How I Met Your Mother

AirWalke

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Last night's finale left a very bitter taste, and would have worked MUCH better if it were open-ended. I just did not feel any emotional weight behind anything that happened, with the lone exception of Barney's love child. Barney and Robin ending up divorced after spending an entire season on their wedding weekend just didn't work. If they were going this kind of twist, the wedding should have been limited to the very beginning of the season, and the rest of the season should have been the wrap-up, maybe with each episode covering a different year leading up to the mother's death.

And speaking of her implied death, how horribly was that handled? You hype this woman up for the entire series, only to give her a scene with her on her death bed, and BAM Ted is going after Robin? I know that in regards to the timeline, 6 years is probably enough time for Ted to mourn and move on, but for the viewer who's witnessing this in the span of 10 minutes, there's no time for us to mourn, no time for us to accept it and see things through Ted's eyes. In the grand scheme of things, it does make sense for Ted to end up with Robin, but was it necessary to show? Not unless you've been building towards it. The entire season was basically about Robin and Barney getting married, and Ted's eventual ability to move on from Robin so that he can meet his future wife. Why throw all that out only to have them get together anyway?
 

RubyClone

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Damned if you do, damned if you don't. People LOVED the Breaking Bad finale for tying up all loose ends. People HATED Lost for not tying up loose ends.

While the finale wasn't one of my favorite episodes, the best word I could use to describe it was "satisfied". I was satisfied how they closed out the show based on the previous 9 seasons. It could have been better (less rushed), it could have been worse (not tying up anything).

I guess I don't get the hate...the show went 8 seasons without meeting the mother and now people are screaming they wasted 9 years watching. Well what about the first 8 years when you had no clue who the mother was? Again, the whole purpose of the show wasn't about the mother...it was about the group of friends and specifically Robin and Ted. I thought they explained that pretty well last night.

What did they need to "tie up"? I don't get this. Robin had moved on and was seemingly happy. Ted finally was to find the girl of his dreams, that he had been searching for. Marshall and Lilly were who they always were. I'm not sure what loose ends everyone is talking about?

As for the "wasting" part, that's actually why I didn't like it. The whole story was "how I met your mother", and that damn yellow umbrella. You continually tried to figure out if this girl or that girl was her. The part where they realized they had been floating near one another for years I thought was a nice "cosmic" touch. But then they just ran away from it as fast as they could.

The whole show came off at the end like they literally took an opinion poll a few weeks ago that people said "we really wanted Robin and Ted to end up together". Then, in spite of all the work and effort to have them lead other lives - they just crammed them together in the final 10 minutes of the show. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they shot about 4 different endings, and this one won the coin flip. The very end had nice continuity to the pilot. But that was about it. It was very unsatisfying and not well put together anyway.
 
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NickTheGreat

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What did they need to "tie up"? I don't get this. Robin had moved on and was seemingly happy. Ted finally was to find the girl of his dreams, that he had been searching for. Marshall and Lilly were who they always were. I'm not sure what loose ends everyone is talking about?

As for the "wasting" part, that's actually why I didn't like it. The whole story was "how I met your mother", and that damn yellow umbrella. You continually tried to figure out if this girl or that girl was her. The part where they realized they had been floating near one another for years I thought was a nice "cosmic" touch. But then they just ran away from it as fast as they could.

The whole show came off at the end like they literally took an opinion poll a few weeks ago that people said "we really wanted Robin and Ted to end up together". Then, in spite of all the work and effort to have them lead other lives - they just crammed them together in the final 10 minutes of the show. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they shot about 4 different endings, and this one won the coin flip. The very end had nice continuity to the pilot. But that was about it. It was very unsatisfying and not well put together anyway.

I think cycloneworld was saying that they DID tie up the loose ends.
 

NickTheGreat

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...And speaking of her implied death, how horribly was that handled? You hype this woman up for the entire series, only to give her a scene with her on her death bed, and BAM Ted is going after Robin? I know that in regards to the timeline, 6 years is probably enough time for Ted to mourn and move on, but for the viewer who's witnessing this in the span of 10 minutes, there's no time for us to mourn, no time for us to accept it and see things through Ted's eyes. In the grand scheme of things, it does make sense for Ted to end up with Robin, but was it necessary to show? Not unless you've been building towards it. The entire season was basically about Robin and Barney getting married, and Ted's eventual ability to move on from Robin so that he can meet his future wife. Why throw all that out only to have them get together anyway?

I agree it was rushed. But they did show us a few flash-forwards (or whatever you call them) where Ted and the mother were at the Inn or out to dinner and it was clear she was sick. And Ted was having a tough time with it. And she was trying to tell him not to get hung up on all his old stories.
 

ThurgoodMarshal

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Ranking Ted's 10 Girlfriends:

I agree, Buttercup from her first go around was the best. I don't think I paid attention much when she returned seasons later though.

That article pretty much hits the nail on the head for me. I'd forgotten about most of those girls...which leads me to my next point. Screw you, Ted Mosby. Not since Zach Braff in scrubs has one doofy, "aw-shucks" type of character nit-picked so many flaws in gorgeous women. This link pretty much sums it up for me (this article from last September also correctly predicts the ending to HIMYM).

http://thebarnstormer.com/the-sport-of-hating-ted-mosby/
 

cyrevkah

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The more I think about it, the more I like the last episode. They clearly stated through Penny that the whole story was a set up to say, "Hey, I want to date Aunt Robin. What do you think?"

