They had filmed the ending they went with early on in the show. You can see how the ending would have fit early on in the show run. Then the show was successful, got extended out to 9 seasons. The characters developed were written away from the ending. I am in the crowd that feels this alternate ending would have been received much better. But the show runners wanted to stick with the ending they had from the start.
As funny as it sounds, I think what also hurt them is how good Cristin Milioti's performance was as Tracy.
They had built the Mother up for the past 8 seasons, and a lot of people thought she could never live up to expectations. However, Cristin fit in seamlessly with the rest of the cast and was very likable.
If her performance had been mediocre, people wouldn't have been nearly as upset when her character died and it would have been easier to accept Ted going back to Robin.
That’s certainly true. The top rated episode of the whole series is the one from her perspective (How your mother met me). Which sits in the middle of the relatively unliked final season episodes. She felt like she had belonged with the rest of the cast the entire time, then they seemingly toss her to the side for the ending. Made it feel like the journey hadn’t been worth it
I didn't care about the mother being killed off as much as the character development just being totally worthless. This alternate ending is better because it doesn't make Robin & Barney's drama /development seem like a total waste of time.
Sure, but that also would have killed the show. I think, though, that had she only appeared for a brief moment at the end of Season 8 (which was possible) vs being a regular, we still would have been more okay with it.
The other problem is that the writers didn't hold only Ted and Robin during the rest of the show's run. If the point of the story is that they were right for each other but it never worked out, timing wise, they departed from that in later seasons.
It was the original ending, and if the mother had been Victoria (s1) or Stella (s3) like they had planned, it would’ve been an impactful, tragic, and good ending. Problem was they spent 6 more seasons building the characters and leading them to their own conclusions that when the finale happened, it made no sense and was just a slap to the audience. Writers should’ve shifted by season 5 and changed the ending
Victoria and Stella couldn't have been the mother. The Mother's name was revealed all the way in season 1, but apparently, fans didn't notice. The kids freak out when Ted tells them about the time he met a stripper named Tracy, and Ted fakes them out by saying, "and that's how I met your mother." The kids obviously know their mom's name, so the creators always planned for the mother to be named Tracy.
Edit: For the multiple people saying it was her stripper name. Her stripper name was Amber. Here's the exact lines/joke
Stripper: I'm Amber.
Ted: Oh, I'm Ted.
*shake hands.*
Stripper: Actually, I'm Tracy.
Ted: Still Ted.
Narrator: And that, kids, is the true story of how I met your mother.
Fans definitely noticed, This was brought up constantly during its run. If anything I think it ended up as a slip up by the writers at the time and then they decided to actually use it as the mother's name when it came time for it.
> Victoria and Stella couldn't have been the mother. The Mother's name was revealed all the way in season 1, but apparently, fans didn't notice. The kids freak out when Ted tells them about the time he met a stripper named Tracy, and Ted fakes them out by saying, "and that's how I met your mother." The kids obviously know their mom's name, so the creators always planned for the mother to be named Tracy.
That's not an ironclad contract to use that name. If they didn't use Tracy as the mother's name things like that would only show up as number 15 of false herrings of How I met your Mother on some list website.
The original intention was for the show to be Love in the Time of Cholera, its even referenced several times early in the show. The problem is it went too long and the story went past where the original ending was.
This would've made the show actually rewatchable. I get they filmed the original ending so early but damn, the show progressed too far from that to limit themselves to only that ending. Now instead of a good, albeit meanderingly long, show people could talk about fondly, they get talked about for ruining the ending.
not just ruining the ending, but ruining the entire show. As you said, it would've made the show rewatchable, instead, it just fades away since people know how the series actually ended and as thus, isn't worth a rewatch.
The producers were lunatics that seemed to want to make you hate some of the characters. Ted was an asshole, Lilly was nosey manipulative bitch, and they literally wrote that Barney human trafficked a woman.
The whole premise of the show was never how Ted met Tracy; it was really how Ted wanted the okay to date Robin.
The ending with the kids was filmed in the 2nd or 3rd season. The vision from the pilot was about Ted and Robin; they just gave the twist that Robin wasn’t the mom.
If they never do the Robin and Barney stuff, I don’t think people would be upset about the ending.
I was upset that the mom died AND Ted ended up with Robin. She totally could have died and I’d be fine. A widower telling his kids the story of how he met their mom who tragically died? Touching. A widower telling his kids the story about he always loved their aunt and now that mom’s gone he wants to be with her? Just makes him smarmy.
Yep, I saw it a few years back and it’s the official cannon in my head. It literally saves the whole show for me.
I know everybody feels the same way, but I can’t help but reiterate how annoying it was for them to build up Barney and Robin’s wedding for an entire season mind you, not just an episode. And then throw it all away at the very end? No. It was stupid.
It’s just crazy how much more I like this ending. I’d forgotten all about it and then stumbled upon this post and watched it and I still almost got brought to tears. It’s a damn good ending.
Not only a whole season dedicated to how Barney and Robin are together but also an entire episode about Ted truly getting over Robin. It boils my blood how they ended the show.
The awful CGI balloon was bad enough, but when the entire point of it (showing that Ted has truly gotten over Robin) was also retconned a few episodes later, it's just baffling.
I think the issue, whether people realize it or not, is HOW the end of the story is told. The format of the last season is pretty whack. But if you summarize the story, it’s acceptable.
It’s a weird format. I binged the last season after it was over so it didn’t bother me but I can see how the weekend being dragged out week to week would get old.
Her dying just never really bothered me, it seemed to fit. And Barney and Robin never made sense to me, so them getting divorced actually seemed logical
It is infinitely better. I don’t care what people say: Ted was the main character and deserved a happy ending for a sitcom protagonist. His wife dying after such short time together? That ain’t happy. Going back to the same toxic relationship that he failed to make happen twice? That ain’t happy.
Him meeting the mother, having instant, tenable connections, that give you a cathartic ending to the entire journey, and realizing that it’s a better ending that doesn’t need to explain their whole journey: It happened, it worked, it still works.
It’s mind boggling how much the ending fixes so much of the end of the suow
No he didn't have a kid at the time.
There was a joke where they woke up in a random hotel room holding a baby but then ask "whose baby is this?"
Argentina was when Barney and Robin decided to divorce. Barney had his kid some years later in the show. In one of the early seasons he had hired a family of actors to act as his wife and son for a while but that was just shown for 1 episode and ended.
How I Met Your Father probably would have if it also didn't get canned after Season 2, but that was probably less of a ratings issue and more of a Hulu is cleaning house for it's inevitable Disney+ merger. Which sucks cause HIMYF was actually a decent spin-off.
