#[ interactions :: Evil Morty ]

[sorrelpaws]

hanging out with my narrative parallel !

[pumpkster]

[fear-no-mort]

i like the way em takes a second to just stare at morty here. like he doesn’t immediately close the door, he takes enough time for morty to step a bit into the room, worriedly turn back and start walking close enough to him that he flinches when the door almost shuts on his face, to just stand and look at him for a bit before he thinks he’ll never see him again. ive probably mentioned this before but i really do think just purely from seeing the way he was arguing with rick and how he tried to convince him to team up against their ricks and rescue all the mortys together that evil morty has had a fondness for morty prime since Forever

look at the way they just stare at eachother the entire time the ricks are speaking both enamoured by eachother because they represent something the other could never do/have, morty being instantly interested in what em’s deal is because of the villainous nature of his rick and him and his constant unchanging glare, him having the confidence and authority that morty himself wishes to have, and vice versa because of him standing up to rick while still retaining that good-willed nature mortys usually naturally have which is something that evil morty lost and will likely never feel again

also. i know em likely didnt even see it but i love the idea that he purposely does the hands on hips stance So Much because of morty prime. look!!!

[dykemcqueen]

s7e5 was so disappointing to me bc they completely sidelined morty and acted like there's some stark difference between morty and evil morty as if the whole conceit of EM isn't that he is literally just morty.

at his point of origin EM is not smarter, he's not crueler, he's not better, he's not worse, he's just c137 with about 20% less patience. EM has more knowledge because he HAD to learn as much as rick to finally overcome him, but overcoming rick was the impetus, and if c137 had that same drive, it would be completely possible. c137 has manipulated rick in exactly the same way that we see EM doing to his rick in the opening. c137 is just as smart and bitchy and fed up. he's just as good at fighting and flying the ship. morty c137 has not been the bumbling sidekick for many seasons, so why put him in that position now? just to make evil morty look way cooler than he is?

not to mention it's so out of character for morty not to read the fucking room at the end of the episode. morty canonically can dissect rick very well, so why is he acting cheery and ignorant now? it's not like the two of them to be so out of sync, not anymore. it was just so repellent to me... dragging my boy through the mud just to put evil morty on a pedestal... just to act like they aren't the same person at their core.

[mortysmith]

scrolling thru the tag for the new ep. paused everything. "what did sorrelpaws think about it though."

ALRIGHT i rewatched it AND I LIKE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

[garndiddlious]

mortees

[whaliiwatching]

still lowkey wish they’d met

[brainhurtyqueen]

Man, I can’t believe I started writing this back in May. Can you guys believe I wrote an 11,771-long fic for a pairing that is so nonexistent we can’t even call it a rare pair that only my friend and I adore? Yes, yes, I did.😂 (Another edit by my sis).

[countlessrealities]

@evilmcg [x]

"You obviously do care or else you wouldn't be bringing it up to me." She argued. This had been the last thing she'd been expecting. It filled her with a sense of unease. She felt anxious as hell. She shouldn't care this much.

Care this much that she's upset him even if unintentionally. She found herself gulping. Nervously toying with her jewelry as a distraction from her feelings. "I'm not toying with you or lying to you. It's different, Mortimer."

She didn't wanna give up on her hobby with the Ricks in question. Besides she wasn't lying just to make him feel better or to cover her own ask. She did see it differently. "Our dates are special. Because you're my boyfriend and also because you were the first person I showed that side of myself too."

Sure Morty had seen a little of what she was capable of when he watched as she killed her parents, but unless she was in a jealous rage he didn't see just how far she could go. Just how dark her nature was. How into torture and the sound of screams she was. Mortimer was the one who was first allowed to see her most sadistic and ugly parts.

"Our murder dates are special. What we have is special." How was he getting her to admit all this? Why was she panicking so much? "I didn't think this was something you would be jealous over. Does this mean if I shared this side of myself with our boyfriend you would see that as unacceptable too?" Probably even more so considering the romantic relationship at play. What he had to say last truly gutted her however. She could feel the walls closing in around her. "I'm sorry. I'll do something for you. Something that proves I can be a good girlfriend."

