What did you think of the 'How I Met Your Mother' finale?

I watched like the first few episodes of the series and couldn't really get into it. But, because I'll probably never go back and finish what I started, I decided to watch the last ten minutes of the finale...I got to say, if I was a fan of the show, I'd be a bit pissed that they spent 9 seasons pretty much dragging out something that could have happened in the first episode.

Alright, so in my opinion, it was a little too rushed. I mean, it just felt like it sped through everything a little too fast. I mean, there were so many plot twists that it literally gave me a headache. They could have spaced it out between a few different episodes. Barney and Robin getting a divorce? WTF?? Where did that come from? Why? Who's idea was that????? Worse yet, whos idea was it to KILL OFF the mother and then have Ted go back to Robin????? WHO WROTE THAT????

I will give one particular scene some credit though. The scene with Barney and his baby daughter was actually kind of beautiful, in a way. Brought a tear to my eye. Easily the best thing about the episode, by a hundred miles.

Anyway, that's my little rant about this big middle finger of a finale.

Spoilers duh!

@Kevlar101 The Final episode has been written since 2005. At least the part about Ted getting together with the "mother" in the end. The entire story has been centered around his relationship with her. The mother in the final seasons fulfilled her purpose. Tracy is just the equivalent of the many other people he has dated throughout the series, sure he had children with her but that doesn't change the fact the story is mostly not about her. Ted was always meant to end up with Robin, that never changed.

Up until the end of season 8 I've always hoped that Ted and Robin would end up together. Even after knowing that the whole 9th season would be spent on the Barney/Robin wedding, a part of me was still blindly hoping that it would end with Ted marrying Robin somehow.. But that was back then! Before this season!

Season 9 made me believe that Barney/Robin could work and that they're perfect for each other, even though I had a lot of doubts before. And at the same time as I accepted that Ted/Robin is not gonna happen, I started to really like Tracy and was convinced that she is great with Ted. And then after spending 24 episodes emphasizing those 2 points (even have Robin float away like a freaking balloon) they just what.. Erase it all and pretend it never happened? That is NOT a plot twist, it's cheating and betraying your audience.

Oh And Barney.. all those years of character development disappeared in a second.. Who wrote this crap?

The episode still had its good moments, and I guess I'm kinda happy that Ted did end up with Robin, but that's not really how I wanted it to happen.. I'm really confused as to how this finale is making me feel atm.. mostly disappointed though. What I'm sure of is that it's definitely the worst series finale I've ever seen.

Wtf is that you said about Barney? That scene with his newborn daughter is beautifully done....

They should have been willing to have the show evolve as the years went on instead of having it fall back on the plan that was

Yes that scene was amazing, but I was talking about what he did earlier in the episode, suddenly regressing to his old self for no reason.

It's a shame

This seems about right http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/series-finale-review-how-i-met-your-mother-last-forever-how-they-conned-us-all

It's not like they came up with that ending at the last minute, they had that planned for 7 years! Why then shove all that stuff into the finale? They should've had Barney and Robin call off the wedding a couple of episodes ago, instead of getting divorced because "Robin works too much" or whatever. Then they would've had more time to ease the story into this ending instead of this rushed nonsense. The episode was good until that final 5 minutes..

Finding out Tracy was dying hit me like a bullet. I really couldn't see Ted and Robin together after the last season and during this season. I really wanted to see more of Tracy and Ted too, but they decided to scatter her parts in certain episodes then barely had any of her in the finale. I'm still kind of sad that she's dead.

Ohhhhh you mean at the Halloween party thing on the roof? Yeah, I do get what you mean about that. It just felt weightless.

I am not sure what to think. Parts of me really liked it, but parts of me really don't. I thought that when barney got a girl pregnant that it would robin and they would all live happily ever after (which is how I would've chosen to end it), but I also think that if robin couldn't end up with Barney, she would have to end up with ted.

***SPOILERS***

I'm still processing it. On first viewing, I was stunned. Hated it. I don't think I'll ever enjoy it. It might even dwindle my overall love for the series. But it's something. In the end Ted meets 'the one', spends 10 glorious years with her, decides it's time to move on 6 years after Tracy's death, asks his kids if they'd be cool with it. #RealLifeHappens. I just wish the final season was a fast forward through Ted & Tracy's romance. The meeting at the station showcases their wonderful chemistry and true wasted potential.

