#himym spoilers

[vortexonsaturn]

Was The Finale of How I Met Your Mother Truly That Bad?

That title may come as a shock to any How I Met Your Mother fan, or even just anyone on social media when the finale aired, as the infamous ending is widely known as one of the worst endings in sitcom history. It was unanimously agreed that this finale was awful, so much so that the creators of the show immediately released an alternate ending to appease fan outrage. However, I would argue the ending truly does make sense in retrospect.

What Went Wrong?

As a huge fan myself, for many years I also held the belief that the ending was well...wrong. Being an avid Barney and Robin shipper, their divorce felt abrupt, especially considering the fact that the entire final season takes place over the weekend of their wedding. And losing the sweet, wonderful Mother mere moments after meeting her? Pure insanity.

The biggest fault in the finale however was the fact that it was fully planned during Season One. The plan was always for Ted and Robin to end up together. In order to prevent David Henrie (Luke) and Lyndsy Fonseca (Penny) visually aging over the course of the nine years the show spanned (which was canonically probably just a month or two) they filmed the iconic, "You're totally in love with Aunt Robin!" scene way before any of the natural character development occurred.

Because of this advanced planning, it denies the characters we had grown to love the ability to change at all during the course of the series, forcing them to morph back into odd, and now unfamiliar, Season One versions of themselves. It leaves a bitter feeling to the whole finale as:

Barney resorts back to his womanizing ways, neglecting his growth and change over the series. Almost completely flanderizing him in the final episode.

Robin is bitter and barely seen by the group anymore.

The entire group has separated, only catching up during holidays if at all.

The Mother dies episodes after we meet her.

And most controversially, Ted and Robin are endgame.

So seeing all of this, its may seem as though the finale managed to screw up nine years of character arcs and fan loyalty in only two minutes.

But,

Was the ending actually the perfect way to sum up this story?

What Went Right?

While the ending truly did reject viewers expectations, it was always supposed to end this way. It wasn't a cop out.

The story of How I Met Your Mother is about so much more than Ted meeting the Mother, it's about Ted's 20's and his friend group. But more importantly, it's about reality.

We see many times throughout the show that Ted is chasing this idealization of fate, he spends almost the entire show chasing Robin because he truly believes that she is his fate.

But the reality is, fate is messy. You may not always get what you thought was the perfect ending. There isn't always that pretty bow to put on top of life. More importantly, the ending you thought was perfect is simply not always the ending you get. Life is ever-changing.

Foreshadowing for finale (however much you hate it) is sprinkled throughout the series, and these moments remain some of the most impactful scenes in the entire show.

Let's break this down even further.

↳ For the sake of this argument we're going to revisit 8x20, The Time Travelers and the writers use of Ted's Favorite Book. ↳ While the foreshadowing that I am arguing is shown in many episodes and plots, I believe these encapsulate it the best.

The Time Travelers Episode

This episode is one of the most popular episodes of the series, as it is truly depressing. It is argued to be one of the saddest episodes in the show (although I would say Bad News is objectively the most heartbreaking).

In this episode we follow Ted recounting an average night in MacLaren's Pub with his friends until it is revealed the entire evening was all in his mind, and in reality he is all alone.

Following this realization we get a narration from Future Ted, that in hindsight should've been the biggest hint for the finale.

Future Ted tells us that instead of simply going home this night, he would instead go to the Mother's apartment and say this:

“Hi. I’m Ted Mosby. In exactly 45 days from now, you and I are going to meet. And we’re going to fall in love. And we’re going to get married and we’re going to have two kids. And we’re going to love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away. But I’m here now, I guess, because I want those extra 45 days. With you. I want each one of them. And if I can’t have them, I’ll take the 45 seconds before your boyfriend shows up and punches me in the face. Because I love you. I’m always going to love you. Until the end of my days. And beyond.”

What a gut punch considering the fact that the Mother falls fatally ill in the finale. Someone play The Prophecy by Taylor Swift.

Seeing Ted beg for just 45 extra days knowing the Mother dies is honestly one of the clearest signs of her ending. Her fate. Her destiny. The Mother while insanely lovable and a quick fan favorite, was always written to die.

But, an even BIGGER piece of foreshadowing remains in Ted's Favorite Book.

Ted's Favorite Book

In the episode Matchmaker (1x7), we find out Ted's favorite book is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. This book's plot focuses on a young couple in love who grew apart, one them goes on to get married and the others spouse eventually dies and the original couple finds one another. Sound familiar?

This is the exact plot of the Ted, Tracy, and Robin storyline.