Morty hadn't really stopped to think about what Meg's reaction to his accusations could have been. He was annoyed, so her thoughts and feelings didn't really matter to him in that moment. And that was why he had initially planned to say his piece, pour some salt into the wound and then leave.

However, those intentions were quickly forgotten the moment he saw the girl panicking. Her nervous gesture, the restless body language, the growing anxiety in her voice. By the time the apology slipped from her lips, she was sounded like she was begging him.

The show of emotions caught him off guard and left him confused. Why was she so insistent? So desperate to make him understand, to reassure him of the meaningfulness of their outings? Where was it coming from?

A few moments of silence passed, the heavy tension hanging over their heads as Morty tried to find a proper answer to all that. Not just to Meg's words, but also to her behaviour. In the end, he turned around fully once again, taking a few steps towards her.

"You're not listening to me. I'm not jealous, I'm upset." She was really dumb at times. Her agitated state was no excuse for it. "What irks me isn't that you shared the activity with someone else in itself, but that you didn't tell me and made it sound like it was our thing. Something you did with me exclusively."

If she had used her brain, been more mindful, they would have never needed to have this conversation.

"Maybe you didn't mean to, but you led me on. Deceived me in a way. And that's something I do not tolerate. Also, you didn't consider how I might have reacted to it. You didn't think about me at all. You acted selfishly and were self-absorbed, and that's what makes you a bad girlfriend."

He closed the distance between them, grabbing her chin. His grip was firm, not enough to be painful, but it still felt like a punishment.

"You can share that part of you with whoever you wish, be it other me or his Ricks, it doesn't matter. But in exchange you have to prove yourself to me. Show me that what you said about it being 'special' aren't just empty words. Because that's what it sounds me right now."

[mcltiples]

@evilmcg sent; "I'm not exactly thrilled either. I just wanted to spend time with her but for some reason she insisted on bringing him. Just play nice for a little while. I promise I'll make it up to you okay?" evilmcg for emorty

Eyeing C-137, Morty wasn't impressed. He didn't enjoy the fact that he had to sit through this. When he could be hanging out with his other self. A much better alternate than C-137 could ever be. He didn't even know how he could fake it for however long the Megs wanted to hang out.

"Fine," He relented. "But make it quick, I don't want to be stuck with this boring excuse of a Morty."

"H-Hey, that's not cool to say, dawg! I-I'm not any lesser than you!"

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Unmortricken" was a lot. In fact, it might have been a little too much.

To start, I loved the glimpse of what exists outside the Central Finite Curve. The visuals were stunning and reminded me of M.C. Escher's drawings. The Jetson-like family was a nice touch--if anything can happen, who says they can't have different animation styles? All those colorful portals make me wonder what's lurking just out of sight.

It's also funny that the space outside the Curve is full of Rick's favorite thing: crystals. If he took a trip there, he'd come back with his pockets stuffed with gemstones.

Evil Morty's reappearance gave us a decent character study. Since he wasn't the antagonist, we saw him interact with the C-137s as a regular person. Morty's a little impressed, and Rick has a grudging respect for him. Others have called Evil Morty the Rickest Morty, and I agree: similar intelligence, similar technology and similar bloodthirst.

I was glad that he left in the end because that's what his character arc is about anyway. He doesn't want to be part of anyone else's story, not even another Morty's.

However, that's also part of the issue that I had with this episode. Seeing Evil Morty was great, but it was also a little...pointless? You could've had the same story without him. He's not working with Prime, and he has no ties to C-137 after "Rickmurai Jack," so it felt like the writers just said "Hey, you know what would be cool?"

I'm not against writers having fun and giving the audience what they want. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (yeah, groan at me, Marvel haters) is fan service in blockbuster form, and it was one of the best theater experiences I've ever had.

Still, if Evil Morty came back, I think he should've had a separate episode. The episode juggled C-137 Rick, Morty, Evil Morty and Prime Rick pretty well, giving them satisfying interactions with each other, but no Evil Morty would've meant more relationship development for the C-137s.

