Hey Wisecrack, Jared IRL again.
For those popping in for the first time, this is still an experiment where we quickly respond
to developments in TV and Film as they happen- not just Rick and Morty.
So if you like them, or have a request, let us know.
The Vindicators 3: Return of the World Ender was a pretty awesome jab at Marvel movies,
with The "Vindicators" acting as an obvious stand-in for the Avengers, and Rick acting
as a mouthpiece for people disillusioned with the rather formulaic state of popular cinema.
"They're the writers of their own press releases, Morty.
They're a bunch of drama queens who spend an hour talking and 20 minutes jumping around
while shit blows up.
They're a phase.
We did one.
It was the big event of that summer.
Let it die."
But instead of focusing on Rick's beef with our Disney overlords, we're gonna set our
sights a little higher today.
Superhero films have been clumsily grasping at the concepts of good and evil for what
seems like an eternity, and this episode of Rick and Morty comments on this in some pretty
clever, and even profound, ways.
Welcome to this Wisecrack quicktake on Vindicators 3: The Return of the Worldender.
And you guessed it- Spoilers ahead.
First a recap: Morty gets to choose the next adventure with Rick, so he decides to spend
it with his heros: The Vindicators.
In good Sanchezian fashion, Rick gets blackout drunk, destroys the ominous world-ender with
little effort, and traps the Vindicators in a series of trials that ruins them.
The real arc of The Vindicators 3, like another "Morty adventure" we know - is Morty's
optimistic worldview crumbling around him.
In the case of Meeseeks and Destroy, Morty's wholesome view of fairy tales erodes as the
genre is subverted.
In this episode, Morty's faith in the Vindicators erodes as superhero genre is subverted.
But beneath all the world enders and superhero jokes, this episode is also about the complexities
of good and evil.
Unlike some adventures where Morty's view of the world is shattered, Rick plays
a unique role in making his worldview disintegrate here.
After killing Worldender while blackout drunk, Rick creates a Saw-inspired puzzle that is
less "a thought out plan to make people confront their demons" a la Jigsaw and more
"a drunken scheme to push people over a moral cliff."
And it works: Vance show his true colors,
Million Ants kill Allen Rails
over a woman, and Crocubot brings out the Vindicator's little secret.
By the end, Rick gets to lord over Morty about the sham that is heroism.
"I appreciate it morty I know you were sucking the Kool aid out of the vindicators d**ks
so the fact that I was right about them was pretty hard to admit."
"Yeah it is."
What's really clever about this episode is how they draw from some of the more unique
villains in popular cinema.
Unlike most antagonists, Jigsaw isn't about senseless murder or financial gain, he wants
to change people's paradigms by making them endure suffering - in some cases, to make
them appreciate life more.
Similarly, Drunk Rick's trials aren't meant primarily to eradicate The Vindicators,
but rather to create a moral crisis for them, proving to Morty that they are NOT heros.
Now, I thought this was pretty cool in itself, but what I thought really elevated this episode
was a less obvious inspiration: The Joker.
Morty's trip in the carnival ride seems inspired by Alan Moore's The Killing Joke,
when Commissioner Gordon is tortured by the Joker.
Like Jigsaw, The Joker isn't only motivated by murder.
He's out to prove that with one sufficiently bad day, Gordon could be just as mad as him.
As another Joker inspired by the Killing Joke puts it.
"See madness, as you know, is like gravity."
"All it takes is a little push."
And what is Rick's shenanigans in this episode but to push the Vindicators to lose their s***?
Just as The Joker infects the once idealistic Harvey with his nihilistic philosophy by killing
Rachel and turning corrupt cops against him, so too does Rick turn the benevolent Vindicators
into violent backstabbers- thus upending Morty's simplistic understanding of good and evil.
"You managed to destroy just about everything today,
the villains, the heroes, the lines between them...
my childhood."
"Thank youuuuu"
Ok, so Rick doesn't believe really buy that "heroes are good."
But there's a larger point about how the way we're spoon-fed narratives of Good and
Evil is actually...super bad.
You know, narratives like this one "Everyone in the universe is a hero.
All you have to do is notice the difference between good and bad and root for good!"
