The Progression of Rick Sanchez Throughout Rick and Morty

Credit: Rick and Morty/Warner Bros.

Rick Sanchez, the greater and beyond, more intelligent half of the famous Rick and Morty duo, has become so beloved in their short time on television, especially on the Adult Swim network. While the Rick and Morty series, the latest big-time hit series inspired by The Simpsons to some extent, has introduced not only endless characters that have become memorable but also variations of characters, as well as other science fiction elements that make the most unlikely character the most familiar to audiences. While Justin Roiland has provided the voice of Rick and Morty and other characters, starting with the original work that Rick and Morty were created from, Dan Harmon of Community was also a creator of Rick and Morty. Below, we’ve detailed Rick and Morty and Rick Sanchez, as well as the other characters and elements of the show, but more specifically, the progression of Rick Sanchez throughout Rick and Morty.

Credit: Rick and Morty/Warner Bros.

Rick Sanchez

From the moment he was introduced, Rick Sanchez was a selfish yet intelligent man, but as Rick and Morty progressed, so did Rick’s attitude toward most things. Overall he remained the same selfish and intelligent man. Still, he has become surprisingly mild to things that he usually wouldn’t have been and even open-minded, which was only showcased better with Roiland’s voice acting. However, when necessary, Rick has treated his family as replaceable, with clone technology, alternate universes, and so on.

Still, in the most recent seasons, we have seen Rick Sanchez progress throughout Rick and Morty into not exactly a compassionate person but aware of how his actions affect others. While Rick Sanchez has become more deal-with-able with his family and more aware of their feelings when the series first started, he was about the most ignorant and selfish cartoon character of a popular adult animated series. However, each season showed a different level of progression from the character of Rick Sanchez throughout Rick and Morty, currently in its sixth season and on hiatus, and sometimes Rick has reasons for those cases of character progression. Still, it often came in line with the fourth-wall-breaking aspect of the show.

Credit: Rick and Morty/Warner Bros.

Early Seasons

In the earliest beginnings of Rick and Morty, Rick was nearly always drunk and slurring while burping in classic cartoon fashion and taking Morty for adventures against his parents’ approval. The adventures and experiments were usually a secret to the rest of the family until certain things would fall through the cracks, eventually leading to the entire family becoming more than slightly wrapped up in the extreme situations that Rick has become involved with across space and time.

Rick’s involvement with Morty in his experiments and adventures, like the rest of the family, has gotten dragged in, such as Beth and her clone that’s more like Rick than thought possible. Summer has turned into a complete badass and Rick’s backup most of the time recently, as well as Jerry becoming replaced by another Jerry in an earlier episode, and was brought up in the most recent season. Still, the most recent seasons of Rick and Morty show a growth in compassion and overall progression of Rick Sanchez throughout the series. Along with the most recent seasons of Rick and Morty, there have also been exciting adaptations and other projects related to Rick and Morty brought to Adult Swim, such as the Rick and Morty anime series.

Credit: Rick and Morty/Warner Bros.

Rick Sanchez in Recent Seasons

In the later seasons of Rick and Morty, each character has progressed in a way that has made them more content or at least accustomed to the strange happenings and likelihood of death associated with Rick Sanchez, especially Rick Sanchez, C-137. As the earliest seasons of Rick and Morty showed a locked-in Rick Sanchez in terms of what to expect from the character, the later seasons of the series showcased Rick Sanchez in a much more open-minded perspective. Still, the progression of Rick Sanchez throughout Rick and Morty was always slightly slowed down by his remaining narcissism.

While Rick appeared to have been the same character he was always going to be, there have been instances where he went back for a family member, even Jerry, when it could have been much easier for him to find another one. As Rick and Morty started to become much darker in tone along with its consistently hysterical side, character progression for each character could be seen. As Rick Sanchez became more compassionate and aware of the consequences of his actions, other characters started to progress throughout Rick and Morty.

Morty becomes less surprised by Rick’s actions and overall motives, while his sister Summer becomes more like Rick’s secret partner and has been noted to be aware of the things that’ll save the family in dire situations. As stated above, Beth has met Space Beth, a clone Rick had created, and since he had himself forgotten which Beth was the clone and which was the original, which has caused some new hostility towards Rick from Beth. Jerry, on the other hand, has not only become more prepared than the rest of the family for everything to become boosted with science fiction nonscene due to Rick, but the character progression of Rick throughout Rick and Morty has been the most transformative of all.Roiland’s voice acting