The problem wasn't that she died. The problem was that she felt like an afterthought and that him going back to Robin felt like a bad idea after they had demonstrated many times throughout the show that it was a bad idea.
Exactly. They spent a whole season on a wedding that they threw out the window in the finale and then reverted 10 years of character development for Ted, Robin, and Barney back to square one. Unforgiveable
Sometimes love with someone is a bad idea when you're younger but now she's older and divorced, he's older and widowed with teenage kids (not young kids she needs to take care of) so it can easily be possible for them to work out just fine... she may even be done traveling and stuff for work at that point in the future..
@@Ynot2711 Not exactly. They loved each other, but Ted wanted more out of life than Robin did. He wanted kids, a family, and a house with a picket fence. The whole shebang. Tracy gave him that. The life that he wanted. Now that he's experienced that life, he can be with Robin with no regrets. Everything that made them incompatible was now null and void. So they could be together. I would've preferred that she lived since it took basically the whole Show just to be introduced to that character and to kill her off that quick is crazy but I get it.
She was an afterthought. The ending with Ted’s children was shot in season one. Once you realize that then you can digest the plan a little better even though it sucks because they made us fall in love with her through the entire 9th season of joy to rip her away from us in one episode.
@jasoncook7378 Not really if you think about it. It could be a misdirection, the writers love doing that in the show. I can think of many reasons why these moments still fit with the alternate ending, but the best is this: Everyone thought she would die (including the audience), but she survives and Future Ted is thankful for the long journey he had to go on to get there. And it's why he believes in miracles, even in his darkest times, he knew it would all work out in the end and he would meet his lebenslangerschicksalsschatz (which the creators even said was Tracy). He tried to force destiny with Robin multiple times (TED tried to make it rain, TED stole the blue french horn), but you can't force destiny, it just happens. With Tracy, it rained naturally and he didn't have to do anything to win Tracy's heart. He was being himself after all these years of losing hope and losing parts of himself. Why the hell can't we let the poor guy be happy with the mother of his kids? It was his dream and he got it, why end it so suddenly? He got beat up by a goat and got left at the alter for christ sake...
@michaelearwaker6521 I understand what you're saying and honestly what everyone is saying it is valid I don't know why I see it differently from the beginning when Ted met Robin it just felt that's the actual story and the storytelling to the kids was the father's way of telling them that life took a hard u-turn and it's time to move on, in addition to Tracy's blessing he is seeking theirs... life is unforgiving
@Trickyksa Robin and Ted for me just never felt right. Ted was madly in love with her and Robin kinda chose Ted simply because she didn't have better options.
Well as I remember in one ep when Lily introduce Robin with one of her student's father, and Robin thought the kid and she had a relationship, that the kid having with some other women, later on that ep Ted told us that Robin have the same with two of his kids in the future. So they set up the ending all the way from the start I think
I actually really like the resolution of the story being about Ted looking for acceptance from his kids to look for love again after his wife’s passing. The issue was just that they spent the entire season building up Barney and Robin’s wedding, before then abruptly breaking them apart in a last second time jump. Is it realistic? Probably. But does it kind of spit in the face of all their character development? Absolutely, and that’s why I personally struggled with it. The finale is basically “Barney suddenly went back to being who he was before falling in love with Robin”, and that’s pretty unjustifiable.
It wasn't that they (or we) were angry, it was that we all saw these characters and the show grow up and evolve. The characters developed and learnt lessons, including Ted about not forcing destiny and chasing after something (Robin) when it isn't meant to be. But the writers saw their character development and the mother and tossed it all out the window, even though the show has been telling us this entire time Ted and Robin aren't meant to be. Ted was forcing destiny with making it rain and the grand romantic gestures for Robin, but you can't force destiny. It rained naturally when he met Tracy and he could be himself. No big gestures and no weird early proclamations of love. Ted, after all he's been through and the hope he's lost, finally let's destiny happen itself and it does.
@@anthonydedios4720 the finale *was* executed well. All it needed to do was stop with Ted finishing the story, having a heartfelt moment where Ted reflects on the true meaning of love, and rolled credits. It's the last 5 minutes that ruined everything.
I'm not upset she died or that Barney and Robin divorced. I'm upset that the ending wasn't built up to properly. We didn't get to see Ted and Tracy as a couple, as a family, or be happy together. It's 9 seasons of Ted being alone and sad and looking for love, just for him to find it and have it ripped away again. Same thing with Barney and Robin. They spend 4 seasons building up the tension and relationship between them just to pull the rug out again and destroy it in an episode. We needed to experience them being happy. We needed to see those storylines closed
@@DavidHernandez-bd3eqWhich is bad, the reason the friends ending sort of works is that while Ross and Rachel do get together the rest is left open ended. With himym they give you Ted and Tracey and then just tell you how everything ends which does not work
Real crime is naming the series as "How I met your mother" but the mother is hardly in the show.. Even in last season..I wasted 9 seasons to watch last 5 min of chat of Ted and tracy at the station with the yellow umbrella....Wasted an entire season in Barney and robin wedding and the very last episode they just got divorced and robin ended with Ted after tracy's death...Wtfffffff
@@Kmrvikash52For me the issue wasn't that the mother died but that it they obviously killed her off just to give the people that couldn't let go of the idea that Robin was endgame all along the ending they wanted. It was a cheap and disrespectful move especially after the show spent YEARS trying to get people to except that Ted and Robin wouldn't work.
Nope having us sit through all that, giving us the perfect character that was Tracy then killing her off to make him end up with Robin will never stop being disappointing
It makes people sad because the whole series is a lesson on letting the person go , who doesn't love you back strings you around forever, and finally meeting the person who truly loves you and wants to be with you. And then in the last few seconds the writes spit on the lesson we all were learning and really need to learn
The mother dying is not the problem, there are so many things wrong: - Barney's growth arc was flawless. - The love story between Barney and Robin was well made and believable. They know each other and fell for that person in front of them. - Ted was obsessed with a look. He saw Robin and decided they were meant to be. There is nothing there more than a physical attraction. Even when he met her and realized they were not compatible, he couldn't let go of his delusion. - Making Robin ending up with Ted is a betrayal to her character. They are forcing her to be who she is not for the sake of Ted's happy ending. - Ted going back to Robin makes you think that he only used Tracey for his idea of becoming a father, but was still into Robin all the time. He could have caused Tracey's death for all I know.