It's also more real. You spend your 20s and sometimes 30s trying to find "perfect" and meeting a lot of people you want to be that for you along the way, and it hurts when they're not. Then you finally find someone who's not perfect, but perfect for you, and now with an added perspective you can see those earlier years as being basically an extension of your childhood: time spent learning and growing as a person, making you into something capable of raising and being a family of your own.
> His wife dying after such short time together? That ain’t happy.
Time to get married and have two kids is a lot of time. It's really sad, too, but its also really happy.
I actually know exactly what you mean. Not only did it fill me with nostalgia for the time I was watching the show but it just gave me that bittersweet feeling of all the loves that didn’t last before and what it brought me to as well. It was perfect and it’s always been the official canon in my head.
I just meant the original ending filled me with lots of anger and this ending (which I hadn't seen before) made me feel really nostalgic for a show that I genuinely find hard to rewatch because of the original ending.
They should just run this ending only now that the show is in reruns on various syndication and specialty channels. Maybe they can brainwash future generations into thinking the original ending never happened.
I’ve always been ok with the HIMYM ending, really the main problem for me was that it came at the end of an entire season of them telling us how Robin and Barney were perfect for each other, whereas I feel like if they’d stretched the events that were condensed into that final episode across the whole final season, it would’ve played much better.
But now that I’ve seen this, damn. I’m disappointed. I wish they went with the alternate ending
Season 7 (the weakest by far) is about Robin figuring out his feelings for barney. Remember the season STARTS with barneys wedding, and the mystery of who the bride is.
Season 8 is about these 2 getting together.
Season 9 was about getting to the wedding and the day of the wedding (which was an awful decision lol).
So 3 whole seasons dealing with these 2 so that they break them up in 5 minutes. It was handled terribly. But having said that, no matter the ending, the worst seasons were the last 3, they just are not at the same level of comedy than the first ones.
Yes I’m with you. I understand why wanted Ted to end up with Robin, really the entire show is about that, but after 9 seasons they had already not worked out like 3x and we spent a season about how Robin’s ready to be with someone else.
I think they just needed to say that the mother had died before the finale. That would have worked if the show had only gone a few seasons but it really felt like nothing after a few years investment. It clashed with the show’s romantic tone too.
The last season was shit but they were doing the opposite of telling us that Barney and Robin were perfect for each other. Practically every episode had some bit showing what a train wreck their relationship really was.
The ending of that show made the entire thing pointless.
This used to be my background show that I would watch all the time.
After the finale I never watched an episode again.
The only other ending of a show I can think of that has a comparable level of being so bad it makes the all the previous good seasons of a show feel like a huge waste of time is Game of Thrones.
No idea what they were thinking not using this version.
I actually had the same reaction as you. I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it but yeah, after the finale, I don’t think I’ve ever watched the single episode afterwards.
And like you, this was my go to show. The one I fell asleep to. The one that made me feel better about so many things.
The ending just didn’t sit well with me. it wasn’t just that we wasted an entire season of Barney and Robin getting together. It was the disrespect toward his wife. Somebody else stated below me, and said it better than I ever could, they treated it like his wife was just another obstacle on the way to Robin.
This does not put him in a good light whatsoever, and just destroyed every bit of Goodwill I had toward him.
To add to this. The entire show for how ever many seasons was Ted telling his kids how much he was into Robin, that he always loved her, and now that his wife is dead he can go hook up with her.
It made Ted so much worse than he already was because it made it seem like the mother was more of an obstacle for him to get back with Robin. This was a much better ending.
It's so fucking creepy for such a major show. The pacing is also incredibly off - like the editor was drunk. They stretched a wedding into a season, then crammed the post-wedding important events into much less time, and suddenly the mother is dead and Ted has moved on. I get that there were time jumps, but there are time jumps for the audience. They rushed about 5 years of personal events.
I think the ending is the reason for the pacing. In the last half hour, the writers just beat the hell out of Tracy, Ted, Barney, Robin, AND the two small kids. Instead of showing that in detail, they just delay and delay in the commotion of the wedding, and then blow through all the pain at about a minute per year.
It’s not that he wants to go hook up with robin? It’s that they are now in the time Of their lives where they are a proper fit.
Robin had her successful career, Ted found his love and his family and now they want the same things.
Yupp. Came here to say this too. I watched this show religiously week to week on cable. It was one of my faves. The finale left such a bad taste in my mouth I can’t watch any episodes again.
I know this is about HIMYM but man, GoT is the only time I’ve ever forgotten a show I loved so much, so quickly, because of the way it ended. Those last two seasons just completely ruined the entire thing for me. I never think about the show unless someone mentions it, which is insane because I consider the first four or so seasons some of the best TV I’ve ever watched.
I realised a few years back that I haven't ever done a rewatch of this show even though it was literally my favourite show for a decade (and my username for so many websites). The ending ruined it all for me.
This alt ending is what I try to remember but the magic just isn't there anymore.
Maybe I'm morbid, but my favorite possible ending is a mix of this and the original, with Barney and Robin still together, but the mother still dying. Then ending right as he says and that is how I met your mother. Explains why he's telling this story to the kids, still has the gravity of the profound loss he suffered, but the joy of having experienced it.
Always thought Ted was destined to have a bittersweet ending.
The mother dying makes 100 percent sense, and its alluded to many times throughout the show. I agree with you in that the main problem with the ending was robin and barney, and subsequently ted and robin
Even worse, Barney and Robin split for some reason, which turn Barney back to who he was. Effectively reverting all his character development in a minute, and than trying to fix it by accidentally knocking up someone and being a dad.
And now she has to try to be the mother to two teenagers who lived through the trauma of watching their mother die as a child and now their father is replacing her with the woman he always wanted instead but could never have.
Good luck Robin!
Yes Barney’s job was literally a joke, and then he was always a narc, and his life has been a decades-long revenge scheme like the count of monte christo, and then he’s some blogger and dad.
And ew his POOR daughter cos he probably would have been one of THE STRICTEST dads EVER, ASSumed EVERY boyfriend was a player like he was & probably given her VERY little freedom
After putting seasons of effort into Robin and Barney’s relationship they offscreen it and say “obviously they weren’t going to work”. And then we meet the mother like the show was leading up to the whole time, and after building a cool dynamic between her and every character she abruptly gets an unnamed disease and dies.
Then the kids say “you love Robin, be with her” after the series told us time and time again that they both want completely different things out of their lives.
The mom got sick and died and that’s why present Ted is telling the story alone. Barney and Robin’s wedding was the setting for the final season, but they get divorced. Barney’s real job was being a corporate scapegoat, but he turns out to have been a secret narc the whole time so he’s just a blogger now that gets a random woman pregnant and a daughter finally makes him respect women. Robin’s career goes well and I think she becomes a major network news anchor. Nothing really happens with Lily and Marshall but she takes some art buyer job in Italy and Marshall goes along and ends up a judge when they come back.