Evil Morty's backstory also didn't reveal much about him. I mean--yeah, we all figured that he had an abusive Rick and got fed up. The fact that he had a "regular" Rick instead of a deranged lunatic does make a point about the banality of abuse. Monsters aren't always raving maniacs who torture people in their basements. Ordinary people can wear you down with a slow drip of toxicity and neglect.

I enjoyed this episode, and Evil Morty's return was exciting, but cramming the series' two biggest antagonists and storylines into twenty minutes was a little overwhelming. New plot developments kept showing up, too: Rick found Prime! Prime's various lairs! Omega device! I would've preferred a two-parter.

I'll admit that if you told me that we'd see Evil Morty and Rick Prime in the same shot, I never would have believed you, but here we are.

On that note, Prime's characterization was perfect. No attempt at a cutesy, sad backstory; he's a laughing monster until the end. And is it really the end? He has regeneration abilities, but C-137 acts like he's dead and even gives up the search. This leaves us with a few options:

C-137 killed him.

Prime fooled C-137 into thinking that he's dead when he isn't.

C-137's keeping him alive for later use.

Hopefully, this is more complicated than it looks because I'll be disappointed if this is the end of Prime. He's a brilliant reflection of C-137: the Rick he'd be without his tiny shred of humanity.

And Prime's a maniac, but he tells C-137 the truth. Rick broke into Prime's house. He pretended he belonged with this group of strangers. He latched on to Prime's grandson because he never had his own. His brutal, violent streak never went away no matter how long he tried to play house.

Prime says "Admit it! You would have been me!" In season three and parts of season four, Rick was close. His love for his family--love that he pretended he didn't have--and desire for their approval just barely pulled him back. But what kept that spark alive? How close was he to becoming a cold, unfeeling shell?

In the end, C-137's not satisfied after he destroys Prime--and weirdly, I'm not satisfied, either. Beating Prime to an unrecognizable pulp doesn't bring Rick's original family back. It doesn't erase the atrocities that Rick's committed. It doesn't make his grief go away. It doesn't change the fact that Rick teetered on the edge of turning into the monster that he despised.

What's more satisfying is that Rick didn't turn out like Prime. His Morty doesn't give two shits about Prime, but he loves him. He hugs him in relief (come on, Rick, hug him back already!), cries out "Rick? Rick!" and shakes his body when he thinks he's dead, and talks excitedly as they return home.

Rick's going to therapy, which Prime would have mocked. He went from having nobody to living with FIVE kids if you count Morty and Summer. Even he and his Jerry are pretty tight.

Rick knows this, but he still feels empty all the time. Vengeance doesn't work, drinking doesn't work...wouldn't it be easier if he just switched off his humanity and laughed at everything, even his own death?

But now that he knows how it feels to be loved, especially by his hypothetical grandson, I think he'll always find himself at the Smiths' doorstep.

[cyantt-does-stuff]

Their dynamic is just so interesting to me, not just in a romantic way. I wanna see them interact more damn it. Also I will never get over the fact selfcest is canon in this show.

I headcanon Evil Morty uses the name Morvil. It's easier to use, plus it's sorta cute.

Anyways, Morty falls first, Morvil falls harder.

[fear-no-mort]

this didn’t make us friends

[kagemuch]

If I somehow miss interaction between Jessica and Evil Morty Idc

[t0rturedangel]

Ohhh since you're writing for him could you write something about evil morty being jealous/possessive with the reader (in a romantic relationship) please and thank you!

𝟎𝟎𝟏. 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘫𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘴 [ 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘳. ]

⠀⠀⠀: ᯓ 𝟎𝟎𝟐.⠀ EVIL MORTY SMITH X READER

› 〉 𝟎𝟎𝟑. SYNOPSIS, Evil Morty is one hell of a bf, his jealousy and possesiveness is crazy.

› 〉 𝟎𝟎𝟒. WARNINGS, Evil Morty, maybe a bit ooc, threats / threats of violence, ect

› 〉 𝟎𝟎𝟓. AUTHOR'S NOTES, Happy to do another rick and morty request! I hope this one is good- i'm not too good when it comes to writing for characters like him but I'll try! ALSO SOME WORDS MIGHT BE SPELT WRONG

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤUnlike RICK, EVIL MORTY is well aware that he can get jealous and possesive over you- in fact most Morties are aware of that fact, and well you cant exactly blame them, love is something they dont get often, and when they do it doesn't last.

