#i feel like there would be a lot more outrage in the fandom if planetina had been a guy and morty had been a girl

[hazelnut-u-out]

idk the fandom’s opinion on this, so this might be a hot take, but planetina preyed on morty, right? i don’t just mean in a “set me free” kind of way- i mean that she arguably used textbook grooming tactics… first and foremost, morty is 14. he is a CHILD. he LOOKS like a child. planetina appears much older than him. i know that morty says that age doesn’t apply to her, but is that true? if it is true, does maturity? would we be accepting that same answer if the gender roles in their dynamic were reversed? if we’re going by physical age, even if planetina didn’t exist until she was manifested in the mid-90’s, that still puts her being notably older than morty (assuming morty’s DOB is sometime around 2001? idk, i know the show came out in 2012, but the date on the jerryboree form said the year was 2015, sooo...). anyway, i did a little bit of poking around online out of curiosity to identify some behaviors of groomers that target teens, and… a lot of them are applicable to planetina’s actions.

  • teen victims are usually chosen for their “ease of access.” usually, this means a teen who is emotionally neglected or spends most of their time in chaotic/abusive environments. perpetrators usually target teens who already suffer with low self-esteem, low confidence, or are easily trusting and naïve (i think we can all agree that morty fits this description…).

~ even if we’re giving planetina the benefit of the doubt here because morty pursued her first, wouldn’t the conversation they had when they “hung out” be enough to figure this out about him? isn’t it always the responsibility of the adult (or more mature party) to maintain appropriate relationships with children?

~ perpetrators will love bomb and give their victims extravagant gifts to “win them over,” like with the INSANE flower arrangement planetina got for morty SO SOON in their relationship.

• the groomer will move on from winning over the victim to attempting to gain more access to them in their personal life- like when planetina starts actively seeking out morty whenever possible, planting little inklings of what she wants him to do in his head (free her from her “kids”), and, after getting her way, attempting to MOVE IN with him to gain 24/7 access. she was aware his parents were typically emotionally uninvolved, anyway, so why not try it?

~ they begin to isolate them from the rest of their family to continue the abuse, like when planetina takes morty (again, may I remind you, A CHILD) on a who-knows-how-long whirlwind trip after causing an explosive fight with his mom where they do nothing but spend time together and take part in what she’s passionate about.

 ~ (i was also SO creeped out by the “very mature young man” thing planetina said to beth… implying that the victim is mature for their age is such a classic predator phrase. i hated it.)

• in the last stage, the abuse has taken place and the victim starts to realize that something is off. at this point, the abuser’s main priority is saving face: twisting the actions of the victim to convince them they were “consenting”, making the victim think that they are just as bad as the abuser, or gaslighting them into thinking that the abuse never occurred. there may also be more love bombing.

 ~ planetina does all of these things after the breakup. she’s the one who indicated to morty that she wanted to be free, but then brings up the fact that he killed her kids- as if that’s even comparable to what she did to those miners in the first place. she tells him that she loves him, etc. insists that they were “so close.”

~ also, it is such an overlooked red flag that she showed up outside of his window when he asked her to leave him alone, presumably multiple times.

i also want to mention that beth immediately clocked this shit as sketchy. she knew that planetina was too old for morty, and she made that clear multiple times. i literally tear up every time I watch beth wait for morty to open the door again. the fact that it’s confirmed that this is how morty lost his virginity, too, is heartbreaking. the slow build of “sunshine and rainbows” to “holy shit, this is a horrible person who has taken advantage of me and shown their true colors” was so accurate. it was almost like planetina successfully groomed the viewer, too, bc we watch it happen through morty’s perspective. the emotional effect this had on morty, bro… he’s just a little boy crying in his mom’s arms at the end of the day. here’s the article I pulled most of this info from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/202002/they-went-willingly-understanding-teen-sexual-grooming?amp