of action is wrong, and to stand by his principles; he often loses these arguments or suffers for these principles, but has not given up yet. Also, at least twice he has managed to assume leadership positions in strange organizations, persuading them to bend to his will and work towards his goals, as seen when he goes among the primitive peoples inside the lowest pocket dimension in Rick's car battery. The most compelling demonstration is when he gets locked in Evil Rick's room full of abducted Mortys; while the rest of the Mortys degenerated into a cult-like organization prepared to wait indefinitely for a hypothetical leader (read: a Rick) to save them, our Morty started a riot within 5 minutes. During that time, he was the closest thing that room had to a Rick, and everyone in there knew it.

Series Morty is the only surviving member of Rick's original family.

Rick totally destroyed the earth of his original universe, and only managed to save Morty before the planet was uninhabitable. He then found a way to insert his original Morty into a universe where Morty had just died, then left for 14 years out of guilt. If you pay attention, Rick only risks the safety of his universe's Earth when he knows Morty is safe. In the pilot Rick is only going to drop the bomb when Morty is in the car, Rick takes Morty with him at the end of Rick Potion #9 (Rick also talks about being able to universe swap '3-4 times tops' with the assumption that Morty would be going with him), and is totally frivolous about getting the right Jerry when Morty is standing beside him.

Other than explaining obvious things like Rick's depression, this also shows why Rick treats everyone but Morty as replaceable, he has lost Beth and Summer before, and sees one non-original as being just as good as any other. It also explains why Rick was so slow to warm up to Summer compared to Morty, she is not an original, and he doesn't want to get attached to someone he might have to ditch to save the original Morty. It also explains the picture on Bird-person's wall. The picture was taken by Rick when he either saved Morty from Earth's destruction or when he inserted him into the pilot universe where its Morty had just died.

Rick's lifestyle is built around being with original Morty as much as possible, because it is the only thing that keeps him grounded in the universe, and losing track of his original Morty would destroy him emotionally (brainwave cloaking is useful, but Rick went for years without a Morty, and he could be using that as an excuse).

• Jossed; Main Morty isn't even Rick C-137's original grandson because Rick C-137 never had his own grandson; his original Beth was murdered as a child years before she could ever meet Jerry and have any kids. The fate of Main Morty's original grandfather- the one who abandoned Beth and never returned- is completely unknown. However, though purely speculation, it's highly likely that Main Morty's actual Rick is either living on the Citadel with the other Ricks, continuing his adventures out in space, or is dead by now.
  • Actually, as of Solaricks, it is revealed that Weird Rick is actually Series Morty's actual grandfather.

Beth is also an alcoholic

"Total Rickall"shows that Summer has memories of Beth getting drunk alone. Beth's immediate reaction to shooting the non-impostor Mr. Poopy Butthole is very anxiously pouring herself a glass of wine. There's a good chance she inherited her father's predisposition for alcoholism.

• In "Ricksty Minuets" she's seen drinking a large amount of wine while watching her alternate self drink a large amount of wine.

Summer is a secret badass.

In Episode 3 of the Rushed Licensed Adventure, we see that she keeps a tranquilize gun in her (conspicuously locked) closet, and in "Rick Potion #9", we never actually see her fighting off any Cronenburgs but she'd have had to in order to meet up with her parents. Sure, she got pretty easily overpowered in "Raising Gazorpazorp", but maybe she's just better with weapons than she is with hand-to-hand.

• Supported by a story in the comics depicting her as a Future Badass.
• Also supported by "Total Rickall", where she not only gleefully joins the fight, she actually manages to out-sociopath Rick.
• Confirmed around season 3. By this time, she's become perfectly capable in a fight and with weapons all on her own, muc like Morty.

Bird Person had trouble with mates because he made them jealous by talking about Rick like he was a love interest instead of a friend.

Bird Person freaks out a lot.

Only other bird people notice that, though.

Bird Person acts weird for his species' standards

Bird people don't usually speak monotonously.

If someone kicked Bird Person in the balls, his facial expression wouldn’t change.

But he would fall down like a tree.

• And utter a single, deadpan "Ow."

Squanchy and Bird Person are those characters' nicknames

Seeing as how "Gearhead" is revealed to be a nickname given to the character by Rick, who never bothered to learn his real name, it's probable that "Squanchy" and "Bird Person" are similarly nicknames. Seeing as how they seem to have a deeper connection with Rick than Gearhead, they'd probably be less inclined to take offense to these nicknames than he was, so they allow Rick and others to refer to them as such. This is further supported by the fact that part of the season 2 finale takes place on Squanchy's home planet of "Planet Squanch." Rick calling him "Squanchy" could be the equivalent of nicknaming somebody from Texas "Tex."

• Except that Bird Person actually introduced himself at the door in "Ricksy Business" as "Bird Person," and was also called that by Squanchy while officiating at Bird Person's wedding. Seems to be his real name.
  • In "Wedding Squanchers," Tammy mentions that Bird Person's name is difficult for humans to say, so most likely they're not "real" names, but names they adopted that a human can actually say.

Rick did it for Bird Person.

And he would do it again. He did it for him- that is to say, he did it for freedom. Deep down he knew he wasn't built for fighting but that didn't mean he was not prepared to try. What they don't know was his real advantage. Because when you live for someone, you're prepared to die.

Revolio Clockberg Jr. was part of Rick's group in another universe

Rick's group of "terrorists" include Birdperson and Squanchy who have very generics names considering where they come because they are hiding their identity from the Federation. It's possible that Rick called him Gearhead because that's what he went by in the universe where he was part of rick group and that rick didn't realize the Revolio from the universe he was in never joined them and continued to call him Gearhead which Revolio took as racially motivated and why he betrayed him.

Doofus Rick is not naive(or stupid), but a Knight in Sour Armor.

Doofus Rick is the result of a Rick replacing so much of his memories that he basically killed himself, making doofus Rick a different person who only has his body, few traits of his personality and, maybe, very similar(of not identical)brainwaves to his.

The thing that compelled him to do that was knowing that his daughter killed her Jerry, Summer and herself in a fit of rage. At first he only wanted to delete the memories about his family but he later decided to "live again" as a new person.

• But he said that he never had kids.
  • But if this theory is true, then he can't remember because he wiped his own memory.

Doofus!Rick was the result of a normal Rick looking into Mr. Needful's microscope, and Evil!Morty was the result from a Deal with the Devil.

After Rick became "retarded" in Evil!Morty's universe, Not-Yet-Evil!Morty would have encountered Mr. Needful and acquired an item that would increase his intelligence. Morty would use the item and become super intelligent, at the price of him becoming Evil!Morty. As a result of the swapped intelligences, Rick and Morty's roles would become reversed, and Doofus!Rick would be the one with "Morty waves".

• The only problem with this theory is that Doofus!Rick is from a timeline where he never had Beth, hence the council assigning him a Morty from another timeline who couldn't possibly be Evil Morty.
• Alternatively there was no Morty involved, but he still used the microscope. Given how high his IQ is normally it couldn't make him actually retarded, just from "smartest person in the universe" genius to "genius" genius, which would be considered retarded by the other Ricks.

Unlike the other Ricks, Doofus Rick's wife is still with him.

It's difficult to imagine a version of Rick just taking how the other Ricks treat him, even if that version is a Doofus. What if he isn't though? What if unlike every other Rick in the multiverse, Doofus Rick knows that when he gets home, he's going to see his loving wife, well adjusted family, and still developing grandkids. Maybe Doofus Rick's good natured and has that haircut because his wife looks after him and worries about how he looks when he's out. Maybe he takes the way the other Ricks treat him in stride because unlike literally every other version of himself, Doofus Rick is genuinely happy.

• Doofus Rick never married, which is why he had his Morty assigned to him.

Evil Morty is the Big Bad of the series

In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", Evil Morty becomes the first character in the show to outsmart Rick, who thinks he found the real Rick killer when it was actually just Evil Morty's dummy. He gets away scot-free, and while leaving, his angry expression seems to indicate that there's still more he needs to do. His main goal seems to be to kill Ricks, and he doesn't have any problem hurting Morties to achieve that goal. His motive has yet to be revealed. Being a Morty, he might know things about Rick that the main Morty doesn't. He's also the first villain in the show to lack any sort of humor.

• Seems to be confirmed by "The Ricklantis Mix-up"

Evil Morty is the Morty Rick left behind in the opener

In the opener Rick and Morty are running from killer frogs, Rick uses his portal gun and flees, and left Morty to die-He survives, and is hopping mad.

Evil Morty went evil after his own version of Rick Potion #9

Evil Morty and Main Character Morty both went through the events of Rick Potion #9-While MC Morty eventually got better, Evil Morty goes mad from the revelations of multiverses and endless Ricks and Mortys.

• Due to all the stuff Main!Rick put Main!Morty through, it's no surprise that Evil Morty became a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.

Evil Morty is the Rickest Morty

As Rick says (well, goes without saying), he is the Rickest Rick, which makes Morty the Mortiest Morty. Evil Morty is the opposite. He's the Rickest Morty. His Rick was the Mortiest Rick, and thus completely useless and unable to prevent his Morty from taking over.

• Going further, it's possible that Rick J-19-ZETA-7 (the "stupid Rick" from the dimension where they eat their own shit) is probably the Mortyest Rick. He'll likely return when Evil Morty does and have some kind of effect on the plot.

Evil Morty is from the "Doc and Mahrti" universe

It could be the series darkest ever Call-Back if true. It'd be no wonder if Mahrti went crazy after being repeatedly raped by his grandfather set him off and decided to kill every Rick he could find. It could even be that "Doc" Rick could be the most evil of Ricks imaginable too.

Evil-Morty is Our Rick's Original Morty

Evil-Morty is the same Morty we see in Rick's flashbacks and in old baby-photos with Rick in them. In that universe, Rick used Morty for adventures since he was a toddler and over those several years, the young Morty developed all of Rick's bad habits and views. Unity's criticism of Rick in Auto-Erotic Assimulation for causing the people around him to mimic his behavior made him suicidal for many reasons, one of them being because he pieced together that his original Morty was responsible for what happened in Close Encounters of the Rick Kind and he finally came to grips with the fact that he emotionally destroyed his grandson to the point where he wanted to murder all versions of Rick in existence.

• Jossed. Our Rick actually never had his own Morty because his version of Beth died as a child. Evil Morty had his own Rick at some point that he presumably killed long ago.

Rick entered the Pilot-Universe because he knew he needed a new Morty who was less Rick-like than the Morty he helped raise (possibly demonstrated by the fact that the Morty-waves weren't present anymore, and thus that Morty wasn't useful). The conditions to create the Mortiest Morty were those in which Rick wasn't in Morty's life until pubescence, meaning said Morty has his own agency and thought-processes, making him capable of standing up to Rick. It's why Rick commends Morty in Mortynight Run for sticking to his guns about Fart and why in A Rickle in Time he tells Morty to "Be good" and to "be better than me." Rick knows he's a complete mess and he feels like a failure for ruining his original grandson's life. His attempt at an apology in the Pilot is to get drunk, get Morty inside his flying car, find Morty's crush, then bomb the entire city, if not everything else, all so that Morty can repopulate the world with the girl he likes. That's what Rick thinks Morty would like. It's probably what his original Morty talked about. And when Morty is horrified and says no, Rick crashes the plane, goes along with the idea that it was just a test and passes out.

In spite of what Evil-Morty suspects, Rick's Achilles Heel is that he loves Morty. Rick is the renegade of the Council of Ricks, the one Rick who refuses to obey the rules and who always weasels his way out. He stayed with his grandson even when he shouldn't have, even when it was disadvantageous to do so, even though it wasn't what other Ricks did to get good Mortys. And, in the end, it's what ruined his Morty's life and made him the Rickest Morty. So for almost the entire first season he's emotionally distant and cruel because he's just learned that his caring about his family is what caused everything to go wrong. But as shown in Meeseks and Destroy, he can't help himself. He cares about Morty. And no matter how hard he tries to push his family away when the self-loathing is at its worst, at the end of the day he'll always protect and care for his family and by doing so he only endangers them. It adds a whole new layer to his abandonment of Beth as well, as the Ricks who abandoned her and the rest of the family could also have been trying to protect them the same way they might've been unable to protect their own wife.

Evil Morty was the original Morty for the series Rick.

This has to do with several things but it mostly all trails back to the comment about how it's dangerous for a Morty to get cocky. Something happened, and we also notice that he's fairly cavalier about burying his own body, likely meaning that it happened more than once. He has pictures of a baby Morty and in the episode where we saw the multiversal collection of Ricks and Morty's we also saw him having memories of a baby Morty. A picture could theoretically be faked but memories like that are less likely. It would also explain several other things. The mind controlled Ricks comment that there is only one universal truth that Ricks don't care about Morty's, the tone was accusatory, mocking. It was meant to wound this Rick, maybe he's already lost more Morty's than the presumed one. He raised his Morty, taught him his beliefs even helped him become something of an inventor, or at least Morty was able to infer enough useful things through observation. At a guess something made him arrogant, maybe he decided to use his knowledge to conquer, maybe he did something on the scale of Rick Potion #9, but it caused Rick to turn on him and possibly abandon him to whatever his fate would be. This was the final straw for this Morty, he didn't just want to make that Rick pay he wanted to make EVERY Rick pay, and he had a means to do it. He'd use the tech he had to ambush and control a Rick, as well as set up a larger plan. He would start killing Ricks, the Morty's would be tortured but also told of a hope, a 'True Morty' that would lead them to freedom and better times. Evil Morty could have built a much less painful better designed Morty based field, but there was no reason to, he wanted those Morty's angry and afraid, because once they were freed they would likely at least consider vengeance. And since the Morty's all look fairly similar if not identical he could just wait, let the Morty's be freed, escape among them, and then later come claiming to be whichever Morty they proclaimed the one true one to be. But part of his plan was also revenge on the Rick that hurt him, make him hunted by the other Ricks, confront him with what he did, break him totally before ending him. It didn't work that way, but he has more time, and maybe he'll even free this Rick from prison, after all, he always could use a new puppet.

Evil Morty is C-137 Morty (the main Morty) from the Future

I know that the creators have stated they don't want to use time travel, but this works. First, C-137 Morty is already not like the other Mortys. Through the series C-137 Morty has learned how to use many of Rick's gadgets and can take care of himself without Rick (The only other Morty ever shown even similar is Evil Morty) and over the course of the series has been developing a dislike for Rick and his behavior. He has also been shown to have pent up aggression and routinely calls out Rick for his morally ambiguous and even outright evil behavior. C-137 has also been shown to be developing a dislike for his alternative selves, thinking they are almost useless, and even outright complaining that having another Morty as a lawyer is a screwjob, because its a Morty. Evil Morty clearly dislikes Rick and the other Mortys, but Evil Morty WASN'T trying to kill C-137 Rick. He was outright killing the rest of the Ricks, but he was trying to extract C-137 Rick's memories, something he didn't do to any of the other Ricks he killed. Evil Morty was specifically after a memory or memories of C-137 Rick....because he wants to be sure of whether or not HIS Rick is as evil as he thinks the rest of the Ricks are, because it is C-137 Morty

Mr. Poopy Butthole...!

Actually is a parasite and figured out how to create a negative memory with Beth shooting him to trick the family into thinking he was real and releasing him into a hospital filled with new hosts.

Mr. Poopy Butthole was another one of Rick's alien friends like the Bird Person

Exactly what it says in the WMG. This allows him to be real, but also for his unexpected presence. He only shows up from time to time, but has always been a friend to the whole family. He could also have been the one who accidentally brought the parasites, giving justification to his red herring comments trying to get Rick to lower the blast shields before the other parasites revealed themselves.

• Possibly confirmed in "Interdimensional Cable II." One of the channels features a character of the same species as Mr. Poopy Butthole stealing people's things.

There was a hint about whether Mr. Poopy Butthole

was actually a parasite or not.

If the way to differentiate parasites is performed via checking whether or not characters have bad memories with said person, then I believe that the incident where the family was stuck in an elevator with Mr. Poopy Butthole was the important tell. While he was trying to be encouraging the family was still having a decidedly bad time until the parasite masquerading as a cousin showed up to save them.

Mr. Poopy Butthole only exists in the Non-Cronenberged Universe

And the animators were too lazy to change the opening titles. The titles with Mr. Poopy Butthole in them were swiped from the alternative universe, but lost after the episode aired, and, again, the animators were too lazy to look for them.

It turns out that the drunker Rick and his family get, the smarter they are.

This may not come into play during the show, but I can imagine the first time Summer gets really drunk, she develops time travel. Morty, being Morty, will need to black out before he gets anywhere (or when).

At least one member of the Sanchez-Smith family has Asperger's Syndrome.