We see Ted reading this book the exact moment he meets the Mother. This easter egg was planted in Season One.

I often times see people be critical of the shows finale as they view it as a cop out, a lazy ending to a show that was out of left field. But that purely isn't true.

As much as I love Swarkles, and as much as I love Ted and Tracy together, you cannot deny that sometimes stories just don't end perfectly. Life doesn't work that way.

So what does all of this mean?

Does foreshadowing excuse the ending? In my personal opinion I truly think it helps.

With a show like How I Met Your Mother that surrounds itself with themes of fate and destiny, you cannot be upset when these elements come into play. The Mother dying was her Fate. Ted and Robin ending up together was their Fate. This is always how the story was supposed to end, no matter how infuriating it is. This is their Fate.

Ultimately, I believe that if the creators fleshed out the ending across even just two episodes the fan reception would've been way better. The timing of it all causes a sort of whiplash feeling, leaving a bad taste in your mother when the How I Met Your Mother title-card flashes at the end.

So while personally I will continue viewing the alternate ending purely for mental health reasons, the original ending will always hold a special place in my heart.

TLDR:

The ending could've been way better, but this was always the fate of the show and characters and you truly cannot deny that.

Note: Sorry if this seems all over the place I feel very strongly about this show, prepare for a Swarkles rant next or maybe even a character analysis of Marshall Eriksen.

[caspystar]

barney and robin

i just watched S4 EP 12 and i completely forgot how much barney liked robin. its so sad that they ended the way they did. They should have been end game

[thinking-destiel-thoughts]

So I could go after a bunch of stuff that irks me in How I Met Your Mother but I wanted to post about some of the major things that bother me and see if I’m crazy or if others resonate the same.

First and most frustrating to me: STELLA. nearly everything about this irked me.

The thing with inviting Robin to the wedding…like, yeah, absolutely valid that you don’t want your future husband’s ex to be there. But why didn’t you say that when making the initial plans? Especially when you know she’s one of his 4 friends. Did you really expect him to not invite her??

The thing with inviting Tony…yes, absolutely I get not wanting him there. But Ted has no legal guardianship over Lucy. What exactly was Ted supposed to do? Take a little girl from her father against his will? That’s kidnapping. He has no legal right to take Lucy away from Tony.

Moving into an apartment in New York with Tony after making a massive point about how ridiculous it would be for her to do something like that with Ted. Like…girly…the man wouldn’t move to New Jersey for his OWN child? Ted was like “you know what, you’re right” but Tony was like “nah give up the house” and that was fine??

Going to Ted to ask him to get Tony back for her…my sister in Christ, what the fuck. What exactly did Tony expect Ted to say about the woman who LEFT HIM AT THE ALTER? Did he expect Ted to still be obsessed with her? And WHY does Stella even want Tony back if the man is willing to break up their family for a SECOND TIME bc a man who Stella hurt is not obsessed with her and thinks she’s selfish? Clearly he wanted the out. Why chase him? AND the fact that she literally only apologizes bc she needs help from him…ugh. That is messed up imo

The movies REALLY irk me. Ted is the man who YOU left at the alter and the man who GOT TONY BACK FOR YOU, but you let this man make him the villain for his movie? You not only divulge private shit that went on between you and Ted, but you also don’t stop him from putting it in a fricking movie?? I get Tony having his warped image of things, fine, but Stella really just let that all go down like that?? She just told Tony every single detail and everything she ever learned about Ted and he put it in a movie. WHY

Ted and Victoria, the second time they get together:

One of my biggest issues with this is that for some reason Ted is the one people blame for the wedding not happening??? As if 1) Victoria wasn’t a whole adult who chose to not tell Ted it was her wedding day before agreeing to meet up with him and bringing a car for them to run away together 2) Victoria’s husband-to-be ALSO ran away from the wedding. He literally also left!!

Even if Ted had brought Victoria back, there wouldn’t have been a wedding. Victoria’s dad blaming Ted and expecting him to pay is so crazy to me.

Another issue I have is with her being pissy that Ted wants her ex-fiancé out of his apartment. It’s not like the dude was normal and super chill. He had an aggressive pet that kept birthing babies and biting AND he didn’t respect boundaries. Like if the dude was just chilling and a normal roommate, I’d get it. But I don’t feel like it was unreasonable for Ted to not want him there — he agreed to let the ex stay with him and had no knowledge of the ferrets or whatever pets the guy had when he suggested it.

