How I Met Your Mother - Part 5

[Primal Slayer]

I really thought that it would be worse than it was judging from peoples comments around the web and FB and reviews but it was the exact opposite.

Now I need to get that yellow umbrella, but I am cheap and dont want to spend $30 on it

 

[Sawyer]

I really think a lot of the reason why the finale is being bashed so hard online is just that shipper-dom has gotten ****ing out of control.

 

[Nathan]

It's just a shame that he goes from his soul mate, back to the girl he was unhealthily obsessed with. Even though time and time again they showed why it didn't work. Even going so far as to show that Barney was the better match.

Ted and Robin wanted different things. He wanted a family and kids, she wanted to travel the world and didn't even think about settling down, so they split. Barney and Robin were on the same page, yet they too split because of some contrived reason. Then she sees Ted happy, and suddenly realizes she wanted to be together with him. Even though she probably still wouldn't compromise, and like always, would put her career first. It's why her and Ted split in the first place, it's why her marriage with Barney didn't last, and she's been absent for years while Tracy was still alive.

If the show taught us anything, it's that if Robin is involved, there's nothing but heartache. Because she's selfish and never knows what she actually wants. But now that she's in her 40's/50's, old, tired and had her fun, doesn't have to get kids, settling down suddenly looks like a good option. If there's one girl he should have gone after, it's Victoria.

 

[Nathan]

I really think a lot of the reason why the finale is being bashed so hard online is just that shipper-dom has gotten ****ing out of control.

Blame it on the writers. Until season 4, most would have probably been on board with this ending. But then they had to drill it into hours heads for several years, convincing us both of them would be terrible together. Spending an entire season on a wedding, that ultimately gets thrown out the window after 10-20 minutes.

And after her let her go, time and time again, we are right back at square one, with him holding the blue French horn.

 

[BatLobster]

Is it wrong that I've grown to really like the finale?

Certain people around these parts will try to convince you it is, but no, it's not.

Agreed. It can't be "divisive" unless there's another side of the coin. I can live with the fact that a lot of people hated it and respect that, others will have to deal that people who enjoyed it have legitimate reasons for that, and that more still may warm to it with time.

 

[SV Fan]

Shouldn't the show have been called...

How I met the Girl I want to Date After your mother croaked?

 

[SpideyFan866]

I feel that Season 9 needs to be viewed as one whole for one to understand, appreciate, and even enjoy the finale.


Every thing that people have complained about and feel they needed an explanation for was all given throughout the season.

 

[John Locke]

I watched all of season 9 the day of the finale and last years finale the night before and I still hated it. Now I hate it less but my first reaction was to never watch the series again even after spending the day watching the entire season. I think you need to see the series as a whole to appreciate the finale.

 

[Sun_Down]

For Barney, Robin was the thing he loved the most. For Robin, he wasn't. We've spent the entire season learning that Robin doesn't truly trust Barney (yeah, the surprises are fine, but Robin just can't handle them, and in "Gary Blauman" we hear future Robin saying Barney still doesn't listen to her).

Their relationship was doomed from the start.

And, for Barney, Robin was the only thing keeping him away from his usual lifestyle. He just stopped playing because he wanted to win (words of the Mother). He coulnd't. So he kept playing.

And Ted got the One. Yet, like the Mother before him, learned to move on, that after the One he could find the Next One... And Robin's been that next one from the start (literally, the series starts with the gang meeting Robin).

Ted let Robin go, yes, but that was respected as well. If hadn't been respected, Ted's relationship with Tracy wouldn't have worked (the same way his other relationships failed). But that doesn't mean they can't try again some time later (Robin and Ted even made a pact - if both of them were single in their forties and all thta stuff).

I agree the timing and execution could have been a lot better, but everyone who says this "destroys character development" has no idea what he/she's talking about, because the characters remained very consistent to what we know about them and the series has been paving the way for this conclusion for quite a time.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Tracy doesn't get "thrown away." Ted loves her as hard as he can for as long as he can. They have two kids. And he grieves for six years before he even considers dating someone else.

For those complaining that we didn't see Ted grieve, we didn't need to. It was heartbreaking and poignant enough just as it was shot. Adding sad Ted would not have added anything to the story.

Is it wrong that I've grown to really like the finale?

Nope.

I think most people are grieving this show and Tracy as well (a huge testament to Cristin Milioti), and they're still in the early phases of the grief process. We've seen denial ("No way am I accepting this"), anger (slap GIF; How I Met Your Stepmother), and bargaining (making "alternate" endings).

 

[Lily Adler]

 

[Naked Shia]

There were a lot of things that were very hard to swallow in the finale, but I can still accept.

