Is There Any Other Explanation For Rick’s Weirdness?
I guess we can just wait to see what happens in the rest of Season 5 and if all this strangeness results in anything interesting.
After all, constantly seeing Rick win in every battle with little to zero effort would likely get tiresome after another five seasons of it.
While I know Rick and Morty is a show that can surprise its audience from time to time with canon-shaking reveals, one simpler reason for Rick’s changes is that the creative team wanted/needed to shake things up.