This troper, having had a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome since preschool (I hesitate to outright say "I have Asperger's Syndrome" due to my mistrust of the diagnosis process), is considerably intrigued by fictional characters that could potentially have Asperger's Syndrome, especially in animated works. I try not to do it much due to how it's one of those things that, if you grasp at enough straws, could apply to anyone and anything, but Rick and Morty seems to be a more-special-than-average case. Dan Harmon "accidentally" created a character with Asperger's on Community in the form of Abed, and started to notice Asperger's traits in himself after some research (this could easily explain his infamous perfectionism that has made it difficult for even those that like him to work with him, his strong opinions on a lot of things, and his immense distaste for Glee, given that show's insensitivity towards Asperger's in comparison to other things it tries to be realistic in its treatment of), so it wouldn't be too surprising to think that he and Justin Roiland would try to make one of the show's central characters have it deliberately. Morty is outright stated to have a learning disability, so maybe this is it. If Morty has it, then he would be a more innocent example, given that his Asperger's traits are the not-too-touchy ones of social awkwardness, difficulties with girls, and struggling to focus on things in school he would lack prior interest in (a problem made worse by his insomnia). Jerry could be interpreted as having it due to his immense insecurities and obsessive desire to be right about everything regardless of how much he embarrasses himself in his quest to do so. Summer is probably the least likely, unless you count her desperation for popularity among her peers as an Asperger's trait. If Beth and/or Rick were meant to have it, they would be probably the darkest and most cynical yet also probably the most realistic depiction of Asperger's on television. Beth's intense desire to see her standards for happiness met with total disregard for the well-being of others and continual self-delusion that her way is always the same as the morally righteous, kindhearted, and/or logical thing to do is a disturbingly realistic and relatable trait that could apply to Asperger's, as I've fallen into that trap a few times as a teenager. Rick, while probably not a realistic depiction per se, could easily be a combination of the most negative and antisocial aspects of Asperger's, then exaggerated for the sake of comedic and dramatic storytelling and thrown in alongside depression, alcoholism, self-loathing, outward narcissism, and various other mental illnesses. Rick ignores social norms due to seeing no practical use for them, is regularly insensitive to those who behave differently from himself, and rarely wants to be around others for a greater reason than to satisfy a lonely instinct, even if Rick's character development seems to be having him overcome this trait. These are also things myself and many other people on higher functioning ends of the autism spectrum occasionally do and try to fight against our instincts that lead us to do them. Maybe one of the side characters is supposed to have it, I don't know. It most likely will never be mentioned in the show who has it, if a character has it, but I'm surprised it has never been talked about at a convention that Justin and Dan have been to, at least as far as I know.

• More or less confirmed in the "Rickchurian Mortydate," where Rick jokingly (yet sincerely) asks whether people like minecraft because they're autistic, before supplementing that as the explanation as to why he in specific likes minecraft. Based off of Morty's pleased reaction to hearing this comment, it's inferred that the both of them could be autistic or have asperger's.

Evil Morty and Doofus Rick Share an Origin

As theorized above, Evil Morty was the one accidentally left behind with the frog creatures in the intro, and as a result of losing his Morty, that Rick was too distracted to recognize the curse from the microscope he got from 'Mr. Needful', becoming a doofus as a result. That Rick not only got a Morty from the Council since he didn't have a Beth, but he's gotten replacement ones as well.

• Actually, Mr Needful's microscope would have made Rick mentally retarded. Like, a drooling idiot. Doofus Rick isn't retarded at all, he's really more of a Genius Ditz with abysmal self-esteem and an Embarrassing Nickname. He may be stupid by other Ricks' standards, but he's likely still one of the most (if not the most) intelligent people alive on his homeworld.

Evil Morty is Doofus Rick's Morty

A few WMG's have scratched the surface of this guess, but nobody's said it in as many words. It may be significant that they were both introduced in the same episode, which talked about Morties and Ricks having complementary brainwaves, and both lacked their Rick/Morty counterpart.

Tiny!Rick was Rick's subconscious desire to bond with his grandchildren.

• With Tiny!Rick's help, Morty was able to get a date with Jennifer, Summer became popular, and everyone was having fun in school. Rick wanted to become the kind of person that would be able to help his grandkids, and inadvertently created someone that wanted to kill him.

Tammy wasn't the only Federation operative on Earth before Rick's capture.

Frank Palicky's family...

Isn't rich.

• WHAT?! Jossed, completely 100% Jossed because Frank Palicky's family is RICH.

Rick is actually afraid of Jerry

Even by Rick’s jerkass standards, he has something in particular against Jerry. This could be a humorous escalation of the sitcom cliché of daughters’ fathers hating their husband, but it could be something more. In the first confrontation with the Council of Ricks, it’s stated that Morty being an idiot is what protects Rick, but the main Morty at least certainly ‘‘isn’t’’ an idiot. Not as intelligent as Rick of course, but Morty has shown he can be extremely tactical minded and savvy when he needs to be. So maybe Rick’s shield isn’t actually Morty’s stupidity, maybe it’s something else and is distinctly something that comes from his paternal side.Enter Jerry whom, despite all of Rick’s insults and downtalk, might have been the only person who could have produced a Morty, depending on how much the show really leans on for-want-of-a-nail vs. In Spite of a Nail. Jerry might have some incredible, untapped potential besides what is implied his stupidity that Morty inherited. If this is the case, Rick might be constantly belittling Jerry and trying to get him away from Beth in order to keep him from becoming a genuine threat.

Doofus Rick is just as smart as the other Ricks.

Despite being considered the dumbest Rick, he still needs a Morty to mask his brainwaves. While we don't seem him do some stuff as crazy as the other Ricks, he still seems rather smart and may not have an opportunity. Rather that being the dumbest Rick, he's the most grounded Rick. He doesn't go on crazy adventures, and is more content to stay at home and apply his genius to more mundane matters. This prevented him from becoming as cynical as the other Ricks, however being full of themselves and messed up they equate cynical as a sign of intelligence and can't get how him being normal allows him to be as smart as them. Why the difference? Our Rick may be the smartest of the bunch, but Doofus Rick is the most emotionally intelligent Rick we've seen and knows that These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. The other Ricks either don't understand this, or do on some level and treat him poorly because they're jealous of him.

Morty IS like Rick.

Very early in the series Rick lied to Beth and Jerry to convince them to let him keep taking Morty on adventures by saying Morty was like him, bound for super intelligence in the future. As we have seen in the past all of Ricks best lies have a grain of truth built into them that masks the falsehood. He gave the Sigerians a formula just not the one they wanted for example, his fake backstory to the Galactic Government was clearly a knock off of Simple Rick, and even when he's possessing others he more or less says his exact intent with just enough to mask it that nobody realizes the full gravity of his comments.

What if his comment about Morty was him stating the truth then lying to Morty after the fact using Morty's own low self-esteem to convince him. Based on what happened in the comics in a world without Rick and his ability to operate most of Ricks equipment given time to learn this troper suspects that Morty, if allowed to develop intellectually would eventually either equal or surpass Rick. This is likely exactly why Rick brings him along on adventures in the first place, to sabotage that development.

Rick is an unstable and destructive force on anyone stuck with him as well as being miserable with his life to the point of suicidal. In every adventure he shows Morty in some manner that his existence is a terrible one that does nothing but make everyone else miserable. If you take a solid out of context look at them Rick appears to be showing Morty all the horrors that super science and intelligence can create one by one to hopefully change Morty's fate. This is compounded by the fact that Rick also laces enough lessons about scifi concepts and surviving them into each adventure that Morty can get by on his own relatively well.

They've been together long enough that Morty has displayed the independent ability to operate Rick's portal gun, many assorted gadgets, advanced weaponry, and even have a passable idea for toppling an advanced bureaucratic government when given the chance. Rick could well be pulling double duty trying to keep Morty from becoming the same sort of man he himself became while also educating Morty on how to cope with his ever increasing intellect without ending up like Evil Morty. After all a Morty with too much independence can cause problems, its better to keep them connected to family and friends so they don't turn out like Rick the miserable loner.

President Morty planned the assassination attempt

We know he is an evil genius-capable of outplaying countless Ricks even as they work together. The assassination attempt is something that would kick his campaign into high gear, getting him enough support for his "had to recount" win. We also see Trenchcoat Rick out the airlock as Campaign Manager Morty is executed, meaning President Morty knew about him before hand (and didn't bother to increase his security). Its likely that he President Morty had planned for this outcome-firing Campaign Manger Morty and leaking information to him knowing that he would attempt to assassinate him. Next time they saw each other, he then occupied Assassin Morty's right hand with a handshake, throwing his aim off enough to survive the shot.

The Beth in "Morty's Mind Blowers" was our Morty's original Beth

It's not specified when the memory where she picked Summer over Morty happened, but it's possible it happened before Morty and Rick jumped universes in Season 1. After they left, the original Beth mentioned that she was finally happy now that Rick and Morty were gone, which would be shocking... unless she's already expressed her willingness to live without her son. Maybe that memory was even why she was finally happy, even without her idolized father - because without him and Morty, she no longer had to live with the constant reminder that she was ready to sacrifice her only son without a thought. That would make Rick choosing to leave Beth to the Cronenberg world, the way she chose Morty to die, a minor Kick the Dog moment (even if it also punished the blameless Summer and Jerry and left everyone else in the world to suffer as monsters). If Rick had found out how quick Beth was to sacrifice Morty and it upset him, that might have even made the difference in making him willing to leave that Beth and find a new one - one who was a better person, the way he (in his better moments) would want his daughter to be.

Most of the memories in "Morty's Mind Blowers" don't actually belong to C-137 Morty

They belong to the original Morty from this universe. It was established fairly early into the series that Morty is 14, but one of the memories in this episode was presumably from Morty's 13th birthday, meaning that particular memory would have to have been from before Rick Potion #9. It's possible Rick brought those memories over from their original universe, but when Rick and Morty switched universes (the first time at least) they didn't really take anything with them, nor did Rick show any interest in doing so. On top of that, given the rough timeline of the series, it's unlikely C-137 Rick was around when Morty was 12.

While Rick would know which of those memories belonged to his Morty, an amnesiac Morty picking memories at random definitely wouldn't. This would imply that some of the memories from the second half of the episode might not have happened to C-137 Morty. Interestingly, that might include the Squirrel incident. If that were the case then it would mean that C-137 Rick and Morty are still only on their second universe, but this universe is on their 3rd Rick and Morty (at least). Maybe this universe is just the place that Ricks and Mortys find them selves when everything turns to shit.

Another interesting level to this theory may be that Rick C-137 never created the Mind Blowers, he merely discovered them in this universe and made use of them.

Evil Morty is the "first" Morty.

Specifically, he was the Morty that belonged to the earliest "Rick" Rick. This Rick(let's call him Rick 1) was the first known Rick to travel across universes and inherit the existential nihilism that is common among Ricks. Rick-1 was the one to sit up the Citadel and form the system of Rick and Morties, enforcing a "code of conduct" seen in the Citadel. Said "code of conduct" was "be a borderline sociopath and use your Morty instead of him being your actual grandson", having come up with the Morty Wave idea. This drove Morty-1 to hate ALL Ricks, giving him the sociopathic traits of his grandfather and turning on him. This is why he hijacked the Citadel-they are the focus of his rage. As for C-137 Rick, it's possible that his Rick was exactly like the grandfather he knew until he had the idea for a Citadel or some other reason. Maybe it's just Revenge by Proxy or him using Rick's "mave-rick" personality, perhaps he's interested in Morty C-137 due to sharing his independent streak.

Rick is trying to prevent Morty from coming like him.

Seems rather obvious. Whenever Morty's Beware The Nice One personality comes into play, Rick usually tries to protect him. In "Look Who's Purging" he lies about the purge-e-nol to keep Morty's conscience clear, he helps kill the Joffrey equivalent the "Rickmancing the Stone" with Armthory so he doesn't have to shoulder the responsibility entirely. And in "Morty's Mindblowers" he erases traumatic memories. The reason Rick Sanchez is a nihilistic alcoholic is that he's Seen It All. He wants Morty to experience the vastness of the multiverse and be somewhat cynical, but wants to make sure he retains his moral compass and stays as The Anti-Nihilist. To achieve this he either gets rid of the worst memories, the kind that are the main reason for why he's so messed up, or tries to prevent Morty from becoming too guilty and amoral whenever he rages out. The red mind-blowers? Hey, he's still a petty dick.

Beth did something horrific as a teen, and Jerry saw it.

"The ABC's of Beth" gave two clues. One is the "Story A" of Beth being a little bad seed who was dangerous to other people and animals when she was a child, and the other is in the "Story B" section of the episode when Jerry calls his new extraterrestrial girlfriend "hot" as she dismembers creatures in a violent, gory fashion. Jerry became attracted to Beth from what he saw but didn't dare admit he witnessed. Later, after the marriage and Summer's birth, he started to lose interest when he discovered she would rather have a normal life. Morty was probably the result of Beth losing it again, Jerry finding out about it, and then getting turned on again.

• Jerry has very bad judgement. 'Nuff said.

Beth really does leave and is replaced by a clone.

Beth has owned up to being like Rick, so it wouldn't be too surprising if she did what he did and abandon her family, but at least with a clone of herself to ease her conscience so that Morty and Summer won't know what she did. Also the Beth we see at the end of "ABC's of Beth" just seems more uncharacteristically happy/interested in what her kids did that day.

The President is aware that Fly Fishing Rick is the real Rick

He's got a spy satellite aimed at the Smith's house. However, he's not going to bother trying to force Rick at this point because he knows that it's more hassle than it's worth. He's known for a long time, but now he's coming to terms with it.

Mr Meeseeks are reverse straw nihilists.

The Straw Nihilist is someone who's cynical and hateful because there's no purpose in life. Mr Meeseeks, however, want to die because they know they have a purpose. The moment they come into being Meeseeks are given a reason for living, and know the meaning of their life. The problem is that since they know their reason for being, they feel entrapped as their life is literally meaningless without said reason and will become meaningless once they inevitable fulfill it. How would you feel if you knew your exact future? Meeseeks know this, and can't stand it. Fitting for a series that is themed around nihilism and has the philosophy of The Anti-Nihilist, the one character that knows their purpose and reason for being is suicidal.

Evil Morty is an Omnicidal Maniac

Its clear he hates Rick's, while some speculate this means he wants to get rid of them to make Morty's lives better it does not match his actions. If anything he seems to hate Morty's just as much if not more than Rick's (his shield created by inducing unending suffering in thousands of Morty's was specifically stated by Rick to be massively beyond what was necessary to produce the same effect and can only be explained as sadism). Nihilism is a common philosophy amongst Ricks (and apparently eventually Morty's) so assuming he has come to hate everyone and is half as cynical as his actions suggest, coupled with the fact he's blatantly a sociopath then that leads to he idea he wants to wipe out all life across the multiverse, either so he can rebuild it in his own image or simply to bring an end.

As well as providing a dark reflection of Rick (and to a lesser extent Morty's) cynicism, it would also make him a good contrasting antagonist the Galactic Federation led by Tammy, who want to rule the entire Multiverse.

Noob Noob will eventually start a new Vindicators.

The father that abandoned Beth C-137 was Simple Rick.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. After the Cronenberg-pocalypse, Beth remains entirely comfortable and happy, even without Rick and Morty, because she recognizes that even if she loved them, they complicated her life and made it harder for her to focus on her relationships with her husband and daughter. That's exactly what Simple Rick did, although instead of letting relatives go, he let science go, because it interfered with his family life. He didn't abandon her, the Citadel of Ricks kidnapped him to make cookies.

Either Jerry isn't Morty's biological father, or Rick did something to Morty in-utero to make the traits he inherited from Jerry as recessive as possible.

• Summer only exists in universes where Beth and Jerry didn't abort her, which is the reason they marry in the first place, but there's still a Morty for almost every Rick. Their relationship sucks, but they justify staying together by saying it's for the kids, and without Summer, they go on to live exciting and separate lives, but there's nothing to indicate that the Ricks of those timelines don't still have Mortys.
• Morty doesn't look like the rest of the family. He's the only one with a spherical head shape, even compared to the rest of the family as small children. He's also the only one of the Smiths who has a rounded, down-turned nose instead of a more triangle, beakish shape, and round eyes like Rick's.
• The only physical trait Jerry and Morty share? Brown hair, which is a dominant trait. His mother and maternal grandmother being blond and his grandfather having what is apparently naturally gray/ash blond/blue(?) hair from birth, and his sister being a redhead (which is recessive AND skips generations), Morty having brown hair was probably unavoidable if Jerry is his father. If Jerry isn't, then that just means Beth likes brown-haired dudes.

Evil Morty's full first name isn't Mortimer.

It's Moriarty.

Evil Morty is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Most of his cruelty in "The Ricklantis Mix-Up directed to cruel Ricks, and he appears to be encouraging Mortys to stand up for himself. His worst act of cruelty to a non-Rick was the Morty-dome, and even then it was specifically part of The Plan than just wanton cruelty. Evil Morty's goal is to eliminate all the Ricks in the multiverse for being reckless and dangerous; the first step is to encourage Mortys to be independent from their Ricks. As such he feels justified doing whatever he can to end Rick. If he isn't C-137 Rick's original Morty, he might hate him most of all because as the Rickest Rick he represents the purest form of the person he so despises.

Morty's Girlfriend is named Tiffany.

• Alternatively, her name is Grace and is a friend of Summer.
  • A post on the Rick and Morty subreddit says that Morty's Girlfriend's real name is Carrie, and that she's named after and modeled off of the wife of one of the show's producers.

Summer's name is after the season that she was conceived.

Seeing that Summer wasn't an intended pregnancy, and both Jerry and Beth were teenagers, they probably never considered baby names for kids. Jerry may have come up with the name Summer because it was during the Summer when they conceived her, and Beth never asked him where he got the name from.

Not only will Morty's Girlfriend return in a future episode but both her and Morty will become an Official Couple.

• During a panel with the Paley Center for Media in October 2020 for the show, Dan Harmon said that a "particularly emotional" Season 5 episode will involve Morty finding love with a girl that's not Jessica, and while he didn't say it would be Morty's Girlfriend from S 4 E 08, she seems like a fairly likely option for a love interest for Morty that's not Jessica and wouldn't just be another girl Morty lusts after and completely blows winning over due to his perverted instincts, Rick's interference, or some combination thereof. It's likely that, if he fails to maintain his relationship with such a love interest, it will be genuinely Played for Drama and not just another moment where we're laughing at Morty's terrible luck and/or watching him get hit with karma for being a horny teenage boy.
  • Probably jossed. Judging from the plot of the episode featuring Planetina, Harmon was probably refering to her.