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤSo it is no surprise that when you began to date EVIL MORTY, he was quick to become jealous and bitter to all other morties (even more than he already is). After all, now that your his significant other, others may be prone to want to go after you which is something that will bother EVIL MORTY.

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤThis especially happens during his presidental run, now that he's making himself and, ultimately, you public- many would be bound to try and get you away from him for various reasons. Though don't worry too much, EVIL MORTY has it all sorted- pull a few strings and the rouge morties that tried to even interact with you will be gone, like they never exsisted.

"Morty.." you called out, staring at your boyfriend who was currently sifting through various files, persumebly all to do with the votes and campaign as he was running for president in the citadel- something you heavily encouraged because it would be good to have a new, democraticly elected, leader for the citadel and hey, if morty needed any help or things got to stressful you'd be able to help (I mean how hard can it be?). "Yeah [name]?" He lifted his head up, staring at you with a quirked brow, clearly wanting you to continue though under his gaze you felt slightly uncomfortable- jeez when did your boyfriend become so damn scary? "Do you know what happened to the two Morties that jumped me the other day? I was searching for them coz I found out they were trying to make bootleg portal fluid but they were gone" you picked at the skin around your nails, avoiding your Morty's gaze nervously though your attention was quickly brought back to him when he sighed "Don't worry about them [name], they've been dealt with..... now come on- can you help me with these papers" he smiled at you, gesturing to the seat next to him which you quickly sat down on. You can only assume that Morty sent the cops after them, and that they're now in prison.

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤLet's say you're evil with him, meaning that you agree with what he does, and so when you met c-137 Rick and Morty you too pretened to be normal until you didn't- you were the first person the two were introduced to as you sat with them to eat food before evil morty appeared. Both of you then confessing to the fact that you hated ricks and the citadel.

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤIf you were 'evil' like him, then it would be perfect- because then he would be able to leave everything behind with you! Which is brilliant coz that means it will be just the two of you together, no one else trying to disturb your relationship (until season seven episode five).

🜸 ㅤ▎ㅤ▍ㅤOverall, EVIL MORTY is a little extreme when it comes to his jealousy- he doesn't like being jealous so he takes care of the problems quickly and swiftly, the quicker the better.

[glitteringcrab]

Mental restraints of the puppeteered

[or: Frying his backups (part 2)]

Okay so this theory has been sitting in my head for a long while and I had the feeling it might be accurate but I could not find a way to tie it up with the rest of the plot my headcanons...

Until now, when something changed (namely, the possibility that Rick Prime has been puppeteering other Ricks).

So.

1. Let's observe this scene:

I think we can all agree that Evil Rick was having lunch alone (there are a lot of bittersweet fanarts where Eyepatch Morty seeks comfort from post-surgery Evil Rick in some way or another, but if this one scene is typical of their post-surgery interactions, it appears this hypothetical comfort-seeking was not a thing. They did not even eat together). He broke the plate, either accidentally or on purpose. He picked one of the shards up. The rest is history.

So what I'm seeing is that he was not puppeteered 24/24.

In the incredible, gut-wrenching fanfiction "Ghost in the machine" which you should all totally read (in fact, drop this rambling post and go read it now!! Go go go go!!!!! Like, shooo!!! Come back after you've read it, if you still feel like it. Because there will be SPOILERS in the following 2 paragraphs!!!!) Evil Rick was constantly following orders, 24/24. Even when Eyepatch Morty did not puppeteer him directly, he still had orders to follow, like "bring me this object" or "stand there and wait", and the wiggle room for Evil Rick to resist was minimal. Said resisting mostly took the form of twitching (ergo momentarily disrupting whatever he was ordered to do) at crucial moments, maybe kinda like a computer lagging at the worst possible time. Like I said, absolutely incredible fic, go read iiiiiiiiiiit!!!