@@comfypeepo I really don't know how I can justify my point of view more. I agree that things are not black and white. That is why Ted deciding that he had to end up with Robin and never letting go, is a problem. Robin never really showed real romantic feelings for Ted. The closest is her recognizing that she should, but she doesn't.
I agree. I never felt Robin was attracted to Ted. They had different life goals. They were good friends but I don’t understand why they think getting with Robin was a good idea.
For me, I spent 9 years watching unbelievable stuff happen just to finally see the most basic, realistic and yet loving thing destroyed. Realism is one thing but when so much of the show was unrealistic, that end was brutal.
@romanarts6645 nah, it was badly done. Poor execution. I think most people could accepted everything that happened in the finale if it was fleshed out over a few more episodes instead of all squished together at the end. A whole season of a wedding we're told ends in divorce a few minutes later. Same thing for the mother. The whole series we've been there for the whole story, and in the end we just have to hear about these things and accept them so quickly. If they allowed us to be a part of the end of those journeys just a bit more, I think the majority would have accepted.
@@Raindropsundropgumdrop I think the execution could've been better as well, but most people just hate the fact that Ted ended up with Robin which I dont mind
Honestly I liked the ending, it felt true to life. Life has a way changing and almost rhyming with the past. Like mother used to live on street called stretch when she was a kid, she grew up poor and had me at a young age. Now almost 30 years later she’s a millionaire and bought a big house on a new deployment only 5 minutes away from where she grew up. Even though physically, she stayed at the same place, everything else has changed. And I feel the same way about Ted and Robin’s relationship.
He was so right though. I remember when the episode aired EVERYONE hated it, and people were so pissed. Now I have many friends who reviewed the series during the pandemic, and we all felt its a calm and good end, though not the end we would hoped for, but in its story it fits
Well, Ted's kids said so, Ted just wanted them to know how important was Robin to him. It took like 1-2 days to tell the story and then conclude. It was never to let them know how he met their mom. If he really wanted that, he could have told that story long before, even before Tracy died.
It needed to be longer, but I loved the ending. Tracy was great, but him telling the story six years after her death as a means to tell his love of her but also the story of him and Robin to let the kids know and get their permission was great.
Just came here to said It's been 10 years from the last episode and I'm still angry and disappointed so No Josh, has changed...the finale and writers stubbornness ruined one of the best shows I've ever seen
The final season should of been split into two and the first half being Barney and robins wedding with small nods to the mother. Only the cameos she had with other characters and then the rest of the season should have been Ted and Tracey’s love story. Either this or BARNEY AND NORA SHOULD OF BEENNENDGAME
To answer his question, it’s 10 years later and the show’s ending still sucks. In my book, Tracey never died and Robin and Barney stayed together, end of story!
The problem was not Tracy's death. The problem was that we spent an entire season watching Ted learn to let go of Robin and Barney learning to become a suitable (pun very much intended) husband for Robin... all that just to be thrown out the window in the last episode.
I didn't mind the ending the second time I watched it. Throughout the entire show there was foreshadowing how the mother isn't alive in 2030 when Ted is telling the story to his kids, the biggest one being S8E20. Also like Penny points out in the end, that this isn't really a story about Tracy at all because Tracy is barely in that story, it's absolutely about how crazily Ted is in love with Robin. There is a theory that everybody has 'the one' and I believe for Tracy it was her first boyfriend Max like for Ted it was Robin. They both got to be with their 'one' and as the show suggests it always came down to the timing being right.
No, I’m angry nearly 10 years later and it barely registered to me that she died. I was mad that we didn’t get more time to see the mother as we did Ted’s dates/flings. And all the character development of Barney, Robin, and Ted-it killed their development of the past few seasons. Is it realistic? Probably. Does it suck to see for a show that preached hope and idealization? Yes.
I feel like if we had gotten the longer uncut version. Everyone would have been more content with how it ended. From what I hear it provided alot of closure
I remember being mad the first time i saw it, but then it all made sense in the end , Ted got the kids he has always wanted, and Robin ended up being one of the most famous reporter. Their was nothing holding them back this time .
I think most people were mad at him using this whole story as an excuse to try and date robin again, her dying was actually great, I mean I hated it because I wanted to see so much more of the mother cause the actress was amazing, but her dying was a great part of the story and very emotional
I honestly understand why people hate the ending. Overall though after 10 years of the show finishing i really do understand the creators decision in ending it the way they did. They killed off the mother cause it was real. It was realistic which is something that show's writing was so good at doing... making the characters and situations feel real and not just TV characters. Sometimes that's what happens in real life. Sometimes the love of your life, the person you've tried and have been hoping to meet for years, the "one" as HIMYM calls it a lot of the time...dies. Sometimes life doesn't give you a happily ever after. Him ending up with Robin makes sense as well cause if you really think about it the one thing that stopped Robin and Ted from being prefect for each other was the whole marriage and kids thing but by the time Ted is telling the story that's not really an issue anymore you know? Ted already achieved his goal of finding "the one" and settling down and having kids so that's not really an issue for Ted and Robin anymore. Like I said i get why people hate the ending i really do but you can't deny that the ending was realistic to life which is what that show was so good at portraying.
It wasn't the fact that Tracey dying was the problem it's the fact that they had finally had let ted getaway from robin and they spent 3 seasons building up Robin's and barneys relationship just to go full circle back to the same situation we started in
Real ones understand that it wasn’t the ideal ending, but the right one. If by the end of the show you think the point of it was about Ted chasing love and living life to the fullest, I don’t think you quite understood HIMYM past surface level. Try to re-watch and think about what was the deeper meaning behind each character.
I’ll say it: the ending where he runs back to Robin after Tracey’s death feels like a cop-out. Through the entire series, they thoroughly explained with he and Robin were not a match only to kill off his true love and stick those two back on the toxic train. This series’ finale is a perfect example of a writer’s room full of people eager to crap on an entire series’ due to their own need for iconoclasm.
