Over the course of Rick And Morty‘s 5 seasons, Morty Smith has been through a lot more than the average 14-year-old. While part of him is still a hormone-crazed teenager, he’s also had to abandon his family multiple times in alternate realities, is a father to a human-gazorpazorp child (somehow without making the most questionable parenting choices on the show), and routinely faces near-death scenarios when he’s out on adventures with his genius grandpa, Rick.
Nowadays, viewers can hardly recognize the timid, terrified Morty Smith that they met in the pilot of the show, and Season 1 Morty would definitely have a hard time recognizing his Season 5 counterpart.
Love: Rolling With The Punches
Season 1 Morty screamed in terror in almost every sci-fi scenario he was put in; his open-mouthed horrified shriek is ingrained in viewers’ minds. Additionally, Morty wasn’t always able to roll with the punches that come with outer space shenanigans with Grandpa Rick, often uncertain and unwilling to follow through on schemes.
In Season 5, Morty is quick to hop on board with whatever’s going on. When he’s threatened by wine portal people, he suits up and takes them out. When Rick throws a gun at Morty, he immediately starts shooting at the sperm aliens around them. He’s able to think on his feet much better than his earlier self, and doesn’t overthink things like he used to.
Hate: Disregard For Life
Season 1 Morty thought twice before ever harming another living being, be it from space or Earth. He had a lot of moral dilemmas about the fallout of any of his and Rick’s actions. Season 5 Morty doesn’t think too much about those things.
He kills whoever he needs to in order to reach his goal at the time, and the only real conflict viewers see in him is with the coal miners during Planetina’s outrage. He doesn’t dwell on it too much, though, focusing more on the emotional consequences it has on his relationship.
Love: Confidence With Girls
In Season 5, Morty finally got up the courage to ask out Jessica, a great match for him, but one he was terrified of for the previous four seasons. He even takes it in stride when she decides that they should just be friends (admittedly after being held in time suspension indefinitely and having an identity crisis).
Then, he has a full-fledged relationship with Planetina that he chooses to end. Season 1 Morty would be in awe. He barely had the courage to utter two words to Jessica, let alone ask her out. Other potential relationships, like with Annie at “Anatomy Park,” ended before they began, with Morty never able to assert himself.
Hate: Callous Toward Beth
Morty has always been the sweetheart of Beth and Jerry. While Summer doles out the insults and catty attitude through her great quotes, Season 1 Morty was always kind and sincere to his parents, going out of his way to be respectful to them. Even when he was placed with parents from a different reality, he adhered to their rules and had an interest in their lives.
Season 5 Morty is a bit too preoccupied with his own life to be interested in Jerry or Beth’s. When Morty is visiting Beth at the clinic, his eyes are half-closed in indifference, and he’s quick to turn his back on her, spewing that he’ll never forgive her when she disapproves of his relationship with Planetina.
Love: Bada** Fight Sequences
Most of Season 1 Morty’s casualties were entirely by accident. He freaked out entirely after shooting a galactic officer in the pilot when he realized that he was a real person with a family. All of the fighting showmanship was saved for Rick in previous seasons. But, for Season 5, Morty has the spotlight.
Not only does he decimate the people on the other side of the wine portal, donning Rick’s gear and weapons and taking them down, but he also massacres the people trying to control Planetina, stealing their elemental rings off of their corpses and using them to fight off the rest of his opposition.
Hate: Ruining The World Again
After the Crohnenberg episode, a weirder than usual Rick & Morty outing, and then the squirrel war revealed in “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” Morty has put a lot of work into maintaining his current reality and family. He and Rick save their current reality from many threats, like the Galactic government, a deadly universal talent show, and breaks in the timeline.
So, he’d be pretty disappointed that Season 5 Morty is, once again, letting the world get taken over by monsters of his and Rick’s creation (except, instead of Crohnenbergs, it’s Morty-horse sperm hybrid aliens).
Love: Doesn’t Need Guidance
Rick has to tell Morty how to do just about everything in Season 1, condescendingly walking him through most tasks on their adventures. He couldn’t even use the wall-walking boots in the pilot without guidance. In Season 5, Morty has been through much more. He’s operated numerous firearms, dealt with creatures of countless planets, and escaped from aliens trying to kill Rick and himself.
Season 5 Morty needs a lot less direction, and he even lands Rick’s crashing spaceship as Rick is unconscious in the passenger seat. He navigates a lot of his storylines with little to no direction from Rick, only asking for help when he’s exhausted other options.
Hate: Change in Morals
In Season 1, Morty was a lot more honest – even to a fault, sometimes. He spent a lot of time trying to be a hero or worrying about the morality of his and Rick’s adventures, like when Rick sold guns to Krombopulus Michael.
Morty’s moral questions seem to have come to a halt in Season 5, though. Many of Morty’s actions are more self-serving than altruistic or heroic. In earlier seasons, Morty tried to give gold back to an alien village, or save a sentient all-knowing cloud of gas. Season 5 Morty is more concerned with impressing girls and using veterinary equipment inappropriately.
Love: More Assertive
Morty had a very hard time asserting himself in Season 1. Rick would pull him out of bed in the middle of the night or shrink him down and insert him into a homeless man, and the most Morty ever had to say was “Aw, man.” Most times, it would take a near-death experience for Morty to finally take action or speak up.
Season 5 Morty is finally able to tell Rick “No,” and he does so pretty often. Morty goes off on his own adventures and has his own storyline, letting people know what he wants, and doing what he wants to do. He pushes back against Rick and his ideas, and he flat out ignores Rick honking when he’s talking to Planetina, flying away with her and bailing on Rick’s plan altogether. Not only that but Morty’s actually out-ricked Rick on several occasions by now.
Hate: Disenchanted
Because Morty has been through a lot more trauma than the average high schooler, his reactions to things throughout the seasons lessen in severity. In Season 1, Morty was amazed at all of the sci-fi creatures and worlds that he got to experience with Rick. He was amazed by space superheroes, a citadel of Ricks and Mortys, and the sometimes hilarious, sometimes disgusting interdimensional cable.
But, after 5 seasons, he’s a lot less impressed. The idea of infinite decoys of himself or an underwater arch-nemesis is underwhelming to Season 5 Morty, and Season 1 Morty would probably mourn the loss of his kid-like wonder.