But now that Unmorticken has aired and we saw more of their interactions, if we think about the above scene, I think we can reach the conclusion that that's not how it worked. Evil Rick may have received an order to eat, as well as orders to keep the place neat and tidy (and therefore he began picking up the shards) but actually jamming the shard at his eye is not a matter of twitching nor just barely managing to change the trajectory of a movement at the last possible second. It's a fully deliberate action, from start to finish. He had the agency to do it.

So I think we can reach the conclusion that Evil Rick was technically free to... be himself when not puppeteered.

With some restrictions in place, of course:

I am just spitballing here, but I'm thinking of what kind of other actions Eyepatch Morty may have forbidden Evil Rick to do, such as:

Cannot damage any equipment (duh, otherwise he'd be throwing a massive tantrum, destroying everything Evil Morty is working on)

Cannot attack Eyepatch Morty (duh, otherwise the kid would never get a moment's rest lol)

Cannot escape

Cannot call for help

...and probably a bunch more, such as "cannot speak" because of Evil Rick's lack of words when Evil Morty came to him during his failed suicide attempt... Plus the fact that he has a scar on his mouth, which a couple of amazing fanart and fanfiction made me wonder if Evil Rick said something during his surgery that Evil Morty very much could not stand hearing so he shut him up with a scalpel or whatever he was holding... before shutting him up for good.

What a nightmare, huh?

And that's when he was allowed to be himself. The rest of the time he'd be forced to watch himself kill Ricks, and kidnap and torture a thousand versions of his grandson.

2. Now, if the theory that Evil Morty was once himself puppetered it true...

...wouldn't he also have a similar list of prohibitions restraining his actions? Such as:

Cannot harm Puppetmaster Rick

Cannot escape

Cannot operate a portal gun (we've never seen Evil Morty operate a portal gun made by a Rick, he made his own. Is that a coincidence? Of course, both are "portal guns" so maybe that's a stretch, unless he calls his own portal weapon something else, like the dinosaurs called their own "portal pistol" lol. Or maybe using a portal gun to escape counts as "escaping" and therefore a separate order is not needed)

Cannot reveal to anyone what Puppetmaster Rick has been doing to him (maybe. Is that one even necessary? Would anyone even help him if he did reveal it?)

3. Like I said, I'm just spitballing here, but I think the above stand to reason. I mean they just seem like reasonable precautions. If this assessment is accurate, we can reach the following conclusions:

a) If Evil Rick's puppeteering experience was a nightmare, Evil Morty's was a living hell considering what Puppetmaster Rick was doing to him, especially if he was not allowed to leave the house and ask for help.

b) The fact that Evil Morty managed to free himself while operating under such massive handicups is another testament to his incredible intelligence and resilience.

c) It may be another reason he showed no empathy to other Mortys in his attempt to escape. They've had it easy, they had their chances to leave the Citadel or kill their Ricks, they had a million other ways and opportunities to escape and either never bothered or blew them. Now it's his turn.

4. Okay, now... what do you think happens to all these mental restraints once Evil Morty severed his connection to Puppetmaster Rick by tearing his receiver off???

One scenario is that they all became void. They were cancelled. Evil Morty was free to be himself, however he wanted. This could very much be true, and in that case my rambling ends here, I have nothing more to say.

Another scenario is all the old restrictions were still in place and effective, and he would just receive no new orders nor be directly puppeteered anymore. (I suppose this would make it into a good metaphor about abused people being conditioned to act in certain ways and it being very hard to rebel against them. E.g. imagine Evil Morty being unable to confess to other people about what happened to him because he'd expect pain and failure and no support, similar to actual abuse victims learning to expect accusations and failure and no support) Assuming the second scenario is true, then let's head off to the next points:

5. Depending on the exact extent of Evil Morty's mental restraints, it may be that using Evil Rick as a puppet was not only a clever way to get the upper hand, but that he had literally no other choice. E.g. imagine if he actually was physically incapable of operating a portal gun. He would literally need to hold it via Evil Rick's puppeteered hand. The whole thing would be Eyepatch Morty taking all his mental restraints and turning each and every one of them to his advantage in a convoluted, ingenious way.