My last issue with Victoria is that when Ted is like “if you wanted a bigger commitment, you’d tell me, right?” and she’s like “yeah, I’d be direct.” and then continues to be passive aggressive. The man literally told her “I need you to be direct” and she wouldn’t. All of that on top of her thing about getting back together with him on her wedding day meant he shouldn’t be shocked she wants to get married…babygirl…you didn’t want to get married. You literally ran away at the first opportunity when Ted asked if you wanted to catch up

Ted and The Mother: My main issue with them is that SO quick after being ready to MOVE TO CHICAGO bc he loves Robin, he’s just all good to stay for her? Like suddenly the Robin thing is a non-issue??? Like…bruh??? That just doesn’t track for me at all.

I also take issue with him returning to Robin in the finale and the kids encouraging it. Like idk about yall but wouldn’t it be weird for your dad to admit to saying he was so in love with his best friend’s wife that he was moving but the next day fell for your mom? I feel like I’d be kinda like “okay so was mom a stand in for Robin??? is that what the point of this story was???”

Ted and Barney (Robin and the bro code): I’m pretty sure going after your best friend’s ex-wife is a violation of the bro code if going after your ex-girlfriend is. Like this is the one woman your best friend ever REALLY loved…

Plus…was it not a whole issue of Ted being unable to sleep with a woman because he thought Barney was with her first? But banging the woman Barney was married to and consistently slept with is fine?

There’s definitely more that irks me but these are the main things…anyway. for anyone who made it this far, thanks for reading my rant lol

[lab-trash]

The ending of HIMYM pisses me off way more after watching the Robots vs Wrestlers episode (not the first one, the one with the multiple Teds and Barneys. With For the Longest Time at the end? That one) in retrospect.

Because you're telling me Ted made this hypothetical speech about spending 45 more days with her, and this whole story was about Ted wanting to get back with Robin? No, fuck off, bullshit, no way.

[cishetseymourkrelborn]

I'm currently rewatching HIMYM and the fact that Robin and Barney aren't gonna last is making this way more painful than it would be otherwise. They were such a good match. How I Met Your Father should have had the balls to get them back together istg

[afairycreature]

[numbmindsworld]

İşte bu yüzden incindik hep...

[redwidow18]

I think How I met your mother lost a wonderful life lesson by forcing Ted and Robin to end up together. Because he met Tracy the love of his life and mother of his children at Barney and Robin’s wedding, if they had never gotten married he would have never met her and that should have taught him the importance of letting go. Our society it’s too fixed on the “never give up” mantra but the truth is sometimes you can’t hold on forever, you have to let go so better things can come.

[bubblegumflavor]

I am just watching a video about the HIMYM finale and if it still works 10 years later (spoiler alert it doesnt, lol, still sucks big time) and I just remembered how Barney's story ended... (They didn't get there in the video yet) That all he needed to be cured of his flawed, toxic masculinity personality was a baby... And now I think of Cobra Kai and tho it looks like they build a whole family for Johnny (under the worst circumstances, imo), I feel the same level of betrayal and William Zabka being Barney's best man at the wedding that we had to watch for 24 episodes only to find out they didn't last, I can't help not seeing the paralel and hope Cobra Kai writers did not get inspired by that because that also ruined HIMYM, lol.

[idkmybffjillyy]

rewatching himym and pausing and switching to the alternate ending is still necessary and makes me tear up

you're telling me in canon they only got 11 years together??? that she dies this year 2024???

[autistook]

spoilers for HIMYM

just realized this is the year the mother dies thanks I'm sobbing in the bus

[notrandtumblin]

[mshfar2a]

خلينا كلنا فاكرين إن ٢٠٢٤ هي السنة إلي Tracy Mcconnell ماتت فيها ف ربنا يستر إيه تاني ح يحصل

[eclecticelectriceccentric]

HE WAS COLLUDING WITH THE FEDS!!!!

[thinking-destiel-thoughts]

it never fails to drive me nuts how hard the writers hammered that Robin and Barney were a good match. they finished each other’s weird thoughts and phrases. they wanted to be wolves hunting together. there were so many ways that the writers pushed it. just for them to RUIN IT for literally no reason.

honestly, I still think the mother shouldn’t be dead at the end. but if she was going to be dead, then the story of how Ted met her should’ve been more focused on her AND shouldn’t have ended with him getting back with Robin.

it’s not How I Met Your Mother. it’s How I Finally Got Your Stepmother.

CHAR’S 1K CELEBRATION: ⤷ 🍊 + orange for @kenshivrome ♡ happy birthday giulia!

[firsttraintovictoriaville]

i just realize that this is the year that tracy dies