- After finally seeing Barney develop from a serial shagger to someone willing to commit, and then see all that cancelled in an instant was hard to swallow. But at least afterward we see his "redemption" upon having his baby. While inconsistent, it was still a satisfying arc. I can accept that.

- After spending several seasons convincing us Barney and Robin's relationship could work, and spending one whole season on their wedding, only to throw it away in an instant, was hard to swallow. But I can still accept it. They were never a convincing couple, and its common nowadays that couples divorce. Fine. At least they remained friends. I can accept that.

-After 9 seasons of alluding to the mother and spending 1 whole season having us invest in her and showing us how awesome she is, we find out that she was actually dead since the beginning of the story's narration. This was hard to swallow. But fine, I can accept a sad ending.

But what I absolutely CANNOT accept AT ALL is the premise of Ted going back to Robin after the death of Tracy. This is just so wrong on so many levels. First it makes Ted a manipulative dick, he basically used the story of the mother as a cover to ask the kids permission for him to date Robin again. Second, it just shows that despite all the happy years Ted had with Tracy, his heart was always still with Robin, and Tracy was merely a placeholder for 17 years. Third, the kids were so damn encouraging in telling Ted to go date Robin. That was borderline offensive. In short, the writers just basically took a massive dump on Tracy. She was utterly undermined and devalued, strung along by Ted for 17 years, led to believe she was the love of Ted's life until she died. Makes me sick to my stomach.

This is exactly how I feel. I wasn't happy with point 1 to 3, I thought it was badly written, but I was willing to accept it. But the Robin thing was just too much for me, especially considering how I couldn't stand Robin the relationship breaker, anymore since season 7.

Robin wasn't even the best match for him. I still think Nora was a the best person that Barney dated. She was the one, who even though she barely knew him, still dated him despite all his lies he admitted to. Nora was the one that made him want to be a better man all by himself. She didn't nag him to change, like we occasionally saw Robin do. Even though Robin loved Barney, she got never used to his shenanigans.

But of course the writers had to burn that relationship, in order to give us a fake out with Robin marrying Barney.


It's a love/hate thing for me. I hate that they tore the marriage apart within 20 minutes, but I love Barney devoting his life to his daughter, and making her the most important woman in his life. Wish he could have had that with Nora.

Barney and Robin shouldn't have been back together. His relationship with Nora was way more interesting indeed. Even Queen, while less interesting, was a more convincing match. And what was the purpose of spending 3 seasons about Barney getting back together with Robin, one season being entirely about their wedding, just to throw that under the bus one episode after the wedding?

That concept in and of itself isn't bad. It was how it was handled. Tracey felt thrown away because we literally don't even get one scene of Ted grieving. We don't see any scenes of Robin being there for Ted. Heck, when Robin and Barney break up, we just went through an entire season building up their wedding to see them break up in ten minutes.

To give it some context, when Marshall's dad died (a much less influential character than the mother) we got an episode dedicated to his death and multiple episodes dedicated to Marshall dealing with said death. We got nothing for Ted grieving for the Mom. When Robin and Barney broke up before, we got an episode about the breakup and multiple episodes about the fall-out. We got ten minutes.

It's like reading the first two Lord of the Rings books, and then half of the third, and then somebody giving you the spark notes for the remaining chapters and going "I don't know why you're mad, all the stuff there is a good idea." Well yeah, it is, but it doesn't matter how good the concept is if you don't execute it well.

I honestly think they should have just taken all the stuff they covered in the finale and made that the meat for the entire season, then all these major life events could have been given the proper time they needed to not feel cheap and rushed.

The execution did a lot against the finale indeed. Had they used the whole season to properly tell their finale, people would have accepted it more easily.

Shouldn't the show have been called...

How I met the Girl I want to Date After your mother croaked?

or "How your mother was the gal who help me wait until Robin was ready to date me again".

 

[Wheels]

I don't mind Robin. I just would have rather seen them go in a different direction with the final season. I mean actually making the Mother a cast member was a bad idea . If the character bombed you were screwed and if the character succeeded then you risk creating a character that a portion of the audience would rather see with Ted than Robin.

 

[Nathan]

Maybe the ending should have been more somber and open ended. I liked someone's idea. Ted would tell his kids the story, tell them how life has its ups and downs, and despite the sad parts, it was all worth it. And when his kids leave, he'd look at a picture of all his friends, and remember all the good times they had, as well as the sad once. But in the end, it was a wonderful life.


No stupid blue French horn ending.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

The blue horn was the crap icing on the cake. It really ingrained the fact that Robin was the whole point of the series, and showed no personal growth from the Ted who, before sending Robin off to engage his best friend, made a case of making an idiot of yourself.

 

[Naked Shia]

I tell you, the blue horn ain't even really french!