6. Judging by Evil Rick's halted suicide attempt, it seems that while he knew that removing the receiver would kill him (I mean... you don't normally die by poking your eye out, so it has to be tearing your receiver off that will kill you, and he knew that) the puppeteered have no knowledge of the restrictions placed on them until they stumble upon them. (That, or Evil Rick knew he was not allowed to commit suicide but was desperate enough to try nonetheless.)

Therefore it's theoretically possible there are still some restrictions employed that Evil Morty is unaware of, which are waiting to spring up on him if the right (wrong) conditions are met.

Personally I think that's unlikely because I'm sure he has studied his own implant extensively since he became president and had access to adequate equipment, but:

7. Even if he studied it, this doesn't mean he was able to alter it nor undo it. From what we've seen it appears that unauthorized removal of part of the puppeteering implant equates with a death sentence. And while Puppetmaster Rick thought it unlikely his scrawny, stupid Morty would ever be able to put together a plan to break free or have the guts to mutilate himself, if the puppeteering equipment was originally, I dunno, a prototype designed by Rick Prime and was intended to be used against Ricks, then it's entirely possible that it is designed to kill the victim both for trying to remove the implant itself and for altering the accompanying code. It's the absolute prison, and despite whatever fast-acting healing equipment Evil Morty successfully used to remove his receiver in the past, it might be that it barely worked and he might not be too keen on trying his luck again.

8. So let's continue this thought experiment and assume that, if not all, at least the core mental restraints of the mind control implant are still very much effective inside Evil Morty's brain.

...Including the "cannot harm Puppetmaster Rick" one.

Now, I don't want to reduce the very important plot point of Evil Morty's mental restraints into semantics of "attack vs hurt vs harm vs kill", but... I'm going to go ahead and assume there are limits, definitions, to these mental restraints, otherwise Evil Morty would never been able to even look at Puppetmaster Rick wrong if there was the tiniest chance of it eventually leading to Puppetmaster Rick getting harmed. So I'm going to assume that the restraint is about something blatant.

Like... shooting Puppetmaster Rick, running him over with a car, poisoning his food, strangling him are all no-go, but aggressively poking him with your finger or not warning him about his impending doom might be okay.

My guess is that restraining Puppetmaster Rick is also okay, because as long as that the "no harm" order is still in action, Puppetmaster Rick would just immediately puppeteer Evil Morty into stopping or freeing him. The puppeteered cannot really get very far with this, especially when they're a child with no equipment of their own... Or that is what Puppetmaster Rick would think.

9. Anyway, before season 7 we don't see Evil Morty directly kill (or try to kill) another Rick. (It's not his fault the Ricks walked into various deathtraps, occasionally when he even specifically told them not to lol) This observation tipped me off to the possibility that some restrictions might still be in place... Of course, I cannot think on why there'd be a restriction against Evil Morty killing random Ricks, so it might simply be that in his attempts to bypass the restrictions against Puppetmaster Rick Evil Morty has learnt to think outside the box and later fully employed this skill to minimize the risk to himself.

And in season 7, he has no difficulty in killing Nice Rick, nor to shoot and attack Rick Prime during the Prime Fight.

10. BUT THEN WHAT'S THIS ABOUT:

I couldn't stop thinking about this phrase!!! It just doesn't make any sense!! WHY DID RICK PRIME ACT LIKE EYEPATCH MORTY WAS INCAPABLE OF KILLING HIM?!

So I kept thinking on what sort of mental restraints might still be active inside Evil Morty's brain.

Like, what? Is it something like him "not being allowed to kill a Rick who isn't currently posing a threat", so he could shoot Rick Prime in the beginning but not now that he's restrained? (But he shot Nice Rick again with no problem inside the box, when he was down and weaponless and dying...) This didn't really make any sense, like... why??? So I dropped this theory and forgot about it...

... until the theory that Rick Prime has been mind controlling other Ricks came up. By more than one fan!!!! (and we followed different lines of thought to reach it!!!)

SO LET'S PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER:

(1) Evil Morty absolutely does still have some mental restraints in his brain and has been carefully operating around them this whole time, trying not to trigger them.

