How I Met Your Mother

[Jonnas]

My main gripe comes more from the fact that everything was dumped upon us at once in the end, not from what actually happened.

 

So yeah, I think I would've accepted it better, if they did it like that. Especially since the way we had it, we pretty much had our final season building up to something that didn't pan out.

[Cube]

https://vimeo.com/105404677

 

The official alternative ending.

[Shorty]

I really like it, very simple, I'll consider it the real ending.

 

But I'm not buying that this was a potential alternative all along. It ignores all the hints they dropped that Tracy wasn't around in the present.

[Magnus]

That's crazy. Everyone knows that's not what future Ted sounds like.

[Mokong]

https://vimeo.com/105404677

 

The official alternative ending.

 

 

 

No wait this needs more that a silent gif

 

 

	Audio

 

 

That was so much better.... even a hint of Barney and Robin getting back together, now all they need to do is erase the ending that they aired, re-air the final episode with this as the ending to make it cannon

 

[Cube]

I really like it, very simple, I'll consider it the real ending.

 

But I'm not buying that this was a potential alternative all along. It ignores all the hints they dropped that Tracy wasn't around in the present.

 

They could have had her die it was written well. Instead we got a line saying "and then she got ill" and a worse send-off than a redshirt. Also, it should not have ended with him going back to Robin (which the show constantly showed would never work) - instead, they could show Robin finally ready to settle down with Barney (who now has a kid) so their marriage and divorce actually had a point (this would have been shown earlier rather than at the end).

 

The big problem is it seemed that the writers felt like they had to use footage they had filmed years earlier as the ending, even though the show had progressed much further than they had anticipated.

[Happenstance]

I hated Robin with Barney and could never really see Ted & Robin with anyone but eachother so despite how poorly it was written, I liked the ending.

[Josh64]

So I finally watched this (and have just read through the past 5ish pages of this thread :p)

 

I hated the way the ending was executed but kind of liked that he ended up with robin... kind of.

 

I always thought robin and Ted should be together until about a few seasons ago, when it finally seemed as though, yes, barney does seem like a much better fit and it just makes sense. Had we have had this ending 2 or 3 seasons ago, I'd have been very happy about it.

 

What annoys me though is that in this last series especially, we finally start to see how Ted can move on from Robin, and the chemistry between him and the mother is amazing (despite the terrible old lady actor, the scene with him and the mother under the umbrella was amazing)

 

We slowly start to really get to know and like this mother character, and she really seems integrated into the whole friend group as well. It also made the whole love story seem... more realistic? Yes Robin was probably the love of his life, but such as in life, it's not often you get to be with that 'perfect person' and so its bitter sweet, he does eventually get over robin and finds new love in this mother.

 

Then the last two episodes they just shit over everything. Barney's character is (for me) just destroyed. Those years of character development were for nothing. He was redeemed ever so slightly by the baby scene, but the whole way in which he gets a baby in the first place feels so forced. And the return of the playbook and everything, the fact he was 'banging' as many chicks as possible in his 40's made him go from... this kind of funny 'awesome' 20-something to a sad, lonely 40 year old man who just seems creepy.

 

The mothers death, oh man. That was SO bad. I've never seen a character tossed aside in such a dismissive way in all my life. As some of you mentioned, the whole Marshalls dad thing was very emotional, so why they don't even bother for the mother is beyond me.

 

The ending scene, like I said, I would have liked it, but after the big wedding with robin and barney, and the fact its like years later in the future, the fact she never seemed to change. It just seems like a really sad, defeated way to eventually get with someone you once loved immensely. And it was SO rushed. Had the focus of the last season been on those last two episodes, I might have been more impressed, I think everyone would, but those last two episodes seemed like the most rushed episodes in any series I've ever watched.

 

The ending does make slightly more sense now I know it was recorded back in Season 2. But still, I think they should have just left that ending out of it and done a more fitting one. If it was recorded all that time ago, it's no wonder it feels contrived now. The show has changed an awful lot since season 2.

[Ashley]

Rewatching the end of the finale (it's on TV) and just realised Marshall and Lilly's bet about who Ted will end up is very subtly addressed (an unremarked handing of cash). It's a highlight in an otherwise meh episode.