Background: https://www.vox.com/culture/23589595/rick-morty-justin-roiland-dan-harmon-save
Justin Roland, who voices both Rick and Morty, is no longer associated with the show as a result of domestic violence charges against him. Rick and Morty is continuing, but it's unknown how they'll handle missing their main voice actor.
Resolves YES if the first full episode of Season 7 of Rick and Morty contains an in-story reference or reason for why either or both of Rick and Morty have different voices than before.
Resolves NO if there are no references to the new voices (this includes a scenario where they don't mention it because they manage to make the new voices sound near exactly the same).
Resolves N/A if Justin Roiland voices both characters again.
This could be as simple as an off-hand reference to Rick having developed a new cough, or Morty having started puberty and "going through changes" or something. It doesn't have to explain the new voices, just make a reference to the change. I plan to be pretty lenient about what would count as a reference, but it should be reasonably likely that it was included intentionally by the writers with an intent to reference the voice change.
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@Frogswap There is meta, and there is meta, but I still believe this is overmeta. Not to mention, I expect some of the people there like Roiland personally, and don't want to joke about his troubles.
@FrederickNorris It doesn’t have to be meta at all. Rick could eat some food without chewing, hurt his throat, and the characters commenting on that would mean this resolves YES.
@Noit I consider that meta, meaning sending a secret message to the audience via mundane plot point.
@Noit Hurting throat would not count IMO. They have to acknowledge the voice change that is obvious to even a casual viewer.
@FrederickNorris Harmon says he and Roiland had a falling out and Heather Anne Campbell had a laundry list of complaints about his behavior in the writer's room, where he allegedly wasn't that involved anyway. Some writers might not want to do this, but I think they'll be overruled.
Throat hurt should count, per "This could be as simple as an off-hand reference to Rick having developed a new cough"
@Frogswap A new cough would count. But in keeping with the show I would expect it would have to be funny. Ask Ashton and Mila how making light of sexual abuse works out. NO is the sage bet here.
@KevinLobLaw The show has made light of race wars in the past, so I don't think a joke that criticizes Roiland in some way for sexual abuse crosses a new line. And it doesn't even have to do that, it just has to acknowledge the change in voice actors with something in-story.
@KevinLobLaw Hey, me too, I won't bet this over 70. I'm not trying to be rude, sorry if I came off that way
@Frogswap My confidence stems largely from the fact that the voices will be indistinguishable. Even I can do a servicable Rick and Morty voice.
@FrederickNorris I've seen it reported that the new voice actors won't be doing an impression, so they'd have to have a guy who already sounds like that. Not impossible though
@Frogswap If they change the voices, that would be so terrible, imo, since they're such easy voices to do.
Something that did occur to me: if it does not appear to be directly addressed in the first episode, but a later episode clarifies that it actually was, in a story-relevant way, how would that resolve?
e.g. if Summer pulls a face and leaves the room when Morty first talks with his new voice, but otherwise nothing is said, and then in episode three it’s revealed she left to go and call Bird Person to deal with it.
@Noit I'll resolve this after the first episode airs, so if it's not clear enough from the first episode alone, it won't count (mostly for practical reasons).
https://twitter.com/hulu/status/1671269193017176072
To be clear, something like this released in promotional material would not count - only if it appears in the actual episode.
@Weepinbell so "in-story" just means "in episode"? Because there are all kinds of crazy meta ways the show might present this information to us within the episode - it may be hard to say what is "in story". Perhaps just anything within the episode itself might count? Or you wanna exclude, like, a tacked-on spiel about it that isn't "really" part of the episode?
I guess corner cases are unlikely, but more likely with a show like Rick and Morty that often messes with the way episodes are framed.
@chrisjbillington I guess "in episode" might be more accurate? But I'd also exclude any sort of tacked on message in the beginning, or credits, or similar. Rule of thumb is if it's seemingly set in the Rick and Morty multiverse, it counts.