TBH I really agree with Dan Harmon's points here - https://www.reddit.com/r/rickandmorty/comments/7gc1ly/i_asked_dan_harmon_if_he_had_any_advice_for/

I also, uh, think most people watch rick and morty wrong. (they assume rick is supposed to be the good guy).

@Maenad It always confuses me that just because somebody is the main character that we're supposed to think of them as a good person whom we should emulate. People are just not good at critically interacting with media. Like, they read Catcher in the Rye and want to be Holden Caulfield, they don't realize it's about how Caulfield needs to grow up.

@gzt @Maenad It's definitely an issue in our culture. Some of it is not teaching people at various ages in reading that a story is interesting because it's a story, not necessarily because we're supposed to emulate or even sympathize with the protag... to some degree, reading is a skill beyond knowing what the words mean, and that's not really taught.

@ruth @gzt tbh I think that there's a weird "representation matters" argument here.

Representation matters because it's important for young people to be able to have fictional role models.

But if you see yourself in every single character you read, then it breeds a lazy reader. You're supposed to grow out of immediately identifying with the protagonist/not engaging critically.