That ending always made me feel like Tracy was only introduced so Ted could have his kids and still end up with Robin in the end. They shot that ending with the kids and were hellbent on using it, so they had to kill her off for no other reason than to force Ted and Robin back together in the end
My only complaint is the pacing, not the story, itself. If Barney and Robin got married in season 8, and we had the entirety of season 9 to watch their flame burn out while Ted finds happiness, and it's ultimately taken away from him. The whole Ted goes back to Robin would've made sense. I mean, they did promise to be each other's consolation prizes if they were still single at 40 (even Ted eventually went back on that promise) Still, watching this at 26 makes the whole thing far more relatable than it would've been if I saw this show when I was 17 or 18 for example
I like the show as it is honestly. The ending is a bit disappointing but it would've been disappointing either way, I don't think you can end such an awesome show in a way that everybody is satisfied with it.
No, Ted! What we don't like is the idiocy of telling your children about the dozens of women you screwed right after their mother died. That is BEYOND dumb....
I might be one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed the ending. I kind of knew the spoilers going in, which probably helped because I knew Ted and Robin were the true endgame. That being said, I can totally understand why viewers who went in blind were upset with the ending - they really built up all the stuff with the mother only to bench her at the 11th hour and bring it back to Robin.
@@proxy7362 no mate, it was awful. The ending undoes both Ted and Robin’s entire arc of going against the “will they/won’t they” dynamic just for the sake of misinterpreted fan service and a cliche ending. The ending turns it into just another generic romance story where the characters who were into each other in the first episode just so happen to be each other’s soulmates
@YodaOnABender They were a perfect match but the only reason they didn't work was bc Ted wanted Kids and Robin wanted to travel the world. That I'd why Ted got the locket for her as a wedding gift. Ted was able to have kids, Tracy got to be with her soul mate, max in heaven, and Ted was finally able to be with Ribin.
The show was perfectly fine, and the ending… not what is “ideal” to tie things in a nice little bow, but that’s the point…life is messy, the good, the bad, the serendipitous, the things we have to fall back on when bad things happen, the choices we make for ourselves daily lead us to very different places. And having dealt with a lot of family death myself, seeing how others handle grief in many different ways, how they cope, what their soft place was to start a new growth, maybe from their past, maybe something or someone new. This show is true to life. It’s not all about “happy endings” sometimes there’s the happy ending that does end, as with every thing… there is an end. And in a show all about choices,fate, true love and what one does when life gives you what it gives everyone…. The ending makes perfect sense. He did have his fairy tale, he did find her, but life happens and while it was great and wonderful for him and her for obviously yrs enough to have their kids, life did what it does… that’s reality…. And in reality he needs to move on, in some way, as his nature he doesn’t fair well alone. So what would others want vs what makes the most sense in that situation….. again it’s about life and life is messy, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s both fair and unfair from situation to situation, always has been always will be, it’s complicated and is usually not cookie cutter neat little bows. It’s about how we get through even when we’ve lost our win. I wouldn’t want this show any other way then the way it is.
Please tell me if I’m wrong but I feel like most of the backlash is due to Barney and robins ending not because of the death of the mother. Her death felt somewhat impactful up until that final moment.
Mothers death is not the problem. All these years, Ted narrating his love story to his kids and the mother not even once interfered had me ready. What I don't like was, all that build up for Barney and Robin go to vein. All these years they went back and forth and finale of 8th season was just 🤌 You ruined it creators, you ruined it.
People are stupid. The telling and chemistry between Ted and Robin is clear throughout the series. He tells the story of how he meets the mother but starts it at where he meets Robin. It ends where it started. It makes sense the kids deduced that he wanted their permission to go after her again
The Mother dying is whatever. It was kinda hinted at for a while so I don't really have a problem with it. The reason why the finale got so much hate is because of complete assassination of Barney's character and ruining every development he had and reverting him back to episode 1 was the main issue. Sure I didn't like them killing Barney and Robin's relationship either but to me destroying Barney's character was a lot bigger deal even though I loved Barney and Robin together.
I think he misses the mark on why people didn’t like it. It’s not because they’re sad about the death, it’s that the death was after knowing the mother for just a few episodes and the whole thing being rushed
I liked the ending except I think the finale was too fast, it should have been a good 2 part, as it was rushed. I loved that Ted and Robin ended up together
I don't know when this interview was done, but it's been 10 years and people still hate it because HIMYM did the near impossible and perfectly cast the mother, made us care about her like we cared about characters we spent 8 more years with than we did with her and then they killed her to keep an ending they wrote 8 or 9 years prior. On top of that they made Barney get married just to have them get divorced in 3 years. They never should have gotten married. They should have called off their own wedding and been that weird couple that you know that's on again off again for thirty years and ultimately end up together because no-one else can tolerate their BS. Robin would still be able to travel the world, Barney would get to become a dad during one of the off times and Marshall and Lily could pursue their ambitions while raising kids alongside Ted and Tracy. It's a sitcom. It's not for the writers. It's for the fans. Really great writers can maintain the integrity of their ideas and still not s*** on fans. Also, women tend to outlive men, if we were being realistic Ted would have died and we'd have been watching a tape the kids played for her with him telling his life and their love story.
I actually really like Tracy dying. It’s incredibly sweet and heartwrenching. Ted talks a full season earlier about wanting those Extra 45 days with her. And he cries when Tracy says “What kind of mother would miss her daughter’s wedding?” because Ted knows she’ll die. What I hate is that they completely ruined the character they wrote for Barney over the last 2 seasons. And they completely neglect that Ted and Robin just don’t work together based on how they’ve been written in that same span of time. They just rewrote the characters back to season 1, and it feels so hollow and disappointing because of that.
Tarcy's death wasn't the issue. That was foreshadowed. The problem was they rushed Ted and Tracy's relationship when THAT could have been the whole last season rather than a 3 day weekend taking up the entire season. I hated what they did to Barney and Robin, after years of character development and a whole season dedicated to their wedding just throwing that all out the window in the finale and reverting all of the characters back to square one
The problem wasn't anything that happened in the episode. But it's the pacing. We don't really get to see Ted and Tracy do anything together even if the whole show is Ted's journey to meet Tracy. Plus the whole last season told the story of Barney and Robin's wedding. I don't mind them divorcing as it led to Barney becoming a dad. But if they were gonna divorce they could have showed more of them being a couple and maybe made the wedding a bit of a shorter arc. And of course, we didn't see enough of Barney being a dad.
