I made both of the comments that you are referring to, so I'll own that. The first one was in reference to DT saying you and the rest of us were watching very different shows. And I'll stand by the second. I think there would have been a very easy way for Ted and Robin to still end up together and have it make sense, but the writers destroyed it in the exact ways that Radii outlined. It was executed horrendously, and I think 90% of the audience would agree.

The writers didn't botch the finale. I actually think they pulled off their original goal as well as they could, in one 45 minute episode. What they botched was the last 4 seasons of the show that led to the finale.

I think the issue is that they spent 9 seasons showing that the characters hadn't changed by even having them yearn for each other on Robin's wedding day. They spent a season building around said wedding, and then all of the growth happened in 6 minutes. Even Barry went from being a guy whore, to husband, back to a whore, and finally being a Dad with the final two changes being done in the final episode. End season 8 with the wedding and take a season to show the actual development of what happens after that, and I see very few complaints. In short, much of the issue isn't what ultimately happened but that it was never even remotely developed.

My point with the growth is that Barney and Ted obvious grew over the last few seasons. Barney discovered he didn't want to be that manwhore anymore (he regressed after divorce, but well, a lot of people do that) and parts of it were already there with the stripper girlfriend (what's her name again?). Ted grew from being this douche (seriously, that was the main complaint in the middle years of the show - Ted's a douche), into someone who became likable. Maybe no one else did, but they did (even if Ted still had feelings for Robin, by the wedding he was mature enough to realize that wasn't healthy and he needed to leave for Chicago and let Robin go - then the mother made him realize he didn't need to leave, even though Ted already let Robin go, at least for then).

The circle of the show, as told to the audience, is the story of how Ted met Robin, but they didn't work as a couple and she married his best friend briefly and he married Tracy but she died and a few years later Ted felt he might want another go with Robin.

That's not a terrible story, but from our perspective, we never see how or why Ted and Robin might or might not be right for each other the second time around. We see plenty of evidence that Ted is a very different person who no longer needs the empty symbolism of the romantic blue french horn - and that's why he was ready to meet Tracy.

We can speculate that since Ted never threw out the french horn (or found a way to return it to its owner) that Robin was a true love, even though we've seen plenty of reasons why they don't work together. It's not an entirely unbelievable story. It's kind of like, though, telling us that (spoiler alert) Bluto became president of the United States after repelling Hitler's invasion of Pearl Harbor.

To the kids, though, the entire show is a trope for the story of how Ted met Tracy. Odd that he'd begin with how he met Robin, but over the course of nine years we've come to realize that Ted always starts his stories in strange, uncomfortable places, and he needs to find a woman who truly gets him. Robin is beautiful, intelligent, fun, a good friend, but she's quite selfish and not particularly warm.

We're forced into some reconciliation that this is not a story that anyone would tell his kids, but let's go with it anyway fairly early on. Maybe the kids aren't bored, they're just used to inappropriate stories from dad.

Anyway, it could go either way. Or it could have. I see it both ways. In my opinion, after the story started focusing on Robin's difficult dating history and especially when Robin began dating Barney, this was no longer a good ending (I think there's a huge difference between telling someone they suck for thinking it's a good ending and having a strong opinion that it's a terrible ending). It was a solid ending for the third season, maybe, but I still would have appreciated them framing it differently, maybe finding a way to end the story without it being focused on Ted/Robin.

Maybe, instead of ending with the french horn, they could have ended with the reveal being that Ted and Robin are both in the room with the kids and future Robin briefly (as in within one minute) summarizes her friendship with Tracy and how she and Ted got back together, both as changed people. Instead, the writers were too fixated on the full-circle narrative and the french horn - cute and clever - and to get there, we never saw any character development from Robin. We just see some glimmer on her wedding day, then an end to the marriage three years later.

Anyway, I think the time for that ending ended around season four, and, at that point, it had to be a romantic journey for Ted ending with him meeting the mother. With that in mind, the ninth season could have been told in parallel - maybe even introducing a female Saget to interject. For me, it was a good show for a few years, an OK show for a couple of years and a ninth season that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn't seen.

I wonder how the ending and overall series would have been perceived if instead of doing the wedding over an enter season, followed by the finale flying through time, they did the wedding weekend in the last 2 -3 eps of season 8, with a cliffhanger when Robin says on her wedding day that maybe she should be with Ted, followed by the final season slowly progressing through the next 20 years (or whatever it was) before ending the same way, with Ted outside Robin's window with the blue horn.

They could flesh out the way time changes people, Ted's relationship with the mother, her sickness and passing, Robin and Barney's divorce, Robin's exit and (apparent) reintroduction to the group, and so on. And whatever the hell Lilly and Marshall were doing.

