10 Rick & Morty Fates Worse Than Death

Eternal torture, existential dread... just your average adventure with Rick & Morty.

Rick and Morty Toxic Rick
Adult Swim

Rick and Morty is a show filled with violent (and hilarious) deaths, but thanks to the creative ingenuity of creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the plethora of gruesome fatalities are nowhere near the most horrifying fates on the show.

Thanks to Rick and Morty's penchant for playing around with complex sci-fi concepts and weighty themes (which I'm told you need a very high IQ to understand), there are plenty of moments that walk the line between the absurd and the obscene, the hilariously outlandish and the existentially terrifying.

When you've got the intellectual prowess and impressive sci-fi gadgetry that Rick has access to, anything is possible, and that means Rick can subject anyone he likes to a fate worse than death. Sometimes, he doesn't even realise he's doing it... and sometimes he absolutely does.

So, grab your portal guns and get ready to dive into a multiverse of torture, torment, and terror. There's got to be a dimension out there somewhere with none of these awful fates in it... right?

10. Discovering You Live In A Microverse

Rick and Morty Toxic Rick
Adult Swim

It's well-established by now that Rick's powers are almost godlike. With a seemingly endless array of gadgets and gizmos at his disposal, it seems like he's capable of pretty much anything, and that includes creating an entire universe from scratch.

To his horror, Morty discovers this when Rick's car breaks down and they journey inside the battery to discover the cause of the problem, revealing that Rick created an entire universe, caused a planet within it to develop sentient life, gave those lifeforms electricity, and now uses said electricity to power his car, charge his phone, and other mundanities.

Imagine discovering that your true purpose in life was so... boring. That your entire existence was fabricated; your planet's history moulded to the design of an arrogant scientist. Isn't it just "slavery with extra steps"? It might be a fate worse than death... or maybe it would actually be fine, because ultimately does it really matter what your universe is "for"?

Regardless, it's an interesting philosophical and moral question to ponder as you keep stepping on those Gooble Boxes.

Contributor

Patch is a pop culture enthusiast and purveyor of puns. He writes about media in a vague attempt to justify the alarming amount of time he spends consuming it. Nobody's convinced... but nobody's told him that yet. He spends his spare time working on Portal 2: Desolation, an ambitious fan-made sequel to Valve's beloved puzzle games.