10 years later and I’m still depressed at that ending. The problem wasn’t the mother dying. The problem was the character assassination of Robin who we were clearly shown for 9 years how incompatible she was with Ted only for her to turn on a dime and get back together with Ted after we spent an entire season planning her wedding! And then she gets divorced mere minutes into the very last episode! The mother could’ve still died and get this bittersweet ending without doing a 180 on Robin while also regressing Barney to square one to being a womanizing swindler because screw character growth! One of the worst endings to an otherwise great tv show. It’s up there with the ending of Game of Thrones as one of the worst ones.
I will never stop saying that I feel like they killed off the mother because they wanted to justify Ted going back to Robin instead of it being like him leaving the mother for Robin or them getting divorced.
I wonder if the amount of time being spent on the wedding was partially the result of Jason Segal's desire to be less involved. That said, I think the wedding arc was very well done, up to an including the divorce. It is not at all uncommon for people in love to wed whilst ignoring all of the signs that marriage wouldn't last. And that's what season 9 gave us. Both the good and bad in Robin and Barney's relationship. Unfortunately, much of the audience was so caught up in the love story that they ignore that neither Robin nor Barney loved each other selflessly enough to make the marriage work. They want to believe they would have made it work. I guessed Tracy was dead in 2030 during the first season, and I was certain of it by episode 5 of season 3 (at just before the 3 minute mark.) The show NEVER shied away from difficult topics like death, and how feelings wax and wane over time. I never understood why people thought the creators would stop doing that before the end.
Putting Robin and Barney together absolutely fucking ruined the show. It should have always been Ted and Robin at the end. Yes, they didn’t “want” the same things but they should have made it their love was so strong it didn’t matter. Also after Ted found out about Robin and Barney I would have been longer than 3 episodes of him being angry.
I think the mother being dead made total sense, I just didn’t like that they rushed through decades in the last two episodes after an entire season spent on a single weekend
Tracy was essencially an excuse for Robin an Ted to be together without the whole "having children" issue. Less of a chharacter and more of a sttepping stone to get a romance no one wanted
The build up for Tracy just for her to die & then for him to go back to Robin was such a dumb way to end the show. The show was golden until that happened
The death is not the problem here 😢 it's ted crawling back to robin. After her divorce with barney, it feels like the characters never grew because of that 😅
If ONLY Barney had gotten the locket instead of Ted by asking him (or other ex's of Ted) about its whereabouts, and Ted had ended up with Tracy (if Tracy was alive) or single (if Tracy died), the show would have been perfect...... I don't know how i feel about the ending, I had some amazing laughs whilst watching the show, but the ending kinda..... make my mood go meh
My wife and I just finished watching the series. It was the first time for her, and while she loved the series, she HATED the finale. For me, 10 years later, the finale still sucks.
I don't understand how the show is called himym,the whole show is built on ted and Tracy's story just to end with Tracy dying and Ted getting back with Robin? They could've just her live. And because Robin couldn't have babies, they could've let one of Barney's one night stand(who didnt want to keep the baby) before Robin give birth to his kid so that him and Robin could've had their own family. This was my ideal ending. But even if Tracy dies, they shouldn't have let Ted get back with Robin. They really forced that one.. Maybe they were trying a Ross and Rachel scenario but worst ending for the show.
Brother, the show itself (it pains me to say it tho) allready aged very poorly, the end was just bad from the beginning. Spending a whole season selling us a wedding to break it up in 10 minutes and tell us a thousand times how Ted needs to get over Robin to get back with her it's just criminal.
The problem wasn't that she died. The problem was that she felt like an afterthought and that him going back to Robin felt like a bad idea after they had demonstrated many times throughout the show that it was a bad idea.
I guess its cause its cut out as he mentioned the longer version ans original script ao he is talking through that perspective
Exactly. They spent a whole season on a wedding that they threw out the window in the finale and then reverted 10 years of character development for Ted, Robin, and Barney back to square one. Unforgiveable
Sometimes love with someone is a bad idea when you're younger but now she's older and divorced, he's older and widowed with teenage kids (not young kids she needs to take care of) so it can easily be possible for them to work out just fine... she may even be done traveling and stuff for work at that point in the future..
@@Ynot2711 Not exactly. They loved each other, but Ted wanted more out of life than Robin did. He wanted kids, a family, and a house with a picket fence. The whole shebang. Tracy gave him that. The life that he wanted. Now that he's experienced that life, he can be with Robin with no regrets. Everything that made them incompatible was now null and void. So they could be together. I would've preferred that she lived since it took basically the whole Show just to be introduced to that character and to kill her off that quick is crazy but I get it.
She was an afterthought. The ending with Ted’s children was shot in season one. Once you realize that then you can digest the plan a little better even though it sucks because they made us fall in love with her through the entire 9th season of joy to rip her away from us in one episode.
I prefer the ending where ted and tracey met in the train platform then roll credits no need for death and divorced
The show hints toward her death though..
@@jasoncook7378then give her a good death and don't destroy robin and barneys marriage
@@jasoncook7378it only hints at it twice and both hints still make sense with the alternate ending.
@@Poppy-RoseTaylor How does it make sense with the alternate ending???
@jasoncook7378 Not really if you think about it. It could be a misdirection, the writers love doing that in the show. I can think of many reasons why these moments still fit with the alternate ending, but the best is this: Everyone thought she would die (including the audience), but she survives and Future Ted is thankful for the long journey he had to go on to get there. And it's why he believes in miracles, even in his darkest times, he knew it would all work out in the end and he would meet his lebenslangerschicksalsschatz (which the creators even said was Tracy). He tried to force destiny with Robin multiple times (TED tried to make it rain, TED stole the blue french horn), but you can't force destiny, it just happens. With Tracy, it rained naturally and he didn't have to do anything to win Tracy's heart. He was being himself after all these years of losing hope and losing parts of himself. Why the hell can't we let the poor guy be happy with the mother of his kids? It was his dream and he got it, why end it so suddenly? He got beat up by a goat and got left at the alter for christ sake...
The death wouldnt of been such a slap in the face if it didnt end with ted trying to get robin.
