Believe in me, because I don't believe in anything

I had another season eight dream last night. In this dream, the story was pretty chaotic. The episode kept switching to different scenes of Morty, Beth, Space Beth, Jerry and Summer in alternate dimensions. Some of the scenes had elaborate soundtracks and pretty cool animation--I remember once scene where Space Beth was fighting monsters in a city. In another, the whole family (minus Rick) was animated in a real-life Blips and Chitz. The rest is just a blur.

In the dream, I was thinking that maybe the writers wanted to show us what's going on in universes without Rick. In real life, I'd get bored with that pretty quickly. The dream episode also had no framing device. It was just craziness with no anchor.

People say that Space Beth joining that family is fan service, but I'm glad the series took that direction because I hate the trope of women abandoning their families to become a pirate/warrior/outlaw/etc. because..."feminism"?

Leaving Jerry is different, but it's not feminist for women to abandon their kids and become deadbeat moms. I mean, did Space Beth even know that regular Beth had stayed, or did she think she'd left her kids without a mother?

This trope also usually involves writing a female character out of the story, which isn't exactly empowering, either.

Space Beth returning to her family and getting a bigger role is a great trope inversion that I've never seen before. She doesn't compromise her values, but she's not just another forgotten female character that shows up once every other season for plot-heavy episodes.

Solaricks closed the lid on this one, but I wonder if the writers ever considered having Rick and Morty (or at least one of them) going back for the original family in season four or later. The feral Smiths would've injected a lot of craziness into the show. I guess Space Beth fills that role now--the troubled, rebellious daughter who's part of Rick's dark history.

I'm DYING for another Rick and Beth episode. He's had three episodes with Jerry, but only one with Beth? "Bethic Twinstinct" leaned in that direction, but I want one that focuses solely on Rick's relationship with her.

Season seven didn't use her much, and I feel like she's depressed. Her relationship with her family is strained (she played a role in that, but still.) Summer, her favorite child, looks up to the badass space warrior version of her. Her father spends most of his time with Morty. Beth loves Jerry but doesn't respect him.

Outside of the house, her job doesn't seem particularly fulfilling and leaves her with a lot of free time. Jerry seems content to sit around doing nothing, but I think Beth doesn't know what to do with herself.

I'd love an episode similar to Wet Kuat Amortican Summer where Beth and Rick go on an adventure together, exploring Beth's character and relationship with her father. The ABCs of Beth is such a mean-spirited episode, and it was so long ago. We need the Beth equivalent of Final Desmithation and The Jerrick Trap now that Rick's willing to open up a little.

And seriously, why did the writers gloss over the fact that Rick never abandoned Beth? That was a HUGE plot point. The family crapped on Rick for years, and he just stood there and took it. After Morty sees Rick's backstory, Rick tells Beth, Jerry and Summer the truth off-screen, and...that's it. We never see their reactions, and their dynamic doesn't change.

A Beth episode would be a great opportunity to cover that. Right now, I think it's one of the series' few true missteps.

Honestly, I want more interactions with the Beths and Summer in general. Rick and Space Beth hanging out, the Beths going on dates, Space Beth and Summer on an adventure...there's SO much potential. I'm glad Space Beth joined the family, but let's give her some plotlines.

🌈 Happy Pride Month to:

I went to the smaller mall a couple of weeks ago. The head shop didn't have new Rick and Morty merchandise, but the employee gave me a free snack: crunchy biscuits in chocolate and cream!

Nothing in Rue 21, Hot Topic or the nerdy store, either. I was starting to lose hope until I spotted a new holographic sign in Spencer's. Seasons 1-3 still dominate merchandise, but we're slowly catching up to season six.

Marshall's also had a pair of psychedelic boxers.

That same day, I planned to visit another head shop in the area. Unfortunately, I didn't know that a car cruise was happening on the same street, so I ended up getting stuck in nightmare traffic until I turned around and went home.

The new Tesla location was also open and showing off their vehicles. Cybertrucks are uglier in person.