The Tina-teers lost their Ma-Ti counterpart at some point, starting their corruption

• The Tina-teers was once idealistic young people fighting to protect the environment, like their Captain Planet inspiration. However, the sudden and tragic death of their guy with Heart powers became a Cynicism Catalyst for the group. They somehow managed to find a workaround to summon Planetina without him by splitting his power between them. But in the end, you cannot do something as big as saving the environment half-hearted, much less with only fourth of a heart, so they slowly became the corrupt, bitter and greedy middle-aged jerks we see in the episode.

Alternatively: The Tina-teers were already well on the path to darkness and eventually crossed the Moral Event Horizon by killing their Ma-Ti counterpart

• The Tina-teers was once idealistic young people fighting to protect the environment, but they slowly became corrupted by the fame and fortune that came with their exploits, gradually leaving their environmental idealism behind as they became greedier and greedier, and soon they were Only in It for the Money. The only one who remained uncorrupted and idealistic was their guy with Heart powers, who, horrified at what his friends had become, implored them to abandon the path of darkness and greed, and threatened to withhold his Heart powers if they would not do so, preventing the group from able to summon Planetina. In response, his friends turned on him and murdered him to steal his powers (probably while smugly quipping amongst themselves about how lame and unmarketable they always had thought his power was). This was the moment that truly turned the Tina-teers into the corrupt, bitter and greedy jerks we see in the episode.

Morty Junior's autiobiography calls Morty a horrible father, but somehow sympathetic

Morty was active in his son's life and after Morty Jr. finally went outside and started a rampage Morty admitted not being a good father and encouraged him to channel his destructive nature to creative outlets. Also, Morty is a teenager. Morty Jr. most likely sees Morty as having a case of Parents as People rather than being a monster, so he did aknowledge in his autobiography that his father did have good intentions and wasn't completely bad at parenting.

Beth is jealous of Morty's relationship with Rick

This is why she instantly chooses to save Summer when her and Morty are trapped in the bubbles. She's jealous of the attention Morty gets from Rick and resents him for it.

Evil Morty did want to take main Morty with him

After hearing main Morty calling Rick out for his atrocities, Evil Morty felt Villain Respect and sincerely asked him to come with him. The ship had indeed only one seat and a toilet, but Evil Morty planned to use the toilet as a seat for the other one.

Rick Prime has pulled off an Agent Smith.

The Season 6 finale reveals that Rick Prime is somehow in multiple places at once. From what little we know of him, he wasn't fond of C-137 choosing his family over playing God and the bomb was presumably meant for him, but killed Diane and Beth C-137 instead. As the complete sociopath he is, Rick Prime looks down on "nice" Ricks and decided that if certain Ricks wanted to pass he could always force them to change their mind rather than screw up again and make another autocidal menace. So instead he uses a Clone by Conversion tactic, which unlike cloning/other replications we've seen from C-137 wouldn't risk them diverging. The downside to this is that it'd require a Hive Mind situation, so if the original Rick Prime goes so do his copies. This'd make "Solaricks" even more of a Shoot the Shaggy Dog situation for Rick Prime-with everyone being sent back to their home universe the core Rick Prime was finally in Rick C-137's crosshairs, only for him to lose that opportunity and have to sift through his duplicates again.

Most Dianes died of something mundane but incurable like cancer.

While we know what happened to C-137's Diane, it's not explained what happened to the Diane of Rick Prime/the Cronenberg world, or the two replacement universes (assuming their Ricks don't have the same backstory as C-137 Rick). From what we know of Rick Prime he just abandoned his family. However residents native to those universes mention or imply she's deceased, so she's probably dead there too. The Dianes who weren't killed died of something incurable...at least by normal medicine. One of the many reasons for Rick's hatred of Rick Prime and other Ricks is that they're smart enough to fix whatever killed their Dianes but because they didn't care they didn't stop it.

Morty in Fortnite isn't the same one that the show follows. It's Evil Morty.

In the Season 5 finale, we see Evil Morty carry out his ultimate plan successfully: leaving the central finite curve to build his own reality and live out his days there in peace and independence, outside of any universe. This means he has the tech to effortlessly leave and enter any multiverse with no limits. It's not implausible for him to kill time by visiting the universe of Fortnite to crank some 90's.

The Different Alien Races

The Gazorpazorpians are an artificial species left on an unnamed planet(they named it Gazorpazorp)to see how long they would survive.

Done For the Evulz and For Science!. But mostly For the Evulz.

The Galactic Federation has a tight hold on the galaxy beyond the control they obviously exert.

They've created some kind of wave transmission or invasive form of telekinesis/program with all alien languages in the galaxies stored on it, which then translates in the minds of all the people who've had it planted. That's why alien species with no prior knowledge of English (such as the cat people), can "speak," English; in reality, it's just translated through the program or waves in the minds of all people who the waves have reached.

The Galactic Federation is actually as bad as Rick describes them.

The Federation has been seen exploiting Fart for his abilities and they are all too willing to cause civilian casualties in pursuit of their goals.

• Earth under the Federation is pretty much an original-flavor Dystopia. Some robot gives Jerry drugs, totally unsolicited (which puts him thousands of currency units in debt, for some reason), and now will be given a job to pay off a debt he had no knowledge or consent in accruing. Indentured Servitude with extra steps. Jerry thinks its a good thing, because he's a simpleminded dumbass, but as we've seen with episodes like "Mortynight Run", Rick is very seldom opposed to something without reason.
• Additionally, look at how fast they managed to A) become aware of Earth, B) add Earth to the Federation, and C) transform it nearly beyond recognition. How long was the family gone, a week tops? It doesn't seem likely that the governments of Earth had much say in joining or not joining. And note the presence of Morty's teacher being taunted by aliens in the city they are released in, suggesting that they built an entire city and spaceport on top of the Smith family hometown, where aliens feel free to harass the "primitive natives" (read: humans) at will.

The Pizarians now live in the Pizza Dimension.

The Meseeks' creators were killed by their own creations.

Jerry's ill-advised request resulted in an angry mob of Meseeks trying to kill him. Even if most aliens are smarter than Jerry, eventually someone will give a Meseek an impossible task even if by accident. For example, "unscrew the top to this jar" can become impossible if the jar slips out of your hand and shatters.

The parasites are creations/avatars/minions of The Glitch

They take the forms of previously assimilated cartoon characters and exist to made people distrust their closest friends and loved ones, question if anything about their world is real and eventually question if they're real, breaking their will so they'll be less resistant when it finally takes them. Mr Poopybutthole is a survivour from one of the destroyed universes that was transported to Rick and Morty's world and inserted himself into the holes in their memories because he needed a new home.

The Council of Ricks

There's a dimension with a White Diamond Rick

She is either unaware of the existence of multiple universes or she was the Shadow Council(and now is Evil Morty)'s secret ally. Also, the Yellow Diamond there is a Beth, the Blue Diamond is Jerry and the Pink Diamond is Morty. The other Gem types resemble Rick and Morty human characters and the Earth was turned into a Gem colony.

The Rick-ciety stands still only because of the rational minds of all Ricks.

All Ricks have a certain amount of self-hatred. An amount they would violently take out on other versions of themselves if it weren't for their utilitarianism.

The head members of the Council of Rick are also protecting Ricks from other Ricks.

Not every Rick is a mad scientist.

In the Council of Ricks, there are Ricks who are salesmen, artists and hot dog sellers. The Council of Ricks is built around the mad scientist version of Rick (presumably the most common), while other versions, while still being able to make portal guns and travel the dimensions, are dedicated to sales or business or art or whatever hat they wear.

Ricks only come back into their family's lives for Mortys.

We see in "Rixty Minutes" that there are quite a few timelines where Beth and Jerry never had Summer, and therefore Morty doesn't exist either; Beth is a human surgeon and Jerry is a successful actor/director. Note how in the timelines of Human Surgeon!Beth, she is always living alone, meaning that Rick never came back after abandoning her when she was young. This is because she never gave birth to Morty, so Rick had no motivation to reconnect with his family. (In other words, no "Morty Waves" to take advantage of).

• A deleted scene shows that Rick lives with Beth in the timeline where Famous!Jerry goes crazy and tracks her down. He kills Jerry on the spot.

The Council of Ricks assigns rank and jobs based on planet of origin

While each Rick is at least a contender for smartest guy on his homeworld, not all Rick-having Earths are going to be equal. Some will be more advanced, some will be more backwards, and the Ricks from those worlds will be more or less advanced than others. To demonstrate, compare Rick's Car (built with 21st century technology, capable of fighting a small army to a stalemate) to Rick's wood mech (built using crap found in a primitive jungle, breaks after falling over). The leaders of the council hail from the more advanced worlds, and correspondingly have access to more advanced technology, which gives them leverage on the other Ricks, who on average hail from early 21st century Earths like our own. The various "guard Ricks" were recruited from less advanced worlds, where the local tech base was insufficient for the native Ricks to build their own portal gun, and were offered the tech they needed and acceptance by the council in exchange for a period of service. All the "service" positions are staffed by Ricks of various worlds who never felt the drive to adventure/science; instead of becoming the best scientist on their homeworld, they became the best salesman/hot dog vendor/lawyer/etc. In addition, there are outliers like "our Rick" and "Doofus Rick"; both built their own portal guns, but "our Rick" refuses to accept the social structure of the Council, and "Doofus Rick" is from a disgusting homeworld (presuming the reports that people eat shit there are accurate) and is denigrated and looked down upon because of it.

Doofus Rick is actually a hint as to why most Ricks are rebels and vanish from their families lives

Looking at the overall differences there may be more changes but a major one seems to be that this Rick never had a family, never had kids. Ask a revolutionary what they often fight for and they will mention the idea of a better world for their children and grandchildren. Each Rick found out something, something about the galactic federation or some other great force that made them worried enough, angry enough that they declared war. They often left their families behind fearing bringing danger to them, at least danger of that tier, and fought with a hope of having earth left alone. They were also honed, the Ricks were likely part of a smaller group facing a nigh overwhelming one so they had to get smarter, more cunning, more ruthless as well as be better combatants. At some point they might be able to return, but years have passed, many friends have died alongside them. They are fully aware that they are killers and that no matter how much they can say what they did was right they recognize that they have also caused a lot of pain. So they disconnect, they stop caring and empathizing, too easy to get hurt worse, too easy to get pulled into another fight, too easy to let their guard down. Doofus Rick never got pulled in, he never had the family he feared for, he might have decided it just wasn't worth it, so he managed to remain fairly kind and sympathetic. Sure, the others are abusive towards him, but some of that is also a sort of rage, he managed to keep some of his humanity that the rest of them burned away toiling and battling against something horrific.

Doofus Rick is not the dumbest Rick.

Doofus Rick is about as intelligent as any other Rick, but unlike most or all of them he has moral and ethical standards. So while other Ricks would steal and dissect babies or enslave pocket universes to expand their knowledge base, Doofus Rick would rather follow proper procedure, thus limiting his total knowledge. Furthermore, most Ricks don't see the point of respecting people, and view Doofus Rick's concern for others and society in general as stupid.

• Maybe he's the smartest Rick. He's so intelligent that he not only knows how the majesty and horror of the multiverse, but also how to adapt and adjust to it, and retain his value for human life. That's why he's the only Rick who's not a cynical asshole while also still interested in being part of the Council.

Doofus Rick never used the Mega-Seeds.

Rick mentions rectally smuggling the Mega-Seeds enough that he's unable to. Since he'd need the smarts to travel into other universes they couldn't be responsible for him being a genius. However they could have heightened his already formidable intelligence. We see a Rick farmer in "The Ricklantis Mix-Up" farming Mega-Seeds, meaning it's in supply. Doofus Rick is still a genius, however he comes off as stupid by comparison to the other Ricks. This is because he never ingested the stuff; Doofus Rick's intelligence is normal Rick and the Council's natural intelligence. Doofus Rick just happens to be the one Rick on the Council who doesn't use the seeds, keeping his intelligence at "genius" rather than "super-intelligence" level. As for why, it's possible that he saw the effect it had on the other Ricks. Not wanting his personality to change, he refused to use it.

The Ricks in the Council of Ricks "did away" with their families

These Ricks seem the most authoritarian, petty and jackassish by comparison to the main Rick. In the episode about Rick and Morty's toxicity, Rick considers his care for Morty to be his toxic quality. What if that's what all the other Ricks think of their Morty and families? They seem to be one of the many Ricks that live in the Citadel 24/7, so what would've happened to them?

• Option 1: Simply murdering them in a possible "accident".
• Option 2: They intentionally drove all their loved ones away as possible so they can live nomadically.
• Option 3: Their families are all secluded away in a sort of cryogenic isolation within the inner bowels of the citadel as an act of mercy/laziest option on hand.

"Tall Morty" was a Rick that looked in the Devil's microscope.

C-137 Rick scanned it before using it to find out it would massively drop his intelligence. Some other Ricks didn't and paid the price.

The Different Universes

Some Jerrys live a perfect life without Ricks.

But they're also plugged into a Lotus-Eater Machine. It's a win-win situation.

There are some parts of the multiverse that are unexplored by Ricks.

• Confirmed. The season 5 finale reveals that the Ricks had walled off the parts of the multiverse where they aren't the smartest being because they can't deal with the idea of anyone being better than them. Evil Morty claims that what makes him "evil" is his desire to escape this barrier and explore the entire multiverse.

Rick and Morty are a popular TV show in another universe

There have been several references to R&M being on a tv show:

1.Rick ending two episodes with his awkward/out-of-place TV show catch phrase.

2.Rick referring to how he would watch a TV show about his adventures with Morty.

3.The recent episode dealing with watching TV shows from other universes.

4.Rick calling for the credits to roll.

• They are a popular TV show in another universe: our universe.

Female Ricks exist but they don‘t get involved with the Council of Ricks.

• What about female Morties? Rick may be sexist, but he still needs those Morty waves.
  • Universes with male Ricks and Morties are the only ones to have been shown so far. Bringing a female Morty into a universe where a male Morty has died doesn't make any sense when he could be replaced with a male Morty. Rick can be sexist at times and considering the fact that he could easily get a hold of a male Morty at will due to countless realities, it wouldn't make sense for him to try and replace Morty with a female version.
• Fridge Logic: Female Ricks would be named Stacy or Jill or Anatasia or something. Thus, by definition, they can't be Ricks.
  • Why couldn't they be, say, Ricki?
  • A name doesn't hold one's character. He would still be "Rick" in terms of personality regardless of whether or not he's called Michael or Ben or William or whatever, so the same logic would apply to a female version of him having a female name; it would still be him, just not called Rick like many other versions of him probably aren't. She would still be "Rick" just like the robot or Cronenberg or alien version of him. Just a female.
  • Obviously, female Morties wouldn't be named "Morty" they would be named something else (Summer?) and therefore would not possess the necessary "Morty Waves". Ricks in universe with female Morties would most likely take in the Morties from universes with either dead Ricks or female Ricks.
    • I don't know, they could easily be named Ricki/Rikki and Morticia, and therefore would still be a Rick and Morty. I mean, maybe Jerry wanted a boy after having Summer. Or Jenny and Elijah/"Ben"jamin (Elizabeth or Bethany)'s son August called his baby sister Morty and it stuck.
  • What about the female Ricks from dimensions where all the masculine names in our world are considered feminine and vice versa?
• It's entirely possible that the female equivalent to Rick does not have the subsequent gene combination for super intelligence and rather then becoming universe trotting made scientists they become regular scientists, surgeons, another high intelligence professions on earth. Still ridiculously smart but not quite reaching the level of Rick purely due to genetics and nothing to do with gender.
  • That's true, but considering that dimensions are endless and henceforth there are countless versions of Rick due to this infinity complex, then there must also be infinite versions of a female Rick, and then in at least several of those infinite realities she must have inherited supreme intelligence. Even if it were the case that the gender/gene combination didn't allow for extreme intelligence to be inherited in females, there would still be a universe(s) where either the gene combination for this is reversed to be for females as opposed to males or (on a larger scale) all genes tied to gender (such as colourblindness genes in males), are instead reversed as well. Essentially entirely reverse-gendered universes.
• Or on a much darker note because of some differing conditions for different genders female Ricks don't enter into the cycle of alcohol and drug induced denial early enough to counteract all the emotional damage and most end up committing suicide exactly as Rick tried to only with significantly more success. Maybe they don't hook up with Unity like Rick does, maybe they turn to alcohol more slowly, or maybe without a Morty in there lives (because let's be real if Rick couldn't pawn his kids and grandkids off on someone else when he's busy he wouldn't have any and if he had to carry a child to term then take care of it there is no way he'd go through with it so female Rick likely doesn't have kids) the crippling stress of fully comprehending your insignificant place in the universe simply becomes too much.
  • As suggested above, maybe female Rick wouldn't have kids which would mean there'd be no Morty in her universe. Alternatively, maybe a female Rick would have had to give up drinking while pregnant and actually ended up settling down when younger, never ending up becoming the explorer of the universe that we know. Of course, it could just be that there are just as many female Ricks in a council of female Ricks out there somewhere (since the two councils may not get along) that we never met.
• Who says we haven't seen female Ricks? There's also gotta be an infinite number of universes where men nurse the children, so women don't have developed breasts. A universe like that could easily produce a Rick completely visually indistinguishable from ours.
• Maybe the Council is sexist enough to consider female Ricks "not Ricks", therefore universes with female Ricks are not universes where "Rick" is the smartest being, and thus they're beyond the Central Finite Curve.

