Morty Smith has been on countless outer space and multi-dimensional adventures with his inventor grandpa, Rick Sanchez. Over the course of 5 seasons worth of Rick And Morty, Rick has definitely influenced his grandson in more ways than one.
Not only has Morty's general reaction to all of the space chaos they get into mellowed out over the years, but he's even taken on some of Rick's more cavalier actions and attitudes that could rival the supergenius himself.
His Disdain For The Vat Of Acid
Morty has pretty high respect for Rick's intelligence most of the time. He regularly refers to him as the smartest man in the universe. That's why it's shocking when he conveys Rick-level condescension when Rick pitches a fake vat of acid as an escape plan "if anything goes wrong, which it won't." (It does).
He started out the mission already looking bored, then when Rick tells him to use the acid vat, he sarcastically asks "Aren't you an inventor?" hinting at how unimpressive he thinks the idea is. His judgementalism even takes Rick by surprise.
His Reluctance To Help Break Rick Out Of Space Prison
After seasons of being at Rick's beck and call, Morty finally becomes disenchanted by Rick's genius. When Summer wants to figure out a way to rescue Rick from the Galactic Federation, Morty wants nothing to do with it, showing the type of disinterest that Rick usually shows when being asked to do something for someone else.
Morty selfishly wants Rick to stay gone because he thinks his life would be better off without him, and that Rick wouldn't do the same for any of them. This is a far cry from Morty's devotion to his family and his usual desire to be a hero.
Evil Morty
Although this Morty isn't the one viewers follow on the general arc of the show, there is a fan theory that Evil Morty is our Rick's original sidekick. In any case, most Mortys are soft-spoken and afraid of almost everything. Evil Morty shows initiative. He's cunning and has no regard for casualties on his quest for power.
He has enough arrogance to rival Rick and is always thinking several steps ahead of everyone else, much like Rick usually does. He even outsmarts our Rick in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" and overthrows an entire citadel created and run by Ricks.
Messing Up The Wine Portal People
Season 5 brings a much more confident, more badass version of Morty than audiences have seen previously. He nonchalantly causes centuries of unrest and violence for a civilization because he didn't bother to leave the portal open when Hoovy helps him bring the wine through.
Eventually, he becomes so annoyed with the people's vendetta against him that he arms himself with Rick's weapons and massacres the guards at their fortress. He's missing the usual preoccupation with his effect on other planets, and choosing to instead kill at random because going back through the portal was keeping him from his date with Jessica.
Laughing At Rick's Stupidity
There aren't a lot of times that Morty has the intellectual high ground on Rick, and unfortunately, he doesn't get to remember many of them, courtesy of "Morty's Mind Blowers." But the one viewers did get to see (immediately after Morty tricks Rick, pointing to imaginary liquor) showed Morty smugly correcting Rick's use of the term "taken for granite" instead of "taken for granted" and literally laughing in his face.
Morty even cracks a few jokes at Rick's expense, asking, "Jesus Christ, Rick. What are you a boulder, rock person? How long have you been saying that wrong?" Rick is not thrilled at the turned tables and zaps his memory.
Choosing To Erase Memories Of Everything
Being distant is a Rick specialty, and Morty seems to be learning that trait and taking it to an extreme. In "Morty's Mind Blowers," viewers learn that there are many memories Morty asked Rick to forcibly remove from his mind.
While saving him from traumatic experiences, it also erases many memories he had with his parents and Summer, showing how little those mean to Morty in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention that it adds a whole new level to Rick-like emotional avoidance.
Thinking On His Feet In The Pilot
After Rick and Morty are caught with the mega seeds in the pilot episode, they're escaping from the space security team and are backed into a hallway. From the look on Rick's face, he doesn't have any ideas to get them out of the dead end.
Morty takes a few seconds before thinking to turn on their wall-walking shoes, giving them an escape route up and away from the aliens. Even Rick is impressed, even commenting "Oh nice, Morty! The student becomes the teacher!"
He Abandoned Morty Jr.
Rick's appearance in Morty's life is due to his semi-recent return after not seeing Beth for many years, although it's never specified how long his hiatus was. Morty outdoes this level of abandonment by releasing his human-gazorpazorp son into the world and then subsequently never mentioning him or seeing him again.
Unlike Rick, who was traveling the universe and fighting wars, Morty is not so far from Morty Jr. and even promised to stay in contact. Due to Morty Jr. rapid aging, he may even die without Morty knowing it. He doesn't though, and Morty Jr. can be seen later in an interview talking about how horrible his father and childhood were.
He Almost Rage-Murdered Rick
After a lot of convincing, Morty eventually agrees to rescue Rick with Summer. They make it all the way through the prison, while Rick is simultaneously making his own escape efforts. They meet up but are intercepted by the Citadel of Ricks council.
In a shootout with Summer as a hostage, both Ricks and Summer begin berating Morty's intelligence for "ruining" the plan, and Morty sees red and shoots Rick in the head. He later finds out it was a fake gun and he was supposed to, but he didn't know it at the time, showing his ability to take out Rick if he's properly motivated.
Using His Original Family To Prove A Point
When Summer is obsessed with getting Rick back, Morty brings her to his original reality to show her what he and Rick left behind, hoping that she'll stop glorifying him.
But, he shows the same callous disregard for his parents and sister when he cuts the visit short, saying, "Alright, it's been great, guys. I really only wanted to stop by here for a quick 'I told you so.'" After all, it was his wish for a love potion that caused the Cronenberg takeover to begin with, and he left without much complaint.