Thats also real life people tend to move on and mature change habits
@Trickyksa but the entire show is built around meeting the mother then at the very end just takes a sharp u-turn
@michaelearwaker6521 I understand what you're saying and honestly what everyone is saying it is valid
I don't know why I see it differently from the beginning when Ted met Robin it just felt that's the actual story and the storytelling to the kids was the father's way of telling them that life took a hard u-turn and it's time to move on, in addition to Tracy's blessing he is seeking theirs... life is unforgiving
@Trickyksa Robin and Ted for me just never felt right. Ted was madly in love with her and Robin kinda chose Ted simply because she didn't have better options.
Well as I remember in one ep when Lily introduce Robin with one of her student's father, and Robin thought the kid and she had a relationship, that the kid having with some other women, later on that ep Ted told us that Robin have the same with two of his kids in the future. So they set up the ending all the way from the start I think
I actually really like the resolution of the story being about Ted looking for acceptance from his kids to look for love again after his wife’s passing. The issue was just that they spent the entire season building up Barney and Robin’s wedding, before then abruptly breaking them apart in a last second time jump. Is it realistic? Probably. But does it kind of spit in the face of all their character development? Absolutely, and that’s why I personally struggled with it. The finale is basically “Barney suddenly went back to being who he was before falling in love with Robin”, and that’s pretty unjustifiable.
You're wrong!!!
They actually spent 4 seasons building up to it only to throw it away
“They don’t like to be sad they prefer to be angry” Most relatable quote
It wasn't that they (or we) were angry, it was that we all saw these characters and the show grow up and evolve. The characters developed and learnt lessons, including Ted about not forcing destiny and chasing after something (Robin) when it isn't meant to be. But the writers saw their character development and the mother and tossed it all out the window, even though the show has been telling us this entire time Ted and Robin aren't meant to be. Ted was forcing destiny with making it rain and the grand romantic gestures for Robin, but you can't force destiny. It rained naturally when he met Tracy and he could be himself. No big gestures and no weird early proclamations of love. Ted, after all he's been through and the hope he's lost, finally let's destiny happen itself and it does.
@@S-Maniabeautifully said
No it because the finale was flawed and not executed well
@@anthonydedios4720 the finale *was* executed well. All it needed to do was stop with Ted finishing the story, having a heartfelt moment where Ted reflects on the true meaning of love, and rolled credits.
It's the last 5 minutes that ruined everything.
I'm not upset she died or that Barney and Robin divorced. I'm upset that the ending wasn't built up to properly. We didn't get to see Ted and Tracy as a couple, as a family, or be happy together. It's 9 seasons of Ted being alone and sad and looking for love, just for him to find it and have it ripped away again. Same thing with Barney and Robin. They spend 4 seasons building up the tension and relationship between them just to pull the rug out again and destroy it in an episode. We needed to experience them being happy. We needed to see those storylines closed
I agree. The stuff they packed into that episode could have been a whole another season, just seems like wasted potential
It’s call how I meet you’re mother not how I date you’re mother it’s a story of how they met all of that is just extra for us
@@DavidHernandez-bd3eqWhich is bad, the reason the friends ending sort of works is that while Ross and Rachel do get together the rest is left open ended. With himym they give you Ted and Tracey and then just tell you how everything ends which does not work
Exactly!
The mother dying is fine, but the real crime is barney and robin getting divorced
The real crime was Barney and Robin getting together in the first place.
barney was a predator and a horrible person, he can not make a marriage work.
Real crime is naming the series as "How I met your mother" but the mother is hardly in the show.. Even in last season..I wasted 9 seasons to watch last 5 min of chat of Ted and tracy at the station with the yellow umbrella....Wasted an entire season in Barney and robin wedding and the very last episode they just got divorced and robin ended with Ted after tracy's death...Wtfffffff
why ? Did you watch the entire series for Tracy? the other members of the friend group were much more interesting than her.@@Kmrvikash52
@@Kmrvikash52For me the issue wasn't that the mother died but that it they obviously killed her off just to give the people that couldn't let go of the idea that Robin was endgame all along the ending they wanted.
It was a cheap and disrespectful move especially after the show spent YEARS trying to get people to except that Ted and Robin wouldn't work.
"I think it'll age well.."
It's been ten years and we still hate it.
Even he seemed a bit iffy on the ending, lol.
@@yderga8707yeah I wouldn't be surprised if he read the ending and called them to recast 😂
If they hadn’t cut Ted and Robin‘s scene in the café, I think a lot more people would’ve been okay with the outcome
I think so, too. I loved both the ending and Ted with Robin
Nope having us sit through all that, giving us the perfect character that was Tracy then killing her off to make him end up with Robin will never stop being disappointing
the deleted scenes you can find on youtube make the finale SO much better
It makes people sad because the whole series is a lesson on letting the person go , who doesn't love you back strings you around forever, and finally meeting the person who truly loves you and wants to be with you. And then in the last few seconds the writes spit on the lesson we all were learning and really need to learn
The mother dying is not the problem, there are so many things wrong:
- Barney's growth arc was flawless.
- The love story between Barney and Robin was well made and believable. They know each other and fell for that person in front of them.
- Ted was obsessed with a look. He saw Robin and decided they were meant to be. There is nothing there more than a physical attraction. Even when he met her and realized they were not compatible, he couldn't let go of his delusion.
- Making Robin ending up with Ted is a betrayal to her character. They are forcing her to be who she is not for the sake of Ted's happy ending.
- Ted going back to Robin makes you think that he only used Tracey for his idea of becoming a father, but was still into Robin all the time. He could have caused Tracey's death for all I know.
Literally the whole point of that show is that humans are complicated and things aren’t black and white and you completely missed it
@@comfypeepo I really don't know how I can justify my point of view more.
I agree that things are not black and white. That is why Ted deciding that he had to end up with Robin and never letting go, is a problem.
Robin never really showed real romantic feelings for Ted. The closest is her recognizing that she should, but she doesn't.
I agree. I never felt Robin was attracted to Ted. They had different life goals. They were good friends but I don’t understand why they think getting with Robin was a good idea.
No, the love story between Robin and Barney is disturbing because Barney manipulated her essentially into wanting to marry him
@@comfypeepoNo, that's what Ted missed
Well it's almost a decade since the show went off air and I assure you Josh that my opinion isn't changing anytime soon so...
Weird to brag about your lack of growth as a person...
I don’t mind the ending, it grew on me one of those rain on the window feels
Mother's death is a problem. Everybody who says otherwise is a liar.