 

[JP]

Blame it on the writers. Until season 4, most would have probably been on board with this ending. But then they had to drill it into hours heads for several years, convincing us both of them would be terrible together. Spending an entire season on a wedding, that ultimately gets thrown out the window after 10-20 minutes.

Really, I dont see how we can blame anyone else.

 

[Prison Mike]

On the positive side, I did like Ted's voice over at the end when he and Tracy got married. It was a nice life lesson.

 

[BatLobster]

I still don't understand why the overall arc for Ted's character should've been that he goes from a hopeless romantic to someone unable to move on from his late wife. That's a sad ending, and in a way it keeps him frozen as a hopeless romantic for all time, worshiping at the alter of poor Tracy- who having gone through the same thing herself, would've never wanted that for Ted.

The show was about moving forward through the different stages of life. That's the lesson Ted had to learn in getting past Robin, or he would've never met his true soulmate. And that's the lesson he had to re-learn with the help of his kids to move forward 6 years after her death. Of course, the blue horn gesture is a nod to Ted's hopeless romantic side with one final grand gesture. But the context is so much different than the pilot. It's a nod to the past and what they once had, but this is really about taking a step forward on a totally new journey. Ted and Robin both deserved someone to grow old with, and they were at a stage in their life where it finally makes sense for them to take that step together. But nobody for a second should think that Tracy was a consolation prize. If she was, they would not have worked out for the same reason that Ted and Victoria didn't work out. Tracy had no reason to be jealous or fear Robin like Victoria, because what she and Ted has was 100% the real deal. She even is cool with their friendship and history and makes sure that Robin is at the wedding.

Ted got dealt a horrible tragedy, but in the end he's a lucky guy in that he really did have two loves of his life that were right for him at various stages of his journey.

 

[Erzengel]

Well from how it was relayed in the hour finale, it appeared that Robin disappeared what 3 1/2 - 4 years after Ted met Tracy? Making an appearance when Ted was showing Penny his building and at Ted and Tracy's wedding? But probably even before that Robin's appearances were few and far between because of work. So really how much of a threat was it to Tracy? It was one thing with Victoria when Robin was a constant fixture in Ted's life.

 

[JP]

Ted's entire arc over nine years is how he is this wonderfully hopeless romantic who is constantly with girls who simply don't deserve him. That included Robin. It seemed the point of his story, and why he began his story in 2005 when telling his kids the tale, was to emphasize how meeting the wrong girls over and over again played into him finally meeting THE ONE.

You spend 9 years rooting for Ted to finally meet the one. The one he deserves. The one who deserves a man like him.

He finds her... she dies... and he ends up with that one girl who doesn't deserve him again?

 

[Erzengel]

Again it's all about how portrayed. If we had moments of Robin being there for Ted, taking their kids out, dressing up for Halloween, trying to show that she's changed. Instead of some throw away lines like "We love Aunt Robin.", it would have worked better. But I agree with JP, the way they wrote it up, in the end Robin still didn't deserve Ted.

 

[JP]

Again it's all about how portrayed. If we had moments of Robin being there for Ted, taking their kids out, dressing up for Halloween, trying to show that she's changed. Instead of some throw away lines like "We love Aunt Robin.", it would have worked better. But I agree with JP, the way they wrote it up, in the end Robin still didn't deserve Ted.

I agree. We just weren't given any reason to root for them.

But they sure spent the last few seasons making us root for Barney and Robin. Constantly reminding us how they deserved each other.

 

[BatLobster]

Well from how it was relayed in the hour finale, it appeared that Robin disappeared what 3 1/2 - 4 years after Ted met Tracy? Making an appearance when Ted was showing Penny his building and at Ted and Tracy's wedding? But probably even before that Robin's appearances were few and far between because of work. So really how much of a threat was it to Tracy? It was one thing with Victoria when Robin was a constant fixture in Ted's life.

Doesn't really matter, in fact one of the big reasons Robin starts to withdraw from the group is because it is difficult for her to be around Ted being so happy with Tracy and the kids, knowing that he's her one that got away and that she could've never provided him with that. Robin feels pretty much irrelevant to all their current lives and that's essentially what she says in her speech to Lily.

It wasn't even so much the threat of Ted cheating on her that Victoria was talking about. It was simply that his heart belonged to someone else and that would always be in the way. Whether or not he would give up his friendship was Robin was Victoria's test, which he failed. But regardless of Robin's level of contact with the group after meeting Tracy, Tracy obviously learned Ted and Robin's history and understood that she was a monumental part of his life. The sheer fact that Robin was this hot stuff famous news anchor would be enough to make most girlfriends jealous. It didn't matter with Tracy though, because what they had was as real as it gets and 1000x better than what Ted and Victoria had. There was not a doubt in Ted's mind that he had found the one.