(2) One of those mental restraints effectively prevents him from killing Puppetmaster Rick. This would provide an additional explanation about why Eyepatch Morty didn't kill Puppetmaster Rick the moment he realized said Rick was freed by Rick C-137 resetting all portal travelers. Like, I can think of other explanations:

Puppetmaster Rick being terrified of the Citadel and having no idea that it no longer exists and worrying that they'll come get him to throw him in the Machine of Unspeakable Doom again, therefore laying as low as possible, either hiding himself so effectively that even Evil Morty can't find him, or protecting his home base to withstand an attack from the Citadel itself, making it extremely difficult for Evil Morty to defeat him.

Evil Morty being either extremely scared or extremely repulsed by him, simply never wanting to deal with him ever again, and thinking it highly unlikely Puppetmaster Rick would ever be able to successfully track him down as long as Morty took certain precautions...

...But it's also very likely that Evil Morty is physically unable to do it. Like, I doubt Evil Morty is morally above neutrino-bombing an entire planet just to get this one Rick, but maybe he can't do it. Maybe he is not allowed to fire such a weapon.

(3) In fact, the only things Evil Morty can do is hide himself in the fringe between worlds, employ a number of sophisticated shields, and surgically add the mind-cotrol-implant-overriding fingerguns on himself. An attack with these might at worst cause pain for Puppetmaster Rick, but as we've seen the fingerguns don't actually physically harm nor kill their target, they just... override the target's nervous system. So he can use those against Puppetmaster Rick.

(4) Fast forward to the Prime Fight, where Evil Morty uses a gun to try to kill Rick Prime--and why not? Of course he can do it. He also attacks Rick Prime with his bare hands and hijacks one of Prime's Dianebots to pummel him into a pancake. All good.

(5) Eventually, Eyepatch Morty's temporary allies go down, all the weapons and physical attacks he has tried got him no results, there are no more Dianebots for him to hijack and he's about to get shot:

Desperate, he tries one last thing: the finger-gun, which would only work if Rick Prime also has a mind-control-implant in his forehead.

(6) Bingo!!! It works.

(7) ...But this means that Rick Prime is also defined by a "Puppetmaster Rick status". Whatever mental restraint Evil Morty struggled to operate around is updated to extend to Rick Prime.

While the remains of the mind-control implant inside Evil Morty's head did not receive any new orders (as he no longer has a receiver), the old orders are still in place, and the updated knowledge concerning Rick Prime's status as a "Rick who puppeteers others" (or "admin" if you like) firmly slots him inside the "cannot harm" box.

(8) Whatever. Evil Morty is annoyed, but he knows how to work around this. He's unconcerned.

We have no confirmation of this, but it's likely Puppetmaster Rick had a special room and special equipment and used it update or oversee Evil Morty's implant (I mean... we've come up with similar imagery for Evil Morty and Evil Rick). Evil Morty therefore knows Rick Prime should also have something similar, and knows just what to do. He immediately drags him to the control room, where indeed the relevant equipment is waiting for him.

What I find funny is that Evil Morty probably didn't stick himself inside the wall panels to get all those cables out, but puppeteered Rick Prime to do it in his stead.

And this explains why part of the room was wrecked: Evil Morty was unfamiliar with Prime's strength and implants, and as we've seen, when controlling an unfamiliar body with implants, accidents might happen:

Evil Morty then puppeteered Rick Prime into sitting on his chair (aaaaand I assume deactivated his time-healing ability) before holding him still.

(9) Rick Prime woke up, saw/felt the fingergun and cables on his forehead, noticed he was unable to move, saw Evil Morty, remembered Evil Morty shooting him with something... and probably also immediately began employing his own implants and defense systems to get feedback on Evil Morty's fingergun and on how it could be overridden.

Doesn't this line make a lot more sense now???

He really is getting the picture. And in fact he may be getting a much bigger picture than Evil Morty might like; he may be stealthily scanning Evil Morty's brain through some other implant of his; see it full of cables, recognize the similarities to his own handiwork. He might understand that Evil Morty has puppeteered others, might understand that Evil Morty was once puppeteered himself. He might get a feedback on Evil Morty's list of mental restraints.

