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Spoilers ahead (obviously)

In Season 3, Episode 4 of Rick and Morty ("Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender"), Rick, Morty, and the remaining two Vindicators reach Rick's last challenge: to figure out what the one part of the Vindicators is that has any value to Rick. Furthermore, if they guess wrong, the planet or maybe even the solar system would explode because he "kind of eyeballed the neutrino bombs on this one."

After some debate and at Rick's suggestion, Morty goes up to the stand and presumably thinks that the answer is himself, or at least the effect that the Vindicators have on Morty.

This turns out to not incorrect, as apparently Rick actually only values Noob Noob, as he alone laughed at Rick's jokes the previous day.

My question is as follows: when Morty guessed wrong, why didn't the neutrino bombs kill everyone? Are we supposed to just accept that they're duds (as Morty mentioned there was a 40% chance of happening)? Because that feels a little unsatisfying to me. Additionally, if the bombs were just duds, why would the hatch have opened up and taken Morty through Rick's little excursion? - one would think that would only happen if the correct answer was given.

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  • Have you seen episodes after this one?
    – Anthony Grist
    Sep 2, 2017 at 22:42
  • In an infinite number of possibilities, some solar systems did explode. Just not the one we were watching. That's the brilliance of the show.
    – Kai Qing
    Sep 29, 2017 at 23:52

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Rick's system for determining that the correct "answer" was placed on the pedestal was probably just measuring the item's weight. (like the intro to Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Morty and Noob Noob are about the same size, and probably about the same weight, so the death trap's trigger didn't know it wasn't Noob Noob standing on it. Morty had already pointed out that Rick's work gets sloppy when he's blackout drunk, so his puzzle accepting the wrong answer fits.

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    According to my quick calculation an ant weighs between 1 and 5mg. One million ants would weigh about 2.5kgs. Million Ants would not have been an acceptable answer.
    – Mikey Mouse
    Sep 12, 2017 at 14:00
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My suspicion is that Morty really was the right answer but even drunk, Rick couldn't actually admit it out loud, so he went on a drunken ramble about Noob Noob instead.

I think the key indicators for this are his suggestion it might be Morty in the first place, and at the end of the episode where Rick has completely forgotten who Noob Noob is. It's very much open to interpretation of course.

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