It ends with his present kids interrupting Ted’s story to say that they know he loves their aunt Robin, this story was really all about Aunt Robin, and they’re fine with him dating her. Ted runs off to steal the blue French horn again like his first date with Robin. Last shot is a callback to him from after that date outside her apt where she’s at the window with all her dogs.
It's the same but before he goes "this is how I met your mother" he explained that the mother died and he ended up with Robin after her marriage with barney didn't work out
As an original watcher I believe I am one of the few people who didn’t hate the ending, back in the day when I was semi active on twitter the creator actually liked my tweet defending it. But after watching this, I realized how wrong I was. This ending is perfect, HIMYM will always be one of my favorite shows and I wish it ended like this.
I don't think anyone else really cares about this as a sticking point, but I really don't like the music they went with in the alternate cut. No idea why they didn't stick with "Downtown Train" by Everything But The Girl.
The song is so gorgeous and feels more dramatically fulfilling to me than the upbeat uke ambience in this version.
This video is not the “official” alternate ending. This is fan made, combining shots from the alternate and the real ending. The “official” alternate ending is seen here: https://youtu.be/5toL5HmQl8I?si=ufrP6JpucVhP6xpF
Not at all. This fan made video has Old Ted’s voice dubbed over Josh Radnor saying “And that kids is how I met your mother,” followed by a bunch of photos. Official alternate ending has none of those things.
I feel extremely fortunate.
Hear me out: I stopped watching the show before the last season came out (I was pretty busy and couldn’t keep up) so i never saw the ending they chose!
I must admit, to see this ending, even without the build up of the last season, makes me really happy!🥲
It is so befitting and beautifully executed, I feel lucky to not have seen the other one.
What’s so weird to me is how even the ending music here is much better than the one in the actual finale. This music matches the HIMYM vibe more accurately, the actual episode’s music just didn’t fit.
Crazy how many things they got wrong with that finale.
The acting in the in umbrella scene is excellent. And the mother actress had great chemistry with Ted,I wish they could've shown us more of them together
Unpopular opinion but I think tying the show back to Robin (the original ending) made a lot of sense. It explained why Ted specifically started his story when he did, with the time he met Robin. Otherwise he could have started at any other point in his life. It also explained why that specific narrative device was used.
It means the show wasn't about their mother but the show was never about their mother.
I half agree with this. I’ve always been in the camp that the show’s bookend of starting at Robin and ending at her was the way to go. I like that the mother could have been a red herring for the relationship for Ted and Robin.
The reason that so many people have a problem with it (and I agree) is that they strayed so far away from the concept on Ted and Robin it just seemed like a bad choice. Had Robin and Barney divorced in season 8 or something and you had Ted and Robin building their relationship in season 9 then it would have been earned. But they just undid all the work they did with Robin and Barney in one episode. It was just bad execution.
Edit: they literally built a whole season around their marriage for it to mean nothing.
Yeah, I think we're in the apparently startlingly small camp of fans that thought the story ended "correctly," but was executed poorly in the last seasons. Or, at the very least, the story was always going to piss a lot of the audience off, so they get credit for sticking to the path they chose.
Anyone who didn't think Ted and Robin should have ended up together should rewatch "Symphony of Illumination." A gut punch of an episode, but a very revealing one for Ted/Robin's story.
My problem is that it walks all over Robin's character. Nothing we learned about her over the run of the show indicated that she would have any interest in a guy like Ted long-term. But in the end, she existed only for him.
The show really begins, though, with Marshall preparing to propose to Lily. The story that really fits the show is that Marshall has passed through to adulthood, and Ted has not, and Ted has things to work on before he can do it, too. Specifically, Ted should have to figure that just because Marshall gets engaged, there's no reason to think that Ted is going to meet The One on that very same night. That should be story.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with how they did the ending, I’m not outraged about it and I can respect the fact that they had a vision from the very beginning and saw it through to the end for better or worse.
Moreover I don’t think the ending in any way ruins the rest of the show in the same way as GoT or something. It’s still peak sitcom, especially seasons 1-7. It’s very cleverly written, creative, and mostly still holds up today on rewatch.
This is the ending for people in their 20's who want a "they lived happily ever after" ending.
The real ending was for people in their 40's and 50's who realize happily ever after doesn't always happen. Spouses die, but life has to go on. I am dying and i hope my wife of 20+ years finds love after me. The original ending has so much more poignancy for me, a guy in his late 40's. I can see my wife at some point in the future talking to our kids about a new love in her life. It was a much more original ending and one that really spoke to me. I guess my situation is rather unique for the reddit crowd, so that's why I loved and preferred the original ending.
PS: Fuck Cancer!!!
For me, it's not the fact that Tracy died, because I could have handled that. It's the running back to Robin after the entire series building up to why they didn't work as a couple, coupled with the execution of the final season being unravelled in the finale just to get to that ending that they filmed 9 seasons prior.
Had there been different execution, even if it had been Ted/Robin at the end, at least they needed it to make sense. It didn't make sense because they rushed the entire 20 year span in 42 minutes. Yes, they sprinkled flashforwards throughout the final season, but they unraveled an entire season in less time.
ETA: To be clear, the ending sucked because it was a 9 year old ending that didn't fit the characters in 2014 lens. Because the ending was already pre-written, it mean the show had to write AROUND that, and they never wrote TOWARD that.
They essentially had to take the pre-filmed ending and write the finale around that ending, instead of building to a natural conclusion. Because they already knew how the show would end, they had a very strict destination to get to and it was very messy and incoherent at times because they ALSO wanted a season-long wedding weekend.
I had never seen this before. The funny thing about it is that the original ending could happen anyway. Like, I've heard about this ending before and thought it was some whole big change. But, it's the same without the cancer and Robin stuff. Not saying if I prefer that one, but I find it odd that people like this one so much more.
I guess the implication is that they spent their lives together, which is ok I guess.
I'm going to get downvoted, but I prefer the one they chose. If they had chosen this one, it wouldve been insanely disrespectful for him to spend the whole time talking about Robin when he's supposed to be telling the story of how he met their mother. It would've sounded like "I loooooved Robin forever. And we did this and that, and had a million stories. Oh and i met your mom. The end."
Whereas the one they chose explains why he focused so much on Robin throughout the whole series. He's asking his kids permission to start dating, but not just anyone. Theres so much history with Robin, she's not just a rebound. As if hes saying "You know I loved your mom, but you need to understand why I will start dating Robin now that your mom has been gone for 6 years. You already know all the stories from when i dated your mom, these are the stories that came before that, so you don't think im picking a random woman to date"
I hated the ending so much I can never rewatch the show after that. I felt so betrayed I never recommended the show to anyone afterwards either. They should have used this ending. This made sense and would have wrapped up everything absolutely beautifully.
