AlwaysBL

PhoenixRising

TFTNT!

Anyway, picking up where my post left off:

See, I got the impression that the mother was too perfect. That Tracy was so similar to Ted in their likes and dislikes, their quirks and personality traits, even their initials, "TM"..... it just seemed like she was a female version of Ted, and that seemed like lazy writing to me. It's okay to have common interests and compatibility, but falling in love with your mirror image seems unrealistic, not to mention narcissistic.

21:21

tftnt

This show should have ended with the yellow umbrella scene. It wouldn't have made the episode/finale perfect or amazing, but it would have been a good series ending.

ETA: And the ending with the kids and the TR scene turned the series finale into the most bizarre ending ever, and that's how the HIMYM series became the worst one ever

DR76

I never had that hollow feeling in the pit of my in regard to Ted's relationship with Tracy, like I did with Robin and Barney. But . . . yeah, I have to agree with you. There was something a bit unnatural about their relationship.

PhoenixRising

The show began with Ted and Robin and the blue French horn, and it ended with Ted and Robin and the blue French horn. Seemed pretty elegant to me. It's just that Bays and Thomas filled the space in-between with too much plot to extend the series far beyond what they originally thought they'd get, sometimes at CBS' request. Should've kept the mother an anonymous figure and never have gone there with Barney and Robin, and maybe they wouldn't be getting the blowback they're getting now.

severalmiles

TFTNT

I don't necessarily agree with you, but I do get what you are saying It maybe was a little corny that they were SO similar but for me, I liked that they had so much in common. For Ted and Robin, their relationship was on/off for so long because they had too many differences and they wanted different things, so it was nice that Ted found someone that he loved, who also was very similar to him.

wangadang

More lazy writing than anything. Rather than make him grow up to become ready to fall in love, they let the other characters do that (Barney & Robin). So Ted never really grew from where he started and then the mother became a female Ted. I personally thought The Mother was an awesome character who I would of liked to see a lot more of.

LostInTheSun

What really connects the Mother and Ted isn’t driving gloves or a knack for knowing the exact right quirky gift or a weakness for the big romantic gesture. It’s the courage, shaky though it may be at times, to live with the knowledge that what you want most might always be out of your reach. Max is taken away from the Mother by cruel fate, and she’s pretty sure that she doesn’t get another shot at love. Robin is taken away from Ted by Robin’s own choice, and Ted’s tragedy is that he’s not sure whether there’s something more he could have or should have done. Both are at their lowest ebb. They are giving up what they think is their last chance at happiness, for someone else’s benefit, in the name of friendship. If they can just stick out a few more hours, they’ll find each other. x

This is why Ted/Tracy worked, for me. Not because they were so similar, but because their life experience makes them about a million times more compatible than Robin and Ted will ever be.

AlwaysBL

I agree to an extent. But at the end of the day, as much as Ted talked about Tracy, we knew that besides her there was only one person he ever loved deeply and that was Robin. We also knew that they didn't work out primarily because they never wanted the same things out of life. Robin, in the present, was never going to be able to give Ted what he wanted, which was a family. And vice versa, because what Robin wanted was a career and someone that wanted the same things as her (Barney). But people change, and Barney and Robin ultimately grew apart (much like Ted/Robin)...

For TR - when they did get together, they both just wanted companionship at this point in time, their dreams didn't have to be tied up in each other anymore. So to me, it's a real ending because it's the only way TR would have ever worked. And I think the writing acknowledges that.

It's weird to me that people are suggesting Ted didn't learn anything...of course he did. The old Ted would've been telling the story of Ted/Tracy to his kids. Instead, he tells the story of Robin, who is part of his future. He learned not to live in his stories or dwell on the past, and to always move forward. He let go of Robin to find Tracy, and he lets go of Tracy for another shot at happiness with Robin.

So I do think it actually worked for what the show became. It's the viewers that are romanticizing the Ted/Robin ending imo as some destiny thing when the writing just shows that Ted got a life with Tracy that he always wanted and it's a life he never could've gotten with Robin. It was just bittersweet in the end, and led him down a different path that coincided with Robin's.

Forwood4Bamon

preach!

wangadang

I disagree with you, I thought the ending was rather trite and obvious. They spent so long, nine years, showing why those two didn't work and then they finally introduce to the adorable mother, who we thought was soul mate of Ted's and then killed her off, so Ted and Robin get back together. Symmetry? Sure. But in tune with what the show had become? No. Carter & Craig were too fixated on keeping their original ending, that it didn't work with the story and characters were. Again, if the show had only lasted five years, it probably could have worked. They wrote themselves into a box and ended up giving their audience the ultimate middle finger. It was a poor finale. Not unusual though, it now joins the likes of Roseanne and Dexter for me. Psych's finale was good at least!

Nice comments, btw. We are all entitled to our opinions and I definitely respect where you're coming from. Cheers!

courtneybangelcakes

I think this sums up the finale/show wonderfully

Jamie

That's certainly true. There are several ways they could have made this work if this is what they wanted all along, and not making us love Tracy, and not making (most) of us love BR would definitely be one way.

21:21

I think that what bothers me the most with the finale, after seeing it, is the scene between Ted and the kids. The kids don't even react to the fact that their mother is dead and that their dad spend more time talking about their aunt Robin than their dead mother. And yes, it's been seven years(?) but she was still their mother, it doesn't matter that it's been seven years. And yes, Penny does comment on the fact that spent more time talking about Robin than their mom but even then it's weird.

Because wouldn't the kids get upset that the story of how their father met their mother was actually about how his one true love was their aunt Robin instead? Also, the way the show started with the kids actually being annoyed/bored with the fact that they were going to hear the story about how their parents met is just so weird, when we know now that the mother has been dead all this time. And if they planned this ending from the start shouldn't they have thought about this? Because for me, the show was titled after a character that was only introduced in the last season and then was used as a plot device.

And maybe, maybe the show was about Ted and Robin during the first seasons but (and I'll quote a review) "Stories change over nine years, characters do, people do. And people did over the course of HIMYM – only to be wrenched back over the course of an hour, because that was the Plan.” (‘How I Met Your Mother’ Finale: Review of ‘Last Forever’ - TIME)

Also, how funny was the scene in that one episode when Ted joked about his dead wife being a stripper? That was fun.

Musickat18

Whoa. By the time I come over here, there's already a new thread.

I get the elegance of having the show begin and end with Ted/Robin, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The writers spent an ENTIRE SEASON on Barney/Robin's wedding and then they get divorced 3 years later? What the is that about?????????????? And to turn it around into it really being the story of how Ted wants his kids blessing to date Robin? Just...no. No no no no no no no. I would legit rather have had something happen to Barney, rather than they get divorced 3 years in. Even Divorced 10 years later would have been better. Basically just...what? What were they thinking!?