- This article is about the Rick formerly known as "Weird Rick". You may be looking for the Rick that served on the Council of Ricks.
| “ | Admit it, you would've been me. I just walked into your garage before you walked into mine. But eventually, you did! YOU LIVED IN MY HOUSE!! |
| — Rick Prime's final words before his death, Unmortricken |
Rick Sanchez of the Prime Dimension, also known as Rick Prime and formerly Weird Rick[2], is the overarching antagonist of Rick and Morty, as well as the catalyst for the events of the series.
He was the Rick who was responsible for the deaths of Diane in every single dimension, and Beth Sanchez in Dimension C-137[3]. Rick C-137 attempted to find and kill Rick Prime throughout the multiverse for decades, killing countless other Ricks in the process. Rick C-137 eventually landed in Rick Prime's original dimension and took his place, kick starting the events of the series.
In "Solaricks", Rick C-137 resets portal travelers, thereby sending Rick Prime back to his original dimension. In this episode, Rick Prime is seen in his space-station taunting Rick C-137, before being launched back onto Earth. Rick Prime then encounters Jerry Prime and kills him.
In "Unmortricken", it is revealed that Rick Prime invented a weapon known to some Ricks as the Omega Device, (though Rick Prime claims the device is "too cool to have a name") which has the power to erase an individual from every dimension, as well as interfere with other people's memories of that individual. This weapon was used on Diane, which explains her absence from the series. Rick C-137 and Evil Morty temporarily join forces, and managed to track down Rick Prime. They engage him in a vicious fight, which they barely win. Evil Morty then steals Rick Prime's schematics for the Omega Device before giving Rick C-137 the opportunity to kill his nemesis. Rick Prime, defiant to the end, ceaselessly mocks Rick for becoming like him as he is slowly beaten to death.
Following Rick Prime's death, Rick C-137 briefly became depressed as he no longer had a goal now that his nemesis was dead. However, Morty was able to intervene and encourage Rick to resume their regular adventures once again. Rick Prime's legacy lives on with Evil Morty, who took the plans for the Omega Device and used them to threaten Rick C-137 into leaving him alone for good, lest he put an end to the "Rick experiment".
Appearance[]
Rick Prime had more grayish skin than other versions of Ricks, as well as more dull-colored hair in a "nondescript" haircut. He wore a purplish "sci-fi" jacket with a gray shoulder pad and a red shirt underneath. He also wore grayish black pants and appears to have been using the "iPhone 3 equivalent" prototype of the modern Portal Gun upon first meeting Rick C-137. After many years, his appearance was completely unchanged, implying that he either actually is a clone or his healing abilities also give him longevity.
Personality[]
Rick C-137 refers to Rick Prime as "the real deal" to Morty Prime. His reasoning for this is that Rick Prime was a narcissist who actively hated attachments to his family to the point that he was willing to abandon them for over 20 years. Rick Prime also believed other Ricks should follow suit, leading him to murder Beth and Diane from Dimension C-137, thus doing away with Rick C-137's attachments in that world. When certain Ricks defied him, he decided to teach them a lesson by committing the deplorable act of wiping out all versions of Diane across the multiverse.
Being a Rick, he shares all of his counterpart's intellect and resourcefulness, though he does not seem to indulge in any hedonistic acts like drinking or partying. It is possible Rick Prime is somewhat more intelligent than most other Ricks, as he states that he and Rick C137 are the only Ricks to ever figure out inter-dimensional portal travel on their own. (All other Ricks having been gifted the technology by Prime himself, or other Ricks whom Prime gave it to.) Like most Ricks though, Prime shows signs of hypocrisy, being willing to kill his original Morty, yet acting shocked when Evil Morty, whom he mistook for his biological grandson, attacked him.
In a sense, Rick Prime's personality is what Rick pretended to be for years, a self-absorbed man who didn't care about anyone, upholding the nihilistic philosophy that all other Ricks project. Despite this, he does appear to have some attachment to his family. He held some fondness for Slow Mobius, saying that killing him would hurt and having a look of sorrow when he subjected Slow Mobius to the Omega Device. When he thought he met his original Morty, actually Evil Morty, he attempted to make small talk before killing him and later praised Evil Morty's ruthless nature, even attempting an alliance. He also appeared outraged that Rick C-137 had lived in his house with his daughter and grandson. Unlike other Ricks though, Rick Prime, as recounted by his daughter, had a horrible relationship with his wife Diane, later mocking his counterparts for being so attached to their "beloved Diane" and Rick C-137 for basing the Space Cruiser's voice on Diane's. Atypically though, Prime did refer to Diane as "our wife" in conversation with Rick C-137, possibly indicating that he retains a degree of attachment for his late wife.