Anyone who has a problem with Tracy being dead in 2030 should have stopped watching 3 minutes into episode 5 of season 3.
Am I the only one who can totally relate to "Ted's" answer?
Yes
No.
Release the full version!
Id LOVE to see the longer version
For me, I spent 9 years watching unbelievable stuff happen just to finally see the most basic, realistic and yet loving thing destroyed. Realism is one thing but when so much of the show was unrealistic, that end was brutal.
how is the show unrealisti?. obviously the more comedic side has unrealistic things but the show constantly has real themes and events
It was brutal, but calling it badly done is just people being sore that what they wanted didn't happen
@romanarts6645 nah, it was badly done. Poor execution. I think most people could accepted everything that happened in the finale if it was fleshed out over a few more episodes instead of all squished together at the end. A whole season of a wedding we're told ends in divorce a few minutes later. Same thing for the mother. The whole series we've been there for the whole story, and in the end we just have to hear about these things and accept them so quickly. If they allowed us to be a part of the end of those journeys just a bit more, I think the majority would have accepted.
@@Raindropsundropgumdrop I think the execution could've been better as well, but most people just hate the fact that Ted ended up with Robin which I dont mind
Just finished and I loved it!!!
Honestly I liked the ending, it felt true to life. Life has a way changing and almost rhyming with the past. Like mother used to live on street called stretch when she was a kid, she grew up poor and had me at a young age. Now almost 30 years later she’s a millionaire and bought a big house on a new deployment only 5 minutes away from where she grew up. Even though physically, she stayed at the same place, everything else has changed.
And I feel the same way about Ted and Robin’s relationship.
Nothing justifies the divorce
He was so right though. I remember when the episode aired EVERYONE hated it, and people were so pissed. Now I have many friends who reviewed the series during the pandemic, and we all felt its a calm and good end, though not the end we would hoped for, but in its story it fits
10 years later, im still sad about the ending
Fully agree. It was a beautiful ending and sad at the same time
Well, Ted's kids said so, Ted just wanted them to know how important was Robin to him. It took like 1-2 days to tell the story and then conclude. It was never to let them know how he met their mom. If he really wanted that, he could have told that story long before, even before Tracy died.
It needed to be longer, but I loved the ending. Tracy was great, but him telling the story six years after her death as a means to tell his love of her but also the story of him and Robin to let the kids know and get their permission was great.
The robin ted thing just negates 7 seasons and the entirety of the final season, alternate ending is superior even if she dies or not.
@@starferno9194 i honestly like the official ending and Ted with Robin
Just came here to said It's been 10 years from the last episode and I'm still angry and disappointed so No Josh, has changed...the finale and writers stubbornness ruined one of the best shows I've ever seen
The final season should of been split into two and the first half being Barney and robins wedding with small nods to the mother. Only the cameos she had with other characters and then the rest of the season should have been Ted and Tracey’s love story. Either this or BARNEY AND NORA SHOULD OF BEENNENDGAME
To answer his question, it’s 10 years later and the show’s ending still sucks.
In my book, Tracey never died and Robin and Barney stayed together, end of story!
The problem was not Tracy's death. The problem was that we spent an entire season watching Ted learn to let go of Robin and Barney learning to become a suitable (pun very much intended) husband for Robin... all that just to be thrown out the window in the last episode.
I didn't mind the ending the second time I watched it. Throughout the entire show there was foreshadowing how the mother isn't alive in 2030 when Ted is telling the story to his kids, the biggest one being S8E20. Also like Penny points out in the end, that this isn't really a story about Tracy at all because Tracy is barely in that story, it's absolutely about how crazily Ted is in love with Robin. There is a theory that everybody has 'the one' and I believe for Tracy it was her first boyfriend Max like for Ted it was Robin. They both got to be with their 'one' and as the show suggests it always came down to the timing being right.
That’s such a Ted answer tbh
No, I’m angry nearly 10 years later and it barely registered to me that she died. I was mad that we didn’t get more time to see the mother as we did Ted’s dates/flings. And all the character development of Barney, Robin, and Ted-it killed their development of the past few seasons. Is it realistic? Probably. Does it suck to see for a show that preached hope and idealization? Yes.
totally agree with him.
I feel like if we had gotten the longer uncut version. Everyone would have been more content with how it ended. From what I hear it provided alot of closure
The problem was them undoing do much by Ted ending up with Robin. It’s called How I Met Your Mother not How I met Robin.
I remember being mad the first time i saw it, but then it all made sense in the end , Ted got the kids he has always wanted, and Robin ended up being one of the most famous reporter. Their was nothing holding them back this time .
I think most people were mad at him using this whole story as an excuse to try and date robin again, her dying was actually great, I mean I hated it because I wanted to see so much more of the mother cause the actress was amazing, but her dying was a great part of the story and very emotional
he didn't use the story as an excuse, wtf are you on about? The kids picked up on from the story that he had been so into Robin.
@@proxy7362he was telling them the story about how he met their mother, in part, to get permission from the kids to get into a relationship with Robin
I honestly understand why people hate the ending. Overall though after 10 years of the show finishing i really do understand the creators decision in ending it the way they did. They killed off the mother cause it was real. It was realistic which is something that show's writing was so good at doing... making the characters and situations feel real and not just TV characters. Sometimes that's what happens in real life. Sometimes the love of your life, the person you've tried and have been hoping to meet for years, the "one" as HIMYM calls it a lot of the time...dies. Sometimes life doesn't give you a happily ever after. Him ending up with Robin makes sense as well cause if you really think about it the one thing that stopped Robin and Ted from being prefect for each other was the whole marriage and kids thing but by the time Ted is telling the story that's not really an issue anymore you know? Ted already achieved his goal of finding "the one" and settling down and having kids so that's not really an issue for Ted and Robin anymore. Like I said i get why people hate the ending i really do but you can't deny that the ending was realistic to life which is what that show was so good at portraying.
It wasn't the fact that Tracey dying was the problem it's the fact that they had finally had let ted getaway from robin and they spent 3 seasons building up Robin's and barneys relationship just to go full circle back to the same situation we started in
Real ones understand that it wasn’t the ideal ending, but the right one. If by the end of the show you think the point of it was about Ted chasing love and living life to the fullest, I don’t think you quite understood HIMYM past surface level. Try to re-watch and think about what was the deeper meaning behind each character.