But thinking in such simple terms can lead to problems.
For Philosopher Jacques Ranciere, the problem with "Evil" with a big capital E - you
know the kind in every single superhero movie is that
any kind of conflict becomes the ultimate struggle of Good and Evil, the "value"
of winning that battle becomes, well, infinite.
It's a fight for the soul of the world, or galaxy, or universe - all or nothing.
So people can do even the WORST shit in the world to achieve victory.
But, as the logic goes, isn't it justified?
What's so bad about letting a few thousands people die if it means destroying ultimate evil?
Well...
"What happened on Dorian 5?"
"Nothing!"
"Nothing?! We exterminated a PLANET!"
"W-wait, huh?"
"Doomnomatron was hiding there, he's a shapeshifter! Destroying Dorian 5 was the only way to kill him!"
"I could have made you a device to detect Doomnomatron from orbit like that."
What does this say about the Vindicators?
To summarize Ranciere: the problem with "infinite" evil - whether in the form of world-destroyers
or mortal humans- is they warrant "infinite justice" - the kind that doesn't really
care about morals, or the people of Dorian 5, and often even loses sight of the "justice" part.
By the end of the episode Supernova has also been infected with Rick's nihilistic philosophy,
no longer believing in a real division between good and evil.
However, she recognizes the simplistic division must be upheld
"It's like you said Morty."
"There's no right or wrong."
"Never said that."
"It's the galaxy's faith in the vindicators that keeps the galaxy secure."
She's willing to kill Rick and Morty, and even her LOVER to protect the perception that
the Vindicator's are good.
It's not their actions that matter, it's the galaxy's faith in their actions that does.
I'm pretty sure this anothera shoutout to Dark Knight, which is probably the best example
of moral greyness in a comic book movie.
Where Batman lies about the "goodness" of Harvey Dent to maintain peace and order
in Gotham, Supernova wants the galaxy to believe in a similar lie about herself.
In both cases, people are advocating for a "noble lie," the idea that societies can
be built on a myth that maintains order - an idea made famous by the Greek philosopher Plato.
And it's not the first time Rick and Morty has make this kind of
Dark Knight-esque/noble lie shoutout.
"We found it inside a lockbox. Inside King Jellybean's closet."
"We have to tell the people!"
"Wait, destroy it."
"Our people will get more from the idea he represented, than from the Jellybean he actually was."
Now, this is kind of philosophy 101, but it's worth noting at least because of its relation
to The Dark Knight.
But where The Dark Knight kind of celebrates this lie, Rick and Morty uses it to deconstruct
the myth of superheroes.
"Rick says good and bad are artificial constructs."
"Yeah well I get the feeling... he kinda needs that to be the case."
However, rather than JUST deconstructing Good and Evil as arbitrary concepts, which, by
the way, it's done before, the show is also suggesting that the complete absence of these
concepts isn't so great either.
This is a clever call back to the last episode, where Dr. Wong confronts Rick in saying.
"The only connection between your unquestionable intelligence and the sickness destroying your family"
"is that everyone in your family, you included, use intelligence to justify sickness."
Whereas the vindicators fail to critically engage with their methods, or even their mission,
Rick refuses to engage with his decisions for the exact opposite reason: because nothing matters.
And if nothing matters, and good and evil are just social constructs, then he can't
consider his actions evil.
He can just continue doing whatever the f*** he wants.
So the episode presents us with two differing perspectives regarding good and evil- both
of which are, in typical Rick and Morty fashion, completely dismal.
We either have ZERO conviction of the division between good and evil, which leads to Rick
doing whatever they f*** he wants and it not mattering, or we have COMPLETE AND UTTER conviction
of what constitutes good and evil, and people do really messed up shit for the sake of good…
like blow up an entire planet.
As always, in Rick and Morty.
There are no right answers.
Only wrong ones.
If you want to hear more depressing Rick and Morty philosophy, check out our Rick and Morty podcast "The Squanch".
We're breaking down every episode in detail, answering your questions, and you'll even
get to hear the joker impression I've been working on for nearly a decade.
It's getting there.
Click on the link below, or subscribe wherever your get podcasts.
Stay good, Wisecrack. Peace!
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