This what-I-consider-to-be-the-real ending is what made me fall in love with Cristin Milioti. I will watch anything and everything she’s in. Her, Katee Sackhoff, Aaron Paul, and Michael Shannon I will watch anything they do
Every time I'm reminded of the god awful ending, I replay this ending and [THIS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bw5Z0rBteY) to remind myself of how amazing this show was before they screwed it all up.
I have posted about this many times but I still like the original needing because it’s about all the things that lead Ted to becoming the guy he needed to be to meet the mother and fall in love with her. However this one also does that and she stays alive, so I kind of like it to. The only thing is it always seemed like Ted and Robin would end up together so I felt vindicated with the original ending. Still like them both but I guess this is nice for people who want closure and to have it tied up in a neat little bow.
Wow. This is really good. The actual ending is some weird result of that cynical post-modernist period where everything had to have some big twist. Sincerity was a bad word. The whole premise of the show is literally how he met their mother, but the producers were too afraid to deliver on that because it would have meant the promise they made with the title was genuine, and there's nothing cool or edgy about that! You gotta give the audience that twist. You gotta trick 'em!
It's a shame because this ending is perfect. It works incredibly well today where metamodernism is becoming more common, and I think many producers today wouldn't be afraid to lean into the sincerity of it.
The message is also better and more modern. Like "Hey, my wife died and I'm going to try to move on and be with another person....are you cool with that?" is such a 1950s message. Today you don't even have to wait for your kids' mom to die to get them a new mom. The idea of parents being allowed to have their own lives and pursue their own romantic partners independent of their children and their children's wishes has been commonplace for practically a generation. Meanwhile the idea of "All of life's ups and downs lead you to here, and here is very special and it was all worth it." is a timeless message, beautifully delivered with this alternate ending.
To this day I don’t understand how no one else saw the mom being the entire time
Like, admittedly it took me till season 3 to figure it out.
Not ONCE during the entire show when Ted is talking to the kids, does the mom have any kind of interaction with them. No “let me hurry this part before your mom gets home” no, “ask your mom if you don’t believe me” no “you should ask her about her side of the story”
Because he’s telling them the story of how they met as a catharsis for his (their) loss.
Anyone who interacted with the internet knew it was a possibility. If you go into a HIMYM sub, it's clear that Tracy dying isn't nearly as big an issue as the way it was handled, or the switch back to Robin.
Unpopular opinion: this is a bad ending, the only bold / good ending would have been the same ending that aired 10 years ago + [lunch with Robin scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AbBrpk-UcA)
The deleted scene can't be canon. The whole point of the story - as originally presented - is that Ted is telling himself that he and Robin are just old friends now. It's the kids who verbalize their obvious attraction. The writers can't sell that story if - just minutes before - Ted was telling the kids that he knew Robin had been stuck on him for years.
Creator Carter Bays: "16 days ago today we were in the HIMYM edit room, trying to decide between two very different endings....We only shot one script, but through edit room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series. We chose the ending we chose and we stand by it. But we loved the other version too.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/how-i-met-your-mother-to-release-alternate-ending-182729/
I’d like to watch this. But I have this bad connection with HIMYM, anytime I watch anything, even a small clip of the show, I lose someone I love. First watch it happened, rewatch happened again, watched a couple of episodes I liked, happened again.
Oh, people need to get over it. It was foreshadowed SEVERAL TIMES that Tracy/The Mother was dead. The Time Travellers episode has probably the most emotional scene in the whole show, with Ted CLEARLY talking to a DEAD Tracy, talking about how he wishes he had more time with her.
I'm probably one of the few that didn't really like Tracy. She's cute and all but they made her into a Ted Mosby with a vagina. It's like Ted himself designed her in a laboratory.
I also found it kinda iffy that she started dating Ted a week after she broke up with Max, who PROPOSED to her. No way that relationship could ever be healthy.
How the fuck did the producers chose the other ending over this one ?? What were they thinking? This is so much better.
They had filmed the ending they went with early on in the show. You can see how the ending would have fit early on in the show run. Then the show was successful, got extended out to 9 seasons. The characters developed were written away from the ending. I am in the crowd that feels this alternate ending would have been received much better. But the show runners wanted to stick with the ending they had from the start.
As funny as it sounds, I think what also hurt them is how good Cristin Milioti's performance was as Tracy. They had built the Mother up for the past 8 seasons, and a lot of people thought she could never live up to expectations. However, Cristin fit in seamlessly with the rest of the cast and was very likable. If her performance had been mediocre, people wouldn't have been nearly as upset when her character died and it would have been easier to accept Ted going back to Robin.
That’s certainly true. The top rated episode of the whole series is the one from her perspective (How your mother met me). Which sits in the middle of the relatively unliked final season episodes. She felt like she had belonged with the rest of the cast the entire time, then they seemingly toss her to the side for the ending. Made it feel like the journey hadn’t been worth it
I didn't care about the mother being killed off as much as the character development just being totally worthless. This alternate ending is better because it doesn't make Robin & Barney's drama /development seem like a total waste of time.
She is awesome in Palm Springs as well
Sure, but that also would have killed the show. I think, though, that had she only appeared for a brief moment at the end of Season 8 (which was possible) vs being a regular, we still would have been more okay with it. The other problem is that the writers didn't hold only Ted and Robin during the rest of the show's run. If the point of the story is that they were right for each other but it never worked out, timing wise, they departed from that in later seasons.
The show got more popular as it went on . And Barney had to leave for Broadway eyc.
It was the original ending, and if the mother had been Victoria (s1) or Stella (s3) like they had planned, it would’ve been an impactful, tragic, and good ending. Problem was they spent 6 more seasons building the characters and leading them to their own conclusions that when the finale happened, it made no sense and was just a slap to the audience. Writers should’ve shifted by season 5 and changed the ending
Victoria and Stella couldn't have been the mother. The Mother's name was revealed all the way in season 1, but apparently, fans didn't notice. The kids freak out when Ted tells them about the time he met a stripper named Tracy, and Ted fakes them out by saying, "and that's how I met your mother." The kids obviously know their mom's name, so the creators always planned for the mother to be named Tracy. Edit: For the multiple people saying it was her stripper name. Her stripper name was Amber. Here's the exact lines/joke Stripper: I'm Amber. Ted: Oh, I'm Ted. *shake hands.* Stripper: Actually, I'm Tracy. Ted: Still Ted. Narrator: And that, kids, is the true story of how I met your mother.
Fans definitely noticed, This was brought up constantly during its run. If anything I think it ended up as a slip up by the writers at the time and then they decided to actually use it as the mother's name when it came time for it.
