Just when we thought Rick and Morty couldn’t get any damn whackier, they go and jam another nonsensical, intergalactic adventure down our thirsty gullets – topping it off with a sly jab at Game of Thrones writers. The show’s creators claim they weren’t responsible for the snarky Adult Swim banner but could the entire episode have been one giant stab at our own morally reprehensible post-Thrones mind-frames?
The sixth episode of the third season, Rest and Ricklaxation, commences as Rick and Morty wildly jump from scene to scene in an adventure that whilst originally pitched as a twenty-minute round trip, transcends an entire week. Was it this lazy, yet chronologically conscious writing the ladle with which the Adult Swim banner-men intended to stir the pot?
Implausible travel itineraries aside, the writing on Game of Thrones did get a tad sloppy this season. Maybe it’s George R.R. Martin’s fault for killing off so many families, but did they really have no extras with which to match Jon and Dany (outside of their gene pools)?
Don’t deny it, you wanted Daenerys and Jon Snow to do the horizontal dragon dance despite knowing that the characters share an illustrious bloodline. Whether we as a society were shipping them based on both of their delectable peach asses, or infectious charisma (both off and on camera) is a whole other issue entirely. The fact of the matter is that you were aggressively rooting for their eventual consummation. Don’t lie to us, you Jerry.
You can bet your bottom dollar too, that the Rick and Morty writers were banking on our transparent lust toward one of TV’s most incestuous pairings.
And so, just in the knick of time the Rick and Morty writers delivered us detoxification via animation. Rick’s neuroses, Morty’s insufferable insecurities and our own ‘Jonaerys’ complex were zapped into icky oblivion, all in one convenient visit to an alien spa.
Regardless of whether Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon intentionally served us a timely detox, what does that say about our society? We’re so desperate to escape our physical realm that we’ll jump straight on the medieval incest bandwagon, then when that season logs out we’ll accept hard rewiring from mad-hatter geriatric scientists and insecure pre-adolescent boys?
“What if the toxic parts of us have their own identities, their own will to live?”
At the very least, Rick and Morty is a thoroughly entertaining animation. We like to tell ourselves it was designed to bend our minds beyond our own imaginative and philosophical limitations… Whilst Game of Thrones merely feeds us questionable morals under the guise of visually pleasing personalities, like chicken to the Hound. God help us if season four of Rick and Morty doesn’t arrive with the final season of Thrones.
Keep your eyes peeled for next week’s episode, ‘Ricklantis Mixup‘.