And he immediately begins stealthily mounting attacks against the fingerguns, which retaliate each and every time, turning red and hurting him. He keeps trying nonetheless, while simultaneously trying to distract Evil Morty by sweet talking to him (which is nothing but a testament about how clever he is and his ability to multitask) but his fate is sealed; maybe he'd be able to override the fingerguns given enough time... But he doesn't have enough time, and Evil Morty has prepared himself for this exact moment moment. His fingerguns are not easy to be overridden.

(10) So Evil Morty successfully fries each and every one of Prime's puppeteered victims (which do not have "Puppetmaster Rick status") and Prime says this:

DOESN'T THIS LINE MAKE A LOT MORE SENSE NOW?

He got feedback on Evil Morty's brain control implant. He knows that from the moment the fingerguns worked Eyepatch Morty could literally not harm him anymore.

(11) Not that this matters, because Eyepatch Morty knows just what to do...

...bring someone who can finish the job:

DOESN'T THE ABOVE LINE ALSO MAKE SENSE NOW?

Evil Morty is not the one harming him!!! I mean if you wanna look at semantics he didn't even tell Rick C-137 to kill him, he said a joke, a pun.

And he has the added bonus of coming out of this looking like a team player (I mean... as much as he ever could) and gaining an enslaved, morally obligated Rick to himself lol (turning his mental restraints to his advantage)

(12) AND TALK ABOUT POETIC JUSTICE. RICK PRIME IS BEING PUPPETEERED TO SIT STILL IN HIS OWN CHAIR AND GET PUMMELED TO DEATH when he's the one who had been tricking and enslaving countless Ricks to be puppeteered by him forever.

He's literally forced to sit still there and live through it, unable to even lift a finger to protect himself. Poetic. Justice.

(13) Evil Morty had been very careful up to now to hide the fact that he has puppeteered others, but there is no way Rick C-137 didn't understand that Evil Morty is familiar with the puppeteering technology after this encounter (I mean... Rick C-137 knew not to remove the fingerguns, he knew to remove the cables, he knew what this whole thing was).

Which on one hand, doesn't mean he gets to reach any plot-relevant conclusions (at least, not yet) because he knows Evil Morty scans Ricks' brains and steals their technology. On the other hand... we don't know how much more he needs to put 2 and 2 together and reach the same conclusions that Rick Prime did.

(14) And now for my last point.

If all the above is true...

...and depending on the semantics of the mental restraints...

...I would not be surprised if it turns out that Evil Morty using the Omega Device against Ricks is nothing but a GIGANTIC BLUFF.

Like this is literally the worst he can do: improve its design, build it, threaten to use it. (Depending on whether he intends to do a demonstration on e.g. Churry he may not even ever bother to build it.)

Because he literally cannot fire such a weapon against Ricks as long as Puppetmaster Rick is alive. (edit: I'm gonna correct myself and change this to: he cannot use such a weapon against Ricks directly but he still can trick or force someone else to fire it in his stead)

Of course, he would still be able to fire it against Ricks' family, which is probably more effective as a deterrent considering Ricks' suicidal tendencies, but you get the idea.

(...On a different matter, Rick Prime wins plenty of extra cruelty points for vengefully trying to turn Rick C-137 against Evil Morty by warning him about a weapon he knows the kid literally cannot use (edit: cannot use in a moment's notice, in case a furious Rick C-137 pops up in his doorstep))

Again, this may not be true. We don't know if firing such a weapon by throwing another Rick in the Omega Device (and therefore killing eeeevery Rick) counts as Eyepatch Morty directly killing Puppetmaster Rick or not, but I fail to see how it's different from dropping a neutrino bomb on Puppetmaster Rick's head.

(15) Or maybe I'm wrong and I'm only trying to connect dots that don't exist. I honestly cannot think of another explanation for Rick Prime's lines to Evil Morty in Unmortiricken but this doesn't mean there isn't one.

And I do think Evil Morty being deathly scared of Puppetmaster Rick is adequate explanation for not wanting to even try to kill him, and plot-wise and character-wise I think it's a lot more interesting than semantics.

But then again, it's possible for both of these things to be true... Because even with Rick C-137 suddenly becoming his slave, Evil Morty very much did not jump at the opportunity to kill Puppetmaster Rick. He chose to remain hidden. He doesn't want to deal with him.