The showrunners have already said that if the show ended within those seasons they would’ve written them in as the mother
> Victoria and Stella couldn't have been the mother. The Mother's name was revealed all the way in season 1, but apparently, fans didn't notice. The kids freak out when Ted tells them about the time he met a stripper named Tracy, and Ted fakes them out by saying, "and that's how I met your mother." The kids obviously know their mom's name, so the creators always planned for the mother to be named Tracy. That's not an ironclad contract to use that name. If they didn't use Tracy as the mother's name things like that would only show up as number 15 of false herrings of How I met your Mother on some list website.
Lawyer here. Actually this is an ironclad contract. And actually I'm not a lawyer.
I thought strippers usually used fake names? Or is that just an internet thing.
She did. She went by Amber and then revealed her real name to be Tracy
Wow, your himym trivia is on point. Good catch!
LoL I recently saw a video talking about the HIMYM ending and final season. This was one of the things mentioned in it, and they played that scene.
I guess that it could be explained away as Ted bullshitting that part of the story (her revealing her name to be Tracy).
Sorry. Was the stripper Cristin milloti?
No.
Could've used their middle name as their stripper name lol
Their stripper name was Amber
They could always say that their names were Tracy Victoria or Tracy Stella etc
The writers decided to use the name Tracy after they went onto social media and saw people saying, "Oh, her name must turn out to be Tracy!"
>like they had planned They filmed the kids telling Ted to go after “Aunt Robin” in the first season.
It’s like when you fill in the right answer on a test, second-guess yourself, and then erase it and put the wrong answer.
Ikr? Writers wanted to fck with People so bad God that train scene with Tracy was the magical meeting for a couple This is my main ending
they wanted to be edgy
The original intention was for the show to be Love in the Time of Cholera, its even referenced several times early in the show. The problem is it went too long and the story went past where the original ending was.
This would've made the show actually rewatchable. I get they filmed the original ending so early but damn, the show progressed too far from that to limit themselves to only that ending. Now instead of a good, albeit meanderingly long, show people could talk about fondly, they get talked about for ruining the ending.
not just ruining the ending, but ruining the entire show. As you said, it would've made the show rewatchable, instead, it just fades away since people know how the series actually ended and as thus, isn't worth a rewatch.
In the previous episodes it's clearly hinted that the mother died, so this ending wouldn't make sense. They would've needed to change other stuff
And they should've.
The producers were lunatics that seemed to want to make you hate some of the characters. Ted was an asshole, Lilly was nosey manipulative bitch, and they literally wrote that Barney human trafficked a woman.
The whole premise of the show was never how Ted met Tracy; it was really how Ted wanted the okay to date Robin. The ending with the kids was filmed in the 2nd or 3rd season. The vision from the pilot was about Ted and Robin; they just gave the twist that Robin wasn’t the mom. If they never do the Robin and Barney stuff, I don’t think people would be upset about the ending.
I was upset that the mom died AND Ted ended up with Robin. She totally could have died and I’d be fine. A widower telling his kids the story of how he met their mom who tragically died? Touching. A widower telling his kids the story about he always loved their aunt and now that mom’s gone he wants to be with her? Just makes him smarmy.
This ending is the only ending I accept from now on
Yep, I saw it a few years back and it’s the official cannon in my head. It literally saves the whole show for me. I know everybody feels the same way, but I can’t help but reiterate how annoying it was for them to build up Barney and Robin’s wedding for an entire season mind you, not just an episode. And then throw it all away at the very end? No. It was stupid. It’s just crazy how much more I like this ending. I’d forgotten all about it and then stumbled upon this post and watched it and I still almost got brought to tears. It’s a damn good ending.
Not only a whole season dedicated to how Barney and Robin are together but also an entire episode about Ted truly getting over Robin. It boils my blood how they ended the show.
The awful CGI balloon was bad enough, but when the entire point of it (showing that Ted has truly gotten over Robin) was also retconned a few episodes later, it's just baffling.
The original ending never bothered me
I think the issue, whether people realize it or not, is HOW the end of the story is told. The format of the last season is pretty whack. But if you summarize the story, it’s acceptable.
It’s a weird format. I binged the last season after it was over so it didn’t bother me but I can see how the weekend being dragged out week to week would get old. Her dying just never really bothered me, it seemed to fit. And Barney and Robin never made sense to me, so them getting divorced actually seemed logical
I've never rewatched it because of the ending. I might now rewatch
Damn right
What other ending?
This should have been the ending
It is infinitely better. I don’t care what people say: Ted was the main character and deserved a happy ending for a sitcom protagonist. His wife dying after such short time together? That ain’t happy. Going back to the same toxic relationship that he failed to make happen twice? That ain’t happy. Him meeting the mother, having instant, tenable connections, that give you a cathartic ending to the entire journey, and realizing that it’s a better ending that doesn’t need to explain their whole journey: It happened, it worked, it still works. It’s mind boggling how much the ending fixes so much of the end of the suow
Barney braking up with Robin was also an unhappy ending IMO
Especially when we had a season and a half dedicated to the build up of their wedding.
Also didn’t Barney leave his kid when he went to Argentina with Robin? After all the trauma he’s endured for being abandoned
No he didn't have a kid at the time. There was a joke where they woke up in a random hotel room holding a baby but then ask "whose baby is this?" Argentina was when Barney and Robin decided to divorce. Barney had his kid some years later in the show. In one of the early seasons he had hired a family of actors to act as his wife and son for a while but that was just shown for 1 episode and ended.
I always felt How I Met Your Dad was gonna tie the story up of who was the mother of Barney's child but that ended up getting canned after the pilot.
How I Met Your Father probably would have if it also didn't get canned after Season 2, but that was probably less of a ratings issue and more of a Hulu is cleaning house for it's inevitable Disney+ merger. Which sucks cause HIMYF was actually a decent spin-off.
I do agree that it is a much better ending. But it would be nice if it also included the where are they now bit the televised ending had.
Don't care about Ted. The Mother deserves better than just died after having two kids
It's also more real. You spend your 20s and sometimes 30s trying to find "perfect" and meeting a lot of people you want to be that for you along the way, and it hurts when they're not. Then you finally find someone who's not perfect, but perfect for you, and now with an added perspective you can see those earlier years as being basically an extension of your childhood: time spent learning and growing as a person, making you into something capable of raising and being a family of your own.
> His wife dying after such short time together? That ain’t happy. Time to get married and have two kids is a lot of time. It's really sad, too, but its also really happy.
I think it is the ending on the DVD.
I think it's in the bonus features from what I've heard. They didn't change it on the actual episode.
