Meeseeks appear to degrade very quickly - in a number of days they show extreme mental wear as well as physical degradation.
Could a Meeseek actually degrade to the point (either physically or mentally) where it could no longer complete the command?
2 Answers
They show physical degradation overtime because time passes differently for them. It is also explained by Rick that existence is painful for them so they are intensely motivated to complete their tasks as fast as possible so they can return to not existing.
Attempting to improve Jerry's golf game clearly was stretching the capabilities of the Meeseeks. This lead to them going crazy and attempting to kill Jerry as a way to force the point so they could go back to not existing.
I would think that there would be no way they could every truly complete a task that would require more than a trivial amount of time. Would you want live near a nuclear reactor built by Meeseeks? What about fly in a plane engineered by Meeseeks? I would think not. My point being that there is clearly a point at which Meeseeks cannot handle tasks that require dedication and time put in over a long period due to their hatred of existence.
check out the wiki page for more info on the Meeseeks. http://rickandmorty.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Meeseeks
My friend and I have discussed this at length. What if you asked a Meeseeks to complete a task which is physically impossible, rather than just hard? "Mr. Meeseeks, can you please discover what lies at the edge of the Milky Way?"
Obviously Meeseeks try their very hardest to complete their objective, but I believe that they employ two strategies if their goal seems unreachable. This is all speculation, as aside from the wiki entry already linked, we don't have much information about them.
- Mr. Meeseeks will try to create more of themselves to complete the objective.
This ensures that even if the original Meeseeks degrades beyond the point of assisting the summoner, there is still a way to complete the objective. This is employed when the goal still seems achievable.
- Mr. Meeseeks will attempt to eliminate the source of the request
I believe that were you to ask the above question, Mr. Meeseeks would try to kill you immediately. There is no conceivable way to fulfil the request, so the only real course of action if to fulfil the request by making it no longer valid. Otherwise the univerise would be litered with dismembered and decaying Meeseeks bodies.
Mr. Meeseeks will always attempt one of the above before decaying to the point of inaction
-
by logic of your second point invalidates your first... you're saying that in the case the Mr. Meeseeks task attempts to eliminate the source of the request... take this example. Original Meeseeks (A) is presented with a difficult task (Jerry's golf), summons an additional Meeseeks (B) for help. If the task is so difficult that (A) begins to wither away and eventually die, doesn't that resolve (B) of their responsibility? Since (A) is the source of (B)'s existence? Commented Jan 6, 2017 at 20:45
-
2I don't think killing the person making the request absolves Meeseeks of responsibility. If Mr. Meeseeks couldn't find what was at the edge of the Galaxy, his alternative task would be to destroy the entire Milky Way so that nothing would lie at the edge. Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 4:03