Rick and Morty: Why is evil Morty “evil”?
With Rick and Morty Season 7 well underway, you may be wondering: why exactly is Evil Morty considered evil?
Evil Morty is widely considered the best Rick and Morty villain – and for some, the best villain of his time. Wherever you fall on the scale, there’s no denying the impact his character had on the overarching plot of the popular animated series.
And if you say the final sequence of Season 1’s “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind” doesn’t give you goosebumps, you’re lying:
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While Season 7 has led to even more revelations about the titular characters’ arcs – as well as some dark adventures – we take a look at Evil Morty and why he deserves his nickname. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Rick and Morty: Why is evil Morty “evil”?
In the season five finale, Evil Morty claims he is “evil” because he wanted to leave the Central Finite Curve – and ultimately his grandfather. He points at Rick and says, “That’s what makes me angry.” I’m sick of him. If you ever had enough of him, you were evil too.”
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However, there is still the small matter that it is a matter of mass murder, that is, of having killed many Ricks and Mortys of his time. He also tortured countless Mortys in Season 1, used the evil Rick Sanchez as his deadly puppet, framed Rick C-137, and turned himself into the dictator of the Citadel.
But as with all villains, there is always one Reason for their evil. In the season five episode “Rickmurai Jack,” Evil Morty explains, “Do you know what the central finite curve is? They built a wall around infinity, separating all infinite universes from all infinite universes in which he is [Rick] the smartest man in the universe. Every version of us has spent every version of our lives in an infinite crib built around an infinite fucking baby.”
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As stated by Rick and Morty WikiIt is believed that Rick C-137 was involved in the creation of the Curve “to imprison Rick Prime, but he failed to do so.” Rick himself oversaw the construction process, but abandoned the building soon after construction because the other Ricks wanted to run it that way and left it to the Council of Ricks.
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Now the evil Morty has essentially taken control of the Citadel in order to destroy it, as this is where all the Mortys are cloned and mass-produced as sidekicks of the Ricks. While many of them are “bred to forgive,” evil Morty was not submissive and wanted out. He managed to escape the central finite curve and destroyed most of the citadel.
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He’s killed a lot of Ricks and Mortys for this, which technically makes him evil – but there’s also a motive. Essentially, his story might not have followed this arc if he had been born free. As revealed in the latest Season 7 Episode 5, “Unmortricken,” evil Morty was fed up with his Rick taking advantage of him and dragging him on adventures.
The opening sequence shows him building a device – the infamous eye patch – before killing his Rick and installing the device to create the evil Rick Sanchez, who becomes his puppet. We later find out that he just wants to be left alone, which is why he helps Rick C-137 and Morty capture Rick Prime and allow Rick to exact his revenge.
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While Evil Morty is snarky to the core, he’s clearly not evil for evil’s sake – even when he gets away with the Omega device that can wipe out all versions of the person it’s aimed at, he chooses not to use.
After pointing out that he can “stop the Rick experiment whenever I want,” Morty asks why he doesn’t, to which he replies, “Because using a weapon like that doesn’t leave you alone.” Do you think I want a bunch of vengeful Summers coming after me?”
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In short, this guy just wants to be left alone – but that could change over time. Now that Rick Prime is dead, who else will step in as the overarching villain?
Episodes 1-5 of Rick and Morty Season 7 are available now on Adult Swim, with Episode 6 coming November 19th. For more information about our coverage, see below:
