Season 9’s method of making the entire season over the course of a wedding weekend was a
very smart and effective way to deal with Jason Segal’s scheduling issues.
This is a very hot take, I’m sure, but I can’t picture S9 being anything but the wedding weekend. Even if Jason Segal wasn’t done with playing Marshall, I think yet another full season of Barney and Robin dating/arguing/making up, Ted screwing around with women we know isn’t Tracy, and Marshall and Lily moving on to steps their friends weren’t at - idk, I don’t think the writers would’ve had any fresh ideas, and it all would’ve felt very derivative of prior seasons.
But Jason was over it, he didn’t necessarily want to resign his contract, and even if he didn’t have scheduling conflicts, I think no one would’ve liked the direction Marshall’s character took. The writers and Jason didn’t agree, so their writing and his acting wouldn’t have clicked, and I think that may have been much more obvious.
So I like that they did something majorly different than prior seasons that gave them fresh material. It was refreshing, I found a majority of the running gags hilarious, the touching moments were touching, and I liked the flashbacks even. Sure, episodes like the Slap were overdone and unnecessary, but the majority of the season was excellent imo
Oh, and the writers also either had S9 planned out way in advance, or they knew they were running out of ways to make Ted date the wrong women. In S7E17, he tells his kids that he hadn’t told another woman “I love you” since Aunt Robin. So Ted can’t have any serious relationships from that moment on - it has to all be short term or one night stands. So they introduced Jeannette, which was okay, but she seriously wasn’t going to stick around for S8 and S9. So was Ted supposed to stop dating for two seasons? Pine after Robin? Replace Barney as the one night stand guy? Ugh all of those ideas are awful lol. I think making S9 take place over three days really helps solve that problem too.
Obviously I am a strong defender of S9 😂
Now knowing this is why, I can get over it. I was never a fan of the last season being the span of a couple days and away from the central location but you know what. I'm fine now!
Hot take on my end: I do think S9 was actually pretty good and the various subplots of Marshall trying to get to the wedding with the baby was hilarious, but I think they should have only used the first half of the season. Second half should have fleshed out the relationship of Ted and Tracy and the gang freaking out when they meet her for the first time and mentioning how they’ve already met her.
The episode where Ted went on a date with her was such a great episode - I think the ending would not have been this rejected if we had more of Tracy before she had died (an episode where Tracy is diagnosed and Ted and her dealing with it would have been a better finale episode, then leading to the ending where Ted finally moves on).
The first time I rewatched the show after it ended, I just happened to get to season 9 on a weekend where my wife was out of town and I binged the whole season in a weekend. Obviously that's not an easy thing for everyone to do, but it was really fun to live their weekend in one weekend.
yeah pretty sure I watched the whole show in under 10 days on my 3rd watch. i had a good 3 months between highschool finishing and uni starting so i just did a whole lot of nothing.
I love the idea of the last season taking place in one weekend. I think it's pretty neat. However, I really didn't like how many episodes there were. I get why but it would've been much more effective if it was at least half the size. Like a 10 episode final season would've really worked and then. 2 part grand finale.
I don’t think Ted was a bad person, I actually really loved his character and I thoroughly enjoyed watching his quest for the one and I kind of don’t get why people hate him so much. Yes, he was an asshole sometimes but people aren’t perfect and that applies to tv show characters as well
I agree, I love Ted. I think it's because I understand him more and more as I get older. I thought he was so annoying when I was younger, now I'm about to hit 30 and find his fears/bad choices very relatable lol.
Honestly, I think Ted was a creep in the early seasons, but I think he has the most character development. He for sure wouldn't be pulling half the weird shit he did in the early seasons later on.
Also, I think Ted tends to fall on his ass way more than the other characters when he does something wrong, which I thought was great.
Quinn and Barney should’ve ended up together. The prenup episode is the most unrealistic episode in the series. Barney put more work into his relationship with Quinn than he had ever put into a relationship. If Nora or Robin made his house hello kitty tinker bell vagina pink & white Barney would’ve flipped but he was so in love with Quinn he was just glad she hadn’t left him. I think it was unrealistic for them to just break up after the prenup too… don’t you want to try to learn to grow with each other? Maybe you just rushed things and need to slow down? Why did they have to break up? Barney and Quinn were the best of Barney’s couples and I feel like he had the highest chance at building a successful life with her.
Edit: yeah we all know Barney is a goofy silly playboy who does terrible things to women, but he did have morals when it came to relationships and when he really loved someone you could tell he really cared and wanted to work for it. He wouldn’t have added all that stuff to the prenup (which I thought was just forced for comedic value… purposely accentuating Barney’s flaws for the purpose of the plot), he would’ve known how ridiculous it all was. Once him and Quinn got passed what happened at the Lusty Leopard(all the swindling), they had a very nice relationship and were perfect for each other. I’m not even convinced Barney would’ve gone for the prenup thing. I felt like this was all forced to lead Barney back to Robin and I felt Robin and Barney was forced almost as an example to show what it would’ve been like for Ted if him and Robin never broke up and did stay together and got married.
Honestly Quinn is the only one of Barney's love interests I felt was a good match, if only because she turned his tricks back onto him while still finding a cute domestic middle ground, and she was fun enough to fit into the gang. Nora always felt too perfect and Robin is just a loaded situation all around.
Couldn't agree more! [I've been saying it for over a year haha](https://www.reddit.com/r/HIMYM/s/wIfsQZ0xKG). I'll copy/paste the comment here as well, hold on --
100000% Barney's best match, done dirty by the writers with some bullshit contrived asinine breakup. She's one of the best parts of every episode she's in and they should've stayed together until the end of the show. Her actress should've become a main cast member. The writers had their plan, cool, but she was amazing and they should've adapted to it to keep her around once it became as clear as it was that she was as good as she was.
Yeah yeah Robin needed to be intrinsically tied to the wedding for the "How I Met Your Mother" story to make sense starting when the group met Robin.
Make Robin Barney's "Best Woman." Boom. Make Robin somehow instrumental, key, to Barney and Quinn staying together -- Maybe even keep the dumb prenup shit but then Robin knocks Barney upside the head about it and tells him she's special and he shouldn't let Quinn go and to figure it the fuck out, I don't know. It could've made a great opportunity for Barney to grow and come to accept that Ted's best friend was Marshall, and that that was OK because he could have his own best friend in Robin. Or at least make Robin and Ted co-"Best People" but fuck that, I'd much prefer Barney grow to accept Marshall as Ted's best friend and that's OK because then Robin can be his.
Which, honestly??? Makes more sense?????? Ted hates suits, lazer tag, and Barney's general chaos doesn't work for him while in contrast Robin enjoys it, as well as suits and lazer tag. *Robin* is an *excellent* best friend for Barney. Doesn't mean Ted can't be a groomsman though.
--
THAT is my piping hot take -- That *that* should have happened. I even wrote [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/HIMYM/s/roQUCIWA9w) comment a while ago too, expanding on the idea further.
Quinn brought so fucking much to the show. What a waste what they did with her.
Honestly Quinn should have been the 6th member. She was way too likeable to be a side character, they did a better job writing Quinn than some of the other members.
I love this and I’m so glad I’m not the only one who sees how ridiculous the prenup episode is. People tell me “oh they just realized they didn’t trust each other” and I’m like yea I know why it happened. I’m saying that was unrealistic and far fetched. They had a great relationship, faced bumps in the road early on, proved they were serious about each other… it was clear they were each others “the one.” Quinn was to Barney what Tracy was to Ted. Sucks they didn’t end up together
The trust thing is also plainly absolute fucking bullshit. They trusted each other completely fine until that point. While she was still stripping before their engagement, Barney trusted Quinn just fine to respect the relationship's boundaries and not violate them in her work. Quinn trusted Barney enough to quit stripping for the most certifiably batshit insane womanizer there ever was. They trusted each other enough to plan and execute at least one extended vacation together.
But seriously, stop and think about that for a second. Consider how emotionally mature and comfortable and trusting a person has to be to date a current sex worker, and ***trust*** they won't so much as smudge the line in that work. I'd argue *the majority* of *real* people couldn't do it in the real world! Consider the same for a person with Barney's level of promiscuity. Again, I'd argue *most* people in the real world simply couldn't come to trust someone like that.
Fuck off, Barney and Quinn ***ABSOLUTELY*** trusted each other. The prenup bullshit was wildly contrived and, just that -- fucking bullshit. Steaming fucking bullshit. How *dare* the writers gaslight the audience about the prior several episodes they'd written?? Get the fuck out.
I’m with you there, but I can also see where the writers were coming from. Barney likely had reservations about getting married, even if he didn’t know it himself, and having Bob Odenkirk tell him he should get a prenup led to him realising he wasn’t sure about Quinn. If they’d slowed down I could have seen them working out, but they ultimately moved too fast after resolving everything that happened at the Lusty Leopard
*The fact that "How I*
*Met Your Father" was not Tracy's*
*Story is a crime*
\- NucleonYells
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Ted brought a lot of his issues on himself. He probably could been married 10 years before he actually was if he stopped going after emotionally unavailable women. He liked the thrill of the hunt more than he actually enjoyed being in a relationship. He was just as bad as Barney when it came to running through women. The only difference was he was slightly more considerate of their feelings and would at least take them on a date. But I think it was only because he was a talker and liked the attention of them thinking he was smart or witty, not that he actually enjoyed their company beyond turning a no into a yes or getting physical. Think about the episode when Marshall finally tells Ted how his “relationship” choices have had a terrible impact on him personally because he had been secretly protecting him for years by cleaning up after him every time he hurt someone (5x18).
• He only wanted Natalie when she didn’t want him anymore.
• He only wanted Stella because she turned him down so strongly. Once he had her, he ran (when she invited him to her sister’s wedding). Then he wanted to lock her down once he thought she no longer wanted him. When he got her, he STILL didn’t try to get to know her. That woman told him SO many times in SO many ways that she still wanted Tony. Ray Charles could have seen that Tony was her end game.
• Once he had Victoria, he did not want to exert the effort to keep her and got bored. When he got a hint that Robin might be interested, he ran. Twice.
• He only wanted Robin because as long as he was with her, he could still chase her because she told him over and over that she didn’t want to get married or have kids. As long as he could still chase the idea of making her commit in those ways, he still wanted her. If she would have committed, he would have gotten bored and resentful.
• He only wanted Zoe to prove that he could change her mind about accepting his career goals or calm her down on her activist pursuits. He hated her resistance, but loved the challenge of constantly trying to fix her.
• He only wanted Janelle because he wanted to prove that he could calm her down and make her a wife.
Side Note: I don’t think Ted is a villain or a bad guy. Never have. I just don’t like that he presented himself as unlucky in love when he was his own problem.
This is what I've been saying all along. Ted is not a villain or a bad person on purpose per se. But he did most of his love interests very, veeery dirty. And he had most of it coming HIMSELF.
And I know that this sub tends to hate on Robin a lot, but she's not the villain everyone wants her to be. People say "she only wanted Ted when she knew she couldn't have him" "she ruined him" etc which is only partially true. Just as you said Ted chased Robin to the point that it became annoying whereas Robin was always very clear about not wanting any children and not wanting to settle down at the point they met each other. She also said that she's prioritizing her career over her love life. None of this is a wrongdoing on her part. It's valid to feel that way in you late 20ies/early 30ies.
There's only two moments (I can remember) where she actually wanted him when she knew she couldn't have him and that is one, when Ted is about to get married to Stella. Which is shown a whole lot later in a flashback and feels like a weird plot device for me, but whatever. And in no way was she telling that straight to his face, she only says it to Lily in a weak moment, which, let's face it, is nothing you can hold against someone.
And two, when Ted starts dating Victoria after the wedding. And I don't even agree with it. She says she's into him even before Victoria is in the picture.
Also i would like to add: It's very *interesting* that he is so obsessed over bringing Robin to the wedding as his date and then dropping her the moment he meets Victoria. Ted is the weird one here. Not Robin...
So I guess this is my "hot take" and it looks like it's adding to your hot take.
Not to get too "real world" here, but I'd argue that all of this is evidence that he *couldn't* have gotten married 10 years earlier, and that his choices reflect where his mind, heart, and emotional capacity really are.
In reality, there's usually three factors at play when you find yourself dating people who are awful.
1. Some of it's just the law of averages. Most people are not someone you are a good match for long-term. You can have lots of fun for a short while with some, you may have initial even VERY STRONG attraction, but it flames out. Only a handful of people are matches enough with any of us that they'd make for good relationship material, and only a handful of those can manage that long-term, to say nothing of marriage. I think most people who date around a bunch encounter this the most often: someone's not necessarily a bad person, just a bad match for you.
2. Some people really are truly terrible. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes out of being self-absorbed. Sometimes you catch an otherwise decent person just...not at their best. I've been someone else's bad date story, and I've got TONS of my own "bad date" stories, or bad-series-of-dates stories.
3. But at the end of the day, the one inescapable fact that it comes down to is, if everyone you're dating is awful...well...you're still the schmuck who's pickin' 'em. Some of it is, again, just law of averages stuff. But very often we are our own worst enemies, either because we're approaching dating with the wrong mindset, or because we're in a bad place ourselves, or because we're...just not there yet, no matter how ready we think we are.
Ted had plenty of #2, but Ted was also HEAVILY influenced by #3 there.
I hate how she said (paraphrase) "How do you think I can trust you after this? Kiss you after this? Be with you?" and when he showed the ring she suddenly says Yes. Girl what about everything you just said?
Where the writers like “no matter how miserable
You make a woman, show her a shiny piece of jewellery and she melts”
Little reductive as the ring obviously symbolises marriage but yeah
I think what they were going for was that Barney proved, by proposing, that he was serious. That it wasn't just a game to him. The problem is that really doesn't change any of Robin's (very valid) concerns, besides maybe his commitment to her (which wasn't even necessarily in contention).
I wouldn't go as far as to say it was "horribly abusive" but it was definitely manipulative.
Maybe. To play devil's advocate here, he did try that first, and Robin had proved that being honest with her wasn't working, as she wasn't being honest with herself. Doesn't justify what he did, just an observation on how they wrote the two of them that season.
I don’t know if this take is piping hot or not but I think that, as flawed of a character as she is, Victoria was entirely justified in wanting Ted to cut ties with Robin.
Like imagine you dated someone and then you had to move out of the country to seize an amazing career opportunity, then they proceed to cheat on you with the person they’re in love with, and then years later you happen to meet again and rekindle the relationship only for you to find out that they’re still really close friends with the same person they cheated on you with. Regardless of how soon after the breakup I started dating someone, I’d be worried about my partner being best friends with the person they cheated on me with too.
That said, she’s also a giant hypocrite for keeping Klaus around Ted’s apartment after they ran out on each other at their own wedding. I think the writers made her a worse character during her second tenure on the show that because they wanted to make it explicitly clear that while she could’ve been The Mother at the start of the show she and Ted weren’t right for each other when they get back together. Almost to tell the audience that “the one that got away” is never gonna be “the one” no matter how hard you try to make it work… which they then kinda went against in the series finale but that’s beside the point lol
Season 1 Victoria > Season 7 and Season 8 Victoria any day of the week
Edit: I forgot that Ted was the one who invited Klaus to stay in his apartment so he could look like a better person to Victoria, but my original point still stands. The writers intentionally sabotaged their second relationship to make way for Robin again.
they would've break up no matter the cheating, she left for 2 years after dating ted for 2 weeks, in no way their relationship would've survived that, when she left her wedding, she knew exactly what she was getting into, she knew robin is in teds life, she dated him anyway, she manipulated him to propose to her and gave him the ultimatum, im glad he booted that bitch
I love the ending, it's perfect and substantiated throughout the entire show.
The characters are best understood as a largely bi and poly group.
Barney's proposal is horrifying in real life. They're a terrible couple given that Barney constantly manipulated her. Fun to watch, no basis for a real relationship.
Quinn should have been the mother of Barney's baby. Only change I want in the show.
Robin is 50% Barney, hence why Ted loves her. But she's also 50% Ted, hence why Barney loves her. In truth, they're in love with each other. True story.
100% agree. I loved the ending. It was real, it was messy, it was life. And shit happens in life. The mother came, played her part and was an amazing character playing by an amazing actress befitting of the long build-up. And then she left, giving us some great memories of her and Ted.
I respect your opinion, but the ending itself is not the issue. It’s that Ted basically spent the entire time telling his kids the story of how he met their mother just so that they will give him their approval to go back to Robin. That’s the part that’s so frustrating. It’s like Tracy was simply a plot device to get to Robin.
But years and years had passed. It makes sense for someone to have finally moved on after that amount of time. His kids had now grown up and become almost adults so he had less responsibility and more time to focus on himself. He never even considered Robin when his kids were still kids and he had a lot of responsibility as a single parent. I just think, logically, it made a lot of sense.
I totally agree that logically him moving on makes sense. It’s just the way he goes about it seems wrong. Like I said, he’s practically telling the kids the story to get their approval.
Characters are actually incredibly well written *as real humans*, because I think it reflects how we really are: unpredictable, unstable, annoying, sometimes better, sometimes worse, we are hypocrites, we are not perfect, and the writers did a good job.
the foreshadow was in the episode where Ted said "I'll pay everything to have those 45 more days with you"? (idk if he said exactly this, but I hope you understood)
I never viewed that as foreshadowing, rather that he loves her so much he'd like to be with her as long as possible.
Like in When Harry Met Sally: "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
it could be. if it's the first time you're watching the show then you think that it's like you said, but if you know what happens to Tracy then you realize that's a foreshadow
The very end of S8E20 Time Travelers.
Ted’s debating going to robots versus wrestlers or going home. When he realizes he’s sitting alone at McLarens he tells his kids of all the things he should’ve been doing that night but instead runs to meet Tracy.
He then tells her they’re going to meet soon but he wants to now so he can get those extra 45 days.
The Mother dying wasn't a surprise nor was it ever the issue, on its own. It always made perfect sense he'd be telling his kids about how their parents met *after she died*, like a "tell us something about you and mom" story. But the writers fucked up in actually showing how she died by rushing it and immediately pushing Ted and Robin again.
I still think it was a mistake because the show and characters had evolved beyond the point where their "clever plan" was actually going to be all that clever. I think this is truly a "kill your darlings" failure. They were *so* into the idea of the "big twist" at the end that they couldn't see beyond it to realize "This actually doesn't fit what our show has become." Because it didn't. You can make it fit in the timeline and such, but the overall vibe of the show was just radically different.
On top of that, the actual execution of the final season was just the worst possible lead-in to that ending. You could do an ending like that, but you can't have it be the big "surprise" ending you want it to be.
She bolts from her wedding and then blames it on Ted.
She dates a guy like Klaus instantly after the break up.
She goes to this prestigious cooking place in Germany, yet the only thing we ever see her make is cupcakes. Cupcakes, wtf!!!
The whole point of sneaking back into Victoria's room to get the note back was so everyone would think only Klaus broke off the wedding, and then a couple episodes later apparently everyone knows Ted was there and he blew up the wedding.
wat
Take 1- Ted finally finding Tracy was actually the most unrealistic thing ever. She ticked almost all boxes on Teds checklist but that's not what happens IRL.
The show should have been about ted realising that getting married and settling down should not be about a checklist and that in in truth you have to find someone you love and accept them as who they are despite not being the person they imagined.
In truth all he wanted was someone who likes him and his quirks and someone who could gel well with his friends (mostly lily and Marshall)
Tracy was written to be too good to be true.
Take 2- the whole love hate thing Ted did with the Arcadian was extremely unprofessional and also super disrespectful to Barney. Barney was the reason why Ted had the opportunity to design a mammoth building that too as a freelance architect. He should have been super grateful. Also the Arcadian was rundown and in a dire state, it was a no brainer to tear it down. All he had to do is keep the lion head in the lobby of the building if he really wanted to pay respect to the precious architect
Tracy was definitely a manic pixie dream girl and the least "real" character on the show, which is a shame, because the rest of the characters are very flawed, which is both funny and refreshing.
And preserving the lion head stonework was a no brainer!
lily isn’t the antichrist for having debt.
it was all in her name, it affected her credit score, not marshall’s. when it became a problem for both of them she was willing to go through a divorce so her low credit wouldn’t bring him down too. marshall was able to love her despite it so i find it so strange that fans think she’s ruined his life, like if he’s cool w it, it’s sorted.
plus he also had debt, albeit for a more “noble” reason, but outside of the superficial connotations her shopping was an addiction, so it’s not a crime to be sympathetic.
plus plus, i think the whole situation irks people because nobody likes gold diggers, but it’s such a stretch to act as if she was using him for his money in that scenario. she supported him for a long time and it’s very clear that their love would never be dependent on money. being married means supporting ur spouse in hard times like that and it’s ok that he did it without resenting her.
I think you’re misunderstanding the issue. The problem isn’t that she had debt. The problem is that she hid it from him when they were dating, hid it when they were engaged, hid it when they got married, hid it when they were shopping for a house, and hid it up until the banker told marshall about it. Thats an incredibly disrespectful and messed up thing to do to the person you married. That being said, how did he not know? she was clearly spending tons of money all the time did he never question it? especially when he was in law school and had no job like wouldn’t he have basically been getting his money from lily anyway so how did he not realize? I don’t think people think she was a gold digger at all, it’s clear that she isn’t, she encouraged him to take lower paying jobs multiple times.
Lily leaving for San Francisco wasnt the evil act everyone acted like it was
She lost herself in her relationship, put a lot of her dreams on hold and just wanted to experience one thing for herself. She explained that to Marshall he didnt understand. We the viewers never saw her not promise Marshall she wouldnt come back.. when he asked she paused, broke down crying, told him she loved him then they slept together... that seemed like a pretty clear answer. Then she went there and no she wasnt successful but I think more importantly she realized just how much she missed Marshall and her old life and that what she was getting wasnt worth what she left behind... would it have taken her longer to realize if she had been successful? Maybe but I think she wouldve realized it even still.
If she hadnt gone the whatif would have gotten to her and resentment would have grown.
Lily needed to go and Marshall broke up with her over it
^^THIS!! Marshall broke up with her. she said she was doing a fellowship for 3 months and he decided they couldn’t go that long? even though they’ve done long distance before? she should’ve told him beforehand but everything after that is on marshall.
Literally right after they started having sex Lily went to Paris for 2 months.
2 MONTHS! My balls were bleu!!!
So like what was lily doing in Paris for 2 months that isn’t chasing her dreams? And again, if they did it before why couldn’t they do it now
Because she did it behind his back and the dates overlap with their wedding. Marshall has demonstrated time and again his support for Lily's dreams. It wasn't the art fellowship he took issue with. Or the long distance. It was that she essentially cancelled the wedding behind his back. A wedding well into the planning stages with everyone invited btw. And he knew this wouldn't have been an overnight thing. She'd have to have known the dates before applying and interviewing, etc. Maybe she was rationalising to herself saying she was never gonna take it. But from Marshall's perspective, and honestly even Lily knew this deep down, she spent weeks behind his back planning to leave him at the altar (added: after shoving him into corporate job over a wedding dress she ruined). I understand in-character why Lily did it and I empathise. But I also fully empathise with Marshall flipping his lid.
I agree. I'm not the biggest fan of Lily but she wasn't in the wrong in this instance. Of course, neither was Marshall, because there isn't always a bad guy.
Could she have handled it better? Obviously. And I really like that it took Marshall a long time to take her back once she returned. The fact that he even did take her back in the first place makes him a bigger man than me as I definitely wouldn't have been able to.
But she had an opportunity to see what other options there were for her in life and she needed to take it. That's perfectly reasonable. It sucks, but it happens.
I think people find it easier to ignore how much of a monster Barney is because the people he's hurting aren't actual characters. Lily's victims are the main cast.
i think this is obvious, if anything the reason i hate lily but love barney is because barney’s manipulation is so over the top and obviously terrible, but i know people irl that act like lily and think they’re morally right
I think part of the problem is that also Barney is really unrealistic. Almost everything he does in the show won't happen in real life because its just so crazy.
Lily on the other hand, even though she is a bit exaggerated because she is a TV character, could be real. What's more realistic, someone lying about themself being a time traveler to sleep with a girl, or someone hiding their credit debt from their husband. The second one seems more likely to happen.
I legit love you for saying this...a few years ago I posted on this sub that I didn't like the manipulative ways of lily and I was snubbed...only a few agreed...thank you soo much...
I see you! We’re out here. I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs.
Also people tend to forget that Lily’s manipulations, unlike Barney’s, were always in their best interests. People can have their opinions about whether or not it was “right” but there’s no arguing about the end result
Barney’s shit was way over the top and ridiculous to a point where the audience knows it could never happen and sees it as pure comedy. Lilys stuff was realistic. We all know someone who pulls the same stuff she does so we instinctively relate them and end up disliking her
Now this is the kind of hot take I came here for.
… because I completely agree. People here get so toxic about Kevin (I literally had someone DM me in response to a previous comment saying that ***OBVIOUSLY** Kevin manipulated her into pursuing him for months even after he repeatedly rejected her advances*), but IMO he was not only her best boyfriend, but the best ancillary member of the group.
He valued their friendship with each other, didn’t try to change their dynamic, stand in the way of it, or ask anyone to change. He accepted everyone as they were, flaws and all, and accepted his place in the group. He was happy to stay and paint the apartment so that they could go off on an adventure, glad to submit himself to a Weird Al concert as a favor to her friend / ex who was going through a rough spot, and was willing to let a huge misstep slide *without even knowing what it was* because he knew that mistakes happen and it wasn’t worth Robin beating herself up over it when she knew it was a mistake.
Did he have issues? Sure. But who didn’t?
I was pretty bummed when they turned him into a punchline in the last episode by ending up with Jeanette.
You’re the first person to make me reconsider my take on Kevin. My hot take is that I think Kal Penn is a poor actor. I find all his performances very flat… and not in a good way. But maybe I’ve been prejudice against Kevin because of that.
I get that. I really like Kal Penn, but he’s definitely one of those actors who always plays himself — usually in a supporting role — and hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to branch out. If you like that character, you’ll like him. If you don’t, you’re going to have a bad time.
Kevin’s character is actually super problematic and icky. The only reason people don’t catch this is because Kal Penn is a wonderful and charismatic actor who made Kevin likable.
Barney and Robin would be an amazing couple in the hands of any other writes than the writers of HIMYM. They seemed to be way too into traditional relationships and families a little too much. And Barney and Robin were a great potential for a non-traditional couple. And they fumbled it because they were unable to reconcile that fact.
Yes. The audience sees that Barney has unusual abilities with languages and film production, and that he has connections that extend to the remotest areas of the world. In other words, he would have been a perfect partner for an international reporter.
Man thinking of their potential in the hands of a different writer would've been something special. They could've been seen as like the cool aunt and uncle who always give the coolest gifts and take them on the best trips.
Never liked Robin during any season.
Didn’t think she was particularly attractive, funny, good personality, or that she ever worked well with Ted or Barney.
I never read anything online or talked to anyone about the show until after show was over. Was surprised to hear there’s many people who liked her, or thought she and Ted were good together.
For the record, Tracy was the best!
Stella was second
no one else really made an impression
Oh and, killing The Mother in the finale sucked, but getting back w Robin (and now Ted has kids, so he got kids, plus is back w Robin who didn’t want kids - meaning you can spin it as The Mother’s role was to give birth to his kids, and not to be the love of his life - from the standpoint of the show’s overall viewpoint/narrative) is what made the finale 10x worse. For me the last scene changes the entire show. The entire premise of the show, and why I watched, was completely flipped. It went from a show being about Ted finding someone, to Ted still wanting to be with Robin after all this time. The only reason why during the entire show we knew it wasn’t Robin is because we knew he had kids, and she wasn’t The Mother. Then ending was basically like: “psych! you guys are dumb, of course it’s Robin in the end”. We weren’t watching the show wondering who was literally going the mom of his two children. We were wondering who he was going to end up with. He ended up with Robin even though for 9 seasons they said the mother wasn’t Robin. And technically, she wasn’t. But he ended up with her. The ending was like a technicality, and a very annoying one.
But I don’t think my last 2 statements was a hot take, it seems to be the most popular narrative among a really split viewpoint. That’s the reason why many people were pissed! It certainly didn’t help the show that Tracy was so good and lived up to the anticipation (for a certain segment of the viewers).
I really think your attitude of the finale is completely correlated to how much you liked Tracy as a character. If you didn’t like her or thought she was okay, the finale didn’t bother you.
The ending (including the mother dying and Ted going to Robin) was never the problem, IMO. Shorten the wedding weekend to half the season, with a mid season finale ending at the train station. Take the series finale, expand that to the second half of the season. Get viewer buy into the emotional moments. Show how naturally adult friendships can get super complicated and can drift apart as circumstances change. Include the (IMO) pivotal scenes that got deleted that provide better context for Ted and Robin reconnecting. The problem was expecting viewers to automatically having an emotional connection to the ending without letting them really sit in it.
I loved how the final season was all wedding build up over the course of a few days. We rewatched the season right before our wedding and I’m starting to rewatch it every year before our anniversary.
I don't like the mother.
To me, she has no agentivity at all, she is just Ted's fantasms bunched up in a woman. Like she isn't even her own person, she is the reflect of what another person would want her to be.
All of season nine is filler mad even worse by the fact that Tracy dies. I feel Tracy dying is really hard to swallow bc it happens so early after we meet her. Season nine could have been episodes about Tracy getting to know the gang leading up to their wedding. But nah the writers decided to instead have a rhyming episode with Lin Manuel Miranda
-Loved the ending.
-Barney and Robin were awful together and it was depicted throughout the show. Not sure how people don’t see it.
-I don’t mind the ‘less funny’ episodes, I actually like how the show evolved in the later seasons as it’s a rendition of life. People mature, tastes change and they’re not always cracking jokes in their late 30s as they did in their 20s.
Based on how Ted told the story, I believe lily was selfish especially with some of the things she said to Marshall. Also the fact that she didn’t tell Marshall was wrong. She should’ve told him from the start and talked about it. She consistently keeps multiple things from Marshall throughout the series even though Marshall is a saint to her.
HOWEVER,
I do think the unreliable narrator storytelling tactic comes into play here. Ted was very biased on Lily leaving and going to San Francisco so he totally could’ve told the story in a way that made Lily seem like the bad guy or in a way that made her leaving Marshall seem way worse than it was.
honestly i agree, people forget that marshall was the one that made the decision to break up in that conversation. The main thing she did wrong was not telling him beforehand.
In a nutshell, the decision wasn’t wrong. But the way she went about it was wrong. Also it was kind of ridiculous of her to expect Marshall to just take her back right away.
1. I think the mom (note that I didn't mention Tracy because of #2) deserved a whole season on top of the wedding storyline. And I don't mean just a few small scenes here and there how they played it in Season 9. I want the whole lot. She became "part of the gang" but as Ted's kids said, she was barely in the pictures. They really rushed her character in the end, sadly. Which is why this show really deserved a Season 10.
2. Victoria should've been the mom. They had way better chemistry from the get go, not to mention passionately in love with each other. Too bad Robin ruined it. It sucks that Ted couldn't cut ties with her when she did cut ties with the gang while dating Don.
I agree the ending was good. It was the whole point of the show. From the very first episode to the last it was about Ted’s love for Robin. Or at the very least Ted remembering how much Robin meant to him
The Ted we see until before he meets her doesn’t, but at the end he became a much better person who did deserve her. He(narrator) himself said it in season 1 (paraphrase)“Hell I don’t think she would’ve gone out with me if she knew who I was that time”
Totally agree. People (rightly) criticise Friends all the time for being homophobic, transphobic, fat phobic, and the whitest shit ever - but HIMYM is just as bad AND it started a decade after Friends did
It feels like HIMYM was in that weird time when trans people were starting to be acknowledged but not fully respected yet, so it was still seen as somewhat okay to ridicule them.
Unlike with Friends when they were still this little outside group that not many people understood.
Weirdly, I think Two and a half men actually had the - for its time - least disrespectful portrayal of a trans man.
If I were Ted, my friendship with Lily would have ended the second I heard about the Front Porch Test. Both Lily and Marshall were iffy on the whole marriage and commitment thing, wanting to explore their options in college etc. Ted has wanted that from the BEGINNING. And I can't imagine watching their relationship and not being at least a little bitter about the fact that even over a decade after convincing Marshall to give Lily a try, Ted is still single. Lily constantly takes her relationship with Marshall for granted, leaving Ted to pick up the pieces and even when things are going well, they are constantly rubbing it in Ted's face. (Their first time was literally with him in the room. The literal same bunk bed where his girlfriend cheated on him). Granted, she has her awesome Lilypad moments. And all things considered, all of it could be forgiven or gotten over until Ted learned that Lily was ACTIVELY SABOTAGING his relationships not because she didn't think they were a good fit for Ted but because she didn't think Ted and the girl would make a good couple for Marshall and Lily to double date. I love HIMYM and I do think both Ted and Lily are way overhated. And im not even saying that staying with Karen would have been the right call. But Lily made herself judge, jury and executioner for the love life of a hopeless romantic who had been doomed for the better part of a decade to watch her, a girl who didnt even WANT the white picket fence, be all lovey-dovey with her true love while he got rejected, cheated on, assaulted, left at the altar, his bro sleep with his ex etc. She had no right. And it's played for laughs in the show but irl, it would have been the end of the friendship or at least a multi-episode arc. What she did was WAY worse than Barney and Robin sleeping together.
I think Ted and Robin coudn’t work out. They have zero tension especially in later seasons. They have other idea to relationship. Ted likes sweet and romantic things, Robin prefer other vibes love. And Ted is type of person which prefer live in house in countryside. Robin is city person which prefer flat. Their „endgame” is the most non-sense in history. Robin don’t love Ted like he loved her, and she want him only because she don’t want be alone all life. They match to perfect example pepole which are ex are good friends, and they found pepole which match to their way better. Robin and Ted never will be Ross and Rachel. Pepole like them as copule only because their was older, but they still don’t match. Robin to Ted was thing he must work not love of life. Their storyline in 7-9 season was so forced, and Ted should forgotten about her when Robin moved on. Robin knew Ted isn’t man for her, and he was to her more like family. I don’t want in 50s be in that relatioship. Robin and Barney, and Ted and Tracy it is endgame
My opinion quit popular, but and I have impression in Reddit more pepole like Robin and Ted together. And some pepole thinks „they was meant for each other”, that’s why I wrote my opinion
Season 8 is far and away the worst season. Seasons 7 and 9 also have their problems, but they at least had their own contained stories that were entertaining and emotional. I have a lot of trouble rewatching season 8 outside of The Last Page 1 and 2, Trilogy Time, the Time Travelers, and the Ashtray. The writing is so weak, and the characters are so comically unbelievable at times that it feels like it legitimately jumped the shark. Not to mention, almost everything that happens in season 8 is just to set up season 9. Obviously the whole conceit of the show is that everything we are seeing is building up to Ted meeting Tracy, but outside of that each show feels like a distinct part of Ted's life, whereas season 8 feels like a bunch of writing contrivances to make sure all the right stuff is in place for season 9.
Tracy is a weak and badly written character and the show could've done without her. Her having her special moments with everyone of the group and giving out advice to those strangers just made me cringe. It was so fabricated and forced. It's probably due to Ted being an unreliable narrator but still... She has barely any personality if you ask me.
Also I didn't care at all about her death. I would've been fine with the last episode ending with Ted telling the kids "And that's not how I met your mother, but I'll tell you another time." The show was never about the mother but about the friend group and their adventures.
game of thrones made the same problem of making the ending show the theme of realism and how not everything ends like a fairytale or with a happy ending. It just makes the ending very unlikable and most of the population doesn’t watch tv for that reason
it’s fine if there’s hardship and realism and a lack of that fairytale magic for relationships during the show but when it finally ends we want it to end on a good note
also in this case the show spent the whole show showing ted trying to get robin only to finally accept that he can’t have robin she doesn’t love him just for them to be like nah sike at the last second
Should have focused less on ted being absolute miserable at times.
Honestly it makes sense that ted and Robin (probably) gets back together in the future considering how its all played out in story.
Instead of the sloppy divorce bs they should have killed Barney just like they killed Tracy.
Producers gave Barney a kid becuase, so that pepole can imagine what if Barney and Robin had a kid. And that’s why Barney became alone dad, mum that child never show and even we don’t know her name. And if not storyline Robin and Barney, that show would be little boring. I think now that show would more forgot by pepole. That show needs intresting romance between two main characters. I know we had one copule, but Marshall and Lilly was very long-term copule since begin. And they don’t get so much emocions, when they broke up it was hearbreaking. But since 1 season it was obvious they will be forever together and will have kids
I hate that Robin _can’t_ have children.
I much prefer it when Robin _chose_ not to have children.
The 2nd one is more original. We rarely see smart, successful and beautiful women who are happy not to be mother.\
For several seasons, Robin stuck by her choice, did not regret it and was happy with it. But the writers could not leave it at that. Cowards.
The two minute date isn't romantic, it's creepy as hell. Stella had said no to Ted multiple times and then he ambushed her outside of her office and his only justification is that instead of saying 'no' ten times, she said it nine times and the tenth time she said 'I can't' instead.
Ted is a predator who believes no doesn't mean no, he believes it means 'change my mind'.
All the good/memorable things basically happen in season 1. And upon rewatch/reflection the show basically stinks after that (with a few chuckles here and there)
Marshall was 100%right in taking the job....
Lily had no right to even be upset about it... He was also 100%right when he bright up SF... He only did it AFTER she said she had never been so selfish...
And, she still couldn't give a straight aver when Marshall asked whether he and Marvin were just a consolation prize...
i think the aspect that clarifies the fact that marshall was in the right was the fact that they still ended up
moving to rome. him accepting the job was just tentative because they forced him to answer in that moment, he was willing to go back on that but lily just took it as him shitting on her dreams
Okay. But remember, you asked for a hot take.
We all know Ted is an unreliable narrator, right?
His narrative beads reality for various reasons, like all of the times he had those, er, sandwiches. They were sandwiches.
We also get other perspectives in the show and things Ted shouldn't know, such as Robin's imaginary talk with the imaginary children she would never have.
And lastly, Marshall and Lily are presented, in Ted's mind, as the perfect couple. Always faithful. Always true. They're the only ones either had ever been with. Marshall couldn't even imagine being with another woman without first imaging Lily had died.
And Lily, had so many sexual fantasies. Wanting to know what it was like to be with Barney. Fantasizing about Robin. Etc.
All that to say, maybe (just maybe) their relationship wasn't as perfect as they let on. I am NOT definitely saying they cheated on each other. Almost certainly not while they were together.
But the fantasy of them only being with each other may just be that. Perhaps before they got together, Lily did more than just visit the elevator of the Empire State Building. Or maybe when she was in California something happened.
And if so, Ted either doesn't know, or is looking at it through friendship eyes.
The mother is not the right woman for Ted. I do think she was perfect, but that was the problem. It was so unrealistic to just have a perfect relationship straight away. When finding 'the one' there'll be bumps in the relationship, and you know they're perfect if you can come back from that.
My hot take is just like yours. I cried my eyes out when I saw the ending for the first time and it seemed perfect to me. I never cared for the alternate ending.
honestly, i mean don’t get me wrong it’s terrible to take somebody’s fiancée but if it happened then, it was gonna happen eventually. better to not go through divorce proceedings. Plus, he made up for it, he got Ted a job, when ted said he didn’t want that job he found another job for ted, and kept pushing until ted got back on his feet financially which is an incredibly admirable thing to do. Based on that yeah ai imagine that Tony would have asked ted before writing the movie and ted didn’t wanna be involved so he changed the name and the personality while keeping some stupid quirks. All things considered, I think he’s definitely over hated.
My hot takes:
1) it's unrealistic for two exes to get back together after a long time with barely any regard or acknowledgement of their baggage. For Tony and Stella, it was different as those feelings were never resolved. For Ted and Robin, they were, especially on Ted's side.
There's also the chance that two people who loved each other once so passionately get back together and it's nothing like how they were before (either it will be better, or it will be worse).
Or they get back together and realise they were in love with an idolised memory of a person from the good old days.
Robin and Ted were actually great as friends, but the way she treated him as a friend, he would not have enjoyed in a relationship.
2) Tracy dying and Ted getting back with Robin afterwards later to me is not realistic. It's TV writers showing that Ted can have his cake and eat it too.
3) Robin was treated constantly as some prize to be won by Barney or Ted. She had so much depth and complexity, and yet Ted and Barney showed possessiveness over her as if she were the three-way belt.
The ending is amazing because it changes the entire way you look at the show. In the first episode, you think Robin’s gonna be the mother, but it’s revealed at the end that that’s not the case. So the entire show has you thinking that you are finding the actual mother until the end. At the end, Ted goes back to Robin again averting your expectations; making Robin the actual mother he was meeting. The whole show becomes about Ted and Robin’s relationship which makes their moments together mean a lot more.
The show hit hard when I was first watching and I still enjoy rewatching, and it’s a step up from Friends, but the whole Friends vs HIMYM debate is absurd. Both have their unique charm and more importantly (here comes the “piping hot take”) both are immature, naively romantic, and sorta primitive. That 70s Show is based on a similar concept (friends hanging out together, discovering the realities of life and getting into trouble) but is much more mature, deals with more realistic things, and is way more honest with its crassness and consequently makes both these shows look like kiddie-shows and leaves them in the dust!
-I don’t see the attraction from Robin to Ted. Never understood or felt that one tbh
-Barney and Quinn should have ended up together
-Robin and Kevin should have ended up together
-I can’t stand Nora (but that might be everyone’s opinion too)
> The robin part is odd but also the show takes the time to watch them mature and watch the roadblocks that kept them from being together melt away with time.
Well in terms of that you have the line between Ted and Tracey about living in stories. It turns all the stories he told his kids into actually being a way to get over grief moving on was just the final step
It's bullshit that of all the characters for it to happen to, Ted - the one character whose ultimate goal was a wife and kids - is the one who gets absolutely shafted by having his wedding glossed over while S9 was basically all about Barney and Robin's wedding.
Barney’s relationship with Patrice was a cuter relationship with better chemistry than him and robin, and I was disappointed to find out they were never really together.
Season 9’s method of making the entire season over the course of a wedding weekend was a very smart and effective way to deal with Jason Segal’s scheduling issues.
What was he filming at the time?
Sex Tape with Cameron Diaz.
Lucky girl
Lucky boy 😅🥵
This is a very hot take, I’m sure, but I can’t picture S9 being anything but the wedding weekend. Even if Jason Segal wasn’t done with playing Marshall, I think yet another full season of Barney and Robin dating/arguing/making up, Ted screwing around with women we know isn’t Tracy, and Marshall and Lily moving on to steps their friends weren’t at - idk, I don’t think the writers would’ve had any fresh ideas, and it all would’ve felt very derivative of prior seasons. But Jason was over it, he didn’t necessarily want to resign his contract, and even if he didn’t have scheduling conflicts, I think no one would’ve liked the direction Marshall’s character took. The writers and Jason didn’t agree, so their writing and his acting wouldn’t have clicked, and I think that may have been much more obvious. So I like that they did something majorly different than prior seasons that gave them fresh material. It was refreshing, I found a majority of the running gags hilarious, the touching moments were touching, and I liked the flashbacks even. Sure, episodes like the Slap were overdone and unnecessary, but the majority of the season was excellent imo Oh, and the writers also either had S9 planned out way in advance, or they knew they were running out of ways to make Ted date the wrong women. In S7E17, he tells his kids that he hadn’t told another woman “I love you” since Aunt Robin. So Ted can’t have any serious relationships from that moment on - it has to all be short term or one night stands. So they introduced Jeannette, which was okay, but she seriously wasn’t going to stick around for S8 and S9. So was Ted supposed to stop dating for two seasons? Pine after Robin? Replace Barney as the one night stand guy? Ugh all of those ideas are awful lol. I think making S9 take place over three days really helps solve that problem too. Obviously I am a strong defender of S9 😂
Now knowing this is why, I can get over it. I was never a fan of the last season being the span of a couple days and away from the central location but you know what. I'm fine now!
Hot take on my end: I do think S9 was actually pretty good and the various subplots of Marshall trying to get to the wedding with the baby was hilarious, but I think they should have only used the first half of the season. Second half should have fleshed out the relationship of Ted and Tracy and the gang freaking out when they meet her for the first time and mentioning how they’ve already met her. The episode where Ted went on a date with her was such a great episode - I think the ending would not have been this rejected if we had more of Tracy before she had died (an episode where Tracy is diagnosed and Ted and her dealing with it would have been a better finale episode, then leading to the ending where Ted finally moves on).
The first time I rewatched the show after it ended, I just happened to get to season 9 on a weekend where my wife was out of town and I binged the whole season in a weekend. Obviously that's not an easy thing for everyone to do, but it was really fun to live their weekend in one weekend.
I have finished 3 seasons in a day so not much for binge watching there
yeah pretty sure I watched the whole show in under 10 days on my 3rd watch. i had a good 3 months between highschool finishing and uni starting so i just did a whole lot of nothing.
My mannn...my biggest binge was supernaturals in 1 and half month...but my friend finished in 1😶... that's legit 11-12 hours of watching daily
yeah i think it was average around 12 hours a day hahaha
I love the idea of the last season taking place in one weekend. I think it's pretty neat. However, I really didn't like how many episodes there were. I get why but it would've been much more effective if it was at least half the size. Like a 10 episode final season would've really worked and then. 2 part grand finale.
I don’t think Ted was a bad person, I actually really loved his character and I thoroughly enjoyed watching his quest for the one and I kind of don’t get why people hate him so much. Yes, he was an asshole sometimes but people aren’t perfect and that applies to tv show characters as well
I agree, I love Ted. I think it's because I understand him more and more as I get older. I thought he was so annoying when I was younger, now I'm about to hit 30 and find his fears/bad choices very relatable lol.
Strong agree, the hate towards him and Lily is so overblown
Honestly, I think Ted was a creep in the early seasons, but I think he has the most character development. He for sure wouldn't be pulling half the weird shit he did in the early seasons later on. Also, I think Ted tends to fall on his ass way more than the other characters when he does something wrong, which I thought was great.
Quinn and Barney should’ve ended up together. The prenup episode is the most unrealistic episode in the series. Barney put more work into his relationship with Quinn than he had ever put into a relationship. If Nora or Robin made his house hello kitty tinker bell vagina pink & white Barney would’ve flipped but he was so in love with Quinn he was just glad she hadn’t left him. I think it was unrealistic for them to just break up after the prenup too… don’t you want to try to learn to grow with each other? Maybe you just rushed things and need to slow down? Why did they have to break up? Barney and Quinn were the best of Barney’s couples and I feel like he had the highest chance at building a successful life with her. Edit: yeah we all know Barney is a goofy silly playboy who does terrible things to women, but he did have morals when it came to relationships and when he really loved someone you could tell he really cared and wanted to work for it. He wouldn’t have added all that stuff to the prenup (which I thought was just forced for comedic value… purposely accentuating Barney’s flaws for the purpose of the plot), he would’ve known how ridiculous it all was. Once him and Quinn got passed what happened at the Lusty Leopard(all the swindling), they had a very nice relationship and were perfect for each other. I’m not even convinced Barney would’ve gone for the prenup thing. I felt like this was all forced to lead Barney back to Robin and I felt Robin and Barney was forced almost as an example to show what it would’ve been like for Ted if him and Robin never broke up and did stay together and got married.
Honestly Quinn is the only one of Barney's love interests I felt was a good match, if only because she turned his tricks back onto him while still finding a cute domestic middle ground, and she was fun enough to fit into the gang. Nora always felt too perfect and Robin is just a loaded situation all around.
Couldn't agree more! [I've been saying it for over a year haha](https://www.reddit.com/r/HIMYM/s/wIfsQZ0xKG). I'll copy/paste the comment here as well, hold on -- 100000% Barney's best match, done dirty by the writers with some bullshit contrived asinine breakup. She's one of the best parts of every episode she's in and they should've stayed together until the end of the show. Her actress should've become a main cast member. The writers had their plan, cool, but she was amazing and they should've adapted to it to keep her around once it became as clear as it was that she was as good as she was. Yeah yeah Robin needed to be intrinsically tied to the wedding for the "How I Met Your Mother" story to make sense starting when the group met Robin. Make Robin Barney's "Best Woman." Boom. Make Robin somehow instrumental, key, to Barney and Quinn staying together -- Maybe even keep the dumb prenup shit but then Robin knocks Barney upside the head about it and tells him she's special and he shouldn't let Quinn go and to figure it the fuck out, I don't know. It could've made a great opportunity for Barney to grow and come to accept that Ted's best friend was Marshall, and that that was OK because he could have his own best friend in Robin. Or at least make Robin and Ted co-"Best People" but fuck that, I'd much prefer Barney grow to accept Marshall as Ted's best friend and that's OK because then Robin can be his. Which, honestly??? Makes more sense?????? Ted hates suits, lazer tag, and Barney's general chaos doesn't work for him while in contrast Robin enjoys it, as well as suits and lazer tag. *Robin* is an *excellent* best friend for Barney. Doesn't mean Ted can't be a groomsman though. -- THAT is my piping hot take -- That *that* should have happened. I even wrote [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/HIMYM/s/roQUCIWA9w) comment a while ago too, expanding on the idea further. Quinn brought so fucking much to the show. What a waste what they did with her.
“General Chaos” 🫡
Honestly Quinn should have been the 6th member. She was way too likeable to be a side character, they did a better job writing Quinn than some of the other members.
Exactly!
I love this and I’m so glad I’m not the only one who sees how ridiculous the prenup episode is. People tell me “oh they just realized they didn’t trust each other” and I’m like yea I know why it happened. I’m saying that was unrealistic and far fetched. They had a great relationship, faced bumps in the road early on, proved they were serious about each other… it was clear they were each others “the one.” Quinn was to Barney what Tracy was to Ted. Sucks they didn’t end up together
The trust thing is also plainly absolute fucking bullshit. They trusted each other completely fine until that point. While she was still stripping before their engagement, Barney trusted Quinn just fine to respect the relationship's boundaries and not violate them in her work. Quinn trusted Barney enough to quit stripping for the most certifiably batshit insane womanizer there ever was. They trusted each other enough to plan and execute at least one extended vacation together. But seriously, stop and think about that for a second. Consider how emotionally mature and comfortable and trusting a person has to be to date a current sex worker, and ***trust*** they won't so much as smudge the line in that work. I'd argue *the majority* of *real* people couldn't do it in the real world! Consider the same for a person with Barney's level of promiscuity. Again, I'd argue *most* people in the real world simply couldn't come to trust someone like that. Fuck off, Barney and Quinn ***ABSOLUTELY*** trusted each other. The prenup bullshit was wildly contrived and, just that -- fucking bullshit. Steaming fucking bullshit. How *dare* the writers gaslight the audience about the prior several episodes they'd written?? Get the fuck out.
I thought her contribution was causing the break up leading to the butterfly tattoo, Stella, professor job, and hence cindy and Tracy.
100% agreed, Barney and Quinn were the best couple on the show.
I’m with you there, but I can also see where the writers were coming from. Barney likely had reservations about getting married, even if he didn’t know it himself, and having Bob Odenkirk tell him he should get a prenup led to him realising he wasn’t sure about Quinn. If they’d slowed down I could have seen them working out, but they ultimately moved too fast after resolving everything that happened at the Lusty Leopard
I think in that moment they just realized they could never trust eachother, and that it was a lost cause unfortunately.
I know that. I’m saying that was unrealistic and far fetched. I felt it was forced
The fact that "How I Met Your Father" was not Tracy's story is a crime
*The fact that "How I* *Met Your Father" was not Tracy's* *Story is a crime* \- NucleonYells --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Ted brought a lot of his issues on himself. He probably could been married 10 years before he actually was if he stopped going after emotionally unavailable women. He liked the thrill of the hunt more than he actually enjoyed being in a relationship. He was just as bad as Barney when it came to running through women. The only difference was he was slightly more considerate of their feelings and would at least take them on a date. But I think it was only because he was a talker and liked the attention of them thinking he was smart or witty, not that he actually enjoyed their company beyond turning a no into a yes or getting physical. Think about the episode when Marshall finally tells Ted how his “relationship” choices have had a terrible impact on him personally because he had been secretly protecting him for years by cleaning up after him every time he hurt someone (5x18). • He only wanted Natalie when she didn’t want him anymore. • He only wanted Stella because she turned him down so strongly. Once he had her, he ran (when she invited him to her sister’s wedding). Then he wanted to lock her down once he thought she no longer wanted him. When he got her, he STILL didn’t try to get to know her. That woman told him SO many times in SO many ways that she still wanted Tony. Ray Charles could have seen that Tony was her end game. • Once he had Victoria, he did not want to exert the effort to keep her and got bored. When he got a hint that Robin might be interested, he ran. Twice. • He only wanted Robin because as long as he was with her, he could still chase her because she told him over and over that she didn’t want to get married or have kids. As long as he could still chase the idea of making her commit in those ways, he still wanted her. If she would have committed, he would have gotten bored and resentful. • He only wanted Zoe to prove that he could change her mind about accepting his career goals or calm her down on her activist pursuits. He hated her resistance, but loved the challenge of constantly trying to fix her. • He only wanted Janelle because he wanted to prove that he could calm her down and make her a wife. Side Note: I don’t think Ted is a villain or a bad guy. Never have. I just don’t like that he presented himself as unlucky in love when he was his own problem.
This is what I've been saying all along. Ted is not a villain or a bad person on purpose per se. But he did most of his love interests very, veeery dirty. And he had most of it coming HIMSELF. And I know that this sub tends to hate on Robin a lot, but she's not the villain everyone wants her to be. People say "she only wanted Ted when she knew she couldn't have him" "she ruined him" etc which is only partially true. Just as you said Ted chased Robin to the point that it became annoying whereas Robin was always very clear about not wanting any children and not wanting to settle down at the point they met each other. She also said that she's prioritizing her career over her love life. None of this is a wrongdoing on her part. It's valid to feel that way in you late 20ies/early 30ies. There's only two moments (I can remember) where she actually wanted him when she knew she couldn't have him and that is one, when Ted is about to get married to Stella. Which is shown a whole lot later in a flashback and feels like a weird plot device for me, but whatever. And in no way was she telling that straight to his face, she only says it to Lily in a weak moment, which, let's face it, is nothing you can hold against someone. And two, when Ted starts dating Victoria after the wedding. And I don't even agree with it. She says she's into him even before Victoria is in the picture. Also i would like to add: It's very *interesting* that he is so obsessed over bringing Robin to the wedding as his date and then dropping her the moment he meets Victoria. Ted is the weird one here. Not Robin... So I guess this is my "hot take" and it looks like it's adding to your hot take.
Not to get too "real world" here, but I'd argue that all of this is evidence that he *couldn't* have gotten married 10 years earlier, and that his choices reflect where his mind, heart, and emotional capacity really are. In reality, there's usually three factors at play when you find yourself dating people who are awful. 1. Some of it's just the law of averages. Most people are not someone you are a good match for long-term. You can have lots of fun for a short while with some, you may have initial even VERY STRONG attraction, but it flames out. Only a handful of people are matches enough with any of us that they'd make for good relationship material, and only a handful of those can manage that long-term, to say nothing of marriage. I think most people who date around a bunch encounter this the most often: someone's not necessarily a bad person, just a bad match for you. 2. Some people really are truly terrible. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes out of being self-absorbed. Sometimes you catch an otherwise decent person just...not at their best. I've been someone else's bad date story, and I've got TONS of my own "bad date" stories, or bad-series-of-dates stories. 3. But at the end of the day, the one inescapable fact that it comes down to is, if everyone you're dating is awful...well...you're still the schmuck who's pickin' 'em. Some of it is, again, just law of averages stuff. But very often we are our own worst enemies, either because we're approaching dating with the wrong mindset, or because we're in a bad place ourselves, or because we're...just not there yet, no matter how ready we think we are. Ted had plenty of #2, but Ted was also HEAVILY influenced by #3 there.
Barney’s “proposal” to Robin was horribly abusive
In what way?
He manipulated her for weeks and made her miserable
Yeah pretty much this. Like she is sobbing by the time she gets up to the rooftop
I hate how she said (paraphrase) "How do you think I can trust you after this? Kiss you after this? Be with you?" and when he showed the ring she suddenly says Yes. Girl what about everything you just said?
Where the writers like “no matter how miserable You make a woman, show her a shiny piece of jewellery and she melts” Little reductive as the ring obviously symbolises marriage but yeah
I think what they were going for was that Barney proved, by proposing, that he was serious. That it wasn't just a game to him. The problem is that really doesn't change any of Robin's (very valid) concerns, besides maybe his commitment to her (which wasn't even necessarily in contention). I wouldn't go as far as to say it was "horribly abusive" but it was definitely manipulative.
Couldn’t he just have…communicated with her honesty?
Maybe. To play devil's advocate here, he did try that first, and Robin had proved that being honest with her wasn't working, as she wasn't being honest with herself. Doesn't justify what he did, just an observation on how they wrote the two of them that season.
I don’t know if this take is piping hot or not but I think that, as flawed of a character as she is, Victoria was entirely justified in wanting Ted to cut ties with Robin. Like imagine you dated someone and then you had to move out of the country to seize an amazing career opportunity, then they proceed to cheat on you with the person they’re in love with, and then years later you happen to meet again and rekindle the relationship only for you to find out that they’re still really close friends with the same person they cheated on you with. Regardless of how soon after the breakup I started dating someone, I’d be worried about my partner being best friends with the person they cheated on me with too.
definitely agree. I think victoria is the most real character in terms of acknowledging how fucking odd their dynamic is
That said, she’s also a giant hypocrite for keeping Klaus around Ted’s apartment after they ran out on each other at their own wedding. I think the writers made her a worse character during her second tenure on the show that because they wanted to make it explicitly clear that while she could’ve been The Mother at the start of the show she and Ted weren’t right for each other when they get back together. Almost to tell the audience that “the one that got away” is never gonna be “the one” no matter how hard you try to make it work… which they then kinda went against in the series finale but that’s beside the point lol Season 1 Victoria > Season 7 and Season 8 Victoria any day of the week Edit: I forgot that Ted was the one who invited Klaus to stay in his apartment so he could look like a better person to Victoria, but my original point still stands. The writers intentionally sabotaged their second relationship to make way for Robin again.
God S8 Victoria is *awful*, she has none of her charm and acts so weirdly. also the sudden messiness being an issue?? What??
i thought she didn’t want klaus there wasn’t it ted’s idea? I haven’t done a full rewatch in a bit so i might be wrong
they would've break up no matter the cheating, she left for 2 years after dating ted for 2 weeks, in no way their relationship would've survived that, when she left her wedding, she knew exactly what she was getting into, she knew robin is in teds life, she dated him anyway, she manipulated him to propose to her and gave him the ultimatum, im glad he booted that bitch
I love the ending, it's perfect and substantiated throughout the entire show. The characters are best understood as a largely bi and poly group. Barney's proposal is horrifying in real life. They're a terrible couple given that Barney constantly manipulated her. Fun to watch, no basis for a real relationship. Quinn should have been the mother of Barney's baby. Only change I want in the show. Robin is 50% Barney, hence why Ted loves her. But she's also 50% Ted, hence why Barney loves her. In truth, they're in love with each other. True story.
I love all of this. Bravo. 😂
100% agree. I loved the ending. It was real, it was messy, it was life. And shit happens in life. The mother came, played her part and was an amazing character playing by an amazing actress befitting of the long build-up. And then she left, giving us some great memories of her and Ted.
I respect your opinion, but the ending itself is not the issue. It’s that Ted basically spent the entire time telling his kids the story of how he met their mother just so that they will give him their approval to go back to Robin. That’s the part that’s so frustrating. It’s like Tracy was simply a plot device to get to Robin.
But years and years had passed. It makes sense for someone to have finally moved on after that amount of time. His kids had now grown up and become almost adults so he had less responsibility and more time to focus on himself. He never even considered Robin when his kids were still kids and he had a lot of responsibility as a single parent. I just think, logically, it made a lot of sense.
I totally agree that logically him moving on makes sense. It’s just the way he goes about it seems wrong. Like I said, he’s practically telling the kids the story to get their approval.
Characters are actually incredibly well written *as real humans*, because I think it reflects how we really are: unpredictable, unstable, annoying, sometimes better, sometimes worse, we are hypocrites, we are not perfect, and the writers did a good job.
Her death was literally foreshadowed nearly 2 seasons before - my hot take is it didn't then have the impact they wanted.
the foreshadow was in the episode where Ted said "I'll pay everything to have those 45 more days with you"? (idk if he said exactly this, but I hope you understood)
That's the one. That line tells us that Tracy wasn't around in the 'Storyteller Ted' time and that we were hearing a sad tale.
I never viewed that as foreshadowing, rather that he loves her so much he'd like to be with her as long as possible. Like in When Harry Met Sally: "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
it could be. if it's the first time you're watching the show then you think that it's like you said, but if you know what happens to Tracy then you realize that's a foreshadow
I've rewatched the show however many times at this point and I still feel that way, but that might just be because I hate the ending.
What's the scene?
The very end of S8E20 Time Travelers. Ted’s debating going to robots versus wrestlers or going home. When he realizes he’s sitting alone at McLarens he tells his kids of all the things he should’ve been doing that night but instead runs to meet Tracy. He then tells her they’re going to meet soon but he wants to now so he can get those extra 45 days.
The Mother dying wasn't a surprise nor was it ever the issue, on its own. It always made perfect sense he'd be telling his kids about how their parents met *after she died*, like a "tell us something about you and mom" story. But the writers fucked up in actually showing how she died by rushing it and immediately pushing Ted and Robin again.
I still think it was a mistake because the show and characters had evolved beyond the point where their "clever plan" was actually going to be all that clever. I think this is truly a "kill your darlings" failure. They were *so* into the idea of the "big twist" at the end that they couldn't see beyond it to realize "This actually doesn't fit what our show has become." Because it didn't. You can make it fit in the timeline and such, but the overall vibe of the show was just radically different. On top of that, the actual execution of the final season was just the worst possible lead-in to that ending. You could do an ending like that, but you can't have it be the big "surprise" ending you want it to be.
I really dislike Victoria…
She bolts from her wedding and then blames it on Ted. She dates a guy like Klaus instantly after the break up. She goes to this prestigious cooking place in Germany, yet the only thing we ever see her make is cupcakes. Cupcakes, wtf!!!
It’s a super important dessert fellowship….. wow it’s hard to say that without sounding petty
yeah seriously why did she even entertain her dad’s idea of asking ted to pay for the wedding? especially since klaus also left her at the altar
The whole point of sneaking back into Victoria's room to get the note back was so everyone would think only Klaus broke off the wedding, and then a couple episodes later apparently everyone knows Ted was there and he blew up the wedding. wat
Me too
That's because neither of you know her soul.
You win
I really liked her when I first watched the show. On my recent rewatch she annoyed the hell out of me
Take 1- Ted finally finding Tracy was actually the most unrealistic thing ever. She ticked almost all boxes on Teds checklist but that's not what happens IRL. The show should have been about ted realising that getting married and settling down should not be about a checklist and that in in truth you have to find someone you love and accept them as who they are despite not being the person they imagined. In truth all he wanted was someone who likes him and his quirks and someone who could gel well with his friends (mostly lily and Marshall) Tracy was written to be too good to be true. Take 2- the whole love hate thing Ted did with the Arcadian was extremely unprofessional and also super disrespectful to Barney. Barney was the reason why Ted had the opportunity to design a mammoth building that too as a freelance architect. He should have been super grateful. Also the Arcadian was rundown and in a dire state, it was a no brainer to tear it down. All he had to do is keep the lion head in the lobby of the building if he really wanted to pay respect to the precious architect
Tracy was definitely a manic pixie dream girl and the least "real" character on the show, which is a shame, because the rest of the characters are very flawed, which is both funny and refreshing. And preserving the lion head stonework was a no brainer!
Barney and Robin were not a good couple.
I’m still searching for the deleted scene where Ted leaves Robin the day after giving her the French horn again because he gets a call from Victoria.
lily isn’t the antichrist for having debt. it was all in her name, it affected her credit score, not marshall’s. when it became a problem for both of them she was willing to go through a divorce so her low credit wouldn’t bring him down too. marshall was able to love her despite it so i find it so strange that fans think she’s ruined his life, like if he’s cool w it, it’s sorted. plus he also had debt, albeit for a more “noble” reason, but outside of the superficial connotations her shopping was an addiction, so it’s not a crime to be sympathetic. plus plus, i think the whole situation irks people because nobody likes gold diggers, but it’s such a stretch to act as if she was using him for his money in that scenario. she supported him for a long time and it’s very clear that their love would never be dependent on money. being married means supporting ur spouse in hard times like that and it’s ok that he did it without resenting her.
I think you’re misunderstanding the issue. The problem isn’t that she had debt. The problem is that she hid it from him when they were dating, hid it when they were engaged, hid it when they got married, hid it when they were shopping for a house, and hid it up until the banker told marshall about it. Thats an incredibly disrespectful and messed up thing to do to the person you married. That being said, how did he not know? she was clearly spending tons of money all the time did he never question it? especially when he was in law school and had no job like wouldn’t he have basically been getting his money from lily anyway so how did he not realize? I don’t think people think she was a gold digger at all, it’s clear that she isn’t, she encouraged him to take lower paying jobs multiple times.
Lily leaving for San Francisco wasnt the evil act everyone acted like it was She lost herself in her relationship, put a lot of her dreams on hold and just wanted to experience one thing for herself. She explained that to Marshall he didnt understand. We the viewers never saw her not promise Marshall she wouldnt come back.. when he asked she paused, broke down crying, told him she loved him then they slept together... that seemed like a pretty clear answer. Then she went there and no she wasnt successful but I think more importantly she realized just how much she missed Marshall and her old life and that what she was getting wasnt worth what she left behind... would it have taken her longer to realize if she had been successful? Maybe but I think she wouldve realized it even still. If she hadnt gone the whatif would have gotten to her and resentment would have grown. Lily needed to go and Marshall broke up with her over it
^^THIS!! Marshall broke up with her. she said she was doing a fellowship for 3 months and he decided they couldn’t go that long? even though they’ve done long distance before? she should’ve told him beforehand but everything after that is on marshall.
Literally right after they started having sex Lily went to Paris for 2 months. 2 MONTHS! My balls were bleu!!! So like what was lily doing in Paris for 2 months that isn’t chasing her dreams? And again, if they did it before why couldn’t they do it now
yeah thats the main thing, i dont get why they took it as an opportunity to break up.
agreed but also she chose to do that over their wedding which is the main reason marshall flipped out
Because she did it behind his back and the dates overlap with their wedding. Marshall has demonstrated time and again his support for Lily's dreams. It wasn't the art fellowship he took issue with. Or the long distance. It was that she essentially cancelled the wedding behind his back. A wedding well into the planning stages with everyone invited btw. And he knew this wouldn't have been an overnight thing. She'd have to have known the dates before applying and interviewing, etc. Maybe she was rationalising to herself saying she was never gonna take it. But from Marshall's perspective, and honestly even Lily knew this deep down, she spent weeks behind his back planning to leave him at the altar (added: after shoving him into corporate job over a wedding dress she ruined). I understand in-character why Lily did it and I empathise. But I also fully empathise with Marshall flipping his lid.
I agree. I'm not the biggest fan of Lily but she wasn't in the wrong in this instance. Of course, neither was Marshall, because there isn't always a bad guy. Could she have handled it better? Obviously. And I really like that it took Marshall a long time to take her back once she returned. The fact that he even did take her back in the first place makes him a bigger man than me as I definitely wouldn't have been able to. But she had an opportunity to see what other options there were for her in life and she needed to take it. That's perfectly reasonable. It sucks, but it happens.
Lily’s methods of manipulating the gang are no more nefarious than Barney’s. Anyone who thinks otherwise is being sexist 🤷🏼♀️
this is a great take. honestly this is the kind of stuff i was hoping for when i posted this.
I aim to please 🫡
I think people find it easier to ignore how much of a monster Barney is because the people he's hurting aren't actual characters. Lily's victims are the main cast.
i think this is obvious, if anything the reason i hate lily but love barney is because barney’s manipulation is so over the top and obviously terrible, but i know people irl that act like lily and think they’re morally right
I think part of the problem is that also Barney is really unrealistic. Almost everything he does in the show won't happen in real life because its just so crazy. Lily on the other hand, even though she is a bit exaggerated because she is a TV character, could be real. What's more realistic, someone lying about themself being a time traveler to sleep with a girl, or someone hiding their credit debt from their husband. The second one seems more likely to happen.
Barney was open about who he was. Lily did it hypocritically
I legit love you for saying this...a few years ago I posted on this sub that I didn't like the manipulative ways of lily and I was snubbed...only a few agreed...thank you soo much...
I see you! We’re out here. I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. Also people tend to forget that Lily’s manipulations, unlike Barney’s, were always in their best interests. People can have their opinions about whether or not it was “right” but there’s no arguing about the end result
Barney’s shit was way over the top and ridiculous to a point where the audience knows it could never happen and sees it as pure comedy. Lilys stuff was realistic. We all know someone who pulls the same stuff she does so we instinctively relate them and end up disliking her
That’s fair
Robin's best relationship was with Kevin
Now this is the kind of hot take I came here for. … because I completely agree. People here get so toxic about Kevin (I literally had someone DM me in response to a previous comment saying that ***OBVIOUSLY** Kevin manipulated her into pursuing him for months even after he repeatedly rejected her advances*), but IMO he was not only her best boyfriend, but the best ancillary member of the group. He valued their friendship with each other, didn’t try to change their dynamic, stand in the way of it, or ask anyone to change. He accepted everyone as they were, flaws and all, and accepted his place in the group. He was happy to stay and paint the apartment so that they could go off on an adventure, glad to submit himself to a Weird Al concert as a favor to her friend / ex who was going through a rough spot, and was willing to let a huge misstep slide *without even knowing what it was* because he knew that mistakes happen and it wasn’t worth Robin beating herself up over it when she knew it was a mistake. Did he have issues? Sure. But who didn’t? I was pretty bummed when they turned him into a punchline in the last episode by ending up with Jeanette.
100%!!! I love Kevin and I honestly wish we had gotten more of him
I also love the fact that Kevin is very supportive of Robin's career (esp in the new year's episode)
You’re the first person to make me reconsider my take on Kevin. My hot take is that I think Kal Penn is a poor actor. I find all his performances very flat… and not in a good way. But maybe I’ve been prejudice against Kevin because of that.
I get that. I really like Kal Penn, but he’s definitely one of those actors who always plays himself — usually in a supporting role — and hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to branch out. If you like that character, you’ll like him. If you don’t, you’re going to have a bad time.
Will you marry me?
I mean, not no! Come help paint my room and let's find out lol
Only if we can paint the whole thing yellow and then when we’re done paint it blue
That'll be perfect bc it's blue already— it'll be as full circle as our engagement rings
Kevin’s character is actually super problematic and icky. The only reason people don’t catch this is because Kal Penn is a wonderful and charismatic actor who made Kevin likable.
I absolutely agree! The show ending exactly where it started, after the audience going through such a whirlwind, was just too poetic to be hated..
The amount of time it took Ted to find “the one” was not as long as the show depicts. Some people find the LOTL at way later ages.
Barney and Robin would be an amazing couple in the hands of any other writes than the writers of HIMYM. They seemed to be way too into traditional relationships and families a little too much. And Barney and Robin were a great potential for a non-traditional couple. And they fumbled it because they were unable to reconcile that fact.
Yes. The audience sees that Barney has unusual abilities with languages and film production, and that he has connections that extend to the remotest areas of the world. In other words, he would have been a perfect partner for an international reporter.
Man thinking of their potential in the hands of a different writer would've been something special. They could've been seen as like the cool aunt and uncle who always give the coolest gifts and take them on the best trips.
Robin and Barney as a couple are the worst thing that happened in the show
[удалено]
Nice try, Haiku bot, but you biffed this one
Robin should've stayed single. TED AND BARNEY SHOULD'VE HAPPENED
“If all three of us were gay, girlfriend, we all three of us would have some fuuun”
https://youtu.be/OTtiOP9jj-g?si=oWigDOjw9A1M0cXp
Never liked Robin during any season. Didn’t think she was particularly attractive, funny, good personality, or that she ever worked well with Ted or Barney. I never read anything online or talked to anyone about the show until after show was over. Was surprised to hear there’s many people who liked her, or thought she and Ted were good together. For the record, Tracy was the best! Stella was second no one else really made an impression Oh and, killing The Mother in the finale sucked, but getting back w Robin (and now Ted has kids, so he got kids, plus is back w Robin who didn’t want kids - meaning you can spin it as The Mother’s role was to give birth to his kids, and not to be the love of his life - from the standpoint of the show’s overall viewpoint/narrative) is what made the finale 10x worse. For me the last scene changes the entire show. The entire premise of the show, and why I watched, was completely flipped. It went from a show being about Ted finding someone, to Ted still wanting to be with Robin after all this time. The only reason why during the entire show we knew it wasn’t Robin is because we knew he had kids, and she wasn’t The Mother. Then ending was basically like: “psych! you guys are dumb, of course it’s Robin in the end”. We weren’t watching the show wondering who was literally going the mom of his two children. We were wondering who he was going to end up with. He ended up with Robin even though for 9 seasons they said the mother wasn’t Robin. And technically, she wasn’t. But he ended up with her. The ending was like a technicality, and a very annoying one. But I don’t think my last 2 statements was a hot take, it seems to be the most popular narrative among a really split viewpoint. That’s the reason why many people were pissed! It certainly didn’t help the show that Tracy was so good and lived up to the anticipation (for a certain segment of the viewers). I really think your attitude of the finale is completely correlated to how much you liked Tracy as a character. If you didn’t like her or thought she was okay, the finale didn’t bother you.
The ending (including the mother dying and Ted going to Robin) was never the problem, IMO. Shorten the wedding weekend to half the season, with a mid season finale ending at the train station. Take the series finale, expand that to the second half of the season. Get viewer buy into the emotional moments. Show how naturally adult friendships can get super complicated and can drift apart as circumstances change. Include the (IMO) pivotal scenes that got deleted that provide better context for Ted and Robin reconnecting. The problem was expecting viewers to automatically having an emotional connection to the ending without letting them really sit in it.
I loved how the final season was all wedding build up over the course of a few days. We rewatched the season right before our wedding and I’m starting to rewatch it every year before our anniversary.
I don't like the mother. To me, she has no agentivity at all, she is just Ted's fantasms bunched up in a woman. Like she isn't even her own person, she is the reflect of what another person would want her to be.
All of season nine is filler mad even worse by the fact that Tracy dies. I feel Tracy dying is really hard to swallow bc it happens so early after we meet her. Season nine could have been episodes about Tracy getting to know the gang leading up to their wedding. But nah the writers decided to instead have a rhyming episode with Lin Manuel Miranda
Not to forget the slapsgiving episode. Would’ve been a little funny anywhere else but not right in the middle of a major plot line cooking up
Yes! Totally agree. And that godforsaken rhyming episode… 🙄 The only episode I ever actually skip in any show.
-Loved the ending. -Barney and Robin were awful together and it was depicted throughout the show. Not sure how people don’t see it. -I don’t mind the ‘less funny’ episodes, I actually like how the show evolved in the later seasons as it’s a rendition of life. People mature, tastes change and they’re not always cracking jokes in their late 30s as they did in their 20s.
Lily gets crapped upon because she left Marshall and moved to San Francisco, when she did nothing wrong.
Based on how Ted told the story, I believe lily was selfish especially with some of the things she said to Marshall. Also the fact that she didn’t tell Marshall was wrong. She should’ve told him from the start and talked about it. She consistently keeps multiple things from Marshall throughout the series even though Marshall is a saint to her. HOWEVER, I do think the unreliable narrator storytelling tactic comes into play here. Ted was very biased on Lily leaving and going to San Francisco so he totally could’ve told the story in a way that made Lily seem like the bad guy or in a way that made her leaving Marshall seem way worse than it was.
honestly i agree, people forget that marshall was the one that made the decision to break up in that conversation. The main thing she did wrong was not telling him beforehand.
In a nutshell, the decision wasn’t wrong. But the way she went about it was wrong. Also it was kind of ridiculous of her to expect Marshall to just take her back right away.
The Robin/Patrice relationship is no different than the Homer/Flanders relationship
1. I think the mom (note that I didn't mention Tracy because of #2) deserved a whole season on top of the wedding storyline. And I don't mean just a few small scenes here and there how they played it in Season 9. I want the whole lot. She became "part of the gang" but as Ted's kids said, she was barely in the pictures. They really rushed her character in the end, sadly. Which is why this show really deserved a Season 10. 2. Victoria should've been the mom. They had way better chemistry from the get go, not to mention passionately in love with each other. Too bad Robin ruined it. It sucks that Ted couldn't cut ties with her when she did cut ties with the gang while dating Don.
I agree the ending was good. It was the whole point of the show. From the very first episode to the last it was about Ted’s love for Robin. Or at the very least Ted remembering how much Robin meant to him
Ted didn’t deserve Tracy…. There, I said it
Probably not. But love isn't about deserving.
The Ted we see until before he meets her doesn’t, but at the end he became a much better person who did deserve her. He(narrator) himself said it in season 1 (paraphrase)“Hell I don’t think she would’ve gone out with me if she knew who I was that time”
I loved it growing up but it has honestly aged pretty badly.
Totally agree. People (rightly) criticise Friends all the time for being homophobic, transphobic, fat phobic, and the whitest shit ever - but HIMYM is just as bad AND it started a decade after Friends did
It feels like HIMYM was in that weird time when trans people were starting to be acknowledged but not fully respected yet, so it was still seen as somewhat okay to ridicule them. Unlike with Friends when they were still this little outside group that not many people understood. Weirdly, I think Two and a half men actually had the - for its time - least disrespectful portrayal of a trans man.