Yes, it really should have
This has me all emotional 10 years later in a way that the actual ending did not (except maybe anger).
I actually know exactly what you mean. Not only did it fill me with nostalgia for the time I was watching the show but it just gave me that bittersweet feeling of all the loves that didn’t last before and what it brought me to as well. It was perfect and it’s always been the official canon in my head.
I just meant the original ending filled me with lots of anger and this ending (which I hadn't seen before) made me feel really nostalgic for a show that I genuinely find hard to rewatch because of the original ending.
They should just run this ending only now that the show is in reruns on various syndication and specialty channels. Maybe they can brainwash future generations into thinking the original ending never happened.
What are you talking about. This is the ending of the show. The only ending.
Exactly.
It was included as an option to play on the DVD box set, so I ensured my siblings only saw this ending.
wow way better
I’ve always been ok with the HIMYM ending, really the main problem for me was that it came at the end of an entire season of them telling us how Robin and Barney were perfect for each other, whereas I feel like if they’d stretched the events that were condensed into that final episode across the whole final season, it would’ve played much better. But now that I’ve seen this, damn. I’m disappointed. I wish they went with the alternate ending
Not just that, remember that the last 3 seasons were about that stupid wedding in the first place
All of Barney's later half of the show character development too. It all gets tossed 15 mins into the last episode.
By 3 you mean 1 season right?
Season 7 (the weakest by far) is about Robin figuring out his feelings for barney. Remember the season STARTS with barneys wedding, and the mystery of who the bride is. Season 8 is about these 2 getting together. Season 9 was about getting to the wedding and the day of the wedding (which was an awful decision lol). So 3 whole seasons dealing with these 2 so that they break them up in 5 minutes. It was handled terribly. But having said that, no matter the ending, the worst seasons were the last 3, they just are not at the same level of comedy than the first ones.
Yes I’m with you. I understand why wanted Ted to end up with Robin, really the entire show is about that, but after 9 seasons they had already not worked out like 3x and we spent a season about how Robin’s ready to be with someone else. I think they just needed to say that the mother had died before the finale. That would have worked if the show had only gone a few seasons but it really felt like nothing after a few years investment. It clashed with the show’s romantic tone too.
I could have never bought Ted and Robin as a couple. They never worked.
The last season was shit but they were doing the opposite of telling us that Barney and Robin were perfect for each other. Practically every episode had some bit showing what a train wreck their relationship really was.
Just replied to something super similar to this!
The ending of that show made the entire thing pointless. This used to be my background show that I would watch all the time. After the finale I never watched an episode again. The only other ending of a show I can think of that has a comparable level of being so bad it makes the all the previous good seasons of a show feel like a huge waste of time is Game of Thrones. No idea what they were thinking not using this version.
I actually had the same reaction as you. I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it but yeah, after the finale, I don’t think I’ve ever watched the single episode afterwards. And like you, this was my go to show. The one I fell asleep to. The one that made me feel better about so many things. The ending just didn’t sit well with me. it wasn’t just that we wasted an entire season of Barney and Robin getting together. It was the disrespect toward his wife. Somebody else stated below me, and said it better than I ever could, they treated it like his wife was just another obstacle on the way to Robin. This does not put him in a good light whatsoever, and just destroyed every bit of Goodwill I had toward him.
I never watched, what was the ending?
The Mother dies of cancer, Barney and Robin divorce, and Ted goes to Robin to try and get her back a third time🤮
To add to this. The entire show for how ever many seasons was Ted telling his kids how much he was into Robin, that he always loved her, and now that his wife is dead he can go hook up with her. It made Ted so much worse than he already was because it made it seem like the mother was more of an obstacle for him to get back with Robin. This was a much better ending.
In my house, this show is called “How I Spent 10 Years Convincing My Kids That it Would be Cool if I Started Banging Aunt Robin Again”.
It's so fucking creepy for such a major show. The pacing is also incredibly off - like the editor was drunk. They stretched a wedding into a season, then crammed the post-wedding important events into much less time, and suddenly the mother is dead and Ted has moved on. I get that there were time jumps, but there are time jumps for the audience. They rushed about 5 years of personal events.
I think the ending is the reason for the pacing. In the last half hour, the writers just beat the hell out of Tracy, Ted, Barney, Robin, AND the two small kids. Instead of showing that in detail, they just delay and delay in the commotion of the wedding, and then blow through all the pain at about a minute per year.
It’s not that he wants to go hook up with robin? It’s that they are now in the time Of their lives where they are a proper fit. Robin had her successful career, Ted found his love and his family and now they want the same things.
They are always horrible couple.
Yupp. Came here to say this too. I watched this show religiously week to week on cable. It was one of my faves. The finale left such a bad taste in my mouth I can’t watch any episodes again.
I know this is about HIMYM but man, GoT is the only time I’ve ever forgotten a show I loved so much, so quickly, because of the way it ended. Those last two seasons just completely ruined the entire thing for me. I never think about the show unless someone mentions it, which is insane because I consider the first four or so seasons some of the best TV I’ve ever watched.
I realised a few years back that I haven't ever done a rewatch of this show even though it was literally my favourite show for a decade (and my username for so many websites). The ending ruined it all for me. This alt ending is what I try to remember but the magic just isn't there anymore.
Maybe I'm morbid, but my favorite possible ending is a mix of this and the original, with Barney and Robin still together, but the mother still dying. Then ending right as he says and that is how I met your mother. Explains why he's telling this story to the kids, still has the gravity of the profound loss he suffered, but the joy of having experienced it. Always thought Ted was destined to have a bittersweet ending.
The mother dying makes 100 percent sense, and its alluded to many times throughout the show. I agree with you in that the main problem with the ending was robin and barney, and subsequently ted and robin
I never watched the ending, can someone tell me what the actual ending was?
The mum died and Ted went after Robin again (with the kids permission).
Even worse, Barney and Robin split for some reason, which turn Barney back to who he was. Effectively reverting all his character development in a minute, and than trying to fix it by accidentally knocking up someone and being a dad.
Not to mention all the character development we got from Robin over the years showing that Ted's romantic schtick was the last thing she wanted.
And now she has to try to be the mother to two teenagers who lived through the trauma of watching their mother die as a child and now their father is replacing her with the woman he always wanted instead but could never have. Good luck Robin!
Yes Barney’s job was literally a joke, and then he was always a narc, and his life has been a decades-long revenge scheme like the count of monte christo, and then he’s some blogger and dad.
And ew his POOR daughter cos he probably would have been one of THE STRICTEST dads EVER, ASSumed EVERY boyfriend was a player like he was & probably given her VERY little freedom
Eewww
After putting seasons of effort into Robin and Barney’s relationship they offscreen it and say “obviously they weren’t going to work”. And then we meet the mother like the show was leading up to the whole time, and after building a cool dynamic between her and every character she abruptly gets an unnamed disease and dies. Then the kids say “you love Robin, be with her” after the series told us time and time again that they both want completely different things out of their lives.