Deep down I knew I would be disappointed by it. An entire season dedicated to a wedding's weekend? That spelled doom when it was announced. Most shows never end the 'right way', but this one will polarize it's long suffering fans to the end.

It's what he did the first time they broke up. Bang. Bang. Bangity Bang. He's a damaged individual, only finding peace when he meet's his daughter. Addicts relapse, and the Barnacle was just that.

Yeah the Halloween party and earlier at the bar as well. It was just out of nowhere as if all his character development didn't happen. They saved him with that baby scene though, so that's good I guess..

I typically try not to share my personal info with people -- a few posters know why -- but I was so upset by the finale I re-cut (roughly) a version which I call "Last Forever Pt. II -- The Real Last Forever Version," and I'm completely willing to make a ghost email to send it to people. Believe me or don't, but I promise this is not spam, this is not a hoax, this is literally someone who wants people to see the payoff they deserve after spending nine years with this inconsistent show.

If people are interested in this, let me know, and I'll create a new email so I can upload it for you on the cloud.

It's ok, you can still watch How I Met Your Dad >_>

I thought it was a good ending. Though I can agree with it being rushed. And considering the last three seasons this was one of the better episodes.

it was a good ending to a good series my wife and i enjoyed watching.

its like always...when you are really looking forward to something, its a dissapointment

Lets just hope it never comes back.

you went through all that work for a tv show?

Problem is they never had a real end date until this season, so everything just seemed rushed. Not much the writers could do, especially when they had the finale planned during season two.

Newhart will always remain the best finale for a comedy. 24 years later and no one has come close.

It was just not good. I don't care that they killed the mother and then Ted ends up with Robin, but they wasted a whole season of building up the mother and then they just end her character like that. There was no emotional attachment, no shock, nothing. The last two episodes were purely rushed. The whole breakup between Barney and Robin kind of just happened. I didn't seem to care at all.

For a show I spent nine seasons watching only to get a huge middle finger and have the creators tell us that this whole story kind of meant nothing? Yes. I did. Also, it was incredibly easy. I just cut out two scenes near the end. Now it's perfect.

The whole story did mean something. The entire series has been focused on the fact that Robin and Ted should end up together. Tracy may have been the biological mother of Ted's kids, but Robin is the true mother.

Not true. If you noticed at the end, Ted says "And that kids is how I met your mother". That right there concludes the entire story. Then his kids catch on to him and encourage him to ask Robin out. Robin is in no way, shape, or form the mother of anything. She is just "Aunt Robin". Tracy was always the mother.

Actually really loved it. It wasn't even about disappointment/low expectations. It was just on my mind and given some peoples' negative reactions, it really is all about what you take out of the story.

IMO the show isn't about "ending up" with someone. A lot of people are mad mostly because they want a happily ever after but SOME EVENTS were glossed over too quickly, and SOME CHARACTERS "regress." But if you can weigh those title cards "3 years, 6 years, 11 years..." and forget how they showed some things in 5 minutes (I get that it's kind of jarring), that's a long time in these characters' lives and death, as shown, is unpredictable.

I'll say Ted + Robin isn't even a guaranteed "end up together" story, but the fact that there is some measurement of happiness one can gain after tragedy when life inevitably goes on is beautiful to me. Tracy wasn't the end, nor will Robin be, but you learn to appreciate the precious moments and fond memories of the glory years when you can, and when you can't, you try and make more. And that's what I feel is HIMYM's legacy.

No, remember they tell him that meeting the mother is not the reason he is telling them this story. He's telling them the entire story because he wants their understanding and permission to date Robin. That mixed with the fact that that scene was filmed 9 years ago leads me to conclude the series has always been about Ted and his journey of ending up with Robin. The true person Ted was always destined to end up with.

