This is one mess Mr Meeseeks can’t fix for Rick and Morty.
Sorry for the tacky joke, I needed to find some way to keep this from getting too heavy. But yes, Rick and Morty is in a perilous situation. Yesterday, Adult Swim announced that after the recent allegations and charges against the show’s co-creator and the voice of almost half the cast, including the title characters, Justin Roiland, they are dropping him from the show.
In case you were out of the loop, he was charged with felony domestic abuse in Orange County. There have been several allegations of him being sexually inappropriate with minors, not to mention his game studio, Squanch Games, which faced a sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination lawsuit in 2018. He resigned from the developer yesterday and was dropped by Hulu too.
The debate online is about whether or not the show should be cancelled. On one hand, I’m glad innocent staff aren’t being punished for Roiland’s actions, but he was so closely tied with the project it will be hard for people to separate the two. As I said, he voiced practically half the cast and was active in the fandom. Even then, he had some pretty dodgy takes when it came to explicit fanart featuring underage characters.
I used to be a die-hard fan of the show, I wasn’t one of the horde raiding Mcdonalds for the Szechuan sauce or proclaiming Pickle Rick as the funniest thing ever, but I loved the show. I stopped watching a while back simply because I lost interest. That, and I found the fandom to be a rather toxic environment. Considering the cringey fandoms I used to be in when I was younger, that says a lot.
Frankly, I can’t see how they can move on from this. They might find a way, but the show has been losing popularity before all these horrors came to light. Maybe it would have been for the best for Adult Swim to cut their losses and ditch the show. I suppose there is a chance for the show to survive, but the actions of the creator will stain the series forever.
As a former fan, I am going to shun the show. I can’t justify watching something mad by such a vile person (allegedly, just in case any lawyers are reading this) so I shall steer clear. Even with him no longer involved in the show, the alleged screenshots have made me sick. I don’t want to have anything to do with that man anywhere near me.
This is, of course, an ongoing matter. His day in court is yet to happen.
What are your thoughts? Are you going to continue to watch Rick and Morty? As always, I would love to read your perspective.
Nerd Rambles 
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