Amph Haaaaaave you met Ted? How i met Your mother (Final Episodes)

What happens in that alternate ending?

 

We see Ted and Tracy marry, then a nice montage of many of the things that got Ted to that point (quite funny), then the scene on the train station in the rain with the yellow umbrella. Then it ends. None of that crap about Tracy dying or old Ted going to hit on Robin.

 

I guess I could've lived with that ending. No need to commit to crap they had filmed years prior if, had the showrunners decided to stop and think about it, they had tested the waters to see if it would've been a good idea to do so. However, given the hints given in previous episodes to Tracy's fate, I guess they had committed themselves to THAT ending regardless.

 

Nah. I never thought the hints were strong enough that not following through on them would've been a significant error. Who knows, Tracy could still have died at some unknown point in the future... it's just that we don't need to know for sure. That way it's a happy ending, but not perfection.

Besides, I hated the fact that they had Ted go after Robin again. Undermined the whole show for me. Can't even go back and rewatch old episodes.

 

But it fits with the rest of the show anyway. Ted is constantly going back to Robin. It never stopped. Every time he was out of a relationship--sometimes during--he would run back to Robin. He doesn't learn, or grow, or change. He just hounds Robin despite having been told that she does not love him. If the ending undermines anything, It's Robin's development.

Ted is awful, but that's exactly what he would have done.

 

Robin doesn't want to love Ted because she has dreams and goals that conflict with his. The show stressed over and over how great they were together except for the fact they wanted different things in life that made them incompatible. Ted wanted kids and a family and Robin wanted a career and to travel the world. Ted got his kids and family, Robin traveled the world. They both got what they wanted. Then with that out of the way there was nothing stopping them from being together anymore. Ted's kids we're growing up and Robin had traveled the world and had moved back to New York as she wanted to be with her 'family' finally. They just had to wait until the timing was finally right.

I mean from the beginning of the show the focus was on Ted and Robins relationship and it never stopped being about that. If it hadn't ended with them together then what was the point of the show? You don't spend 9 seasons on two characters pining off and on on each other and then not have them end up together.

 

Then you are a fool. That's like saying you can't watch the original trilogy because you don't like the prequels. Or that you can't watch Red Dwarf series 1-6 because series 7 was so ridiculously awful.

 

Yes, that's one view but there are times when something is ruined by not sticking the ending so completely that, really, you just can't bring yourself to watch the others.

The Prequels are, of course, a horrible example -- because Star Wars already stuck their ending. Red Dwarf is fine, and if you dislike Series 7 enough then yes.

 

Of course it never stopped being about that, because Ted never respected Robin's decision.

The point of the show? How about how Ted met the mother? How about the other characters, like Barney, Lily, and Marshall (who all grow and change, and are actually way more interesting than Ted and Robin's on again off again "relationship")?

The point could have been that, sometimes, two people have different things they want, but can still be friends. Not Ted, though. Instead, he preys on Robin for 9 seasons whenever she's emotionally vulnerable, constantly dismisses what she wants in favor of his own desires, and manipulates their "friendship", sometimes even going so far as to sabotage her current relationships.

 

Everton and I have already had this discussion on more than one occasion!

My view point is that there are many shows that "jump the shark" or have something that turns you off the show. But if it affects your ability to watch what came before that point, then that is the fault of the viewer, not the writers.

 

It's very different with an ending. If it tanks the ending horribly, then yes -- it sometimes invalidates all that came before. I know people for whom Battlestar Galactica or Dexter fall in this area. It's just really, really difficult to come back from something that salts the earth so much...

 

That sounds like Lily

 

Again, that comes down to the viewer. If someone feels that 9 years of enjoyment can be simply undone because of one thing, then that speaks more of that person than the show. I love Ally McBeal, but when her child was brought into it, the series tanked and I won't watch that last half a season again. I still love watching the first 4 and a half seasons though

 

And when Ted did respect Robin's decision she always regretted it. Heck the whole finale after Barney and seeing Ted with is wife was just her realizing she made a huge mistake. Ted kept after her because he knew she loved him. He stopped when she and Barney fell in love. But it was never Ted chasing a girl who wanted nothing to do with him, the only reason she wasn't with him is because she knew they wanted different things in life so she didn't want to keep a relationship going that wasn't going to workout. That's why it didn't work with Barney. What she wanted made any relationship impossible until she got what she wanted and was ready to finally commit with that no longer being an issue.

Meeting the mother was always just a medium for the story, from the beginning it was clear she was never the point of it or it would've started with Ted actually meeting the mother. The final purpose of the story was he only reason it made any sense. The other characters had their arcs and plots but their stories were never the main story, everything in the show in some way or another tied back to the Ted Robin relationship.

That would be a possible view if the finale had not shown she clearly regretted not choosing him. If she was really just someone Ted pinned after who felt nothing for and was being preyed on then the finale would've ended with Ted showing up and her turning him down. But the finale showed Robin wanted to be with him and when he finally did show up her reaction was clearly joy. They both loved each other, Robin always just put her dreams a tiny percentage higher than Ted each time she had to make a decision, and ultimately it was one she regretted going by the finale. They both loved each other and wanted to be together, the only problem is the dreams they had for life, when those no longer conflicted it was only natural they'd be together since they've been trying to make it work for 9 seasons.

 

Yeah, Lily's not that great either.

 

I'm not going to get drawn into what actually happened in the finale, as that is something over which people won't ever agree. But if you are "happy" to write off 99% of something you liked, then the loss is yours, and yours alone.

 

Yeah, I don't really understand. There are some great episodes that have nothing to do with the ending which can still be enjoyed.

 

In the more general circumstance, too, it's completely fair to be turned off by something later in a show even though you enjoyed earlier installments. A classic example is Lost. If what attracted you to the show as the skill with which they built up the mystery of the Island, one would expect to love the show for most of its run. However, when the final season revealed they weren't actually building towards anything, and that there was no mystery to be had, it's perfectly fair to say that invalidates the reason for one's original enjoyment and erases re-watch value. That's entirely the writer's fault, because they dropped the storyline that appealed to the viewer.

 

I think it's possible to not like a show if it has a letdown or an ending you hate. But still like individual episodes. You can hate the thing as a whole, but still like the bits and pieces

 

We're not talking about a general reduction in quality though a la Lost (though I still love watching the early episodes from before I feel it went poor). We are talking about one episode in a 10-year series, and an episode that isn't even in the same time-frame as the rest of the series! No storyline was "dropped". It's simply a coda that some people don't like. It's like people who want Harry Potter and Hermione ending up together refusing to read the books or watch the films again because that didn't happen in the last chapter of the last book

 

Actually it would be more like learning that Voldemort wasn't even the actual Dark Lord and Harry beat the real Big Bad offscreen between the last chapter and the epilogue- the central premise of the series was undercut.

 

Yeah I mean for me if Ted hadn't ended up with Robin the whole show would've left a bitter taste as that always seemed like the end goal they kept working towards and telling us was going to happen, so not doing it would just leave me going 'well what was the point of that?' I would still like certain episodes sure and might still get a good laugh out of them, but on the whole the series would still make me feel letdown whenever I considered the whole thing. So for people who don't like how the show actually ended as they feel it screwed up the ultimate end they were promised and looking forward to and expecting, I can get why the show as a whole would seem 'ruined' or what not.

 

It would also mean you clearly don't pay attention!

"And that's how I met your Aunt Robin..."

 

But 'Aunt Robin' was the focus for the story 90% more than 'your mother' was... that was a pretty big clue who he was going to end up with by the end.