Unlike most Ricks, he did not display anger when Jerry Prime tried to kill him, instead praising how badass he found the attack. This moment also further demonstrates his coldness, as Rick Prime executes Jerry Prime afterwards, despite him not being able to pose a threat.
History[]
Early years[]
Rick Prime's life was, to a point, similar to other Ricks, being married to Diane and having a daughter, Beth. As recounted by their daughter, they both had a horrible relationship. He even went so far as to mock his counterparts for being attached to their "beloved Diane" and C-137 for basing the Space Cruiser's voice on Diane's. When Rick C-137 was still pretending to be Rick Prime, he noted in "Rick Potion No. 9" that Rick and Diane Prime had a "failing" marriage — a comment that received no correction or push back from the Smith Prime family. Atypically though, Rick Prime did refer to Diane as "our wife" in conversation with Rick C-137, possibly indicating that he retains a degree of attachment for his late wife.
He initially started trying to invent intra-dimensional teleportation technology, but after succeeding he found out that he was the 'last to invent teleportation' as most the rest of the universe already had it. Later he became the first Rick to invent Inter-dimensional Portal travel,[4] a feat that only Rick C-137 managed to duplicate,[5] he abandoned his original family and universe and started introducing the Portal Gun and the existence of the multiverse to other Ricks. When Rick Prime first approached Rick C-137, the latter denied any interest, and displayed distrust towards him. Insulted at what he perceived a lesser version of himself acting as though he was better, Rick Prime left Dimension C-137. Shortly afterwards, he sent a bomb to Dimension C-137, killing Beth and Diane Sanchez and wounding Rick C-137. After seeking medical attention and grieving for some time, Rick C-137 developed the technology required for a functional portal gun on his own and began searching the multiverse for Rick Prime to avenge his family. Though the two had occasional clashes, after years of futile hunting however, C-137 gave up on actively trying to find Rick Prime and aided in brokering a peace treaty between Ricks. This decision consequently led to the formation of the inter-dimensional council of Ricks, and The Citadel. Rick C-137 then sought out the dimension from where Rick Prime originated and decided to settle in with the family he had abandoned there, hoping that one day Rick Prime would return and he could finally get his revenge. As time passed, however, he began to grow close to the Morty he met there and lost his drive to get revenge, even leaving the dimension for another one when he accidentally caused an apocalypse.
During Rick C-137's search, Rick Prime repeated his offer to other Ricks. When some of them refused, Rick Prime killed their Dianes. As more and more Ricks began hunting Rick Prime, he developed a weapon capable of wiping out all versions of someone across every conceivable reality, which he used to wipe out all versions of Diane's. Other Ricks gave this weapon the name "The Omega Device" but Rick Prime himself did not refer to it as such, saying that it was "Too cool to have a name." To deal with his pursuers, Prime seeded multiple decoys of himself across the multiverse that would lead them to automated Saw-style trap where they would be killed.
When Rick C-137 was captured and interrogated on the origins of the Portal Gun formula by Cornvelious Daniel in "The Rickshank Rickdemption", he revealed a slightly edited version of Rick Prime's visit in order to allow him to take control of the Brain-alyzer and jump-start his escape attempt.
In "Rickmurai Jack", Rick reveals his past to Morty and his failed vendetta against Rick Prime. Morty tries to sympathize, expressing relief that he understands Rick's past now, but Rick brushes it off.
Encountering C-137 again[]
In "Solaricks", when resetting the portal fluid, Rick accidentally sends all portal travelers back to their realities of origin. As Rick traveled back to the Prime Dimension to retrieve Morty, his AI of Diane Sanchez reasoned that Rick Prime would also have been reset and having just as much trouble leaving. Using a sample of Morty's DNA, Rick tracked down Rick Prime to his lair, telling Morty the truth about Rick Prime's background and status as Morty's real grandfather. Upon arriving at the lair, a recording of Rick Prime reveals a glass tube purported to contain Rick Prime or perhaps a clone of him before kill-bots are unleashed. Rick goes on the offensive, still wanting revenge for what Rick Prime did to his family, but Morty convinces him it's no longer worth it as Rick now has a family in a different dimension to worry about, and Morty considers Rick C-137 his grandfather. They depart, unaware that Rick Prime had, in fact, been the one in the tube.
In an after credits scene, Prime, who ejected himself from his lair before it self-destructed, lands on Earth and encounters Jerry Prime. Jerry recognizes the threat he poses and feigns interest in a team-up before slashing Rick Prime in the throat while he is in the middle of turning him down. However, Rick Prime revealed his healing abilities before ruthlessly killing Jerry as he pondered how he got back to his dimension.