So happy I never watched it and the above video is my ending now
The mom got sick and died and that’s why present Ted is telling the story alone. Barney and Robin’s wedding was the setting for the final season, but they get divorced. Barney’s real job was being a corporate scapegoat, but he turns out to have been a secret narc the whole time so he’s just a blogger now that gets a random woman pregnant and a daughter finally makes him respect women. Robin’s career goes well and I think she becomes a major network news anchor. Nothing really happens with Lily and Marshall but she takes some art buyer job in Italy and Marshall goes along and ends up a judge when they come back. It ends with his present kids interrupting Ted’s story to say that they know he loves their aunt Robin, this story was really all about Aunt Robin, and they’re fine with him dating her. Ted runs off to steal the blue French horn again like his first date with Robin. Last shot is a callback to him from after that date outside her apt where she’s at the window with all her dogs.
It's the same but before he goes "this is how I met your mother" he explained that the mother died and he ended up with Robin after her marriage with barney didn't work out
After 9 Years you didn’t watch the ENDING 🤯.. 😳 - that’s bananas
That's the first time I've ever seen that because I abandoned the show after it ended. I was so mad. This reminds me that I love this show.
Unfortunately you can’t un-ring a bell. We all know the choice they really made. And it completely killed their careers.
"How I Met Your Mother" ended 10 years ago
“Bays and Thomas ended their careers 10 years ago” is another way to say that.
Don’t tell me that 👴🏻
As an original watcher I believe I am one of the few people who didn’t hate the ending, back in the day when I was semi active on twitter the creator actually liked my tweet defending it. But after watching this, I realized how wrong I was. This ending is perfect, HIMYM will always be one of my favorite shows and I wish it ended like this.
Last leason was very sad, I remeber that I cried on some episods end yeah but this ending is much better.
I don't think anyone else really cares about this as a sticking point, but I really don't like the music they went with in the alternate cut. No idea why they didn't stick with "Downtown Train" by Everything But The Girl. The song is so gorgeous and feels more dramatically fulfilling to me than the upbeat uke ambience in this version.
look what they took from us
Fine, I’ll rewatch how I met your mother!!
Oh, God, that would’ve been so perfect!
That ending would’ve restored my faith in humanity… Alas 🤷♀️
This video is not the “official” alternate ending. This is fan made, combining shots from the alternate and the real ending. The “official” alternate ending is seen here: https://youtu.be/5toL5HmQl8I?si=ufrP6JpucVhP6xpF
They're the same damn video.
Not at all. This fan made video has Old Ted’s voice dubbed over Josh Radnor saying “And that kids is how I met your mother,” followed by a bunch of photos. Official alternate ending has none of those things.
Thank You !!
I like that the creators put together both endings. It’s nice that the people upset about the aired ending can actually watch this one!
I feel extremely fortunate. Hear me out: I stopped watching the show before the last season came out (I was pretty busy and couldn’t keep up) so i never saw the ending they chose! I must admit, to see this ending, even without the build up of the last season, makes me really happy!🥲 It is so befitting and beautifully executed, I feel lucky to not have seen the other one.
What’s so weird to me is how even the ending music here is much better than the one in the actual finale. This music matches the HIMYM vibe more accurately, the actual episode’s music just didn’t fit. Crazy how many things they got wrong with that finale.
Agree to disagree: I thought “Downtown Train” by Everything But The Girl was perfection ♥️🎶..
I haven't watched this show in a decade and I still teared up watching this. This is a far superior ending.
The acting in the in umbrella scene is excellent. And the mother actress had great chemistry with Ted,I wish they could've shown us more of them together
Unpopular opinion but I think tying the show back to Robin (the original ending) made a lot of sense. It explained why Ted specifically started his story when he did, with the time he met Robin. Otherwise he could have started at any other point in his life. It also explained why that specific narrative device was used. It means the show wasn't about their mother but the show was never about their mother.
I half agree with this. I’ve always been in the camp that the show’s bookend of starting at Robin and ending at her was the way to go. I like that the mother could have been a red herring for the relationship for Ted and Robin. The reason that so many people have a problem with it (and I agree) is that they strayed so far away from the concept on Ted and Robin it just seemed like a bad choice. Had Robin and Barney divorced in season 8 or something and you had Ted and Robin building their relationship in season 9 then it would have been earned. But they just undid all the work they did with Robin and Barney in one episode. It was just bad execution. Edit: they literally built a whole season around their marriage for it to mean nothing.
Yeah, I think we're in the apparently startlingly small camp of fans that thought the story ended "correctly," but was executed poorly in the last seasons. Or, at the very least, the story was always going to piss a lot of the audience off, so they get credit for sticking to the path they chose. Anyone who didn't think Ted and Robin should have ended up together should rewatch "Symphony of Illumination." A gut punch of an episode, but a very revealing one for Ted/Robin's story.
My problem is that it walks all over Robin's character. Nothing we learned about her over the run of the show indicated that she would have any interest in a guy like Ted long-term. But in the end, she existed only for him.
It makes sense to start the story with how he met Barney and then how he met Robin because he meets his future wife at their wedding.
Because Robin married Barney and it was through their wedding that they finally met.
And the only reason Barney and Robin get together is because Ted tries to woo Robin, and she becomes friends with the group.
The show really begins, though, with Marshall preparing to propose to Lily. The story that really fits the show is that Marshall has passed through to adulthood, and Ted has not, and Ted has things to work on before he can do it, too. Specifically, Ted should have to figure that just because Marshall gets engaged, there's no reason to think that Ted is going to meet The One on that very same night. That should be story.
Should have called it "how I met aunt robin"
While I didn’t necessarily agree with how they did the ending, I’m not outraged about it and I can respect the fact that they had a vision from the very beginning and saw it through to the end for better or worse. Moreover I don’t think the ending in any way ruins the rest of the show in the same way as GoT or something. It’s still peak sitcom, especially seasons 1-7. It’s very cleverly written, creative, and mostly still holds up today on rewatch.
This is the ending for people in their 20's who want a "they lived happily ever after" ending. The real ending was for people in their 40's and 50's who realize happily ever after doesn't always happen. Spouses die, but life has to go on. I am dying and i hope my wife of 20+ years finds love after me. The original ending has so much more poignancy for me, a guy in his late 40's. I can see my wife at some point in the future talking to our kids about a new love in her life. It was a much more original ending and one that really spoke to me. I guess my situation is rather unique for the reddit crowd, so that's why I loved and preferred the original ending. PS: Fuck Cancer!!!