Rick intentionally takes his sweet time sometimes because he wants to mess with the multiverse

Because the infinite nature of multiverse means every single possible outcome has to happen, Rick intentionally does things that leaves the possibility of other Ricks getting killed in that moment. For example, readjusting your car seat settings when armed guards are pursuing you in "Mortynight Run." He mostly does it for his own amusement or to try and get some "lesser" Ricks killed and thus less likely to annoy him at some point. And it helps give him a feeling of agency in the universe, knowing he can get theoretically infinite amounts of him killed without consequence.

Behold: The lamest WMG for this show ever

ALL of these past, present and future WMGs are all confirmed in an alternate universe....in-universe, of course.

• Jossed, because this theory means that everybody here wins. So it's not lame.

A significant amount of the multiverse's species owe their existence to the "mytholog" machine from "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", which is used for much more than marriage counselling.

I mean think about it. This is a machine that can create living creatures, designed entirely from an idea in a person's mind of what the creature is like. And these creatures can be extremely powerful. There is no way machines like this haven't been used for all kinds of other things, ranging from creating armies for taking over or defending planets, to bringing children's imaginary friends^note or adults', why not to life. Or for scanning someone's brain and creating the perfect sexual partner, biologically programmed to love them.^note just make sure it doesn't have the flu!

It's mainly that first one that's important here. Considering how desirable having a powerful army is, along with the fact that this technology is widely known to exist and not a military secret or something, there have undoubtedly been tonnes of unique creatures created for this purpose, and in large amounts so as to create the most powerful army possible. Once the army has served its purpose, then unless they were made to poof out of existence like a Meeseeks^note hey, maybe the Meeseeks Box was developed using that technology! there's no reason they'd be going anywhere. Meaning they'd just become part of the natural ecosystem—and a very powerful part, capable of outcompeting many of the natural organisms. Depending on how long those machines have been around, the multiverse could very well be filled with these species. Any number of the species we've already seen on the show could have come from that machine.

• Remember how Morty said a camp sounded like someone gave up naming it half way through? Most aliens in the show have names composed of Inherently Funny Words. Maybe someone did create them and named them that way for laughs.

The multiverse is actually an enormous battery.

Just like the mini-verse in "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", except far more complex. That's why things like the central finite curve, Rick being the smartest being in whatever universe he comes from, ect are a thing-they're all part of a giant battery for higher beings. This is also why the Aliens Speaking English trope is a thing or how the laws of physics are never something that'd prevent Rick from visiting or using his portal gun. There are a finite number of universes within the battery and Rick might be able to leave its confines thanks to the portal gun(he was smart enough to make a mini-universe). Or there are an infinite, but from the perspective of whatever's in charge they're like how a sphere can have an infinite amount of circle cross-sections. The power source that's being supplied is either nihilism or a desire for meaning, which is why the Rick and Morty multiverse is one with plenty of motivation to search for a meaning and/or devoid of such. Rick's existence may be part of how the battery works.

There's a Rick in every single universe.

And by this, I mean that every TV show, every movie, every video game, every comic, every fanfiction, has its own Rick (whether they have a Morty varies).

Not every episode stars the Univervise C-137 Rick and Morty

There are other pairs of Ricks and Morties in different universes having adventures, and some of the episodes we see focus on those other pairs instead of the C-137 pair. This is how, for instance, one pair of Rick and Morty would purchase a toy from the Citadel when the C-137 pair would probably avoid the place.

Whatever process Rick and the proto-Council of Ricks used when they collaborated to create the Central Finite Curve wasn't perfect

• For how revolutionary they have been, the majority of Rick's inventions have turned out to have some flaw or another baked into them, either because Rick didn't fully account for something unforseeable or he just did some half-assed work out of laziness. The process with which the Central Finite Curve was created was no exception, which explains why there are quite a few outliers to "Rick being the smartest man in his own universe" rule, such as Doofus Rick and Slow Rick/Tall Morty.
  • On an additional note, it offers a possible explaination the disdain the other Ricks hold for Doofus Rick; he is one of the most obvious reminders of the fact that what was supposed to be all of Rick-kind's grandest achievement across every possible time and place turned to be flawed.

Eldritch Abominations and/or God live in universes outside the Central Finite Curve.

Both would count as beings more intelligent than Rick, making the Ricks lock their universes out.

How the "Season 2 Dimension" came to be.

This refers to the dimension our Jerry gets transported to in "Solaricks".In it, their Beth and Jerry never divorced, and the whole family becomes more unhappy and hostile to each other as a result.This possibly might have happened because Jerry never stood up to Rick in "The Wedding Squanchers", which means Rick never enacts his plan to have Earth conquered by the Galactic Federation. Beth and Jerry never divorces, and their marriage remains the same cynical unhappy one to this day.In hindsight, Jerry standing up to Rick did actually pay off in the end.

"Mortyplicity" took place in the universe that the main cast went to at the end of "Solaricks"

Simply put, we know that the wooden decoy Jerry isn't assimilated into Mr. Frundles and so that can't have happened in the "main" setting of the series up to Season 6 because he's instead tragically immortal and sees nothing like that however many millennia later the stinger of "Mortyplicity" goes.

Crossovers

Rick And Morty escaped to the Saints Row universe prior to the Zin invasion.

And Rick stopped it off-screen. Probably by blowing the Zin up. Without rescuing anyone. Kinzie and Keith David escaped, but the rest of the Saints, including The Boss, also died. And that's why Keith David is the president.

The meeseeks box was made using Gem technology. or Rick shattered Pink Diamond and escaped before anybody saw.

Rick is an escapee of Superjail!

Superjail is someplace which can be accessed by any dimension and hold a variety of horrors from different universal streams.Besides; having a few genius scientists like Rick around might further the Wardens plans for world domination.Of course, Rick is far more intelligent than most prisoners and unlike Jack Knife made his own great escape via reverse engineering whatever technology the Warden has to gather criminals and monsters from different universes to make his own universal-portal-gun.He then spent 20 years running away from Jailbot.

Rick gained his intelligence as a wish from Kyubey.

He placed his Soul Gem inside Morty's body and this is why he never leaves the boy alone. Rick's alcoholism is the only thing preventing him from unleashing his emotions and becoming a Warlock.

• This contradicts "Close Encounters of The Rick Kind" where Rick specifically states that Morty's brainwaves make Rick's undetectable.

The Madokaverse is yet another micro-universe created by Rick to power his car battery.

Rick is the cause for the Mushroom War.

Rick is a Wizened Inventor

• Alternately, he's a Genius, in the Mad Scientist sense.

Mr. Needful was actually summoned by Kyubey as an experiment to do with collecting despair.

Of course, they don't consider it cruel, at least not on their part. They hired a contractor to do this for them and he's working on his own terms to give them energy. Mr. Needful probably feels no need to curse them because the despair is already a curse that Kyubey's society already works with.

Rick is a relative of Cave Johnson.

• No, scratch that. Rick is Cave Johnson. Moon rocks do hell on the brain, but he's still kicking yet.

Related to the "Rick is a relative of Cave Johnson" theory above, Rick used stolen tech from Black Mesa and Aperture to create his portal gun.

Rick stole inter-dimensional travel technology from Black Mesa and combined with Aperture's portal gun technology, invented his own inter-dimensional portal gun. He then crossed over to an alternate universe where the Resonance Cascade never occurred.

The family from Too Many Cooks were also victims of the parasites from Total Rickall.

Much like in Rick and Morty things quickly balloon out of control, with characters randomly appearing from nowhere, but everyone acting as if they've always been there. In both cases, the characters get increasingly outlandish and out of genre, again with nobody seeming to notice. The Killer is basically the Rick of his universe, he's the only one who realises what's going on and is trying to wipe out all of the characters who are actually parasites (even if he does take a little too much pleasure in doing it). Though, unlike Rick, he ultimately fails when he's killed by a parasite. At that point, the parasites take over and things really start falling apart.

The Galactic Federation is a Puppet State controlled by Bill Cipher.

The Screaming Sun Planet is a future version of Teletubbyland.

The Baby Sun grew into adulthood, and became self-aware of its condition, perched over a basically empty world for all eternity, unable to do anything. And so it began to scream and scream. The native inhabitants, driven insane by the constant screaming, killed themselves and each other, leaving the world devoid of anything resembling intelligent life.

Rick and Morty and Futurama share a universe

Obviously the Simpson's Couch Gag confirms this, but there's nothing stopping Rick and Morty happening in the Futurama!2010's.

Every Mary Sue character ever written is actually a parasite from Total Rickall

Parasites actually exist in every fictional universe, they just don't normally appear in the main story. Fan fiction attracts them, however. Every terribly written Mary Sue fic is actually just set in a world where Rick failed to stop the parasites.

Rick and Morty will have a similar ending to Mostly Harmless.

In the last episode the Smiths will be killed in a senseless and random manner with no regard for their story arcs - either in the middle of a dramatic plotline with many questions left unanswered, or right after they resolve their problems and become a happy family. Like his fellow drunk nihilist Ford Prefect, Rick will Die Laughing at the general pointlessness of the situation.

Mr Poopybutthole is a Sockbat.

Or better yet a Half-Human Hybrid explaining his lack of head wings, big nose or the doorknob.

Rick's Ex-Wife/Morty and Summer's grandmother is Mrs. Frizzle.

Rick has been shown to have a thing for Redheads and Summer's hair had to come from somewhere. Rick probably had a hand in building the Magic School Bus, which he insists is actually a "Science School Bus".

Rick and Morty are reincarnations of Carl and Paul

One is a grey-haired sociopath who can pull off physically impossible things. His brown-haired assistant is always left traumatized by what he does.

The reason for Rick's fear of pirates is that he visited the One Piece universe one time and met Kaido himself.

Doc Brown is an alternate Rick and Marty McFly is his Morty

• Someone has to state the obvious
  • And their universe is the Earth Prime of the Rick and Morty multiverse. Rick just assumes its infinite.

The DNA cocktail that helped create the the Cronenberging included material from creatures living in the Upside Down

Rick learned everything about the Upside Down there is to learn about. He easily could have saved the Stranger Things-verse from the Flayer without the help of some crazy girl, but of course, he's a selfish asshole.

Rick is an alternate universe Doctor, just under a chameleon arch.

The 1st Doctor was a rather amoral Jerkass when first introduced; in his first appearance he almost "mercy-killed" a caveman before his companions talked him out of it. In another universe this never happened and the Doctor didn't have companions to rein him in, so he had no Character Development. Eventually he regenerates into proto-Rick some time before fathering Beth, and became human through the use of a Chameleon Arch. Ricks with other species were either actual people who the Doctor lazily based his human persona on, or they are alternate versions of that Doctor who just chose another universe where humans weren't the dominant race. It's the real reason behind his Mysterious Past; Rick's childhood and time before he married and had Beth are fake memories. Rick's a super-genius because unlike 10, the alternate Doctor was working on it to keep his intellect(Professor Yana was still a genius like the Master, so it should work). Thanks to his original body dying and surviving through Brain Uploading, the Chameleon Arch might be unable to restore him back to the Doctor.

Rick has had sex with Mallory Archer

• He’s travelled the multiverse and wound up on hers and they bonded on being so similar (Alcholism, Intelligence, baddassary ,mild Socipathy etc). They had a fling and Rick might be Sterlings father.

Future Episodes

Jerry will lick disgusting furry testicles.

Except they are only disgusting to the species having them because they smell and taste like Jerry's favourite food so it's gonna be a Unishment.

Rick and Morty will travel to an Anthropomorphic Animal dimension

It will be a harsh deconstruction of Funny Animal tropes, Carnivore Confusion and the general premise of it all.

• Sorta confirmed in the Season 2 episode, Look Who's Purging.

Rick will reveal he purposely got his daughter pregnant with Jerry's baby.

I expect some sort of time travel thing.

• But then why would he be so upset about it the first time?
  • It had to be Jerry in order to ensure Morty's existence. Rick simply hates Jerry, but has no other options.
• Doesn't even need to be time travel. He could have blown Jerry's tire 18 years ago. He needs those Morty Waves after all.
• If that's true, he probably would have gotten rid of Jerry as soon as possible if Summer weren't born first.
  • Basically confirmed, though done by Ricks generally rather than ours in specific. Hooking up Beths and Jerrys for the specific purpose of creating Mortys is an entire industry.

There will be a Gender Bender episode with Morty as the genderbent one...

...but it will be played in a realistic way, with Morty's new body having the same level of attractiveness as his original one and him hating that body, and Rick saying things like "Welcome to Gender Dysphoria, Morty" and stuff like that.

• And Morty will screw with his female gender-doppelganger version.
  • He's bound to have learned his lesson after "Raising Gazorpazorp".
    • Exactly. That's why he's going to use protection this time.

There will be an episode about immortality.

And it isn't going to be just a one hit gimmick. It would probably explore the possible things in immortality, such as insanity and soon turning sane again, or never getting used to death.

• Wasn't that part of the point of Mr. Meeseeks?

The "Pregnant Jerry" scene will not be in an episode nor will the Cthulhu one.

Compare the actual show to the scenes in the opening...They seem a little too...Dynamic.

• Before "Rick Potion #9" I would have said the same thing about the scene of Jerry shooting his gun at the creatures.
• TC: Well I've been wrong about a lot of stuff...Like I thought I was gonna have my second girlfriend for a long time...That didn't even last a year.
• Note that the opening scenes from both S1 and S2 are put together in such a way that every other scene was actually in an episode from that season - except for the Cthulhu scene at the end. May be significant.

Rick and/or Morty will die when the series ends.

• Going off the fact that the show's title is sort of a play on "rigor mortis", it wouldn't be totally surprising if at least one of them, or some other prominent character, straight up dies. Best bet is that Morty will be in the ultimate danger that Rick can't figure out how to get him out of except for him to pull a Heroic Sacrifice and get the kid out of there. Additionally...

Morty will carry on Rick's legacy as a scientist, but with the intent of using experiments for good.

• The show has potential to develop Morty into a more competent and brave person that will know what to do should he no longer have Rick around in the event of a catastrophe.

Season Two will have an episode about Morty Junior's funeral

Considering his rapid ageing and during The Stinger He was sporting grey streaks in his hair on a talk show after becoming an author.

Morty will eventually gain a Second Love in the second season.

• Played with in Look Who's Purging. However, it doesn't go through.

Future episode ideas

• Rick's origins, explaining where he's been the past twenty years and the details of his marriage, among other things.
• An episode centered around Morty's relationship with Jessica, in which she finally gets some characterization outside of Morty's love interest.
• Returns of characters like Mr. Meeseeks, Snuffles/Snowball, Abradolf Lincler, Lucy (assuming she's not dead), Mr. Needful, the Council of Ricks, and Evil Morty.
  • The return of Snowball might be likely, as he appears in an storyboard sketch for S2
• An episode consisting of improvised sketches like "Rixty Minutes."
  • Confirmed
• Beth and/or Jerry going on an adventure with Rick.
  • Alternatively, Beth and/or Jerry screwing around with Rick's portal gun while he's away and getting accidentally transported somewhere.
  • Semi-confirmed in a season 2 episode; Rick drops Beth and Jerry off at an alien marriage counselor where they have to fight off their mental conception of their relationship. However, we also get a scene in the second episode of season 2 where one of the Ricks developed a daycare center for Jerrys to hang out when they sneak onto the adventures.
• An episode exploring how Beth and Jerry met, and what caused their relationship to deteriorate, possibly the same episode that deals with Rick's origins.
• An episode about HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos like in the opening credits.
• Rick's childhood and upbringing will be explored in one episode. It will be one of the few times when the show's dark aspects will not be played for laughs and will be a massive Tear Jerker.
• I don't have a plot, but one title can be a play off the word "rigor mortis" as "Rick-O-Mortys".

The first episode of Season 2 will Lampshade the gap between the Season 1 finale and the Season 2 premiere.

Probably Summer, Rick, or Morty will say mention time being frozen for about a year's worth of time.

• Better yet, the premier will have Rick, Morty and Summer unfreezing time like they did in season one.
• Confirmed: The Season Two premier shows that they've frozen time for about six months, which causes issues with temporal stability.

There will be an episode where Rick is separated from his precious alcohol.

Not only would it be a goldmine for comedy, it might give us more insight into the great pain he's been numbing himself from.

There will be an episode where Morty "dies".

And Rick will try shaking it off as no big deal at first and turn to his pocketed Morty insurance. The key words here, of course, are "at first", and however they reunite will be forever held on the same pedestal as "Jurassic Bark".

Mr. Poopy Butthole will be Back for the Finale

...and he'll end up performing a Heroic Sacrifice to protect the family, or at least Rick and Morty. Before he dies, he'll forgive Beth for shooting him, or tell Rick and Morty to pass that on to her.

Zeep Xanflorp is only biding his time.

On the surface, he may have begrudgingly accepted his people's slavery to Rick, but he's planning an exodus of his people from Rick's microverse car battery, as well as revenge against Rick for creating them with the sole purpose of enslaving them.

• *clears throat* ...MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WERE BORN AND ARE DEAD BY NOW IN THE BATTERY!
  • Then it's a case of My Death Is Only The Beginning, with Zeep's people and possible descendants eventually carrying out his plan.
  • Then again, there's the fact that Zeep seems to be Rick's equal in super-science. He could easily figure out cryo-stasis, immortality, or a way out of the microverse battery when Rick wasn't looking. There are all sorts of ways, of varying levels of plausibility, they could bring Zeep back, and hey, who doesn't want another guest appearance by Stephen Colbert?

Evil Morty will lead a Legion of Doom consisting of past villains (some of which, obviously, have yet to appear)

This Legion of Doom will consist of people whom Rick has pissed off in one way or another and desire revenge against him. Possible candidates for membership would be Abradolf Lincler, Gearhead, and Mr. Needful. Rick and Morty would have allies, too, such as Snuffles/Snowball, Bird Person, and possibly Scary Terry.

• Zeep Xanflorp could be a member.