They did tie up all so the ways that Ted was near his wife and how he met her.

The did something right since everyone is still discussing it this afternoon and so they had people watching and able to say I hate/love or would have changed.....

I can see why they didn't drag out their mom's death. The kids were there for that and already knew the details there, but it could have been nice for a better snippet for the viewers.
 

Rhoadhoused

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Here's my ending:

Give Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Barney their own episode where you show them running into the mother and she helps them with their lives like Marshall getting a judgeship or Barney figuring out commitment or whatever. They can all hit a lowpoint or something and run into the mother and she helps them out.

Ted meets the mother and we have 3-4 episodes of them dating/in the future and everything and you build on their relationship. She gets sick or something and the reason he is telling them this story is because we don't know if the mother will make it.

But then she does make it because this is a comedy and not some morbid drama. Destiny is real and everything and the mother is perfect for Ted and it finally works out for him.
 
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MNCyGuy

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My feeling is that this ending would have worked better a few years earlier, and specifically not after this particular season of shows. They almost did too good a job making people like the mother, and everything they asked us to buy into with Barney just felt like a cheat last night.
 

Bigman38

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put me in the camp of people who thought it felt rushed. I don't hate the way it ended, a little depressing, but it was decent.

Seemed to me like they were writing with another season in mind and then found out the season finale had to be the series finale. There is all kinds of content in the finale that could have been fleshed out instead of spending an entire season on the wedding.
 

Rhoadhoused

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My feeling is that this ending would have worked better a few years earlier, and specifically not after this particular season of shows. They almost did too good a job making people like the mother, and everything they asked us to buy into with Barney just felt like a cheat last night.

Couldn't agree more.

If you spend the entire last season focused on Robin and Barney's wedding and his ability to commit to her, you absolutely can not have them get immediately divorced in 10 minutes and then have Ted go back to her 20 minutes later.
 

Iastfan112

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The more I think about it, the more I like the last episode. They clearly stated through Penny that the whole story was a set up to say, "Hey, I want to date Aunt Robin. What do you think?"

They did tie up all so the ways that Ted was near his wife and how he met her.

The did something right since everyone is still discussing it this afternoon and so they had people watching and able to say I hate/love or would have changed.....

I can see why they didn't drag out their mom's death. The kids were there for that and already knew the details there, but it could have been nice for a better snippet for the viewers.

I don't care that they didn't drag out the mother's death, that's fine, but they didn't even give me a reason to care about it. We only see the barest of snippets of the mother and Ted together(put end to end, how much time would the flash forwards fill, 15-20 minutes tops?) We see zero struggles in the relationship and the cool bits we do see aren't built up to, they're just there to say "SEE HOW AWESOME THESE TWO ARE FOR EACH OTHER?" Spend only the first few episodes on Barney and Robin's wedding, spend the rest of the season leading up to Ted and the Mother's wedding and then if you like finish the final episode in the general way they did.
 

cyrocksmypants

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Keep in mind, he's telling the story to his children. Why would he relive all of the moments with the mother when the kids were already a part of those?
 

jsb

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Stupid ending, in my opinion.

I, for one, thought the idea of having the last season take place over just one weekend was kind of interesting and made me keep watching this last year. But then knowing that the marriage ended, kind of makes it stupid.

I thought the mother would die based on their clues this year, but it is annoying he ended up with Robin.
 

MNCyGuy

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Stupid ending, in my opinion.

I, for one, thought the idea of having the last season take place over just one weekend was kind of interesting and made me keep watching this last year. But then knowing that the marriage ended, kind of makes it stupid.

I thought the mother would die based on their clues this year, but it is annoying he ended up with Robin.

Like I said, I think at the time they probably originally came up with the ending it would have been fine. But when the show got stretched extra seasons, they probably should have reconsidered.
 

AdamJGray

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I thought the ending was good. It had some funny moments, which had been lacking for 2 seasons.

Problem was the entire last season was sooooo bad that the last episode could not possibly make up for it. As others have mentioned, the wedding lasted way to long. I wish that covered 2 episodes and they spent the rest going more into the future like they did last night.
 

CycloneWarning

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Terrible ending.

For years, we are led to believe that Ted is the ultimate romantic, that there is only ONE soul mate for him. He meets her, marries her, and they kill her off so he can go back to Robin. Awful.

But they jumped the shark long ago when having Barney and Robin hook up. Robin should have been a famous journalist that married a NHL player, and they never saw each other with their busy lives. Barney should have stayed Barney, or knocked up someone earlier so we could see him mature into a father.
 

AdamJGray

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Terrible ending.

For years, we are led to believe that Ted is the ultimate romantic, that there is only ONE soul mate for him. He meets her, marries her, and they kill her off so he can go back to Robin. Awful.

But they jumped the shark long ago when having Barney and Robin hook up. Robin should have been a famous journalist that married a NHL player, and they never saw each other with their busy lives. Barney should have stayed Barney, or knocked up someone earlier so we could see him mature into a father.

Why can Ted still not be a romantic? His wife died, he mourned her death for 6 years, and than went back after Robin. No issue with that at all.
 

MNCyGuy

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Why can Ted still not be a romantic? His wife died, he mourned her death for 6 years, and than went back after Robin. No issue with that at all.

My only issue with the Robin ending was all the time we were asked to invest in Robin and Barney only to **** all over that like 10 minutes in