I think your use of Robin being the true mother was what threw me off. The mother has always been Tracy and she was also his true love. In the episode, Marshall claims that Ted is being silly by falling in love with Tracy too quick like he does with every girl and it was either Robin or Lily who said "not like this" stating that they have never seen him like that before. If he acted like that toward Robin then they wouldn't have said that. I think the real case is that he really was over Robin during his years with Tracy and his love interest for her began to rise again sometime after Tracy' death. The kids claimed that he and Robin make it obvious that they have a thing for each other when they're hanging out together but, when Tracy was alive Robin was working a heavy schedule which resulted in her not being around for the majority of events that happened after her divorce with Barney. So, I believe that Robin either quit her job and got a new one or her schedule finally slowed down after years of working. Ted was always destined to be with Tracy but since she died, his feelings for Robin came back. If Tracy were to stay alive, Ted would not have fallen back in love with Robin.

The problem is the Ted and Robin relationship was played out five years ago, and the whole time it was telling its audience, "Don't buy into this, there's a better girl for Ted." For nine years, there was no reason to get emotionally invested in Ted and Robin's relationship because Ted was always going to find that perfect girl. It was the whole point of the show -- to get us to that meeting at the train station.

Alright, I'm not covering anything in spoiler tags. This thread is obvious spoiler territory.

I personally thought it was a terrible ending. I didn't like Ted and Robin as a couple at all. And to think that this show built up to a terrible couple ending up together again... It just left a bad taste in my mouth. These last few seasons have already been pretty bad, and this finale, to me, just took a giant dump on the whole series. I still can't believe that this show had been building up to this ending for so long...

I just watched the ending to see if it's as bad as the internet is making it out to be.

It is.

I think it would have been a lot better if they showed the wedding for a few episodes then left the rest of it for Ted and Tracy. That way the fans would have had at least cared a little more about her dying. Then maybe it would have been a little easier to accept that Ted ended up with Robin in the end.

It was sweet but thinking about it: I didn't like how they used Tracey as a baby pumper and then kill her off.

If the series ended at season 4 like it was supposed to, I think it would've been a much better ending

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the later seasons later reassures that Ted and Robin were not compatible with each other

I agree. I think Ted falling back on Robin is more like a "let's try again" even after all the stuff they went through.

Well, now that i think about it, they just crammed a whole additional season into one episode.

There were so many hints throughout the entire show that Ted & Robin would somehow find their way back to each other, and they did:

1) Ted telling his kids that the first time he met Robin, "It was like something from an old movie, where the sailor sees the girl across the crowded dance floor, turns to his buddy and says: See that girl? I’m gonna marry her someday."

2) Marshall refusing to pay Lily and keeps insisting that the bet isn't over.

3) Barney saying shtus like "I'll take her until she's 40... and then you can have her after that."

4) Victoria saying "I really hope you get her someday..."

5) Ted's speech to Jeanette.

6) "There's no top 5, Robin. There's just a top 1 and its you."

FWIW though, I think it's stupid that they dragged out the wedding for an entire season and then divorced 5mins into the last episode. They should've made the last season about Ted and the Mother, before the Mother dies and then just end of the way it did with Ted going to Robin's house.

The ending wasn't that bad, and the more I think about it, other than the mother's death, and the quick divorce after a season of build up, it was pretty good.

This season, on the other hand sucked. It was just 22 wasted episodes of filler leading up to the one hour finale that should have been at the end of last season.

It was shittier than the ending of Friends, and that was a shitty ending.

So they just farted in our general direction?

Haha, and we all smelled it and tasted it in our mouths.

I didn't see it but I want more. I look forward to 'How I Met Your Father'

I don't even watch the show and I think the ending sounds dumb. Too bad, I wanted to get into it.

Holy crap! This is perfect! :D

This episode was planned from the start of the story so I can see why they did it.

But this was a realistic ending. Yes it felt a little rushed and i wish they made EP24 a 45minute episode to give every twist room to breathe.

Divorce happens sadly. Your spouse might die a lot sooner than you wish and you will grow apart from your friends at times. At 1st i hated this ending but upon reflection i think it doesn't give us the fairytale ending because life isn't like that. Time is precious and your time on this earth is borrowed. Love with all your heart and if you spend 10 years loving it is worth it.