Evil!Morty is looking to create an uprising of Morties against their Ricks.

This could lead to an all-out civil war between a multitude of Ricks and Morties, and our Rick and Morty may be at the centre of it.

• This is supported by the sheer evil-ness of his Morty-shield. As our Rick says, he could get the same effect from a handful of Morties and a car battery. Why be so over-the-top evil about it? To galvanize the Morties and make them hate ricks.

Evil!Morty will either directly or indirectly bust Rick out of prison.

For what reason? I don't know.

• Word of God at a con panel confirmed Evil Morty will return. Considering how none of the other members of the Smith family we've been following have shown any means or know-how to bust Rick out of prison, Evil Morty having the skill to plan out the scheme to control a Rick along with collecting Morties while still staying out of sight, and finally how there's an apparent subplot of Rick's shady past coming back to haunt him, Evil Morty looks like the most plausible option for Rick getting out of prison short of a Deus Ex Machina.
• Plausible reason for why Evil!Morty would bust Rick out of prison. He's pissed, downright enraged, that a Rich would sacrifice himself for a Morty. Why? Well why do people usually get pissed off why someone does something unexpected, because it proves them wrong and invalidates there world view. He'll spend an entire episode on the run with Rick holding him at gun point demanding to know what his grand plan was, what he had to gain, and at the very end why that particular Morty got a Rick who cared while his own Rick didn't and Rick won't have an answer.

Jerry's "new job" will be a parody of Looper.

He'll be given the task of executing Ricks captured from other universes when their time comes. He'll have no problem at first, even taking a bit of sick pleasure from it with all of the trouble Rick caused him and his family. Eventually he'll turn on the Galactic Federation when they cross the line by making him kill Doofus Rick.

• Alternatively, his new job will be to lick disgusting furry testicle sacks. After all, that is what Rick said Jerry liked when he contacted the authorities and the bureaucrats of the Federation are probably ignorant/lazy enough to get him a job based solely on that.

Mr. Poopy Butthole will resolve the Season 2 Cliffhanger

I know he's The Scrappy, but hear me out.

• He was established as a long time friend of Rick and friends of Rick's tend to be in trouble with the Galactic Federation.
• If Mr. Poopy Butthole was invited to Bird Person's wedding he would have likely stayed at home because of his injury and desire to avoid Beth, thus avoiding the Federation's trap.
• Mr. Poopy Butthole was given inter-dimensional cable by Rick and was using it to watch the wedding via a reality where Rick and Morty's adventures are portrayed in an animated TV show.
• Mr. Poopy Butthole is now aware of exactly what happened to Rick and his family and is in a position to help them because he still lives on Earth.

The family will bust Rick out because they need him to save Summer.

Remember the cob planet? It's possible if the family stayed on for too long or even touched something from the planet, their bodies would have mutated to being 'on-a-cob' as well, hence Rick's freakout of "EVERYTHING'S ON A COB! THE WHOLE PLANET'S ON A FUCKING COB!"...but remember; Summer had consumed some of the 'strawberries-on-a-cob' just before they left...

The council of Ricks will bust Rick out.

Because even one compromised Rich puts all of them at risk, they'll move him to a new dimension and pair him with a new Morty only it won't work out. Rick will not bond with his new Morty and end up as abusive and manipulative as he was in the first episode only to realize what he's doing, apologize, and go back to the council. Of course the Galactic government will have spent this time studying the remains of Rick's portal device technology or whatever they confiscated from the house and find the council setting off a war between the federation and every Rick in the multiverse.

• Alternately, they'll break into jail not to rescue him, but to kill him before the Federation tortures the secrets of handheld portal technology out of him. At the last minute he get saved by Evil Morty, who needs a Rick to continue his master plan.

Rick will NOT be broken out of prison while the Galactic Federation is still in a position to hound him and/or his family while they're on Earth

Rick turned himself in to not only protect his family from whatever the Federation's goons would do to them, but to also let them regain a sense of normalcy after living as fugitives. As things stand now, if Rick were to somehow escape from prison and insist on staying around his family, he'd surely end up putting them at risk of getting caught in the crossfire.

As such, events will conspire to enable Rick to leave prison with the Galactic Federation unwilling or unable to hound him and/or his family on Earth. Possible scenarios:

• The Galactic Federation is ousted from Earth after a rebellion against it. One of the rebel leaders is the Keith David Voiced President. The rebels would be aided by alien forces who are allied or at least have been friendly to Rick such as Water-T, Unity, and possibly even other members of Bird Person's kind seeking to avenge his death.

• Alternatively, Beth ends up leading the rebellion, at least in the town, having gone berserk when she discovers that the council has outlawed alcohol and confiscated her wine bottles.

Beth will start becoming more distant from the family, blaming them for Rick leaving again.

Especially Morty who was the last person to talk to him before he left, and knew he wouldn't come back.

Jerry will be the one to rescue Rick

.Or in the very least, contribute to it. He will find out that Rick left because he overheard what he said about him, leading to a My God, What Have I Done? moment.

• Alternatively, he'll do it purely so that he can force Rick to tell Beth that it wasn't really him who turned Rick in.

Rick's capture was staged and is part of a plot to overthrow the Federation and Tammy is in on it.

We've seen that Rick is a genius and VERY hard to trick. When the VR Aliens trapped him in multi-layered vr sessions Rick realized instantly what was going on set them up to kill themselves. Is it that hard to believe Rick wouldn't realize what the Federation was going to do? Rick, Birdperson, Squanchy, and Tammy (who defected) staged everything. Birdperson isn't really dead (we saw Jerry get SHOT IN THE HEAD and he was fine) and never saw Squanchy kill Tammy. Rick allowed himself to be captured not to save his family but so he could get into the prison and stage a massive jailbreak. Season 3 will open with Rick escaping with the other freedom fighters and overthrowing the Federation, getting Earth named off-limits.

Jerry may become a drug addicted prostitute for aliens

.He finally gets his job and it might be unpleasant.This is based on the way Rick turned himself in. Also the antidepressants.

A future episode will have Rick and Morty visit the "Doc and Mharti" universe.

Beth and Jerry will get some major Character Development in season 3.

Jerry, tired of being the family's Butt-Monkey and with a new found sense of confidence from his depression medication may finally decide to leave the family who show more favourtism to Rick than him.

Beth, on the other hand, may learn more about how her father essentially destroyed another universe, possibly more and how her own son isn't really her own son due to him coming from another dimension. She will see Rick from a Broken Pedestal perspective.

The final episode could be how Morty ends up homeless as both of his parents disown him. Rick and Morty could be drifters through the galaxy/multiverse with possibly Summer joining them.

Rick Won't Escape The Galactic Prison On His Own.

We've seen a lot of the things Rick does are to help him deal with issues, his alcoholism, drug use and partying help distract and numb him to his pain and misery. His adventures and exploits help him avoid his issues, and his near-sociopathic behaviour just stops him realising things about his life (it is not all because of that, but it plays a serious part).

As such now he's imprisoned, with no booze or anything to distract him, trapped to do nothing but reflect for all eternity, its going to seriously break him. To the point, he won't even attempt to escape from the prison.

As such when whoever it is breaks him out (his family, Unity, the Council of Ricks, heck maybe just one or two Ricks, he might hate the Council but he seems to be on good terms with several individual Ricks) they're are going to find him just a shell of his former self.

He won't snap out of it until he discovers that the Galactic Government plan to use his technology to conquer every dimension in the Multi-verse, and what they have done to his family.

Rick will not escape from Space Prison.

We'll just switch to a different Rick and Morty and there will be absolutely no reference to the Season 2 finale.

• Jossed, sorta. Rick escapes from Space Prison to rejoin his family and kick Jerry out of the house for the duration of season 3, until Beth rejoins with Jerry after thinking she is a clone of herself. This causes Rick to leave, with Fisherman Rick probably taking his place for the next season...

Morty will find the Meeseeks box and summon an army of Meeseeks to break Rick out of prison.

Credit where it's due: a YouTube commenter originally suggested this. But still it makes sense. I mean, the Meeseeks are unkillable, and thus can easily get past the prison guards. Plus, we've been waiting for Mr. Meeseeks to make a comeback, and this is the perfect chance.

Rick will be Killed Off for Real in the series finale.

Come on, you all see this coming. The poor guy is extremely depressed and has attempted suicide before (as shown at the end of "Auto Erotic Assimilation"), and it's obvious he can't stay alive for a long time. Maybe he'll commit a Heroic Sacrifice for Morty, but unlike in "A Rickle in Time", it'll be permanent.

There will a Musical Episode that affectionately parodies Disney musicals.

Bonus points if, to lampshade the ridiculousness of suddenly breaking into a professionally-written song, the songs are all improvised and crappy. (Think Spike singing the Cloudsdale anthem.) After all, as shown by "Rixty Minutes", Justin Roiland is really good at improvising.

Morty will help Rick get out of prison legally.

Morty will use the federations legal system to get Ricky out of jail. I mean more will take them to court and have Rick released based on some kind of loop hole or technicality. Or he will just have to sign some release form asking for Rick's release. Instead of having to go and bust him out, all they had to do was some paper work and it's all round. It's out of the blue and feels like something the show could do.

Krombopolous Michael will break Rick out of prison.

Krombopolous Michael was killed in his debut episode, but eagle-eyed viewers will notice that said episode follows a different Rick and Morty. That means that C-137 Krombopolous Michael might still be alive. Since he's shown to be incredibly skilled at breaking into highly secure places, it can be assumed that he'd have no trouble breaking into a Galactic Federation prison. He'd also have a good reason for doing so, seeing as how Rick supplies him with weapons.

Morty will rescue Rick with the help of Doofus Rick.

Furthermore, this will lead to a major strain on their relationship in Season 3. While Doofus may be less intelligent than Main Rick, he actually shows interest in Morty's well-being, and tries to help Morty learn. Spending time with Doofus, Morty will learn that he really did inherit some of his Grandfather's intelligence, and by the time they put their plan into motion Morty will have at least a general understanding of how most of Rick's technology works.

This actually ties perfectly into the theory that Evil Morty was once partners with Doofus Rick (although probably from different worlds, since Doofus said he didn't have children). Evil Morty was able to do the things he did only because Doofus taught him.

Rick will end up working for the Galactic Federation.

I know this sounds like something Rick would never do, but I've run through the other possibilities and they all seem even more unsatisfying (lifting from above theories):

-Even if someone tried to break him out, he'd refuse to go since he was in prison to protect his family.

-Getting him Off on a Technicality would be a gigantic cop-out after waiting over a year for a resolution.

-Switching to another Rick and Morty would, likewise, seem unsatisfying, especially when we know that this one is the Rickiest Rick.

- (not actually theorized above, but technically possible) The downfall of the Galactic Federation would TECHNICALLY free Rick, as there would no longer be a government to imprison him, but does anyone really want to see that happen with Rick in prison where he can't be involved with it?

That leaves the possibility that he's allowed to resume his adventures as an agent of the Galactic Federation.

• That can be the plot to the third season, something forces the Federation to turn to using Rick rather than letting him rot in prison but Rick won't do it unless Morty is allowed to go alongside him. During the season it's slowly revealed why Rick and his friends were fighting against them and ends with Morty destroying the Federation from the inside leading to Rick almost telling Morty how proud he is of him before an earth shattering revelation having to do with the memory and photo of Rick holding the baby Morty leads to another cliffhanger.

Rick and Morty will find The Chosen One.

Not that it will help Rick's depression; his explanation to Morty will be along the lines of "See that guy? His life matters. The greatest thing you'll ever do will be nothing compared to him taking a shit in the morning. Have fun."

How Rick will get out of prison.

Morty will reveal that he and Rick aren't the same versions of themselves from that universe and prove that the rick that's in prison isn't the same Rick the galactic federation is looking for, but they get forcibly sent back to the Cronenberg earth.

Movie parodies for Season 3

• Jaws: They go to an alien ocean where a monstrous sea creature wants to devour them. The twist is that the creature is sentient with the mind like that of a lonely teenager and Rick tricks it into falling in love with Morty. They have to have a freaky sex act in order for it to let them leave.
• Sky High (2005): Rick sends Morty into a reality where everyone is a superhero. At a school, Morty gets harassed by superpowered bullies until he gains a very impressive power and becomes the big man on campus, even having sex with all the girls...but it turns out it was all an illusion cast by a psychic kid who also froze him in place right when he first walked up to the school. The psychic kids does this to all the new kids, simply because he's a Jerkass. Rick then picks up Morty before he can see what the school is really like.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: A flip on the concept of the movie; an insane alien boy captures all the adults on a planet on behalf of their evil children using a weird vehicle that invokes the titular car somehow. Rick frees the adults only to find that the adults are actually insane and evil as well and that it is an ancient cycle of the evil adults abusing their children, the children turning evil, the children killing the adults en masse, and those children growing up and having more kids. Rick kills them all to finally end it, because even he finds it disturbing and pointless.
• Arrival

Season 3: Our Morty will have to deal with another Rick.

To the Council of Ricks, a 'Morty' is just a commodity; something needed to keep a Rick safe from discovery while on their adventures. And with our Rick no longer around, the Council now considers our Morty to be available for use by a Rick missing a Morty. Which, if they no longer have a Morty, likely means one of the Ricks that considers a 'Morty' to be disposable; to be used, abused, and discarded when no longer convenient. Our Morty will likely not take well to this.

This could be prefaced by the first episode of Season 3 starting just like the first episode of Season 1; with a crazed Rick babbling while waking up Morty to take him on an adventure. Except now Morty is (a little bit) stronger and more able to deal with Rick's craziness. Plus confused as hell because his Rick is supposed to be in prison.

In fact, this could last for a few episodes, with our Morty outliving multiple Ricks. Becoming a memetic badass to the other Mortys out there. (Or building on his legend, if he's already one for freeing the captured Mortys from their imprisonment).

Bird Person isn't really dead.

• I mean, it's entirely possible, since this is a show with more-or-less permadeath, and it would make sense to have a beloved character who is something of a mentor to Morty die in a shocking way, but we only really saw him get shot before the Smiths escaped the wedding. We don't know what happened to him. He is voiced by show creator Dan Harmon. Now it's possible that Harmon doesn't want to do the character any more as he seems to be more of a hands-off guy unlike Justin Roiland, but we don't know that for sure. It would make sense for Bird Person to fake his death. My theory is that Bird Person figured out that Tammy is a double agent long before anyone else and has been playing the long game, and intentionally faked his death. However, I think Rick also knew that Tammy was a double agent, which is why he didn't want to go to the wedding at the start of the episode, presumably in an effort to lay low, but his familial instinct got the better of him and he decided to join the family at the wedding. Rick probably isn't aware of Bird Person's long game. If he is, then it's possible he turned himself in in order to protect his family and also because he knows Bird Person can break him out. It seems that Rick, Bird Person and Tammy are all playing a Xanatos Gambit.
  • Of course, the alternative could be that I'm only half-right and Bird Person really is dead, however he was also aware that Tammy was going to double-cross him, so he set up a Thanatos Gambit to ensure the safety of the rest of the anti-Federation insurrectionists at the cost of his own life. That's another possibility.
    • Confirmed and Jossed. He died but was resurected as a cyborg by Tammy and the remains of the Federal Galactic Government.

Morty will deliver a "reason you suck speech" to Summer

Summer seems to be getting a serious worshipping complex, much like Beth, in the third season premiere while Morty tried in vain to stop her. She was pretty hard on him during the mexican standoff with her caught in the middle which flipped his switch. It could be that he's biding his time before telling her off, especially when its likely something to get her killed.

Season 3 will focus a lot more on Jerry then previous seasons.

While Jerry seems pushed out the plot by the sudden divorce, it will actually just lead to friction in the family. Morty will try to help dad out with Rick and the others trying to stop him, coming to a head at the finale where Beth will realize how much she loves Jerry still and how much Rick manipulated her into the divorce. And, this being Rick and Morty, it will be revealed that he actually did it out of concern for the family's safety and Jerry's safety.

• Or at the very least, Morty will visit his dad often, even if Beth doesn't want Jerry to share custody with their kids.

The season 3 premiere was actually Evil Morty's Origin Story.

The Rick and Morty we are seeing wasn't the real Rick and Morty. In actuality, that episode was the origin story of how an alternate Morty became evil. And the real season opener could be about Rick and Morty fighting the evil alternate version of the season premiere.

Jessica will be revealed to be an undercover member of an anti-Federation guerrilla group.

It would make an interesting counterpoint to Tammy's being a pro-Federation operative, might explain why she found Rick's stuff so cool, and would help to add to some depth to her character, with her being Morty's love interest and all.

• If so, there'll be a fight between her and Tammy at some point, and be revealed that they used to be friends until different viewpoints led to them going their separate ways.

Morty will kill Rick in the final episode

Season 3's premiere all but states that Morty's relationship with him has been soured, and Look Who's Purging Now shows that he can be driven to murder when pushed far enough. Adding to it, when Rick dies, he'll reveal it was part of Batman Gambit to have Morty help him with an assisted suicide.

In the epilogue, Morty will become Rick

To add to the WMG above, Morty will grow into becoming Rick. Maybe less of a drunkard but just as cynical and his only purpose in life would be traveling to different worlds. While mentoring an offspring of Summer.

• Expanding on this, it will turn out that Morty was Rick 'all along': The whole show is a more or less stable timeloop, in which Morty Smith eventually matures into becoming Rick Sanchez, who then goes back in time and has Beth with his wife, effectively making him his own grandfather. The whole reason for all of Rick's actions in the show is that he wants to prevent Morty from becoming him, an endeavor which will inevitably fail.

Some of the surviving alternate Ricks will team up to ruin everything for Rick.