Nah the alternate ending is still better
I’ll say it: the ending where he runs back to Robin after Tracey’s death feels like a cop-out. Through the entire series, they thoroughly explained with he and Robin were not a match only to kill off his true love and stick those two back on the toxic train. This series’ finale is a perfect example of a writer’s room full of people eager to crap on an entire series’ due to their own need for iconoclasm.
That ending always made me feel like Tracy was only introduced so Ted could have his kids and still end up with Robin in the end. They shot that ending with the kids and were hellbent on using it, so they had to kill her off for no other reason than to force Ted and Robin back together in the end
Even if he doesn't like it, he can't publically say he doesn't like it.
My only complaint is the pacing, not the story, itself.
If Barney and Robin got married in season 8, and we had the entirety of season 9 to watch their flame burn out while Ted finds happiness, and it's ultimately taken away from him.
The whole Ted goes back to Robin would've made sense.
I mean, they did promise to be each other's consolation prizes if they were still single at 40 (even Ted eventually went back on that promise)
Still, watching this at 26 makes the whole thing far more relatable than it would've been if I saw this show when I was 17 or 18 for example
10 years latter... people still hate it and their spinoff faild.
The alternate ending was epically better.
The mother's death was not a problem
Robin and Barney getting a divorce and Ted and Robin getting back together was a really problem
I like the show as it is honestly. The ending is a bit disappointing but it would've been disappointing either way, I don't think you can end such an awesome show in a way that everybody is satisfied with it.
No, Ted! What we don't like is the idiocy of telling your children about the dozens of women you screwed right after their mother died. That is BEYOND dumb....
I might be one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed the ending. I kind of knew the spoilers going in, which probably helped because I knew Ted and Robin were the true endgame.
That being said, I can totally understand why viewers who went in blind were upset with the ending - they really built up all the stuff with the mother only to bench her at the 11th hour and bring it back to Robin.
Damn, he really doesn’t understand the real reason people hate the ending.
Nope, he understood well! The ending is amazing and realistic.
@@proxy7362 no mate, it was awful. The ending undoes both Ted and Robin’s entire arc of going against the “will they/won’t they” dynamic just for the sake of misinterpreted fan service and a cliche ending. The ending turns it into just another generic romance story where the characters who were into each other in the first episode just so happen to be each other’s soulmates
@@YodaOnABenderThats your concern. I see it differently
@@belix8801yeah same here
@YodaOnABender They were a perfect match but the only reason they didn't work was bc Ted wanted Kids and Robin wanted to travel the world. That I'd why Ted got the locket for her as a wedding gift. Ted was able to have kids, Tracy got to be with her soul mate, max in heaven, and Ted was finally able to be with Ribin.
The show was perfectly fine, and the ending… not what is “ideal” to tie things in a nice little bow, but that’s the point…life is messy, the good, the bad, the serendipitous, the things we have to fall back on when bad things happen, the choices we make for ourselves daily lead us to very different places. And having dealt with a lot of family death myself, seeing how others handle grief in many different ways, how they cope, what their soft place was to start a new growth, maybe from their past, maybe something or someone new. This show is true to life. It’s not all about “happy endings” sometimes there’s the happy ending that does end, as with every thing… there is an end. And in a show all about choices,fate, true love and what one does when life gives you what it gives everyone…. The ending makes perfect sense. He did have his fairy tale, he did find her, but life happens and while it was great and wonderful for him and her for obviously yrs enough to have their kids, life did what it does… that’s reality…. And in reality he needs to move on, in some way, as his nature he doesn’t fair well alone. So what would others want vs what makes the most sense in that situation….. again it’s about life and life is messy, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s both fair and unfair from situation to situation, always has been always will be, it’s complicated and is usually not cookie cutter neat little bows. It’s about how we get through even when we’ve lost our win. I wouldn’t want this show any other way then the way it is.
Please tell me if I’m wrong but I feel like most of the backlash is due to Barney and robins ending not because of the death of the mother. Her death felt somewhat impactful up until that final moment.
Mothers death is not the problem. All these years, Ted narrating his love story to his kids and the mother not even once interfered had me ready.
What I don't like was, all that build up for Barney and Robin go to vein. All these years they went back and forth and finale of 8th season was just 🤌
You ruined it creators, you ruined it.
People are stupid. The telling and chemistry between Ted and Robin is clear throughout the series. He tells the story of how he meets the mother but starts it at where he meets Robin. It ends where it started. It makes sense the kids deduced that he wanted their permission to go after her again
I feel bad for the actors about the finale. They spent 9 years of their lives doing this show and the fans hate the ending and rightfully so
I don’t mind the end the second time watching it thru, but I also can binge the show n I imagine watching it real time a lot of the negatives r worst
Mature? Running back to Robin because that was the original idea of the series is the opposite of mature. Ted letting Robin go is mature
The Mother dying is whatever. It was kinda hinted at for a while so I don't really have a problem with it.
The reason why the finale got so much hate is because of complete assassination of Barney's character and ruining every development he had and reverting him back to episode 1 was the main issue.
Sure I didn't like them killing Barney and Robin's relationship either but to me destroying Barney's character was a lot bigger deal even though I loved Barney and Robin together.
I rewatched the whole show over the summer and he's right. IMO it's aged better and is less "raw" now.
I think he misses the mark on why people didn’t like it. It’s not because they’re sad about the death, it’s that the death was after knowing the mother for just a few episodes and the whole thing being rushed
I guess there's a longer version of it. But like he said it was edited alot. So maybe there's more to the story.
I liked the ending except I think the finale was too fast, it should have been a good 2 part, as it was rushed.
I loved that Ted and Robin ended up together
I don't know when this interview was done, but it's been 10 years and people still hate it because HIMYM did the near impossible and perfectly cast the mother, made us care about her like we cared about characters we spent 8 more years with than we did with her and then they killed her to keep an ending they wrote 8 or 9 years prior. On top of that they made Barney get married just to have them get divorced in 3 years. They never should have gotten married. They should have called off their own wedding and been that weird couple that you know that's on again off again for thirty years and ultimately end up together because no-one else can tolerate their BS. Robin would still be able to travel the world, Barney would get to become a dad during one of the off times and Marshall and Lily could pursue their ambitions while raising kids alongside Ted and Tracy. It's a sitcom. It's not for the writers. It's for the fans. Really great writers can maintain the integrity of their ideas and still not s*** on fans. Also, women tend to outlive men, if we were being realistic Ted would have died and we'd have been watching a tape the kids played for her with him telling his life and their love story.