Rick Prime eventually managed to leave his dimension, seeding multiple decoys across the multiverse to waylay his pursuers. Between "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort" and "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation", Rick salvaged tech from Prime's hideout and began using it to try and find his nemesis. Through analyzing the software of a kill-bot, Rick managed to find all of the locations in the multiverse where Rick Prime had left his decoys, bringing Morty into his revenge and promising to dedicate at least part of Season 7 to their hunt.
Final battle[]
In "Unmortricken", Rick and Morty teleport several decoys of Rick Prime to one place, getting the attention of Evil Morty, who helps by suggesting that Rick adjust the scanner ray for probability stasis. This traps one decoy who, upon getting killed by an impatient Morty, turns out to be a black portal fluid trap, sending them into a prison for other Ricks that also tried to track down Rick Prime. A video of Rick Prime tricks the other Ricks into getting into a battle royale where the winner gets their Diane back. This turns out to be a bomb with Diane's face on it, which Rick and Evil Morty destroy before combining their knowledge and resources to get them and Morty out of the prison and into Rick's basement laboratory. Using the remaining fluid from the portal trap, Rick finally manages to track down Rick Prime for real.
Rick arrives at Rick Prime's lair, fighting off various drones along the way. Entering the main chamber that houses the Omega Device, he is angered to realize Morty and Evil Morty followed him. Rick Prime appears, impressed that "dead-wife Rick" tracked him down. He calls out Rick for using Diane's voice for his Space Cruiser AI, and threatens to use the Omega Device on their family to torment C-137 (before declaring he'll finally kill his foe "the old fashioned way"). He starts by killing Slow Mobius, or "Uncle Slow", to Rick's horror, admitting that it hurt him too. A vicious, brutal fight ensues, with Rick, Morty, and Evil Morty combining forces to stop Rick Prime. Eventually, with Morty and Rick knocked out from the fight, Evil Morty is able to incapacitate Rick Prime by swapping outfits with Morty and faking a reunion with Rick Prime's "original grandson".
Death[]
Rick Prime mocking C-137 in his final moments.
Dragging Rick Prime into another room, Evil Morty scans Rick Prime's mind to find and download the schematics for the Omega Device, while also deleting all of Rick Prime's backups, ensuring he won't just come back later. Rick Prime is impressed at Evil Morty's ruthlessness and suggests they become partners. Evil Morty rejects this before dragging Rick in and reviving him, offering him free rein to get his revenge. Rick Prime warns Rick that he should stop Evil Morty while he has the chance, but Rick begins punching him to death.
His healing abilities having been deactivated by Evil Morty, Rick Prime defiantly mocks Rick by stating that Rick technically doesn't have a life without him, pointing out Rick's life obsession with him and that it is Prime's family and echoes of it that Rick has stuck with through the years. As Rick delivers the final blows, Prime further claims that Rick would have become him anyway and walked into Prime's garage if he didn't do it first, and yet in the end Rick did that anyway by living in Prime's house. Rick delivers a killing blow, silencing Prime for good, but he continues beating the corpse afterwards, trying to find some form of satisfaction for his life-long revenge quest.
Rick emerges from the room covered in Prime's blood, having finally gotten his revenge. However, as Evil Morty notes, he found no closure from doing so, and he is left emotionally spiraling as he ponders his next steps.
Appearances[]
Season 3[]
- "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (shown in fabricated flashback)
Season 5[]
- "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" (indirectly mentioned)
- "Rickmurai Jack" (flashback, no lines)
Season 6[]
- "Solaricks"
- "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation" (mentioned, hologram and images)
Season 7[]
- "How Poopy Got His Poop Back" (mentioned)
- "Air Force Wong" (indirectly mentioned)
- "Unmortricken"
- "Wet Kuat Amortican Summer" (mentioned)
Season 8[]
- "Hot Rick" (mentioned)
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | |||||||||||
| Season 2 | |||||||||||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ||||||||||
| Season 4 | |||||||||||
| Season 5 | ✔ | ||||||||||
| Season 6 | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
| Season 7 | ✔ | ||||||||||
| Season 8 | |||||||||||
| The Anime | |||||||||||
| Vindicators 2 |
Other Media[]
Trivia[]
- In Pocket Mortys, Rick Prime, whose name is given as "Weird Rick", is a customization option at Salesman Rick's, and can be purchased for 10 Blips and Chitz coupons (or 10 credits if the player is playing in Multiplayer). After the release of "Unmortricken", his avatar was changed to closely resemble his appearance in the episode (with Rick C-137's leg in place of his arm).
