Rick and Morty String Theory

Rick and Morty is an amazing show that just keeps getting better. One of the things that makes it so great is the hidden layers of complexity and consistency. This may be a universe (or multi-multiverse) where anything that is impossible is possible, but there is a logical adhesive that is unprecedented in comedic shows like these. And as with anything with layers of complexity, there are bound to be fans ready to peel it apart. I am one of them!

Parallel realities

I never really concern myself with smaller theories--I'm more interested in the grander picture. In fact, I find myself set to explain the entire Multiverse of Rick and Morty as it has never been explained. That said, there are many fans out there with many theories on the show and the nature of its many universes. What I find consistently lacking in these theories is a controlled comprehensive approach to explain the entirety of everything. In fact, many theorists go on to say specifically that they will omit particular details for the sake of simplicity. I submit that this omission is a grave mistake, and results in the emancipation of significant details of the show.

So what do I mean about Parallel Realities? Well of course we know about the many different universes of Rick and Morty. It was introduced in the episode "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" that there are in fact a number of different "Alternate-Ricks" from different dimensions, or what I will refer to as "Diverging Realities". Presumably, the show's protagonist Rick is currently acting as "Earth Dimension C-137 Rick". The "Trans-Dimensional Council of Ricks" is a collection of Alternate-Ricks that are formed by Ricks all originating from different "Dimensions" on the "Central Finite Curve". The key distinction that is often missed in Rick and Morty theories is the difference between a Diverging Reality and a Parallel Reality. If two realities are Parallel, then they contain identical Ricks and identical universes. Two dimensions Diverge when they are no longer Parallel (and this may happen at any point in the future. Of course, infinitely many realities remain Parallel and infinitely many diverge.)

Under this construction, we can say that Diverging Realities are realities with different identifications (i.e. "C137"). To get a concrete example of this, recall the episode "Rick Potion #9" where Rick hops realities at the end. This reality was a Parallel Reality because it had no major differences to the reality that Rick and Morty started in. However, subsequently as a result of Rick passing through to this reality, it became a Diverging Reality from his reality. Rick is shown to be able to pass freely between Diverging Realities, but his movement between Parallel Realities is highly restricted. As he said at the end of the episode "Rick Potion #9", they are only able to do that so many times. In addition, Rick and Morty both needed to wear a specific tech pack to travel between the realities--a far difference from just a regular shot from the portal gun. This suggests that this particular leap was far greater, or took far more energy than a traditional dimension hop with the portal gun. We should also note that Morty was able to return to this dimension effortlessly later on with Summer. This could have been because either Rick already did the work of making a portal between these places, or the reality had gone from being Parallel to Diverging.

Side Note. A possible theory for the way Rick's portal gun works is that he must first create the portal to a place using the device that he showed in "Rick Potion #9", however we should recall that in the first episode Rick visited a place that he claims to have never visited before (the future dimension where everyone was young), which means that his portal gun is in fact capable of taking him to new places.

String Theory

Here is where my String Theory explanation for Rick and Morty comes in. Recall the mention of the Central Finite Curve? There are in fact infinitely many parallel Central Finite Curves, and as a result infinitely many Council of Ricks. This is the topic that most theorists are afraid to talk on. These Central Finite Curves are in fact the "Strings" to my String Theory. These Strings are all part of an overlying fabric of realities. A String is naturally 2 Dimensional in nature, which means that you can either move backwards or forwards on the String. However, these directions do not represent any passage of time, but rather Divering Realities. Each coordinate on a single String represents another reality, with infinitely many between any two points. These Diverging Realities exist on a single Central Finite Curve, and Ricks from all of these dimensions are able to congregate together at the Council of Ricks based around this String.

If you will imagine with me a String floating in a spaceless void, with coordinates based on a single horizontal axis. Then, if instead of moving horizontally, we move vertically, where do we end up? Well, like I said before, each String makes up just one thread of an overlying fabric. This fabric is made up of many Parallel Strings. So by moving up along the axis, you are essentially breaking free of your current String, and in other words passing across from your Central Finite Curve to another! By doing this you are actually moving to a reality that is parallel--it a String that moves and flows much like your original String (almost exactly) simply due to its proximity on the overlying fabric. So if you imagine a sheet, two threads are closely knit together so that they do not deviate to drastically from each other's paths.

As you can imagine, traveling from one String to another drastically alters the fabric in such a way that two Parallel Realities (two closely knit Strings or threads) are no longer Parallel. In fact, if they did remain Parallel then Rick in the reality where Rick and Morty died from an explosion in the garage would have had to travel to a Parallel reality as well. By the nature of his actions he destroyed a section of the overall fabric. Naturally, this would take a lot of energy, which might explain the boxes that Rick and Morty needed to make the jump. It might also explain why they cannot make the jump too many more times.

Conclusions?

Believe it or not, this drastically alters the deductive playing field. This in fact would mean that Rick and Morty never changed their Earth Dimension numbers when they made the jump. That is, Earth C-137 is and has always been the Earth that Rick and Morty are currently residing on. They never switched to a new Earth, they simply switched to a Parallel Earth which should maintain its coordinates (unless the coordinates do in fact include parallel variation components.) Also, we know that Rick has made this kind of jump before, most likely to the Morty that has become the central Morty to the show. It's very likely that Rick in a parallel universe made a journey and died somewhere in space--which is why he went missing for years. However, our Rick makes a jump to replace the dead Rick after somehow messing up his own Parallel Reality.