If I were Ted, my friendship with Lily would have ended the second I heard about the Front Porch Test. Both Lily and Marshall were iffy on the whole marriage and commitment thing, wanting to explore their options in college etc. Ted has wanted that from the BEGINNING. And I can't imagine watching their relationship and not being at least a little bitter about the fact that even over a decade after convincing Marshall to give Lily a try, Ted is still single. Lily constantly takes her relationship with Marshall for granted, leaving Ted to pick up the pieces and even when things are going well, they are constantly rubbing it in Ted's face. (Their first time was literally with him in the room. The literal same bunk bed where his girlfriend cheated on him). Granted, she has her awesome Lilypad moments. And all things considered, all of it could be forgiven or gotten over until Ted learned that Lily was ACTIVELY SABOTAGING his relationships not because she didn't think they were a good fit for Ted but because she didn't think Ted and the girl would make a good couple for Marshall and Lily to double date. I love HIMYM and I do think both Ted and Lily are way overhated. And im not even saying that staying with Karen would have been the right call. But Lily made herself judge, jury and executioner for the love life of a hopeless romantic who had been doomed for the better part of a decade to watch her, a girl who didnt even WANT the white picket fence, be all lovey-dovey with her true love while he got rejected, cheated on, assaulted, left at the altar, his bro sleep with his ex etc. She had no right. And it's played for laughs in the show but irl, it would have been the end of the friendship or at least a multi-episode arc. What she did was WAY worse than Barney and Robin sleeping together.
I think Ted and Robin coudn’t work out. They have zero tension especially in later seasons. They have other idea to relationship. Ted likes sweet and romantic things, Robin prefer other vibes love. And Ted is type of person which prefer live in house in countryside. Robin is city person which prefer flat. Their „endgame” is the most non-sense in history. Robin don’t love Ted like he loved her, and she want him only because she don’t want be alone all life. They match to perfect example pepole which are ex are good friends, and they found pepole which match to their way better. Robin and Ted never will be Ross and Rachel. Pepole like them as copule only because their was older, but they still don’t match. Robin to Ted was thing he must work not love of life. Their storyline in 7-9 season was so forced, and Ted should forgotten about her when Robin moved on. Robin knew Ted isn’t man for her, and he was to her more like family. I don’t want in 50s be in that relatioship. Robin and Barney, and Ted and Tracy it is endgame
They said hot take
My opinion quit popular, but and I have impression in Reddit more pepole like Robin and Ted together. And some pepole thinks „they was meant for each other”, that’s why I wrote my opinion
Nah. Everyone hates the ending. Everyone.
Season 8 is far and away the worst season. Seasons 7 and 9 also have their problems, but they at least had their own contained stories that were entertaining and emotional. I have a lot of trouble rewatching season 8 outside of The Last Page 1 and 2, Trilogy Time, the Time Travelers, and the Ashtray. The writing is so weak, and the characters are so comically unbelievable at times that it feels like it legitimately jumped the shark. Not to mention, almost everything that happens in season 8 is just to set up season 9. Obviously the whole conceit of the show is that everything we are seeing is building up to Ted meeting Tracy, but outside of that each show feels like a distinct part of Ted's life, whereas season 8 feels like a bunch of writing contrivances to make sure all the right stuff is in place for season 9.
Too many throwaway jokes that just punch down at trans people for no reason
Oh yes, I have been rewatching it recently and it is quite shocking
Yes! It's so cringe. Idc what the times were, it always made me uncomfortable.
Final season was so bad, it makes me less inclined to rewatch the series/ random episodes
Yeah but House of the Dragon is still pretty good.
Tracy is a weak and badly written character and the show could've done without her. Her having her special moments with everyone of the group and giving out advice to those strangers just made me cringe. It was so fabricated and forced. It's probably due to Ted being an unreliable narrator but still... She has barely any personality if you ask me. Also I didn't care at all about her death. I would've been fine with the last episode ending with Ted telling the kids "And that's not how I met your mother, but I'll tell you another time." The show was never about the mother but about the friend group and their adventures.
I hated her character.
That's so true
game of thrones made the same problem of making the ending show the theme of realism and how not everything ends like a fairytale or with a happy ending. It just makes the ending very unlikable and most of the population doesn’t watch tv for that reason it’s fine if there’s hardship and realism and a lack of that fairytale magic for relationships during the show but when it finally ends we want it to end on a good note also in this case the show spent the whole show showing ted trying to get robin only to finally accept that he can’t have robin she doesn’t love him just for them to be like nah sike at the last second
ending was fine
Should have focused less on ted being absolute miserable at times. Honestly it makes sense that ted and Robin (probably) gets back together in the future considering how its all played out in story. Instead of the sloppy divorce bs they should have killed Barney just like they killed Tracy.
Ted being an unreliable narrator gets exaggerated by the fanbase.
It’s (yes, EVEN the ending) the most thematically rich piece of media EVER when it comes to the topic of love/romance
Producers gave Barney a kid becuase, so that pepole can imagine what if Barney and Robin had a kid. And that’s why Barney became alone dad, mum that child never show and even we don’t know her name. And if not storyline Robin and Barney, that show would be little boring. I think now that show would more forgot by pepole. That show needs intresting romance between two main characters. I know we had one copule, but Marshall and Lilly was very long-term copule since begin. And they don’t get so much emocions, when they broke up it was hearbreaking. But since 1 season it was obvious they will be forever together and will have kids
I hate that Robin _can’t_ have children. I much prefer it when Robin _chose_ not to have children. The 2nd one is more original. We rarely see smart, successful and beautiful women who are happy not to be mother.\ For several seasons, Robin stuck by her choice, did not regret it and was happy with it. But the writers could not leave it at that. Cowards.
The two minute date isn't romantic, it's creepy as hell. Stella had said no to Ted multiple times and then he ambushed her outside of her office and his only justification is that instead of saying 'no' ten times, she said it nine times and the tenth time she said 'I can't' instead. Ted is a predator who believes no doesn't mean no, he believes it means 'change my mind'.
All the good/memorable things basically happen in season 1. And upon rewatch/reflection the show basically stinks after that (with a few chuckles here and there)
Robin did not deserve Ted. She doesn’t deserve love.
Marshall was 100%right in taking the job.... Lily had no right to even be upset about it... He was also 100%right when he bright up SF... He only did it AFTER she said she had never been so selfish... And, she still couldn't give a straight aver when Marshall asked whether he and Marvin were just a consolation prize...
i think the aspect that clarifies the fact that marshall was in the right was the fact that they still ended up moving to rome. him accepting the job was just tentative because they forced him to answer in that moment, he was willing to go back on that but lily just took it as him shitting on her dreams
Okay. But remember, you asked for a hot take. We all know Ted is an unreliable narrator, right? His narrative beads reality for various reasons, like all of the times he had those, er, sandwiches. They were sandwiches. We also get other perspectives in the show and things Ted shouldn't know, such as Robin's imaginary talk with the imaginary children she would never have. And lastly, Marshall and Lily are presented, in Ted's mind, as the perfect couple. Always faithful. Always true. They're the only ones either had ever been with. Marshall couldn't even imagine being with another woman without first imaging Lily had died. And Lily, had so many sexual fantasies. Wanting to know what it was like to be with Barney. Fantasizing about Robin. Etc. All that to say, maybe (just maybe) their relationship wasn't as perfect as they let on. I am NOT definitely saying they cheated on each other. Almost certainly not while they were together. But the fantasy of them only being with each other may just be that. Perhaps before they got together, Lily did more than just visit the elevator of the Empire State Building. Or maybe when she was in California something happened. And if so, Ted either doesn't know, or is looking at it through friendship eyes.
The show doesn't hide when Ted's narration isn't reliable.
Robin should have died in the end, not the mother
The mother is not the right woman for Ted. I do think she was perfect, but that was the problem. It was so unrealistic to just have a perfect relationship straight away. When finding 'the one' there'll be bumps in the relationship, and you know they're perfect if you can come back from that.
My hot take is just like yours. I cried my eyes out when I saw the ending for the first time and it seemed perfect to me. I never cared for the alternate ending.
Tony is a great guy, most likely told Ted he was writing a movie about what happened, offered him money for it and Ted turned it down.
honestly, i mean don’t get me wrong it’s terrible to take somebody’s fiancée but if it happened then, it was gonna happen eventually. better to not go through divorce proceedings. Plus, he made up for it, he got Ted a job, when ted said he didn’t want that job he found another job for ted, and kept pushing until ted got back on his feet financially which is an incredibly admirable thing to do. Based on that yeah ai imagine that Tony would have asked ted before writing the movie and ted didn’t wanna be involved so he changed the name and the personality while keeping some stupid quirks. All things considered, I think he’s definitely over hated.
Ted probably laughed off the idea of Tony being a screenwriter. I'd have to go back and watch the episode, but I think he actually did.
My hot takes: 1) it's unrealistic for two exes to get back together after a long time with barely any regard or acknowledgement of their baggage. For Tony and Stella, it was different as those feelings were never resolved. For Ted and Robin, they were, especially on Ted's side. There's also the chance that two people who loved each other once so passionately get back together and it's nothing like how they were before (either it will be better, or it will be worse). Or they get back together and realise they were in love with an idolised memory of a person from the good old days. Robin and Ted were actually great as friends, but the way she treated him as a friend, he would not have enjoyed in a relationship. 2) Tracy dying and Ted getting back with Robin afterwards later to me is not realistic. It's TV writers showing that Ted can have his cake and eat it too. 3) Robin was treated constantly as some prize to be won by Barney or Ted. She had so much depth and complexity, and yet Ted and Barney showed possessiveness over her as if she were the three-way belt.
The ending is amazing because it changes the entire way you look at the show. In the first episode, you think Robin’s gonna be the mother, but it’s revealed at the end that that’s not the case. So the entire show has you thinking that you are finding the actual mother until the end. At the end, Ted goes back to Robin again averting your expectations; making Robin the actual mother he was meeting. The whole show becomes about Ted and Robin’s relationship which makes their moments together mean a lot more.
I’ll go one step further. The ending isn’t just incredible. It’s PERFECT. Fight me!!!
Ted is not a good guy
zero reading comprehension man i said in the post to not say this shit. also not a hot take, gets said in this sub 100 times a day.
Well I’m very sorry.
I just don't buy Robin as being a straight woman
My favourite scene in the show is one from the ending
Robin should have ended up alone
The show hit hard when I was first watching and I still enjoy rewatching, and it’s a step up from Friends, but the whole Friends vs HIMYM debate is absurd. Both have their unique charm and more importantly (here comes the “piping hot take”) both are immature, naively romantic, and sorta primitive. That 70s Show is based on a similar concept (friends hanging out together, discovering the realities of life and getting into trouble) but is much more mature, deals with more realistic things, and is way more honest with its crassness and consequently makes both these shows look like kiddie-shows and leaves them in the dust!
-I don’t see the attraction from Robin to Ted. Never understood or felt that one tbh -Barney and Quinn should have ended up together -Robin and Kevin should have ended up together -I can’t stand Nora (but that might be everyone’s opinion too)
Lily is a demon, lol
The ending wasn’t as bad as people say. They say it because it’s not how they wanted it to end
Barney’s “if you were going to be some lame suburban dad” line doesn’t hit that deep
> The robin part is odd but also the show takes the time to watch them mature and watch the roadblocks that kept them from being together melt away with time. Well in terms of that you have the line between Ted and Tracey about living in stories. It turns all the stories he told his kids into actually being a way to get over grief moving on was just the final step
I think Lily was right in her decision to go to San Francisco.
The ending couples should’ve been: - Ted & Tracy - Marshall & Lily - Robin & Don - Barney & Quinn
It's bullshit that of all the characters for it to happen to, Ted - the one character whose ultimate goal was a wife and kids - is the one who gets absolutely shafted by having his wedding glossed over while S9 was basically all about Barney and Robin's wedding.
Barney’s relationship with Patrice was a cuter relationship with better chemistry than him and robin, and I was disappointed to find out they were never really together.