WRITE A 100 WORDS PARAGRAPH REPLYING TO EACH ONE OF THE 2 STUDENTS POSTINGS. The adult animated series, "Rick and Morty" has become quite the cult following over the past few years. For those of you don't follow, the show centers around the adventures of an overly jaded, alcoholic super scientist named Rick, and his not so smart yet oddly loveable 14-year-old grandson, Morty. Aside from the cynical and sometimes raunchy humor, "Rick and Morty" is known for its detailed (yet not always obvious) attention to social commentary. MUST watch season 3, episode 7, "The Ricklantis Mixup" a/k/a "Tales of the Citadel" The episode focuses on the day-to-day life at "The Citadel", a universal center for all parallel versions of Rick and Morty. The episode covers storylines pertaining to workers at a candy factory, "school boy" Mortys who go on an afterschool special adventure, police officer partners, and a dark horse campaign in the midst of a presidential election. In order to earn up to 5 extra credit points on your Mid-Term Exam, watch this episode of Rick and Morty and think about the following questions: - How does this episode of "Rick and Morty" portray law enforcement? - Is "The Citadel" really as utilitarian as it claims to be in that all are equal? - How can a lapse of ethics in both government and law enforcement effect the community? The episode can be streamed on Hulu (for those of you who have subscriptions). If not, you can access the episode at the following website: https://www.thewatchcartoononline.tv/rick-and-morty-season-3-episode-7-the-ricklantis-mixup STUDENT 1) The episode "Tales of the Citadel" from the show "Rick and Morty" portrays corruption in law enforcement. The way I interpreted the episode was like a division of race except it was portrayed through a bunch of Ricks and Mortys. For example, during 4:00, the police officer Rick says to his partner Morty "it makes me a little sad to hear a Morty cop calling Mortys animals." In my opinion, the producers were trying to show an interaction between two cops of two different races. Morty was talking bad about his own kind (or his own race) because he is now a police officer and thinks he is better than them. Rick and Morty then proceed to try to find the suspects of a robbery and Morty begins to question these two other Mortys that are outside spray painting. The Mortys assume that his Rick is "making [him] do that" (7:00) but then Morty replies that they are partners and that he is not making him do that. They also say that his uniform makes no difference and that he still looks just like a sidekick. This angers Morty resulting in him assaulting the other Morty. My interpretation of this conversation is that Rick is a more privilege race and so they assume that Morty is being bossed around and that even though he is a police officer now, he will always be a "sidekick" like them. Later on, Morty destroys evidence to avoid filling out paperwork and when Rick asks him what's going on, Morty answers, "Same old story, Mortys killing Mortys" (12:31.) There are many other depictions of corruption from law enforcement and the government through out the episode. I don't believe that this utopian society is as utilitarian as they claim to be. All the Ricks and Mortys have the same intellectuality and capabilities; however, they are all assigned different jobs regardless of their equal standing. This automatically puts some of them at a disadvantage and others at an advantage. For example, some Ricks are police officers while others are forced into unethical conditions in a lab to make cookies. For a society to be utilitarian, the benefits have to be great and for the greatest amount of people. The majority of the civilians of the citadel are not benefiting as they are just agents of this society. The citadel goes against everything the OG Rick believes in as he is far too intelligent to work for anybody but himself. Resources: Roiland, J. (n.d.). Rick and Morty. Retrieved February 10, 2021, from https://www.hulu.com/series/rick-and-morty-d76d6361-3fbf-4842-8dd7-e05520557280 STUDENT 2) In the episode “The Ricklantis Mixup” a/k/a “Tales of the Citadel”, I feel there are a few things happening with law enforcement in regard to minorities and corruption as well. I think the Mortys in the streets and Cop Morty represent the minorities in our society. The Mortys view Cop Morty as one of them, and feel he should relate to them. However, Cop Morty feels he is above them because he is a cop. It is a distinction of who has the power and who doesn’t. It is like what is happening in our society, there are minorities who feel wronged by cops and then there are cops (of all races) who feel they are above everyone because they have the power. Many people believe cops abuse their power, which is evident when Cop Morty ties up all the Mortys and destroys them versus giving them their right to due process, which Cop Rick seems to disagree with. There is also a depiction of corruption between Cop Morty and Big Morty, in that Cop Morty takes payouts from Big Morty for doing illegal things. When Cop Rick tries to stand up against the corruption, Cop Morty kills Big Morty and in turn Cop Rick shoots and kills Cop Morty. Later, Cop Rick is absolved of any wrongdoings because of changes in laws without any other explanation or due process. I don’t believe the Citadel is as utilitarian as it claims to be by making everyone equal because everyone is not equal, intellectually or in skills. For example, Rick is the most intelligent being who created this universe of the Citadel, but somehow everyone ended up being the "same". It is like in a Communist government, in which you take everything from everyone to divide all assets equally. This is not fair at all, because not everyone worked as hard as the next person to accomplish what they had. In this scenario, not all Ricks are the same. Factory Rick has the potential to be doing so much more but doesn’t have the opportunity to. Therefore, you are not producing the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. You are creating a society of disadvantaged people, where one person, in this case Evil Morty, sees this weakness and takes over everything. The lapse of ethics in government and law enforcement creates problems in society because it many times leads to corruption within the establishment, it robs citizens of their rights and it builds distrust from citizens toward the government leading to violence within and outside the government. When citizens don’t trust their government, they turn against it like factory Rick did. For example, in the defund the police movement, citizens believe the police are not doing their job ethically or effectively by the use of excessive force on minorities. Therefore, they feel we should allocate funds into other programs that will be more effective in deterring crime, versus having law enforcement officers policing the streets. References: Watch rick and morty season 3 episode 7 – the ricklantis mixup online - rick and morty. (n.d.). Watch Cartoon Online. Retrieved February 16, 2021, from https://www.thewatchcartoononline.tv/rick-and-morty-season-3-episode-7-the-ricklantis-mixup