SPOILER ALERT
Stop reading now if you care about that sort of thing.
So let's talk reasoning. Marshall and Lily are the real winner of the series since they both get to go and live their dream jobs, have a wonderful family and arguably the deepest relationship in the series. Seriously, they go to Italy, have more kids, Marshall becomes a judge and then makes the state supreme court and they somehow manage to keep their whole group together in the end even though they came insanely close to losing Robin, but I'm going to assume that with Ted and Robin getting back together she is able to more consistently make group outings since it's not such a huge pain for Robin so Lily keeps her best friend. Yes, the Eriksens do alright for themselves if I do say so myself.
Next up we get Robin. Initially I thought that Robin had the most satisfactory ending, but as I thought more about it, I had kind of hoped that her and Barney had made everything work out and could stay together. Alas, that was not meant to be as there were other factors in play, but she does get to have an incredible career as a news anchor all over the world (Is that even a thing?) and does eventually end up with the guy that was probably better for her in the end.
Let's talk Stinson, here's where I get into the other factors I mentioned with Robin. We're all aware of the fact that Robin can't have children, nor does she really want them anyways. Barney wants kids though, mostly I think so that he can have all the experiences of being a parent and having a family that he feels that he didn't get to have because of his father leaving. It feels weird that only by random chance that Barney actually does have a child, but it's all he needed to really change into the person he always could have been. I would've given him an A if there was something that confirmed that he and the mother of his child make it work, but with literally no info I'm forced to keep him at a B+.
Ted, Ted, Ted. It does suck quite a bit that his wife does die in the manner that she did, but it's also oddly appropriate. Ted only got the opportunity to meet her because the love of her life died early so it makes sense that something similar would happen to Ted. Ted without a doubt though met the love of his life though and got to have all those wonderful experiences that go along with that. You know, kids and all that jazz. It would have been better I think if the wife hadn't died obviously since she was like totally perfect for Ted, but having it this way allows for a better end for all the characters. The waiting six years thing makes it much better in my opinion as well since it makes it into a scenario where Ted wasn't just waiting for the opportunity to go after Robin again, but rather reinforcing that Tracy (The mother) was the one for him but its time to move on.
So in the end Ted and Barney didn't get what I would have ideally wanted for them, but this ending is pretty good still. It's definitely not the best end to a T.V. series in my opinion, but its far from the worst as well. That's my two cents at least.
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| This scene was absolutely adorable though and I'm not afraid to admit it. |
A few thoughts:
ReplyDeleteI also disagree. This ending was terrible. Mostly because I believe all fictional stories should either leave you feeling completely satisfied or so different than you imagined that it just blows your mind. Either way—this finale was neither. It was infuriatingly predictable and left no satisfactory endings to anyone’s story. Plus, it had (as I felt) LOTS of things that just didn’t make sense. A few points:
1. Robin is supposed to be super successful as a news anchor, yet she is always traveling. Excuse me, but the last time I checked the super successful anchors were usually at the news desk—taking reports from people on location. Sure, they travel for really important events but not like that! Also—Barney’s job is writing a blog. Even if Robin were always traveling—he could go with her. And if she works for some big news network there is ALWAYS going to be internet access. Come on! Their excuses don’t even make sense.
2. You can’t get divorced on a weekend getaway out of the country. Logistically impossible. More probable and believable situation: they decide to file for divorce, tell the group, group rallies to make them realize they love each other, they decide to stick it out, everyone is happy.
3. We get this whole work up to the final play of the Robin Sherbatsky (sp?)—the play to end all plays—the end all and be all of Barney Stinson’s existence and it….lasts for a few years and then he reverts? Give me a break! Even if he and Robin got divorced (which I really don’t think they should have), he wouldn’t have gone back to the old ways. There has been so much work up to prove that Barney changed—that he believes in being with one woman in a meaningful relationship. HE PLAYED THE FINAL PLAY. It’s over.
4. Robin and Ted will never work. It isn’t just about the family and kids thing. This whole story has been about why Robin doesn’t work and the hundreds of other girls don’t work and why the mother does. Ted has always been the romantic—and he was proven right. So the story should end with him being happy forever or with the tragic ending of her death and him mourning her and then maybe marrying someone for companionship later. Not this wishy-washy halfway ‘she was the love of my life until I thought about it and I really just wanted my ex’ crap.
5. If Robin and Barney can’t make a relationship work with all the traveling, why will Robin and Ted be able to? Because of his teenage children that Robin never wanted?
6. I can believe the Barney being a wonderful father one day (it makes me happy)—but in the context I said above. A meaningful relationship because he never. should. have. gone. back. to. old. Barney. I’m fine with him and Robin getting divorced—but make it realistic! Robin going on to her career (what she always ends up choosing) and Barney continuing with the path he’s on now. Which is looking for real meaning in his life.
7. How do Ted’s kids even know Robin? They made it pretty clear that she’s never around. Ted’s kids would not know her as anyone other then ‘that random woman that shows up sometimes’ and definitely not enough to like her & want their widower father to date her.
ReplyDelete8. Where did Ted get that freaking blue horn??! If he had been keeping it this whole time—it makes him a big jerk. You don’t keep some romantic token from an ex once you have kids with someone. And then marry them. That thing should have been in some landfill for a very, very long time. Gone forever!
