HIMYM Finale (Thoughts and SPOILERS)

The "How I Met Your Mother" finale is such a big thing right now, that it'd be kind of silly not to write something about it, even though I've never talked about it on this blog before.

Mostly that's because I know I still have plenty of readers who are young enough that I could not in good conscience recommend a show with this level of innuendo to them. Still, since getting into it two years ago I have utterly loved it. Late on the bandwagon, but no less passionate about the characters.

Still, I can't imagine what it would be like to watch the show for nine years and get that ending. Here comes the SPOILER ALERT. (Good for you if you've remained spoiler free thus far, I only barely made it).

I loved the Mother. I think it's kind of a beautiful thing how much the majority of the fans adore her and are ticked off about the ending for her sake. She was an awesome person and we loved her with Ted.

Did the show make her out to be "just a uterus"? No. And yes. Despite the last scene, despite the fact that Ted/Robin has, apparently, been end game all along, nonetheless I think it's clear how very, very much Ted loved Tracy. Take out the last two scenes and there wouldn't be a doubt in our minds. Just because those two scenes were put in because of an endgame decided on nine years ago, doesn't take away the beautiful acting and writing that happened before that.

I was sad about Barney and Robin, and felt that given all the build-up, it was really lame to have them break up. But at the same time I could accept  it, in a way I wouldn't have believed possible if you'd told me ahead of time. It actually felt true to their characters.

What isn't true to the character is what Barney did next. I think he let Robin out of the marriage because he could tell she wasn't happy, but he really loved her and went  on his playboy spree to cover the pain. And then I think this headcanon rocks.

The thing that a lot of us can't accept is Robin and Ted being happy together, in the end, after all that has happened. I think we could have bought it if we'd seen them together at all after Ted married Tracy. But we don't. All we see is that he is trying again for a flame that he let go of fifteen years previously. And I can't buy it, and neither can a lot of fans. Far better if the show had ended two scenes previously, leaving Ted's romantic future open-ended. I think we could have accepted Tracy's death, and found it really poignant and touching, and the Robin/Ted fans could have envisioned them together in the future, and the rest of us could imagine Ted dedicating buildings to Tracy for the rest of his life and being an awesome Dad (and eventually granddad).

Oh well. At least Marshall and Lily lived happily ever after.