But where, all we know is he ask her out again. Based on everything that we know it ends up flaming out in a month.

As for the ending. If they threw away the footage of the kids and ended it without the final 5 minutes of the show it would have been a much better ending. The reason for the story would make sense, we would get a brief look at how he and the mother got along and everything would tie together. Though the whole Barney/Robin divorce thing was just a strange way to go.

It's not a love story having him and Robin get back together, it's a dysfunctional relationship story. Everyone knows people like this, who have been together and broken up a million times and how do you react when you hear that they get back together? First thought it always, here they go again, how long before the next breakup? Same rule applies here.

The writers blew this royally. Imagine if you were reading a book and after reading several chapters focusing on Robin and Barney getting married the writer has them divorced in the first 5 pages of the next chapter with little more than a reference to Robin's travels, and no good explanation for why she was traveling this much all of a sudden. We're talking major life event there being just glazed over after spending an inordinate amount of time on two days leading to the wedding.

If this was a book I would never read another book by that author.

Just so that he doesn't feel alone, I liked the ending (but agree with Logan on the last few seasons not being very good) and pretty much agree with ISiddiqui's take on it.

I'll repost that the ending was good for me. I think Ted's kids were right, the story was about Ted still having the hots for Robin. :P and that was the entire point of the story... Ted wanted to get his kids approval to bang their hot TV reporter aunt.

On a much more important topic...

Did you see that Maxim pic? Dayummmm!!!!!

Isn't that Scott Speedman?

The 53 Most Pivotal Moments From All Of "How I Met Your Mother" In Chronological Order

More proof of why they should have ended it differently...could have just stopped at a nice round "50" (kidding).

Not as hated as Dexter's ending. Not even close.

For Sex and the City people were probably just happy it was over. :lol: HIMYM is suppose to have an alternate ending coming out on the DVD for the season and series.

They left out that Ted was left at the altar by Stella and how he pulled Victoria out of her marriage.

watched "SlapBet" and s5e1 the other night (one where ted gives lecture to wrong class). This show was so good.

CBS Has Passed On ‘How I Met Your Dad’ - TIME

CBS wanted them to change the pilot, so they're going to try and find a new network.

So the official alternate ending from the DVD leaked today I guess (unless I'm totally misreading my timestamps on reddit?)

It's basically the same as the fan-created one from when it first aired.

How I Met Your Mother - Alternate Ending (official) on Vimeo

Yup, that's how the show ended. That other thing that I thought I saw on TV, its like Rocky 5, or The Godfather 3. It doesn't exist, didn't happen. I'll just choose to remember it this way from here on out.

It baffles me that for some reason they thought they were "better off" going with the other ending.

Wow. Why on earth go with the other ending?

I have refused to acknowledge this show since the finale and why in the world they didn't go with that ending is beyond me. Unless, their hope was to get people to buy the DVDs for that ending all along. If they didn't do that, then they really out-thunk themselves on the ending.

That alternate ending is terrible and the one they aired was much better. That ending makes his story to his kids a story about how their mother was his consolation prize.

Also...

How I Met Your Mother 9x19 Ted and The Mother / What Mother Misses her own Daughter's Wedding Scene - YouTube

Tracy had to die.

That alternate ending would have been fine at the end of season 6 or 7, but by the final season and with the foreshadowing they threw in, with Ted and Robin constantly getting back together over the years, with all of the signs from the universe that Ted and Robin belonged together and Ted running off to Chicago purely because Robin was getting married, there's no way they could have an ending with Tracy not dying and Ted not ending up with Robin. The writers wrote themselves into the finale they aired.

But they wrote themselves out of it by 1) Destroying Ted and Robin's chemistry over the years and 2) Having the mother build great chemistry with Ted. Both of these things ensured that an ending with Ted/Robin would be unsatisfying.

The ending they went with would've worked at the end of season 2 or season 3 and if (as originally planned) the mother only made a brief appearance at the very end. But at the end of season 9, Ted and the mother were way better together than Ted and Robin, so it actually feels like Robin is the consolation prize.

But with the mother dead, Ted and Tracy can't end up together, and with the foreshadowing going on there's just no way Tracy doesn't die. She was as dead as Ned Stark (spoilers!) the moment they started this series, even if (some of) the writer's thought they might be able to get away with the mega-happy ending.


Of course Ted and Tracy work better, and of course Robin is the consolation prize. He's telling his children this story, there's no way he doesn't paint Tracy and their relationship in a "love of my life" way. But the story was mostly about Ted and Robin.

The alternate ending makes it sound like he's lying through his teeth about their mother being the love of his life as he goes on and on about Robin (with Tracy, what, in the other room listening?). The original one makes it a story about a father asking for his children's permission to move on.