And these Ricks will be some of the ones with more looks more divergent from the typical Rick. Rick will win over them, but they will make life harder for him since they know how to mess with him.

Rick is "Rick rolling" us about the Mulan schezwan sauce.

Since Rick is a bit of a bastard, what if he's intentionally Rick Rolling us by claiming how great the szechuan mcnugget sauce was? Clearly he knows he's a character in a show (breaking the fourth wall many times). The Season 3 premiere was shown online during April Fools Day. And heknows how to set up cruel jokes with a slow burn. What's more slow of a slow burn than getting fans hyped up over szechuan mcnugget sauce, but to ironically have them not aware of how horrible it may actually taste? Some may say, "but the bug alien had some while in his memory." Well, do you honestly think a bug is going to tell the difference between good and bad tasting Earth items? He works in a freakin' prison, and Rick was using the sauce to distract him. And since Rick knows he's a character, he's more than likely screwing with the fans because he knows we'd be stupid enough to accept product endorsements, even if the products are complete crap, if they're mentioned on the show.

• Except many real-life fans have tried the Szechuan sauce before. And this troper personally found it delicious.

The szechuan sauce has some sort of cosmic significance.

Assuming he is motivated by it, why wouldn't Rick not just go to a universe where it's still available? Because there isn't one. When Rick couldn't find a universe where it was still available, despite the very nature of the multiverse meaning it'd be available, he came to the realization that there is some cosmic meaning or power that has to be responsible for it. And, be it the Powers That Be, God, a Cosmic Horror Story or us, it horrified and/or fascinated him into trying to unravel the mystery. Also, he really likes the sauce.

Jerry will get so sick of his joke of a life that he will steal a portal gun and go to another dimension to start over.

One where he has no connection to Rick in any way.

• No one but Morty will even care. In fact, Beth would say "good riddance".
• Alternatively they drag him back in a big Yank the Dog's Chain moment because he's genuinely happy there.
  • OP: But here's the thing about this theory; Jerry knows the family would ruin it for him if he finds happiness in the other dimension. As such, in a rare display of brilliance, Jerry makes sure that the family doesn't know. He'll claim he got a new job in, say, the Faroe Islands and leave on a plane heading there...then travels to the other dimension using the portal gun he stole. Which he didn't steal from the main Rick, but from Doofus Rick, who doesn't notice because he has tons of them following the death of the Council of Ricks.

Related to a theory above, the anti-Federation guerrilla group will eventually found a more benevolent organization.

Perhaps in the season/series finale. It'll be called the Galactic Alliance.

Tammy will make Summer's life miserable For the Evulz.

Rick will get his szechuan sauce, but at a great cost...

As shown in the Season 3 premiere, Rick is not above burning bridges or using his own family to achieve his end goal of getting his dipping sauce. Perhaps some time in the season finale, he'll finally get his szechuan sauce, but he either...

• ... does something truly unforgivable, that even someone like his daughter, Beth, begins to hate him.
• ... loses his family in his blind pursuit.
• ... doesn't like it anymore (or isn't the same to him), wasting away his life, and destroying his relationships for nothing.

Jerry will go insane and pull a Face–Heel Turn.

Having been divorced by Beth for petty reasons, he will go insane and become a galactic crimelord with the intent of getting Beth back by all means. Season 3 will end in his and Beth's deaths at the hands of an even worse crimelord.

The show will have a Bittersweet Ending in which the Mortys not only exterminate the Ricks, but become rulers of the Multiverse.

Okay, this will take some explaining: The show seems to be built on an ideological battle between Absurdism (Rick) and Existentialism (Morty), and Existentialism seems to be getting it's ass kicked on a weekly basis. However, I suspect this isn't because of the weakness of the philosophy, but because of the relative weakness of it's champion.

The show's creators have made comments that seem more in line with Existentialism, so it makes sense that eventually that will win. When it does, the Mortys will have fulfilled the potential displayed by Evil Morty, and become at least proficient with Rick technology. The main series Morty will deliver an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to main series, Rick, telling him that no matter how much life sucks, you're supposed to keep fighting for SOMETHING, but in the end Rick was too weak to fight for anything more than a Mc Nugget dipping sauce.

After killing off the Ricks, the Mortys realize something: Life will always be hard for most of the multiverse, and nothing they can do will change that. However, being the most competent beings in the Multiverse who are still alive (...well, except maybe Doofus Rick, they'd probably spare him...), they can at least make life suck marginally less as rulers. Thus, they seize power. The series ends with our Morty sitting on his throne, looking utterly miserable, but trying to plod on.

Morty will have a Wham Line that manages to completely horrify Rick

Morty:Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!

Season 4 will have a Meta episode referencing the April Fools Day controversy

• It'll involve Rick anticipating the Un-Cancellation of a show that has been cancelled for 13 years, only to find out that the season premiere to another show has been playing over and over again for April Fools Day. Said Show Within a Show will have a character who wants to bring back a discontinued food, leading to a potential in-universe revival.

The upcoming "Rick and Jerry" adventure will have a twist

It'll turn out that Morty didn't ask Rick to take Jerry on an adventure. In reality Summer, Beth, and Morty will either not want to or be unable to go on the adventure. Morty in particular would have good reason due to the events of "Vindicators 3: Return of Worldender".

• Mostly jossed. It did have a twist, but it was that Morty had asked Rick to take Jerry on an adventure so he could have a break from Rick.

The show is leading to a big metaphor for the Ship of Theseus.

We switched out Beth, Jerry, and Summer in the first season. Then the premiere of Season 3 opened with Rick abandoning certain parts of his brain during a Body Surf, his original body being killed, and his mind landing in an alternate universe version of himself. Then, Morty's toxicity died, but Rick seems to have put some essence of the dead Toxic Morty back into him. Over the course of the show less and less of the original cast will be left, leaving us to wonder at what point we started watching a new show.

• Now both Rick and Morty had their minds erased and reset, further setting them down this path.

Our Morty will eventually kill Evil Morty.

It makes sense, the Mortyest Morty would have to be the one to kill the Rickest Morty. That and now that Evil Morty is in charge of the citadel he'll be expecting Ricks outside citadel control. The one thing Evil Morty won't expect is a poor helpless Morty still firmly under the thumb of a Rick to be his undoing. That and our Morty has been growing more and more like Rick in his own manner, where Evil Morty has Rick's brains and deviousness our Morty has taken on a significant portion of his cunning and vengefullness. Heck it wouldn't be surprising if they got together and collaborated for a time only for our Morty to ruthlessly stab him in the back right as everything seems to be at the climax... just like he did to Fart.

The Beth at the end of "The ABC's of Beth" is the real one, and she sent a clone out into the universe.

The Beth we see at the end of the episode seems more uncharacteristically happy/interested in what her kids did that day because her clone is out doing the stuff she's missing out on. It's easy for her to concentrate because eventually the clone will return, and her memories will be harvested and enjoyed by the real Beth as a hyperpersonalized form of reality television in a "Beth's Mind Blowers" episode. There might even be multiple clones just in case a few never make it back.

The alien in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" is...

BIRDPERSON! Or, technically Phoenix Person now. It'd make sense to bring him back after teasing him in the season premiere stinger. Could also provide a really heavy moment for Rick seeing his best friend under control by his mortal enemies.

Rick is going to try and force Character Development on himself.

By the end of Season 3 he's lost his foot hold on the family, and his Jerkass behavior has backfired. Desiring the love of his family but not willing to change on his own will, Rick will instead alter his own personality through the mind-blowers, modifying his memory to force himself to become a better person. This will end up backfiring as the family will catch on to in-universe Character Derailment and that he is taking the easy way out. It will end up in Rick restoring his mental faculties to normal, undergoing genuine Character Development from the experience and be a better person for it.

• Isn't that basically what happened in Rest in Ricklaxation? It would kinda feel like a rehash of that.

Season Four will have one episode where Rick goes off to do his own thing alone, and we focus (mainly) on the Smith Family

While Season three ended with a soft reset, and everyone trying to claim things are better now, considering how fast it seemed, its more likely that they've merely started to deal with their problems, and are assuming any progress equals success. By not having Rick around (temporarily) to act as a crucible however, it would mean their issues would come to the surface on their own, and force them to accept their not yet as well as they want to be.

The Clone Debacle is going to be exploited by Evil!Morty

Regardless of whether the current Beth is a clone or not, it's going to lead to trouble sooner or later - in part because nobody can trust Rick to tell the truth about it - and this might be the perfect juncture for Evil!Morty to make his move. At some point in Season 4, Evil!Morty will kidnap Beth and (if she's a clone) either direct Real!Beth back to replace her or (if she isn't a clone) just send a clone taught to act like her old selfish self. While she's being contained at the Citadel, Rick gets the blame for her disappearance: because he promised to switch off the clone if Real!Beth ever returned, and because he spent most of the intervening time grumbling about the happy family dynamic, nobody believes him when he tries to claim innocence. In the resulting argument, Rick is rejected by everyone including Morty and kicked out of the house for good; after trying and failing to find another home in various alternate dimensions, he soon crosses the Despair Event Horizon over the final destruction of all his meaningful relationships, and eventually leaves for the Citadel in the desperate (and drunken) hope that he can find a new life there. For good measure, he destroys his portal gun as a final sign that he really has given up. However, the moment he arrives, he's captured by Evil!Morty - exactly as planned.

Something, anywhere from a joke to an entire episode, will mock the Szechuan sauce incident and subsequent frustration of October 7th, 2017

Backstory for the uninformed: As part of a promotion for McDonald’s new buttermilk fried chicken tenders, a number of locations across the United States utilized a marketing campaign heavily based around dipping sauces. Among the advertising on the website was the claim of the return of Rick’s beloved Szechuan sauce which came with a Rick and Morty inspired poster. On the day in question, however, the McDonald's who did have the sauce and posters largely received no more than 20 of each and ran out within minutes. Many restaurants never had the Szechuan sauce at all, its presence was just a bit of manipulative marketing. This ultimately led to many Rick and Morty fans eager for the experience to end up sorely disappointed.The show could take this humorous situation in any number of directions, from a throwaway joke by Rick that alternate universes advertise the sauce but it’s never actually there or runs out before he hears about it to him and Morty spending an entire episode waiting in line for the sauce, as many viewers did.

• Given all the bad press this got both McDonald's and the show, it's possible the creators will want to avoid mentioning the sauce again. Perhaps the incident will be referenced by establishing an in-universe equivalent to what happened. Here's my proposal; a Season 4 episode will reveal that The Adventures of Mrs. Pancakes had an episode where the title character stated that she loved a discontinued flavor of a widely distributed sports drink. This has sparked interest in the flavor offscreen and gotten it rereleased to a chain of grocery stores. Things quickly go wrong when it turns out there wasn't much of the flavor available for sale and crowds begin to shout and run amuck about the drink. The episode will then follow Rick and Mr. Goldenfold trying to keep the incident from giving the show's fans and the show itself a worse reputation as a whole. Ultimately, the actress who plays Mrs. Pancakes makes a statement where she lambasts the drink company for bringing it back and using imagery reminiscent of her show to advertise it as if it was promotional.
• While an episode about Rick and Morty waiting in line for sauce seems unlikely, it's entirely possible that they could do an episode where the A-plot is a normal adventure that Rick and Morty go on instead ("But Rick, don't you wanna stay and get that Mulan sauce you wanted?" "Jesus, Morty, why would I care about some goddamn teriyaki ketchup?" "B-but - dammit, Rick! You said - there was a whole speech, Rick!" "Morty, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about, but fortunately I also don't care. Away we go!") while the B-plot is about Jerry waiting in line, getting increasingly upset and angry at the time it's taking, because it turns out he's a massive fan of Mulan.

When the time comes, Summer will be the one to kill Tammy

(Spoilers ahead)

If memory serves me, Tammy met Bird Person through the party Rick held in Ricksy Business, which means it was Summer who gave her the invite - Tammy wouldn't want to blow her cover too soon. Summer must have some immense guilt over essentially enabling Tammy to bait Bird Person into his death and Rick into space prison, and so would have a burning desire to make amends for where she went wrong. So when the remnants of the Federation inevitably come knocking, there will be one final battle between them and Rick and co. At the climax, Rick and Morty will focus on Phoenix Person and try to bring their old friend back to his senses, while Summer will be left with Tammy. Having become unhinged from everything that's happened, she won't hold back even slightly.

• Jossed. While Summer ultimately disarms her, Rick is the one to kill her and Summer shows little issue with it. Phoenix Person meanwhile has pretty much moved past Rick and becoming slavishly devoted to Tammy, nearly killing Rick after learning she's dead. Rick then takes his still living body back home with him in the hopes of turning him back to normal.

Interdimensional Cable will return...

But with a twist! The family wants to go see the sequel to Two Brothers that is called Two Brothers: Dr. Candypants Goes to the Avocado Circus for Sexy Time in 3D, but the film is only showing in the dimension they got the broadcast from. Rick makes a portal to go there, but the family ends up in the reality where the films are real and struggles to survive a brand New Mexican Armada's attack. It will then be revealed that Rick, who has supposedly spent the episode trying to get the family back home, did it on purpose just so he could have Jerry scream "I hate Mexican tomato laser bombs!!!" and make it into a Voice Clip Song on YouTube that also makes it appear that Jerry is expressing a racist hatred towards regular Mexicans. The rest of the family will be mad at Rick for putting them in peril just for that purpose.

Rick will die of old age.

Yup. Natural causes. That's the ultimate end of the nihilism the show adheres to: yes, there are infinite timelines and alternate dimensions and the universe is so huge that nothing in it really matters, not even life and death... but Rick is still an old man, and all the Ricks in the universe who aren't clones are old men, and no matter how many times he switches out bodies or worlds or families just to keep on living the life he prefers, sooner or later, he'll die. He even specifically destroys all the younger clones he was putting together in order to cheat death-by-age because he doesn't actually want to be young. Rick seems to have a love-hate relationship with... existence in general, but if he lives, he wants to live as himself, and Rick defines himself at least partly by his age.

Giving Morty a black eye at the end of S4E5 will come bite Rick in the ass.

He will be called out for hurting Morty and might even be kicked out for it.

Rick will leave the current reality behind and start over in a new reality, but without Morty.

Season 4 has repeatedly highlighted just how toxic Rick is to his family and how he brings out the worst in them, the season ending with none of them, not even his own daughter(s), wanting anything to do with him anymore, and him even having a My God, What Have I Done? moment after viewing his mind-blower. Rick will then be presented with two options: either try and clean himself up, or leave them so they no longer have to deal with his problems. Since Rick is extremely self-destructive however, he'll likely pick the latter option and go into another reality, one where a Rick never came back into the Smith Family's lives... and pretend to be that Beth's dad and start all over. In a direct nod and possibly parody of reboots, Rick will basically start from the beginning, with a family who hasn't gotten fed up with him or even been exposed to his behavior, a Morty he can use as his helper, a Beth and Summer who worships the ground he walks on, and a Jerry he can push around. Something will go wrong though. Whether it being Rick having actually grown attached to his old family, the new family not working out, the old family coming back for him and admitting they love him in spite of his toxicity, or even Evil Morty finally beginning his campaign and attacking Rick's new home, Rick's attempt at running away from his problems will ultimately fail, and he'll be forced to think of something else rather than just keep running.

• Things could go wrong for Rick in a more mundane way; by actually ending up in a universe with various differences from the one he's used to being in. Some will be minor divergences that Rick wouldn't care about; Jerry having a mustache as a reference to the Mirror Universe Spock, Jessica being African-American (and Morty having a preference for black women as a result), Vance Maximus is alive and just the Smiths boring neighbor, and the garage being on the other side of the house. Others that Rick failed to account for will end up being more extreme; Beth is a deer surgeon instead of a horse surgeon and is cheating on Jerry with a co-worker, Jerry is still employed at his original job and happy and stable there despite still being disrespected by the family, Summer is a super popular serial heartbreaker, and Morty is an adrenaline junkie who actually likes absurdly wild adventures and pushes Rick to goon on them even more. It'll turn out that Rick actually wanted the small challenge of changing this reality and his life in it to be more of a carbon copy of how things were at the start of the show, but when it ends up resulting in this new family despising him, Rick'll go running back to the "main" Smiths.
• Another possible alternate version of this- Rick goes to a dimension where what seems to be a fully-played-straight Animated Shock Comedy variation of Rick and Morty takes place, doubling as a Take That! to both what certain critics of the show see it as and what bigoted fans of Rick seem to wish the show was. Morty and Jerry are even more pathetic and spineless than any other incarnation of either of them that has ever appeared in the show up to this point, Beth is an even more explicitly abusive wife, and Summer is a Straw Feminist (or, perhaps, a Straw Straw Feminist that's a satirical take on how misogynistic fans of Rick seem to see feminist women). Rick enjoys living in a truly consequence-free version of his dimension that more easily rewards his nihilism for a little while, until he eventually becomes sick of it, wanting to go back to living with a Morty, Summer, Jerry, and Beth that actually have some depth to them and can successfully call him out when he needs it. At this point, he would end up in a deadly conflict with that dimension's Rick, who would have been away for a little while for some reason. This dimension's Rick would basically be the biggest Hate Sink of any version of Rick ever seen in the show and maybe even the comics, having all of Rick's worst qualities turned up to eleven, none of the qualities that make C-137 Rick funny, entertaining, or sympathetic, and could only ever possibly be liked by the most toxic of Rick's fans, actively repulsing even C-137 Rick. Whereas C-137 Rick is usually an Unscrupulous Hero or Nominal Hero, even in conflicts with other Ricks seemingly more evil than himself, this would be one of the rare moments where C-137 Rick is umambiguously the good guy, and this other Rick's death at C-137 Rick's hands would be one of C-137 Rick's most satisfying moments of all time. C-137 Rick's experiences in that dimension would likely motivate him to make a more sincere effort to be a better person going forward, although to what degree would largely depend on how close to the eventual series finale of Rick and Morty this kind of plot would take place.