A week later, I decided to give the head shop another shot. This time, the road was clear. They had a couple of items:

Initially, I passed over the coloring book, thinking it was the same book that I photographed a while back. But I opened the book and found new illustrations from seasons 4-6, including some of my favorite scenes and episodes!

Yes, I like the stupid slut dragon episode.

Anyway, this weekend brought a shock: RUE 21 IS CLOSING! 😭 OK, I wasn't that shocked because this mall is notorious for driving stores out of business, but now the closest Rue 21 is an hour away. And that's not very close!

It's probably just a matter of time before the entire mall shuts down. But in the meantime, Hot Topic had a new shirt, which surprised me because they don't get new Rick and Morty merchandise very often:

I'm glad we're getting more season five apparel, but come on, where's the Crow Witch Rick shirt? Bruce Chutback gets a shirt, but not him? Mr. Nimbus spooking Phoenix Person is pretty funny, though.

And another sign in Spencer's!

One of the nerdy stores had a stack of comics. I love this Summer (variant?) cover.

And, finally, a visit to the bigger mall today resulted in this sign.

So far, it's been a slow year for Rick and Morty apparel. Merchandising usually explodes around Christmas, but before then, we might be limited to the occasional mug, shirt or metal sign.

Or maybe they're getting ready to unleash a barrage of Crow Witch Rick T-shirts and hoodies...right?

Whenever I see someone calling another show "Rick and Morty for queer people" or "Rick and Morty for girls," I'm like...yeah, I can tell that you haven't actually watched Rick and Morty.

The first one really irks me because if they watched past season one, they'd see that bi/pan is the default in this universe, even for one-off and background characters.

The second one is a little trickier because it does have two male leads, but Beth and Summer are strong women, the writers add more female characters (Space Beth and Bird Daughter), Beth and Rick crave Summer's approval, and seasons six and seven beat you over the head with the fact that Rick only respects his female relatives, plus Dr. Wong.

Not that he doesn't love Morty and Jerry, but Beth, Space Beth, Diane, Summer and Dr. Wong are on another level. He even tells Summer that outright.

But eh...I'm probably wasting my breath because anyone who gave up after the first season would think that I'm clinging to "wokeness" that isn't there.

I was idly thinking about the people that Rick sees as his equal--Beth, Space Beth, Summer, Diane, Dr. Wong--and it hit me that, oh yeah, what do they all have in common? They're women!

I mean, he does view some men as equals--Bird Person, probably Squanchy, maybe Mr. Poopybutthole before he went off the rails--but Raising Gazorpazorp gets more ridiculous with every season.

Rick and the Beths crave Summer's approval. I was about to say that they wouldn't say it out loud, but...Rick DID say it to her out loud.

Rick initially fucked up when he cloned Beth, but I guess it worked out for him because he ended up with a bonus daughter. He went from having nobody to living in a house with FIVE kids if you count Morty and Summer.

I hope this scene is in an episode because I'm dying to know what's going on, lol. Morty looks so smug. Getting back at his moms for neglecting him?

Honestly, did "Which Beth is the clone?" really matter to begin with? I only cared when we weren't sure if Space Beth existed or not. When we saw her for the first time, I was like "Oh, cool, there's two of them now" and didn't think about it beyond that.

I mean, this isn't a TV show universe where clones are BAD. They're just part of life.

Space Beth is such a great inversion of the "female space badass" trope. She could've been a generic tough chick who disappears from the series and shows up every other season for plot-heavy episodes, but she chose to come back and make memories with her family.

I mean, this is someone who lives a thrilling, adrenaline-packed life as a space rebel, but she's happy taking her family to the zoo and joining them for Earth holidays.

However, the series doesn't take it too far and make Space Beth "mature" by settling down with some guy and becoming a smothered housewife. Instead, regular Beth provides this contrast, and Space Beth frequently argues with her about it (not that being a housewife is bad, but I hate the trope of "She was so wild and crazy until she 'grew up' by marrying a boring guy and popping out as many kids as he wanted!")

Neither of them realizes it, but Space Beth takes after her father in a positive way: they both returned to their families. Beth also takes after him in a different way--he's a #GirlDad while she's a #GirlMom.