- Rick Prime was known as "Weird Rick" until the Inside the Episode for "Solaricks" came out, where Dan Harmon and episode writer Alberto Lundy consistently refer to him as "Rick Prime."[6] "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation" is the first episode to refer to him as such in dialogue.
- The reason for this nickname might be because he was the first Rick to invent portal travel and then shared his knowledge with other Ricks, like he attempted to do with C-137 and because he best represents the nihilistic man who doesn't care about anything that all other Ricks either take after or pretend to.
- Because of this naming, the people from his dimension, especially his relatives, are referred to as "Prime", including his grandson Morty, who is ironically the main Morty in the series.
- There was another version of Rick who went by this alias who was part of the Council of Ricks. Like this Rick, he was also killed by C-137. It is unknown why the two share this nickname.
- The out-of-universe reason may be because the creators did not have Rick's backstory figured out yet and when they did, they wanted to give this completely villainous Rick a unique nickname to clearly differentiate him from his other selves, including even C-137.
- It is unknown how he was able to remain young, despite the many decades that have passed. It is likely he has developed some technology that allows him to stay young and immortal, like the liquid that Fear Hole Rick injects into his skin in "Fear No Mort".
- This stays consistent with what we know about Rick (and by extension, most if not all Ricks). Rick has often expressed dread at his mortality and often tries to avoid his inevitable death with projects like Operation Phoenix.
- This longevity may be a sub-ability of his healing factor,
- He is Rick C-137’s main nemesis; indeed, while C-137 made many enemies across many timelines and dimensions, his Prime counterpart is the one who ruined his life and the one even Rick C-137 could not catch for a long time, only managing to do so with help from Evil Morty.
- Indeed, while Rick C-137 would not talk openly about his nemesis, the beings he did manage to form significant bonds (either good or bad) with after his family's assassination, his best friend Birdperson and his ex-lover Unity, are aware of Prime's existence.
- This could mean that Mr. Nimbus, who is Rick's self-proclaimed nemesis who is aware of Diane and her fate, and Squanchy, another close friend of Rick's, are also aware of Rick Prime.
- Indeed, while Rick C-137 would not talk openly about his nemesis, the beings he did manage to form significant bonds (either good or bad) with after his family's assassination, his best friend Birdperson and his ex-lover Unity, are aware of Prime's existence.
- When asked who between Rick Prime and Rick C-137 is the true "Rickest Rick", two different responses were given that explains the real answer is based on perspective:
- When asked to former co-creator Justin Roiland, he states that it depends on the definition, and clarified that if what people consider the "Rickest Rick" is one that is completely devoid of empathy and humanity, then Rick Prime is the "Rickest Rick".[7]This may be why C-137 referred to him as such in "Solaricks".
- When asked to co-creator Dan Harmon, he reveals that he believes that the "Rickest Rick" is actually the one who is the "second Rickest Rick", which is Rick C-137 as opposed to Rick Prime who truly invent portal travel. He further explains that, to Dan, a part of being truly Rick is to be self-destructive, and thus the "Rickest Rick" is the one who is also a victim of Rick Prime and who invented portal travel afterwards to go and destroy him.[4]
- It is implied that Rick Prime created the first incarnation of the Council of Ricks. Rick Prime said in "Solaricks" that heading people was a headache to him. In Birdperson's memories from "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" and flashbacks from "Rickmurai Jack" there were shown sci-fi looking Ricks who are very similar to Rick Prime. A group of them killed by Rick C-137 were at the place which looks like Omega Device base. Rick in "Unmortricken" also says that Rick Prime built it again.
Possible old Rick Prime's Omega Device base
- In "Rickmurai Jack" flashbacks sci-fi Ricks and other Ricks had a symbol resembling the symbol of the Citadel (it is mostly worn by the Citadel's militia as a badge), only without the Citadel itself, having only three stars and a writhing ray. Then Rick C-137 destroyed this union of Ricks, organized from the survivors the new Council of Ricks and built the Citadel.
- In the episode "Hot Rick", when Memory Rick entered Beth (C-131)'s mind, a Rick similar to Rick Prime appeared in one of her memories. However, this is another version of Rick called Rick (C-131).
- After agreeing to receive the interdimensional portal gun technology, Rick (C-131) leaves his Diane and Beth. In this case, Rick (C-131) just created a Rick Prime costume for himself to look like him.
Gallery[]
The Rickshank Rickdemption[]
Rickmurai Jack[]
Solaricks[]
Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation[]
Unmortricken[]
