Rick Sanchez may be the brainy protagonist of Rick and Morty, but let’s not sugarcoat it — he’s no hero and has done some of the worst stuff in the show. He’s an omnicidal maniac who’ll cross the line just to get a laugh, or because he can, or simply because there is a line to be crossed. Sure, he won’t go out of his way to hurt someone unless they’re in his way. But he won’t hesitate to walk over anyone, whether they’re good, bad, or just plain irrelevant, if it serves his purposes.
He’s done some messed up things over the course of the show. Like leaving a trail of dead Ricks across the multiverse in his hunt for Rick Prime. Or selling weapons to an assassin who has no code of ethics and will kill anyone — old people, children, even animals. And guess what? Those aren’t even the worst things he’s done; they’re just the warm-up acts. Read on, because in this article, we’re listing down the six most jaw-dropping, morally dubious, and downright evil things Rick has ever done.
6. Cloned Beth Without Telling Her
Lying and manipulation are staples of Rick’s parenting style. In Season 3, Episode 9, “The ABC’s of Beth”, Beth begins to suspect she may be a clone. The answer, as we discover later, is a horrifying yes. It’s one thing to play God, but it’s another thing entirely to mess with someone’s identity like that.
This revelation shatters Beth’s entire worldview and sense of self. She can’t even trust her own feelings and memories anymore. And to top it off, there’s no way to figure out which Beth is the original. In a moment of drunken nihilism, Rick shuffled the labels of the Beth clones. And then, to absolve himself of any guilt, wiped his own memory of the act.
5. Made Morty Switch Universes and Bury His Alternate Self
In Season 1, Episode 6, “Rick Potion No. 9”, Rick creates a love potion to make Jessica fall in love with Morty and that’s our #5. Manipulating someone’s emotions like that is a violation in itself, taking away a 14-year-old’s right to consent and forcing a connection. But it gets worse. The potion backfires and all of humanity turns into grotesque monsters called Cronenbergs.
So, what does Rick do? He bails to another dimension, leaving behind the mess he made. The new dimension’s Rick and Morty just died, so Rick tells Morty to bury his dead self in the backyard and take over his life. And the look on Morty’s face is heartbreaking. He has no choice but to comply. Now, every day, Morty is living in a house that’s not really his, eating breakfast 20 yards away from his own rotting corpse.
4. Created Heist-o-Tron With the Sole Intention of Ruining Morty’s Meeting With Netflix
In Season 4, Episode 3, “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty”, Morty, fueled by his passion for heist movies, pours his heart into a script that lands him a meeting with Netflix. But Rick thinks heists are lame, so he goes and builds Heist-o-Tron, a robot with the sole purpose of pulling off the ultimate heist. The robot orchestrates a series of increasingly chaotic heists, culminating in mass death and the destruction of entire planets.
So, when it’s finally time for Morty’s big Netflix meeting, he’s had a change of heart about heist movies and decides to bail midway through. But it was all Rick’s doing. He orchestrated the entire Heist-o-Tron debacle to sabotage Morty’s dream, all out of spite. He couldn’t stand the idea of Morty enjoying something he didn’t like. It goes to show you the extent of Rick’s narcissistic tendencies and how much he values his own twisted world order over Morty’s happiness.
3. Subjected an Entire Universe to Slavery to Power His Car Battery
In Season 2, Episode 6, “The Ricks Must Be Crazy”, we learn Rick keeps an entire miniature universe running just to fuel his car battery. Those poor beings in the mini-universe have no idea they’re living a lie, trapped in what’s basically a glorified hamster wheel. And when things go south and the people in the mini-universe stop producing power for Rick’s battery, he threatens to obliterate their entire universe. In fact, he does it. At the end of the episode, he destroys the battery and tosses it away. That is genocide!
But this isn’t the first time Rick’s massacred an entire universe; or even the last. What makes this our #3 pick is the fact that Rick doesn’t even need the car. He’s got a portal gun, for crying out loud! He’s creating sentient life and enslaving them to power up a vehicle he doesn’t even need. Remember when we said Rick would cross any line just because he could? Yeah, this is exactly what we were talking about.
2. Misled Morty About the Reset Button Just to Prove That the Vat of Acid Wasn’t Stupid
We all know Rick’s got a massive ego, but this one takes the cake. When Morty called his “vat of acid” idea stupid, Rick couldn’t handle it. So, what does he do? He decides to work on one of Morty’s ideas — a reset button lets you “save” your place in time and return to it, like in a video game. However, Rick’s reset button isn’t what Morty thinks. Instead of time travel, it’s a multidimensional murder machine. The reset button finds alternate versions of Morty from different timelines and kills them to replace them with our Morty and that’s our #2.
Yeah, it’s pretty messed up. Rick willingly massacres countless Mortys and ruins other people’s lives just to stroke his fragile ego and keep Morty under his control. But what makes it even worse is Carey. Morty meets her, falls in love, and they go through all the ups and downs of a relationship. They break up, make up, and grow old together. But then, Rick’s reset button tears it all apart. Now, Rick didn’t plan for this, but it just shows how little he cares about anyone other than himself. He’ll do whatever makes him happy, no matter who gets hurt in the process, because, let’s face it, other people just don’t matter to him.
1. Went Out of His Way to Ruin Jerry & Beth’s Marriage
Last but the opposite of least, Rick’s done some pretty messed up stuff — enslaving universes, wiping out entire planets — but nothing compares to how he’s completely wrecked Jerry and Beth’s marriage. Rick relentlessly mocks and belittles Jerry, portraying him as a loser incapable of providing for Beth or protecting the family. This constant negativity chips away at Jerry’s self-esteem and fuels insecurity within the relationship. Rick also undermines Jerry’s parental authority around the children, which is why they can’t stand him.
The worst of it came when Rick overheard Jerry talking about turning him in to the Galactic Federation. So, he set off a chain of events that completely destroyed Beth and Jerry’s already shaky marriage. He put Morty and Summer in danger, forcing Jerry to give Beth an ultimatum: it’s either him or Rick. Beth chose her dad, and the whole thing ended in a messy divorce. Rick did all this just because Jerry dared to “cross” him. It’s time to admit that Rick is like a parasite, leeching off the love of those around him without giving anything back. He destroys what little happiness they have, leaving behind a family fractured beyond repair. Don’t forget to check out this list of 10 best Rick and Morty characters.
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