Season 5 has Rick in another simulation

...but this time he has no desire to escape. 

• Season 5 opens up with Rick and Morty going on more adventures with death crystal mining, with only Earth Beth and Jerry present while Summer has Took a Level in Badass. There's no explanation of how this ties up season 4 with his family leaving him. Rick introduces an archnemesis while we have never seen before, and acts Never My Fault when Morty accidentally broke a treaty. 
• This world isn't real. While Beth and Jerry are happy together and Morty stands up to his grandfather for being an Ungrateful Bastard, they can all see the cracks in the facade. If it is his real family trapped with him, Jerry of all people goes Spotting the Thread by pointing out a fish-guy can't be Rick's worst enemy given he "fucked a planet". Morty himself tells off Rick for being an Ungrateful Bastard, pointing out he saved his grandfather's life. It will culminate in an arc similar to WandaVision where Rick has to accept that the status quo has changed, and leave this world. 

The Rick and Morty we're following isn't our Rick and Morty

• Rather than the C-137 versions we've been following, its an alternate version with evidence based on the Status Quo Is God-Cliffhanger Copout of the first episode of Season 5. No mention is made of Phoenix-Person or Space!Beth but despite this everyone is more adjusted and Morty himself is assertive in calling Rick out on his bullshit.

Halfway through the Season, maybe the last episode of the season, an exchange will lead to Morty deciding that no version of Rick cares about their Morty and leave his grandfather to die. As he does, For the Damaged Coda will begin to play revealing that we've been following Evil Morty this whole time.

Morty will meet God himself.

At some point, Morty, wanting answers for why his love life is a joke, journeys to find God to get answers, as he's had enough of life screwing him over. When he does find him, God will tell him he will never find true happiness as long as Rick is in his life.

We haven't seen the last of Planetina.

In a future episode, she will return, continuing her campaign of ecoterrorism. The President tells Rick to deal with her, and he tries to get Morty to lure her into a trap so he can kill her with pollution. In the end, they succeed, and with her dying words, Planetina confesses she never stopped loving Morty, leaving Morty a sobbing wreck.

Rick and Bird Person will have to rescue Birdperson’s daughter.

Following the Season 5 finale, Rick and Morty will be saved by Doofus Rick

It would be revealed that Doofus Rick is a lot smarter than he lets on, with him being absent from the Citadel when it was destroyed twice, conducting his own supply of portal fluid after the original was destroyed, handing it to our Rick.

At the time this guess is written, there have been five seasons broadcast. There will be eight total, and then the series will end.

Dan Harmon is a strong adherent of the story circle method of plot construction, which has eight sections. We've been through five, one season for each part. The three remaining seasons will show Rick and Morty at absolute rock bottom (possibly stranded in Mortyburg with no quick nor easy way home, and everyone with a bone to pick with Rick gunning for them), returning back where they came from (finally returning to Earth and the rest of the cast, who have gone on with their lives without them in the meantime), and in a season-long epilogue (expect lots of episodes exploring how they have changed since the first season).

The Cronenberged dimension's Rick will show up as an antagonist.

Either for one episode or as an Arc Villain. While implied, the Season 5 finale confirms that the Rick we follow isn't from the same universe as the Morty we follow, who's from the Cronenberged universe. The Rick from that universe could simply be dead, but maybe he's just occupied off-world/universe. Imagine how pissed off he'll be when he learns that our Rick has ruined his Earth and taken his grandson to live vicariously. Cronenberged Dimension Rick being a Hero Antagonist (well, Anti-Hero because he's a Rick) would further enforce how our Rick is becoming like the one who killed his family and Evil Morty's point that all Ricks do is cause their own and other people's misery.

• Delightfully confirmed.

Rick will somehow get his portal technology back, possibly from Doofus Rick

Doofus Rick visits the Smith family to say hi to Jerry and Rick wonders how he got here. Doofus Rick then states that not all Ricks were at the Citadel at the time of its destruction, prompting Rick to push his Doofus self back in the portal, but not before taking his gun and saying something like: "Thanks for the gun, dumbass!!!"

Rick Prime/Weird Rick's true goal is to find a universe where he can ascend as a god.

In his few appearances, he outright tells Main Rick that portal technology would make him a god. One of the possible future plotlines will likely involve the main versions of Rick and Morty trying to find a way to stop Rick Prime's plans for godhood and defeating him for good.

Rick Prime/Weird Rick and Evil Morty will have a Villain Team-Up.

Given that they're both main antagonists, it's quite likely that they'll meet in a future episode and plot to conquer the multiverse and/or to make Main Rick and Morty's life miserable in the process.

• Jossed; Evil Morty has an Enemy Mine with Main Rick.

Morty will threaten Evil Morty with the Omega Device

Evil Morty has copied the schematics of Rick Prime's Omega Device capable of erasing someone from every timeline in existence. He will threaten to use it on Rick only for the Main Morty to threaten to throw himself into the device unless he surrenders.

Rick will go outside the Central Finite Curve to look for Diane

The Omega Device can kill someone throughout all universes, but it's never specified it's only within the Central Finite Curve or not. Rick, not entirely sure himself, decides to take a leap of faith and do what Evil Morty and create another tear in the curve. This can not only lead to a whole season of Rick trying to find Diane in uncharted territories but also explore these new universes outside the Curve and how they operate without him being the smartest in their world.

Rick Prime is Not Quite Dead.

We know that a memory can take some form of sentience as seen with Memory Rick. It is possible that, even after killing him, Rick Prime could manage to persist as an Enemy Within Rick's mindscape. Especially after the recent mix-up with his grey matter and previous meddling with his personality, it could be enough to allow Rick Prime to give "living rent-free in your head" a whole new meaning.

Summer has never seen or even heard of Back to the Future

The revelation will cause a paradox that will threaten the multiverse.

Summer will throw her phone at the wall again.

In JuRicksic Mort, while Summer is on her phone, she learns that she can no longer make money on TikTok. She then throws it at the wall in anger, breaking it. Then in That's Amorte, Rick walks into the kitchen with the special spaghetti while Summer is on her phone. She then throws it at the wall out of excitement, breaking it again. Perhaps the gag will continue in future episodes? Something a little exciting or upsetting will happen while Summer is on her phone. She'll raise up her hand as if she's about to throw it, and Beth will stop her, saying something like "Honey, I'm getting tired of replacing that" in a mildly annoyed tone.

Miscellaneous/Unsorted

Rick is a mangled up, virus-infected Kaito Shion.

• Let's see...
  • Both of them wear a blue shirt (matching their hair), a white trenchcoat, brown jeans, black shoes.
  • They both enjoy ice cream (as seen in "The Ricks Must Be Crazy").
  • Don't forget: they've also been known for performing music.
  • Hmmm, Summer and Morty are awfully like the Kagamine twins so....

The medicine Rick gave Morty in the pilot stopped Morty's ageing process.

Rick says that the dimension where he got the medicine that instantly healed Morty's broken legs was so advanced that they'd managed to halt the ageing process, so everyone there was young. After Morty is healed, he says, "I've never felt so good in my life!" This is because the serum didn't just heal his legs; it healed his entire body. There's going to be a future episode where Morty has to confront the fact that he'll be a teenager his entire life after Rick explains the situation to him.

The little girl from the centaur's dream in Lawnmower Dog is Scary Terry's familiar.

This is why she was dreaming of the exact same place, minus the centaur.

The Rick that walked out on his wife and daughter wasn't the same Rick we know.

Something happened that made our Rick have to replace that other Rick.

A reason why most of the family (especially Beth) hasn't called out Rick/tried to get him help for his drinking problem.

Beth knows that Rick is an alcoholic, but refuses to even mention it because Rick knows that she also has a drinking problem and will reveal it to the family to point out that she refuses to make a Hypocrisy Nod.

The Series Doesn't Always Follow the Same Rick and Morty

The episodes with clear continuity (eg. "Rick Potion #9," "Raising Gazorpazorp," "Rixty Minutes," etc.) are all the same R&M, but some of the other episodes (like, maybe "Something Ricked This Way Comes" or "Total Rickall"), feature alternate versions of the duo.

• Confirmed in "Mortynight Run" : if you pay attention to the ticket number C-137 Rick gets at the beginning, the Rick and Morty we follow through this episode are indeed an alternate Rick and Morty.
• In Rest and Ricklaxation, Morty's' girlfriend says that he told her he's from the Midwest. Morty s ays he was honest with her and lying seems to have been one of fhis toxic traits that was purged, like Rick. However, in most episodes, the Smith family lives in or near Seattle. The specific states in the Midwest vary in interpretation, but none of them include Washington.

The Rushed Licensed Adventure game takes place in between the first and second seasons

Beth and Jerry are nowhere to be seen, all of the chapters take place indoors, and since the season two premiere establishes that it took six months to clean their mess, it's probable that Rick, Morty, and Summer occasionally took a break from cleaning up the house.

• Chapter 3 would seem to have to happen after "Get Schwifty", however, as two of the songs on Summer's music player were supposed to have been created in that episode.

Doofus Rick is the Rick that founded the Jerry daycare, and did so after meeting our Rick's Jerry

It would also explain why, instead of being a Hellhole Prison, the Daycare is actually a very comforting place filled with things Jerry enjoys doing. Would also be Heartwarming in Hindsight when you remember how "our" Rick said that he wishes he was the version of him who came up with the idea because that guy is rich. Not only would founding the Daycare have been financially beneficial for Doofus Rick, it would also have allowed him to get more respect and acknowledgement (even if they don't admit it) from the other Ricks. And he only did it because he wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen to his friend and his alternative selves!

The alternate universe television episodes will eventually become a different spinoff show altogether.

It would be in a similar vein to something like Robot Chicken and feature occasional commentary from Rick and Morty.

The way the other Rick saved Earth in "Rick Potion #9"

Instead of combining a bunch of different animal DNA like our Rick did, the other Rick infected the humanity with Morty's DNA. The effect was two-fold: First, instead of Cronenberging the population, it turned them back into humans (because Morty is, as you know, a human), and second, curing the love potion's effect, since it doesn't work on anybody who is related to Morty. That means that humans are still infected by it, but because they are all now technically directly related to Morty, theyare immune to it.

Rick has a secret Rusty Venture-esque collection of cloned Mortys.

Seems to have been Jossed; Council of Ricks standard procedure seems to be replacing lost/dead/never-born Mortys with alternate-dimension Mortys who outlived their Ricks, and Rick's procedure is to go ahead and just change dimensions completely if things go bad enough.

The creators copied The Nostalgia Critic for the idea of Shleemypants as a clockroach who cleans up lost time in the wake of a manipuation of it.

How else do you think they got the idea for the design of Shleemypants being modeled after The Langoliers from the otherwise obscure film of the same name without it receiving a Colbert Bump from The Nostalgia Critic's review of it, let alone in a way that many people would get such a reference? Also, Frank Palicky being frozen by an Expy of Doc Brown played by the same guy who would later be featured in Suburban Commando could be a shout out to the film's meme (I WAS FROZEN TODAY!!!) first popularised by The Critic.

• Furthermore, the latter half of Rest And Ricklaxation almost reads out like the third act of The Neverending Story 3 where the villains briefly turn the entire world's people into violent jerks, just short of the big sister using the MacGuffin for her own deeds.

Soon enough, this will become the largest WMG page for any work on this site, even beating out the ones for the Long Runners.

The Rick Sanchez/Galactic Federation conflict started over something petty and stupid, like the interstellar equivalent of a parking ticket, and snowballed really badly.

As a young man, Rick starts exploring space, and not knowing what the laws are he gets into a little trouble. And I mean little, like a fine for parking his spaceship in a no-parking zone. Rick refuses to pay, either already holding government in contempt or just thinking he can blast off to another planet to get away from it. If he had just paid it no one would have looked too closely, but in typing up the report to pass up the chain it becomes clear that Rick's ship is a complete UFO; no registration, no known planet of origin, and reportedly a pilot from a species that hasn't even nailed down cell phones yet. Now the Galactic Federation is interested, and Rick starts getting hassled on Federation planets even if he does play by the rules, which Rick resists. Eventually, this escalates to the Federation trying to take him in the hard way, forcing Rick to commit more crimes to keep himself and his tech out of Federation hands, culminating in having to shoot a Federation agent in self-defense and earning his first murder charge, setting him firmly on the course to being an infamous interstellar terrorist/freedom fighter.

Rick Didn't Really Abandon Beth

Now Rick is certainly immoral and uncaring, but he does seem to truthfully love his daughter. Likewise as "Close Rick Encounters With The Rick Kind" shows this isn't unique to this particular Rick, the majority (if not all the Rick's) who have a Beth love her. Now its understandable Rick's marriage breaking down, and him leaving his wife. Likewise its understandable him gallivanting around the universe for most of his free time. However considering he clearly does love Beth it seems hard to believe he wouldn't willingly miss out on her entire childhood.

That's cause it wasn't willing, following Rick's marriage failing he went off to see the universe to clear his head, and met up with Bird Person and Squanchy. He ended up entering the war with the Galactic Government, however due this he became the most wanted man in the Galaxy, and thus was unable to go back to visit her for fear of them using her to get to him.

Its only now, a few decades later that he felt the heat has died down enough that he's willing to return to earth.

Rick is trying to keep Morty stupid.

(Note: For this theory to make any sense we have to assume that all Rick's have this goal. This does not, however, imply conscious collaboration between them.). Rick realizes that Morty inherited the genes for his genius, and could conceivably begin to develop it around this age. Rick, seeing the amount of damage he's done to the Multiverse, wants to prevent another generation of it. So, he drags Morty out of school under the pretense of "helping" him in his adventures. This would also imply that Morty cancels out his brainwaves not because they're opposite, but because they're virtually identical.

The photo of Rick holding Morty as a baby was a forgery.

Rick was never around when Morty was that age. Ergo, the photo is fake. Given the context, Rick set that photo up to manipulate Morty's guilt should the need arise — note how the photo convinces Morty not to abandon Rick, and to trust in his judgement.

Why Series Rick has the drool on his chin but the Council Ricks don't seem to.

It's the megaseeds. Rick mentions that after use they tend to cause drooling, loss of motor function, etc. I can imagine Rick has been using his own knowledge to basically concentrate the seeds, get a better longer lasting result that is less debilitating but between having to carry them internally for extended periods as well as long term use...well he tends to drool. The Council Ricks however don't seem to have the same issue, probably because they don't need it. The council Ricks are a collaborative body, a team of Ricks can work on weapons system, vehicles, etc. Each one using their specialty and communal knowledge and skill to produce better hardware. To them, the megaseeds are probably not as useful since they don't need the individual boost to the same degree.

The real reason series Rick hates the Council Ricks.

The thing is that while he might have some opposition to the idea of the ricks being a bigger group as a whole I think he might actually have a bigger objection to their treatment of the respective Morty's. Consider that when the Rick council grabbed him he tried to keep Morty out of it. He seems very annoyed when another Rick talks about Morty Bling and Insurance, it might be annoyance at a pushy salesman or at the idea that a whole socity of basically him have turned his grandson into a replaceable commodity. Consider the passes for free Morty replacements.

In Mortynight Run, in the alternate universe, the assassin didn't mention he was an assassin

At the end of the episode, among the alternate Ricks and Morties, one Rick asks another Rick how many people did his Morty get killed, to which its revealed none, they just played at the arcade. That version of Morty seems quite happy despite the fact that our Morty was incredibly stressed to find out Rick sold a gun to an assassin. When Rick is selling the gun, we see our version trying to shut the assassin up, but he's oblivious and brags about it. Perhaps in the alternate version, that assassin took the hint and just took the gun and gave the money. That Morty never found out what the gun was for, never went on the adventure, and that's why he was perfectly content to play at the arcade.

The reason Rick said that Jerry likes to lick balls when he turned himself in

Eventually, somebody in the Galactic Federation will reveal that Jerry allegedly was the one who ratted him out, leading to Beth getting mad at him. Then someone will casually mention Jerry's love for licking balls, which will make Beth realise that it was actually Rick who turned himself in since even Jerry's self-loathing doesn't go that far.

The Rick and Morty of Mortynight Run

They aren't the Rick and Morty we watch, but the Rick and Morty who die in Rick Potion #9. Which would make Mortynight Run set beforehand.

The supposedly false memory we saw of how Rick got in all this is actually true and Rick's doing everything to "not think about it."

Alot of people were thrown for a loop in seeing the supposed memory and how Rick supposedly manipulated everything and it was just a scheme to fool everyone and actually wanting the Mc Nugget sauce. Fine, seems all good. But then why did he mention it again in his rant toward Morty or even show it in the first place? My theory is that turn of events is exactly what happened to break Rick. Another Rick destorying his family would not only provide alot of evidence for Rick's disdain for any of his counterparts, but also for his complete apathy toward his fmaily often. They're more or less substitutes and his inability to get truly close to them comes from potential fear of getting hurt.

• Furthermore, it could also explain his intense self-loathing. Recalling the events with the alternate Rick beforehand, probably it did not take long for Rick to realize this was the work of anothee Rick. The fact he's capable of doing such things and the fact he has become like them led to Rick becoming the broken man he is today.
• Also explains his devotion and veneration for science. It's all he has now besides whatever version of his family he has. In fact, it's possible the Sanchez family we know is one where Rick died without them knowing and he asserted his place, both parties getting what they wanted in a warped and twisted way.
• Not to mention Rick manipulating his own memories would just be an extension of him "not thinking about it" and his interrogator wasn't paying too much attention, so why would Rick need to emote at all? As for the sauce itself, perhaps he subconsciously connects it to his family. Perhaps that was the year or time this all happened.

"Our" Rick was originally from Spider World

Lets assume that Rick's memories were not totally falsified and that there was at least a tiny grain of truth in them. First, Rick originally went to that world again to get some ice cream with his grandkids. In his memories, he had apparently gone out to eat ice cream with his wife and daughter fairly often (or at least on special occasions). It is possible that the ice cream of this world wasn't anything particularly special, but that Rick had a lot of positive memories associated with it making him think it was the best ice cream in existence. Second, his memory was apparently placed between where he was on 9/11 and his favorite sports blooper. If we assume this is in chronological order, then it would have to had happen after 9/11. But it was confirmed to be earlier than that by the sauce.....But spider world had "9 9/11s", possibly spaced apart by several years. That means it was possible for him to have had a 9/11 before he lost his family.

Part of Rick's Villainous Breakdown to Morty is due to mental damage from Bodysurfing.

He even told the agent in his mind that there's parts of his mind that didn't have room to go with him. He joked about which parts they were, but it's still highly traumatic. And then he jumped into a different Rick's mind and stayed there. This is causing him to disassociate with his own identity; a problem he has always had; but intensely magnified.

Rick's lying about it all being part of the plan.

He genuinely gave himself up for his family. It's not out of his character to lie about his plans, though he's smart enough that it's almost impossible to tell the difference. In truth he got lucky and was able to make up an Indy Plot, and caught up in his own ego decided to be claim it was all part of the plan. That, and he probably has some bigger plan he needs to be a Manipulative Bastard about. Maybe it's just that he managed to get Jerry out the picture and made it up to feel like a big man.

Variation of Rick is lying about it all being part of his plan.

The same as the above, but instead of it being for his own ego or because of some bigger Manipulative Bastard plan, I propose the exact opposite: Rick lied to Morty about only saving him and Summer for his personal gain in order to prevent Morty from starting to like and trust him any more than he did before. Why's that? Well, because while Rick genuinely loves his family (and especially Morty), he hates himself. Rick knows in his heart that Morty often is the only thing keeping him in line, and if he ever goes off the rails and does something so incredibly terrible or stupid, he will NEED Morty to be able to make the right decision in the spur of the moment, even if it means killing Rick for his own good. Morty needs to think that Rick is an absolutely unredeemable asshole, so Morty doesn't start worshiping Rick unconditional like Summer (and countless numbers of alternate Morties) do, and can remain Rick's Morality Pet, whom he can trust to take him down if worse comes to worst.

The Ricks seen in the opening from Season 2 onwards are the few surviors from the Rick Massacre

Aside from Evil Morty since he was probably still in his assigned dimnesion posing as regular one with a random Rick at the end of his introductry episode. And maybe also Doofus Rick ,but this has yet to be confirmed.

The "Troy" game in the R&M VR game was purposefully designed by the in-universe gaming company to have horrible graphics.

The makers of the "Roy" game clearly wanted to be involved with creating a home version of the game. But since they get a massive amount of money from the game at Blitz and Chips, they purposefully designed the cardboard cut out graphics and poor moving animation so that those who buy the game for home use would find it not as satisfying as the ultra-realistic "Roy" game, thus forcing players to go to Blitz and Chips so they could get the satisfying experience that they miss from having the "Troy" game at home and getting more money from them.

Arthricia isn't really a case of Karma Houdini

From Rick's nonchalance about both him being shot in the liver by her and his knowledge about how many worlds have a "Purge Night" like Arthricia's world, Rick likely knew how deeply ingrained the practice is, and knew that it would all start again. This is more of a case of knowing Arthricia's days are more numbered than she expected...

Rick has been secretly keeping tabs on Beth

Not just C-137 Rick, either (I'll explain later). Rick is immoral and generally uncaring, but he seems to at least genuinely care about Morty, Summer and especially Beth, who is the only person he never insults (he even calls Morty and Summer "equal pieces of shit"). He's the smartest man, not just on Earth, or the galaxy, but the entire multiverse. Somehow he was able to keep tabs on Beth after he left her mother, and a deleted scene from Rixty Minutes seems to confirm this. When a drugged out Jerry confesses his love to Beth on the news (in an alternate reality), Rick freezes him and shatters him. Rick also gives Beth bird feed, knowing she has multiple birds. Now, it is possible that Rick lives with her in that reality, but he also said that he saw Jerry "on the news". Chances are, Rick continued watching Beth until he decided to make his presence known.

The alternate Jerry's ending making it big in Hollywood was foreshadowing

Jerry is going o end up writing a movie based on all the shit he went through because of Beth and Rick. ....And it will end up being a Oscar winner, leading him to ending being filthy rich. And he'll change juuuuust enough so that the family will never see a dime. And Unlike his counterparts, he'll enjoy Every Second of the Hollywood scene.

Beth and Jerry never got divorced.

In episode one of season three, Jerry makes his stand about Rick, but we never see the conversation between him and Beth. All we see is Beth coming back to the garage to declare their divorce. With this show being the way it is, something else might've happened off screen.

Rick will gain immortality....by becoming a vampire.

It was shown in one episode that Rick was making clones of himself, so he could switch into a younger body eventually and thus live forever. He gave up on that method at the end of the episode. What else was shown during the very same episode? Vampires. Immortal creatures of the night. Rick is the kind of person who would be able to work around the downsides (sunscreen for vampires and artificial blood) as he did with The Devil's cursed artefacts. He is also the kind of person who wouldn't care if he had to kill other people to survive and could never go in the sun again, just in case that wouldn't work.

Rick is behind Jerry's misery.

That is to say, the whispered "looser" and the animal that ate his welfare check. Why? Probably just to mess with him.

Something is stalking Jerry.

The wind that whispers "looser" is too "paranormal" for a gag unrelated to science-fiction. Jerry knows a lot about Rick, so the whispers may be foreshadowing something out of this world interested on him. Same for the wolf that ate his check.

• This could be related to the Cthulhu from the opening.

Rick's universe is itself a nano-verse.

Whenever these scientists go into their respective universe, they only ever bother to contact one planet to harness. In a universe of countless millions of inhabited worlds, what's to say there isn't a planet where the population has been enslaved to provide energy to some guy aiming to power his beer cooler?

The universe at the end of "Rick Potion #9" is actually the pilot universe.

The Rick in "Meseeks and Destroy" actually showed remorse for unwittingly almost getting Morty raped by Mr. Jellybean, and paused on the way out to vaporize the bastard. The current Rick seems to view Morty merely as a means to an end. So the Jerk with a Heart of Gold Rick we followed through the first five episodes (as well as his Morty) weren't even seen in "Rick Potion #9" until near the end... when he got them both killed. Then their place in that universe—and in the series—was taken by an alternate Jerk with a Heart of Jerk Rick and his respective Morty.

Rick is aware he's in a cartoon so he attempts to be as entertaining as possible in order to prevent his show from being cancelled.

My Source: Rick and Morty Theory: Why Rick is so Depressed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQyvm6DSU28

This Theory (I'll summarize here) basically states that Rick is aware that he's in a cartoon and as such, tries to be as entertaining as possible in order to prevent his shows from being cancelled.

Evidence(A). In "the Rick's Must be crazy" we have the premise that Rick's battery contains a universe that provides power to his car, what if his universe too provides something to an outer universe? In this case, entertainment.

(B.) Rick has a conspiracy board in his bedroom that contains info from the episodes, episodes also feature Christmas and Thanksgiving were released near Christmas and Thanksgiving, Rick breaks the 4th wall on multiple occasions ("That's Season 1 of Rick and Morty").

(C.) In that episode with people as chairs, Rick says to Morty "it's so great that we found those lab coats" to which Morty replies "Yeah Rick, I heard you the first time" despite it being the first time the audience heard it.

So Rick is trying to be entertaining by constantly acting wacky, having catchphrases, explaining plot details repeatedly and even bringing Morty along (to give the audience a character with chemistry, relatablility, and an arc).

(D.) Rick is generally really casual in times of danger, this could be because he realizes he has plot armour as the protagonist.

The yellow and green memory canisters

We saw in the episode that light-blue canisters are mind-blows caused by Morty, purple canisters are mind-blows caused by his family and red canisters are Rick's screwups that he doesn't want Morty to remember. But we see green and yellow ones in the background as well. The canister Summer uses on Morty in the end is yellow, so perhaps the background yellow canister also contains the memories of an entire Morty, just a different or earlier one. Like Rick kept the memories of an earlier Morty partner, or has a backup of Morty before he started travelling with his grandpa, just in case. As for the green ones. Well... what if Rick didn't only need to erase bad memories? What if there were some situations where he was legitimately worried that Morty found a life that was so good he couldn't be convinced to return to travelling with his grandpa? Well, the easiest solution for that would be to simply erase Morty's memory of the practical possibility of such a great life. One of the green canister's might even contain last week's "Mermaid puss" adventure.

The whole season 3 is just a simulation run to keep Rick in prison

Their purpose was never to interrogate Rick, they new it would have been too dangerous. They only wanted to trap him for good, and the only way he could have accepted it was if he believed to have bested them, throwing in the council of Ricks for good measure, with the citadel episode to further throw things off-balance, lampshading and mocking it by having Rick doing the same "creative editing" to Morty's memory. The tagline, "only a show this smart could be this stupid", is a hint: both the federation and the council of Ricks show a ridicolous incompetence regarding security measures (like using an outdated model on the smartest mammal/being around, having a huge console room that can move the whole citadel clicking some button next to the door with no way to override or block it, the fact that a immortality field exists, and yet a citadel created for the explicit purpose of ensuring Ricks' safety isn't employed), and only someone as smart as Rick could be so "stupid" that he doesn't find anything strange in others being so incompetent.

Evil Morty arranged his own attempted assassination in "The Ricklantis Mix-up".

First of all, how did Investigator Rick get ahold of the photos proving President Morty was Evil Morty in first place? And if he had somehow obtained the photos, why did he go to Campaign Manager Morty with them instead of the authorities within the Citadel?

My theory is that, in order to garner sympathy and win the presidential election, Evil Morty deliberately arranged his own assassination attempt by sending Investigator Rick to give the incriminating evidence to Campaign Manager Morty. He then took precautionary measures to ensure the assassination was non-fatal (which would explain his quick recovery) and, after the assassination occurred, executed Campaign Manager Morty and Investigator Rick to cover his tracks.

• This isn't a theory, this is shown directly in the show. That's literally the point of Campaign Morty's arc in the episode, it sets up the reveal that Candidate/President Morty is Evil Morty. One of the Ricks that shoots Campaign Morty into space even says that the race was so close it almost triggered a recount specifically to show that, without surviving the assassination attempt, he wouldn't have been elected at all.

Rick is Engaged in Multi-season Xanatos Speed Chess to Save Beth and Jerry's Marriage

In the first multidimensional cable episode Ricks pretends to not care and to want to change the channel to avoid the 'tabloid' channel, but actually, he has carefully manipulated the situation for the family to view their lives through the multidimensional viewer so that Beth and Jerry realize how important they are to each other at exactly the same time. Also, Nuptia 7.

Evil Morty was sexually assaulted at some point in the past.

Males being sexually assaulted is kind of a theme in this show, but it's almost always played for horror, even Jerry's one-off-mentions of being possibly abused by male authority figures in his life are met with confused, disturbed "what?"s by the people around him before he dismisses it. King Jelly Bean assaulting Morty is one of the most horrible moments in the show just because of how seriously it's played, Ethan confesses that his brother "made him a girl" when he was younger, even "Slug Jerry" reacts to being threatened by first manifesting and then presenting his ass submissively to be sodomized. It's also one of the very few times we see Rick actually get revenge for something bad that happens to Morty and makes an effort to comfort him over it. If Evil!Morty suffered some kind of assault and Rick either didn't notice or didn't do anything to help him, knowing that usually that's where Rick draws the line, that might be the straw that broke the Morty's back.

"Morty Waves" aren't stupidity, they're Magnificent Bastardry.

• The difference between Morty's intelligence and Rick's isn't as simple as, as Rick puts it, "Morty is as dumb as Rick is smart". Morty outsmarts him on multiple occasions, particularly in situations that involve people. If you track his progress in manipulating Rick, he goes from being absolutely awful at it ("Raising Gazorpazorp", where he makes a bunch of transparently bad emotional appeals to Rick's sense of mortality to get him to buy the sex robot) to outright successfully tricking him ("The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy", where he explicitly says he tricked Rick into taking Jerry on a pity trip so he could have a break from the sci-fi bullshit) in less than a year. Compare this to Evil Morty, who manages to take over the entire Citadel through what is implied to be several layers of manipulations and misdirections on top of emotional appeals to Ricks. Morty is a foil to Rick and all that implies: Rick is really good at preparing for any and all possibilities because he's so accustomed to chaos that he's had to learn to improvise, but Morty has a capacity for real, behind-the-scenes planning, and he's getting better at it the longer he stays with Rick.

The Detoxifier in Season 3 didn't just remove what Rick and Morty considered their personal toxic traits.

The detoxed Rick comes off like the ideal version of Rick that Morty has always wanted. The detoxed version of Morty definity seems like the version of Morty Rick would have preferred if it was his normal personality. The detoxifier didn't just remove what they considered their own toxic traits, it removed what toxic traits that they knew of each other, essentially making Rick and Morty the ideal versions of what they wanted from each other.

Whatever the talking cat did involved rape.

Despite being a nihilistic Black Comedy, whenever there's been a rape attempt it's treated dead seriously, regardless of who's guilty of the attempt. While it wouldn't be the only thing to disgust Rick of all people, it would play a part of it. From what we can hear there's stomping and artillery, so if rape is involved it'd be war rape. Hopefully the crying baby was only just it reacting or being killed at worst.

• If the cat himself was a rapist, Rick probably would've been fine with killing him, so maybe the cat simply caused it to happen, then handled it so poorly that he made things even worse.
• It might not be about what the cat did but rather what it saw or what happened to it or around it. Rick has absolutely nothing against killing, he kills as casually as other people swat flies. But despite being horrified by what he saw, despite being on the verge of killing himself he did not kill the cat. Even though killing it would have been easier, quicker and more emotionally satisfying he still put in the effort to chase it away rather than kill it. Whatever they saw, whatever happened there, it's very unlikely that the cat is the culprit or that it is some evil, monstrous and cruel creature.
  • It may not be even what the Talking Cat did, it may have been what it was subjected to. If the cat gained the ability to speak because, say, had sex with an Eldritch Abomination (not necessarily rape, if both the cat and the eldritch being were non-sentient), it may explain why Jerry is so disgusted but also why they don't kill the cat (it's not responsible for the horrors they saw) and also insist on keeping their memories, in case Orbelzok the Cat Banger returns.

Someone on the writing staff is a big fan of Bokurano

For those of you who are unaware, Bokurano is a manga about 15 children who have to pilot a giant robot to save Earth from alien invaders. . . the catch being that said alien invaders are actually humans from parallel universes, and if they lose, their own universe will be destroyed. This sort of premise has shown up in Rick and Morty more than once. The first time, of course, was in "Get Schwifty", in which Earth is entered in an alien game show where the losers get their planets destroyed. In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", it's revealed that the battery of Rick's latest invention is powered by a self-contained universe, which he casually destroys. And in "The Vat Of Acid", Rick invents a time-rewinder that functions by destroying a Morty in a parallel universe and replacing him with the current Morty. Like Bokurano, Rick and Morty enjoys musing on the ethics of parallel universes, albeit in a much more humorous fashion.

Rick and Morty's birthdays are October 22 and June 9, respectfully.

Since the duo is loosely based on Doc Brown and Marty McFly, it would make sense for the former two to share the same birthdays as the latters' actors. For Summer, given that Beth got pregnant with her on prom night, and proms generally occur in early May, her birthday would probably be February 9.

The reason Rick C-137 couldn't find his family's murderer is because he's already dead.

The Rick that killed Rick C-137's family was a wetwork agent meant to kill off any holdout Ricks' families as retaliation for not joining them. This means that he's killed many other Ricks' families, who would go after him in similar rampages. Most wouldn't survive because they're not as Rick as our Rick, but one got lucky and was able to off that Rick. Sadly, that Rick probably got wiped out as well. As for why they didn't tell Rick that the Rick he was searching for was already killed, they probably have numerous wetwork Ricks, many of whom get killed in action and operate under many layers of secrecy. They simply lost track of him, not realizing that, say, Rick R-790 snuck into his bathroom and shot him on the toilet.

Evil Rick is Flashback Rick and Evil Morty is his grandson

Flashback Rick motivated C-137 Rick to invent a portal gun by killing his family, and may have possibly done this to other Ricks as well. His Morty was furious to find out that he manipulates other Ricks like this, and killed him, replacing his brain with a receiver so he can control him for his revenge plan.

Rick Prime really is a clone.

Despite saying that his messages are prerecorded and he doesn't know who he's talking to, his eyes on the hologram follow Rick C-137 wherever he moves, implying that he knows Rick's there.

Justin Roiland will be replaced by Jinkx Monsoon.

Monsoon is already playing The Other Darrin to Lemongrab, one of Roiland's other iconic roles, in Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, a show owned by the same parent company as Rick and Morty. And if the studio knows they call pull off one of his roles...

• Jossed; Rick and Morty are voiced now by two entirely different actors.

Slow Mobius' death is a subtle way of telling the viewers that the show will definitely never do time travel.

Just a thought I had, may not be entire true since "Rattlestar Ricklactica" exists buuuut... Who knows.

Rick dabbled in time travel at least once in an attempt to save his Diane and Beth.

He either couldn't figure out the mechanics, changed his mind about it or something went wrong when he tried.