I actually really like Tracy dying. It’s incredibly sweet and heartwrenching. Ted talks a full season earlier about wanting those Extra 45 days with her. And he cries when Tracy says “What kind of mother would miss her daughter’s wedding?” because Ted knows she’ll die.
What I hate is that they completely ruined the character they wrote for Barney over the last 2 seasons. And they completely neglect that Ted and Robin just don’t work together based on how they’ve been written in that same span of time. They just rewrote the characters back to season 1, and it feels so hollow and disappointing because of that.
Well it's been 10 years and I still feel like Tracy's character shouldn't have died.
Tarcy's death wasn't the issue. That was foreshadowed. The problem was they rushed Ted and Tracy's relationship when THAT could have been the whole last season rather than a 3 day weekend taking up the entire season. I hated what they did to Barney and Robin, after years of character development and a whole season dedicated to their wedding just throwing that all out the window in the finale and reverting all of the characters back to square one
The problem wasn't anything that happened in the episode. But it's the pacing. We don't really get to see Ted and Tracy do anything together even if the whole show is Ted's journey to meet Tracy. Plus the whole last season told the story of Barney and Robin's wedding. I don't mind them divorcing as it led to Barney becoming a dad. But if they were gonna divorce they could have showed more of them being a couple and maybe made the wedding a bit of a shorter arc. And of course, we didn't see enough of Barney being a dad.
10 years later and I’m still depressed at that ending. The problem wasn’t the mother dying. The problem was the character assassination of Robin who we were clearly shown for 9 years how incompatible she was with Ted only for her to turn on a dime and get back together with Ted after we spent an entire season planning her wedding! And then she gets divorced mere minutes into the very last episode! The mother could’ve still died and get this bittersweet ending without doing a 180 on Robin while also regressing Barney to square one to being a womanizing swindler because screw character growth!
One of the worst endings to an otherwise great tv show. It’s up there with the ending of Game of Thrones as one of the worst ones.
I will never stop saying that I feel like they killed off the mother because they wanted to justify Ted going back to Robin instead of it being like him leaving the mother for Robin or them getting divorced.
Ted and Tracy 4ever
It’s been 10 years and I still hate it
I wonder if the amount of time being spent on the wedding was partially the result of Jason Segal's desire to be less involved. That said, I think the wedding arc was very well done, up to an including the divorce. It is not at all uncommon for people in love to wed whilst ignoring all of the signs that marriage wouldn't last. And that's what season 9 gave us. Both the good and bad in Robin and Barney's relationship. Unfortunately, much of the audience was so caught up in the love story that they ignore that neither Robin nor Barney loved each other selflessly enough to make the marriage work. They want to believe they would have made it work.
I guessed Tracy was dead in 2030 during the first season, and I was certain of it by episode 5 of season 3 (at just before the 3 minute mark.)
The show NEVER shied away from difficult topics like death, and how feelings wax and wane over time. I never understood why people thought the creators would stop doing that before the end.
Putting Robin and Barney together absolutely fucking ruined the show. It should have always been Ted and Robin at the end. Yes, they didn’t “want” the same things but they should have made it their love was so strong it didn’t matter. Also after Ted found out about Robin and Barney I would have been longer than 3 episodes of him being angry.
Worst ending possible to a fantastic show.
"People don't like death" no honey ... people don't like Ted
I think the mother being dead made total sense, I just didn’t like that they rushed through decades in the last two episodes after an entire season spent on a single weekend
I liked him in not another teen movie
TEAM BLUE FRENCH HORN 💙
Tracy was essencially an excuse for Robin an Ted to be together without the whole "having children" issue. Less of a chharacter and more of a sttepping stone to get a romance no one wanted
The build up for Tracy just for her to die & then for him to go back to Robin was such a dumb way to end the show. The show was golden until that happened
I doesn’t really had problem with the ending. But i really want another more story of the mother..
Nah Barney and robin should’ve been endgame along with Ted and his wife it’s been over a decade and that ending is still bogus
I liked the ending
ratio then
Same
@@okokokokkoko3214fail
@@okokokokkoko3214 cope more loser, the ending was GOATED
Here's something else you'll like. A 7 year old girl was kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered 3 days ago.
The problem is the mother dying justs makes Robin the endgame it would have been fine if the mother died and then Ted not goinng after Robin.
The death is not the problem here 😢 it's ted crawling back to robin. After her divorce with barney, it feels like the characters never grew because of that 😅
Why don't celebrities do an AMA and not assume audience are pea-brained and couldn't grasp the ending?
Ted and Robin should’ve never ended up together
TED EVELYN MOSBY!
If ONLY Barney had gotten the locket instead of Ted by asking him (or other ex's of Ted) about its whereabouts, and Ted had ended up with Tracy (if Tracy was alive) or single (if Tracy died), the show would have been perfect...... I don't know how i feel about the ending, I had some amazing laughs whilst watching the show, but the ending kinda..... make my mood go meh
My wife and I just finished watching the series. It was the first time for her, and while she loved the series, she HATED the finale. For me, 10 years later, the finale still sucks.
I like the finale and I'm tired of acting like I don't because people say so.
I don't like fairytales, I don't like pink perfect endings
The problem is we *won't* be talking about it in 20 years because it completely derailed any enthusiasm for the show.
I don't understand how the show is called himym,the whole show is built on ted and Tracy's story just to end with Tracy dying and Ted getting back with Robin? They could've just her live. And because Robin couldn't have babies, they could've let one of Barney's one night stand(who didnt want to keep the baby) before Robin give birth to his kid so that him and Robin could've had their own family. This was my ideal ending. But even if Tracy dies, they shouldn't have let Ted get back with Robin. They really forced that one.. Maybe they were trying a Ross and Rachel scenario but worst ending for the show.
Brother, the show itself (it pains me to say it tho) allready aged very poorly, the end was just bad from the beginning. Spending a whole season selling us a wedding to break it up in 10 minutes and tell us a thousand times how Ted needs to get over Robin to get back with her it's just criminal.
Personally I am a minority who watched this show after it had finished but i liked it