9. Ted could have given Robin the locket. But everything he did in the last season was to say ‘I still love you, but I know we won’t ever work out. I want my real, true love. And I really think you should end up with Barney. So I’m going to do everything to make that happen.’ Somehow I don’t think meeting the love of his life would change that line of thought.
10. Why were there like 100 episodes of Marshall trying to get from Minnesota to Farhampton but only one with the story of Ted and the mom after they met? If you want to say ‘it’s called How I MET Your Mother’ then it should have ended with the umbrella scene & there should have been no more story at all. If you are going to get into it—GET INTO IT! You can’t have us invested 9 seasons into this mother, cast her perfectly, present her as Ted’s ultimate, perfect match and then just ‘oh she was in a hospital bed for 3 minutes and then she was NO MORE’. It’s just plain mean to the viewers.
11. Marshall and Lily are supposed to be presented as having their perfect life, but frankly I thought most of their mentions in the episode revolved around Lily crying about dumb Robin—who apparently gives up on her marriage, deserts her friends and somehow is STILL always beloved and welcomed back—no questions asked.
12. In the end, I think it comes down to this: either the story is completely far-fetched and makes NO sense or Ted is a HUGE JERK. Either the writers believe that fiction can just throw all sense of reality out the window and make this story where it’s plausible that Ted fell in love with Robin TWICE with the love of his life in the middle (It’s not) or he’s, again, a HUGE JERK. If things really happened like they did in the finale, Ted is rude & mean. He pretends that Tracy is the true love of his life, going on to have kids with her and marry her and then support her as she dies—all while he is still in love with Robin with that stupid blue french horn buried in a closet somewhere.
All in all, I choose to believe that finale was a lapse by the writers. I believe Ted is a real romantic and would have only married/had kids with his ONLY love and wouldn’t let that be sullied by some old flame for Robin. He knows that they would never work out and really gets over her when he meets Tracy, who he should really be with. He would have gotten rid of that blue piece of crap and loved Tracy with all that he had and could never think of going back to Robin. The entire thing is ludicrous and makes no sense with the characters as they have been written all nine seasons.
I feel like this series could have achieved either type of ending: satisfaction with Ted & Tracy living happily ever after into old age or having her die and Ted choosing to do something unpredictable with the rest of his life—but definitely not the enraging, stupid, nonsensical ending of going back to tired, old, lame Robin. They tried to make it a sweet ending for both Ted & Robin—but their real sweet ending wouldn’t have been together.
I could go on and on about how much I hated it--but I think you get the point.
Ok, so I could probably go on to write a whole new post replying to all of this, but I really don't want to turn this into a running argument since it's subjective in the end. I'm going to say I like it, You are going to hate it, each of us for our own reasons which is fine. However I think you are being slightly unfair on some of your points.
ReplyDeletePoint 1 makes sense, all I can say is maybe Barney just missed New York.It's not a good reason, but it's all I got. #2 I think that they've already been through the process of divorcing each other and its taken time. It's not like they decided it wasn't going to work and then flew out to tell the group. When they first started dating they actually managed to keep that under wraps for a while, why not the divorce? #3 The Playbook II is dumb. I can completely agree with this, he had the whole thing memorized (He gave it two those two random guys) so why does he even need to write it out anymore? #4 I think the six years part that was glazed over is supposed to kind of make the point that it's mostly for companionship now, but that's an idea that needs way more than a single line to actually explain. #5 I have no idea how their relationship would work, I think Robin can be ok with Teenagers, I always thought that infants/small children were her main problem with kids. Again just my thoughts though nothing to really back it. #6 Old Barney coming back is kind of lame, but it's what he's always done when one of his relationships ends so I guess it makes sense. #7 Again I think this is something that is implied that Ted and Robin have re-connected over the years but doesn't get nearly enough explanation. #8 He stole it/bought it from the place, I don't think he kept it through the years. Also how hard would it be to spray-paint a french horn blue on the spot? Not like he has to play it. #9 Ted comments on this when Robin gets cold feet that if this is the way things are going to play out he's going to be sure to make it happen. I can't remember the exact line, it's something like if there's a shotgun to my head I'm going to pull the trigger, again I think this is something that having some time to explain what happens in the six years after his wife passes could explain, but there just isn't one offered at this point. #10. Again I think a lot more time should have been spent on Ted's wife. #11. I'm going to guarantee that with the event of Ted/Robin getting back together there would have been a lot more questions asked by both Lily and Marshall. #12 There is no doubt in my mind that Robin is #2 to Tracy. They just didn't take the time to explain themselves really.
So all in all I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the biggest crime of the finale ( I can say that, I said it was good, not perfect.) is simply not taking the time to both explain what the writers wanted to do or give enough screen time to who is arguably the most important person in the series. I don't think it has to be this all or nothing kind of thing where it was either incredible or awful. It was good, satisfactory, fine whatever. Also I think I said in an ideal ending Barney/Robin stay together (adopt a kid so Barney can be a father) and Ted/Tracy grow old together and that can be adorable as well. I'm still ok with how it ended though.