The people saying we should've seen more of Robin being there for the kids just sound like viewers who didn't like Robin. I always did like her though. While she had a cold streak, there was definitely capacity for tenderness too and there was a great person underneath it all. She was not a horrible person unlike what some people say, she was just someone who wasn't sure what she wanted a lot of the time and had a VERY complex take on the whole "settling down and having kids" thing, particularly once she found out she was infertile. There was something lovable and cool about her, it's easy to see why the kids would want her to be their new mom. It's really not hard at all for me to imagine being there for Ted and the kids and slowly realizing that she might finally want to slow down. Sure, it would definitely have been nice to see more of it. I'm looking forward to the deleted scenes, whatever there is. But it wasn't something that was inconceivable to me.

 

[Erzengel]

Doesn't really matter, in fact one of the big reasons Robin starts to withdraw from the group is because it is difficult for her to be around Ted being so happy with Tracy and the kids, knowing that he's her one that got away and that she could've never provided him with that. Robin feels pretty much irrelevant to all their current lives and that's essentially what she says in her speech to Lily.

It does matter, because if she did stick around, then anyone would be able to see that she still had feelings for Ted whether she finally realize that Ted was the one that got away or that she was alone, which could have driven a wedge between Ted and Tracy. She did the right thing albeit more self serving which again shows that Robin has a selfish streak.

It wasn't even so much the threat of Ted cheating on her that Victoria was talking about. It was simply that his heart belonged to someone else and that would always be in the way. Whether or not he would give up his friendship was Robin was Victoria's test, which he failed. But regardless of Robin's level of contact with the group after meeting Tracy, Tracy obviously learned Ted and Robin's history and understood that she was a monumental part of his life. The sheer fact that Robin was this hot stuff famous news anchor would be enough to make most girlfriends jealous. It didn't matter with Tracy though, because what they had was as real as it gets and 1000x better than what Ted and Victoria had. There was not a doubt in Ted's mind that he had found the one.

A lot of woman would be okay with their spouse being friends with an ex when said ex was at first married, then never around like by the time Ted was with Tracy, as opposed to when Ted was with Victoria, and she was always around. The latter being the fact that Ted did cheat on Victoria with Robin didn't help. I can even attest to experience with that. It's fine to have lunch with an ex, but I doubt any spouse would be happy with seeing that ex even monthly.

The people saying we should've seen more of Robin being there for the kids just sound like viewers who didn't like Robin. I always did like her though. While she had a cold streak, there was definitely capacity for tenderness too and there was a great person underneath it all. She was not a horrible person unlike what some people say, she was just someone who wasn't sure what she wanted a lot of the time and had a VERY complex take on the whole "settling down and having kids" thing, particularly once she found out she was infertile. There was something lovable and cool about her, it's easy to see why the kids would want her to be their new mom. It's really not hard at all for me to imagine being there for Ted and the kids and slowly realizing that she might finally want to slow down. Sure, it would definitely have been nice to see more of it. I'm looking forward to the deleted scenes, whatever there is. But it wasn't something that was inconceivable to me.

I liked Robin, just not with Ted. She never really proved in my opinion she was deserving of being with Ted. Ted took care of her when she was sick, Ted stole the blue french horn, Ted cheered her up when she found out she couldn't have kids, Ted found her locket. Again what did Robin do? All we got was she got over her fear of kids when she took his kids to the beach, zoo, etc. I would have come around on the ending, if I got a little bit of that even with the whole debacle of forcing Robin and Barney on us only for it to be discarded 10 minutes into the finale.

 

[SpideyFan866]

Blame it on the writers. Until season 4, most would have probably been on board with this ending. But then they had to drill it into hours heads for several years, convincing us both of them would be terrible together. Spending an entire season on a wedding, that ultimately gets thrown out the window after 10-20 minutes.

And after her let her go, time and time again, we are right back at square one, with him holding the blue French horn.

I disagree.

Never did they portray that Robin and Ted were completely wrong for each other.

What they did portray was that they both wanted different things in life. Robin wanted to travel, and didn't want kids. Ted wanted a stationary life with kids, which he had with Tracy.

They both, even up to the penultimate episode, still loved each other very much. They just wanted different things, and were content with moving on because they both knew they'd be unhappy if they stayed together. Kinda of like Barney and Robin's relationship (which mirrors Ted and Robin's relationship) eventually ended up being.

Robin, however, ended up being unhappy because she never found "her one" (the thing that made her truly happy) like Ted and Barney did after she moved on and lived the life she had in mind. Reason being...... because Ted was her "One".