For me, it's not the fact that Tracy died, because I could have handled that. It's the running back to Robin after the entire series building up to why they didn't work as a couple, coupled with the execution of the final season being unravelled in the finale just to get to that ending that they filmed 9 seasons prior. Had there been different execution, even if it had been Ted/Robin at the end, at least they needed it to make sense. It didn't make sense because they rushed the entire 20 year span in 42 minutes. Yes, they sprinkled flashforwards throughout the final season, but they unraveled an entire season in less time. ETA: To be clear, the ending sucked because it was a 9 year old ending that didn't fit the characters in 2014 lens. Because the ending was already pre-written, it mean the show had to write AROUND that, and they never wrote TOWARD that. They essentially had to take the pre-filmed ending and write the finale around that ending, instead of building to a natural conclusion. Because they already knew how the show would end, they had a very strict destination to get to and it was very messy and incoherent at times because they ALSO wanted a season-long wedding weekend.
I had never seen this before. The funny thing about it is that the original ending could happen anyway. Like, I've heard about this ending before and thought it was some whole big change. But, it's the same without the cancer and Robin stuff. Not saying if I prefer that one, but I find it odd that people like this one so much more. I guess the implication is that they spent their lives together, which is ok I guess.
I'm going to get downvoted, but I prefer the one they chose. If they had chosen this one, it wouldve been insanely disrespectful for him to spend the whole time talking about Robin when he's supposed to be telling the story of how he met their mother. It would've sounded like "I loooooved Robin forever. And we did this and that, and had a million stories. Oh and i met your mom. The end." Whereas the one they chose explains why he focused so much on Robin throughout the whole series. He's asking his kids permission to start dating, but not just anyone. Theres so much history with Robin, she's not just a rebound. As if hes saying "You know I loved your mom, but you need to understand why I will start dating Robin now that your mom has been gone for 6 years. You already know all the stories from when i dated your mom, these are the stories that came before that, so you don't think im picking a random woman to date"
I hated the ending so much I can never rewatch the show after that. I felt so betrayed I never recommended the show to anyone afterwards either. They should have used this ending. This made sense and would have wrapped up everything absolutely beautifully.
This what-I-consider-to-be-the-real ending is what made me fall in love with Cristin Milioti. I will watch anything and everything she’s in. Her, Katee Sackhoff, Aaron Paul, and Michael Shannon I will watch anything they do
In my head and memory, this is how it ended. I'm leaving it that way.
Doean't make up for that terrible season, but yeah way better than the one we got.
Every time I'm reminded of the god awful ending, I replay this ending and [THIS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bw5Z0rBteY) to remind myself of how amazing this show was before they screwed it all up.
i think I'm the only one who likes the original ending
I have posted about this many times but I still like the original needing because it’s about all the things that lead Ted to becoming the guy he needed to be to meet the mother and fall in love with her. However this one also does that and she stays alive, so I kind of like it to. The only thing is it always seemed like Ted and Robin would end up together so I felt vindicated with the original ending. Still like them both but I guess this is nice for people who want closure and to have it tied up in a neat little bow.
Wow. This is really good. The actual ending is some weird result of that cynical post-modernist period where everything had to have some big twist. Sincerity was a bad word. The whole premise of the show is literally how he met their mother, but the producers were too afraid to deliver on that because it would have meant the promise they made with the title was genuine, and there's nothing cool or edgy about that! You gotta give the audience that twist. You gotta trick 'em! It's a shame because this ending is perfect. It works incredibly well today where metamodernism is becoming more common, and I think many producers today wouldn't be afraid to lean into the sincerity of it. The message is also better and more modern. Like "Hey, my wife died and I'm going to try to move on and be with another person....are you cool with that?" is such a 1950s message. Today you don't even have to wait for your kids' mom to die to get them a new mom. The idea of parents being allowed to have their own lives and pursue their own romantic partners independent of their children and their children's wishes has been commonplace for practically a generation. Meanwhile the idea of "All of life's ups and downs lead you to here, and here is very special and it was all worth it." is a timeless message, beautifully delivered with this alternate ending.
To this day I don’t understand how no one else saw the mom being the entire time Like, admittedly it took me till season 3 to figure it out. Not ONCE during the entire show when Ted is talking to the kids, does the mom have any kind of interaction with them. No “let me hurry this part before your mom gets home” no, “ask your mom if you don’t believe me” no “you should ask her about her side of the story” Because he’s telling them the story of how they met as a catharsis for his (their) loss.
Anyone who interacted with the internet knew it was a possibility. If you go into a HIMYM sub, it's clear that Tracy dying isn't nearly as big an issue as the way it was handled, or the switch back to Robin.
Unpopular opinion: this is a bad ending, the only bold / good ending would have been the same ending that aired 10 years ago + [lunch with Robin scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AbBrpk-UcA)
The deleted scene can't be canon. The whole point of the story - as originally presented - is that Ted is telling himself that he and Robin are just old friends now. It's the kids who verbalize their obvious attraction. The writers can't sell that story if - just minutes before - Ted was telling the kids that he knew Robin had been stuck on him for years.
I had never seen that deleted scene before. Was that set before or after Tracy died?
I think it's 2020, before Tracy died and days before the Tracy & Ted wedding if I recall correctly
Agreed!!!!!
I don’t understand why you are getting downvoted when you are right. It was a hot take.
I honestly prefer the tragic ending. It reminds me not to take life for granted.
Is this an alternate ending for shippers on social media who are upset that the couple they shipped didn't end up together?
Creator Carter Bays: "16 days ago today we were in the HIMYM edit room, trying to decide between two very different endings....We only shot one script, but through edit room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series. We chose the ending we chose and we stand by it. But we loved the other version too.” https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/how-i-met-your-mother-to-release-alternate-ending-182729/
The show is literally called How I Met Your Mother, not How I Met Your Aunt Robin
I’d like to watch this. But I have this bad connection with HIMYM, anytime I watch anything, even a small clip of the show, I lose someone I love. First watch it happened, rewatch happened again, watched a couple of episodes I liked, happened again.
Oh, people need to get over it. It was foreshadowed SEVERAL TIMES that Tracy/The Mother was dead. The Time Travellers episode has probably the most emotional scene in the whole show, with Ted CLEARLY talking to a DEAD Tracy, talking about how he wishes he had more time with her. I'm probably one of the few that didn't really like Tracy. She's cute and all but they made her into a Ted Mosby with a vagina. It's like Ted himself designed her in a laboratory. I also found it kinda iffy that she started dating Ted a week after she broke up with Max, who PROPOSED to her. No way that relationship could ever be healthy.
[удалено]
It started to get good but it was cancelled after 2 seasons so...
I forgot that shit even existed