# "How I Met Your Mother" \[final season\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560 "2013-09-24T03:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 27
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/521 "2014-04-05T04:38:30Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > If he wouldn’t have broken up with Robin he wouldn’t have fallen head over heels with the mother, he’d have still been with Robin. This is where I would assume most people disagree. The argument I’ve seen is that Ted and Robin would have broken up anyways, for the same reason that Barney and Robin broke up. Heck, some argue that they will still break up again, because we didn’t see Ted or Robin change enough for them to be able to work it out. The fact that Ted loved Robin and Robin loved Ted never seemed to be enough for them to be together. Something always came up. Robin didn’t just put her work in front of Ted. Her whole deal was that she had problems wanting to be married in the first place. Early on, she couldn’t even handle being in a relationship, being unable to view her and her boyfriend as a couple. Ted had the opposite problem, wanting to be in a relationship so badly that he came on too strong and kept trying with everyone. Being able to balance their individuality and their need for one another was something both had trouble with. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/522 "2014-04-05T11:26:19Z")
Given that you’re just now starting to watch the show > [@BigT](#): > > I’m finally watching the first season through And given that you’re objectively 100% wrong on this point. I mean, point and laugh at how objectively wrong\* > [@](#): > > I’m personally not sure what they could have done to make it clear that Ted was just fulfilling his promise to Robin, that they would get together if they were still single at age 40 or whatever. But, apparently, they spent too much time making Robin the love of Ted’s life for that to work for some people. > [@BigT](#): > > You sure do it a lot for something you don’t [like] to do. Her point stands. You do not have a monopoly on the “proper” interpretation of the show. it’s funny, you lecturing people, given how wrong you are from your vast experience with the 10 or so episodes you’ve apparently seen. \*I won’t spoiler anything, but your authoritative assumption that apparently comes watching part of the first season and a few random episodes of the show is so completely wrong that it’s funny. Seriously–this isn’t a matter of opinion. The idea that the “We’ll be each other’s back-up spouses if we’re still single at 40” is simply not the reason that Ted and Robin hooked back up in the finale. You can like or dislike the ending, but this is wrong. Period. There can’t be any debate on this point for spoiler-type reasons. Perhaps you’d be better off watching the show than lecturing people who’ve actually, y’know, _seen_ it. ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/523 "2014-04-05T11:45:01Z")
> [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > [This article](http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-bandwagoned-the-how-i-met-your-mother-finale-which-s-1556056613) by a guy who never a saw a single episode except for the finale really did a good job summing up many of my reasons for thinking it sucked. Fun fact hijack: this article was written by the same guy that did that Duck Dynasty interview for GQ. I was okay with the finale until Ted showed up with the blue horn. I have irrational hatred for the blue horn! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/524 "2014-04-05T13:14:57Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > But it should be - people without kids make up something like a quarter of the population, with almost zero representation in popular culture (resulting in what is known as [symbolic annihilation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_annihilation)). Neither Barney nor Robin actually represented a childfree by choice person - Robin was barren, and Barney was “fixed” by having a child. That’s an extreme exaggeration of the real stat. By age 45, 18% of all women won’t have have given birth to a child. That includes those that can’t, those that don’t want to, and those that would have, but didn’t find the right guy until after 45. > **[Childlessness Up Among All Women; Down Among Women with Advanced Degrees](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2010/06/25/childlessness-up-among-all-women-down-among-women-with-advanced-degrees/)** > > Nearly one-in-five American women ends her childbearing years without having borne a child, compared with one-in-ten in the 1970s. While childlessness has risen for all racial and ethnic groups, and most education levels, it has fallen over the past... So Robin counts. As does Molly on Mike & Molly, Cam on Bones, Agent May on Agents of SHIELD, Garcia on Criminal Minds, Benson on Law and Order SVU, and a bunch of others. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/525 "2014-04-05T18:11:35Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > That’s an extreme exaggeration of the real stat. By age 45, 18% of all women won’t have have given birth to a child. That includes those that can’t, those that don’t want to, and those that would have, but didn’t find the right guy until after 45. > > [Childlessness Up Among All Women; Down Among Women with Advanced Degrees | Pew Research Center](http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/06/25/childlessness-up-among-all-women-down-among-women-with-advanced-degrees/) > > So Robin counts. As does Molly on Mike & Molly, Cam on Bones, Agent May on Agents of SHIELD, Garcia on Criminal Minds, Benson on Law and Order SVU, and a bunch of others. Statistics on the exact numbers are hard to come by; my estimate of 25% of the population being childless is accurate, I believe. Childless is not childfree - trust me when I say, as a childfree by choice person, I can think of only one truly childfree by choice person on tv at this time - Dr. Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy.” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/526 "2014-04-05T18:28:05Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Childless is not childfree - trust me when I say, as a childfree by choice person, I can think of only one truly childfree by choice person on tv at this time - Dr. Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy.” As a minority of a minority (and I have no reason to believe the 18% figure isn’t accurate until shown a cite otherwise), how many “people who choose not to have children” should there be on TV. And again, whatever number you pick should include Molly on Mike & Molly, Cam on Bones, Agent May on Agents of SHIELD, Garcia on Criminal Minds, Benson on Law and Order SVU, Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy, and a bunch of others. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/527 "2014-04-05T18:54:45Z")
Bob & Emily of the newhart show were a great childless couple. Tho I’ve lost what this has to do w HIMYM or why Robin was mad at Barney for flirting at the Halloween Party when she brought up divorce; or why she was mooning over Ted when she had already floated away from him on the beach ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/528 "2014-04-05T18:58:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > As a minority of a minority (and I have no reason to believe the 18% figure isn’t accurate until shown a cite otherwise), how many “people who choose not to have children” should there be on TV. > > And again, whatever number you pick should include Molly on Mike & Molly, Cam on Bones, Agent May on Agents of SHIELD, Garcia on Criminal Minds, Benson on Law and Order SVU, Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy, and a bunch of others. I don’t think Cam and Benson qualify. The former wouldn’t consider herself child-free at all, as she went out of her way to adopt her deceased ex-lover’s daughter and thinks of herself as a mother. The latter has tried unsuccessfully to adopt, and I expect that, if you woke her in the middle of the night and asked her why she doesn’t have kids, would sleepily reply, “Because Kathy met Eliot first, damn it.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/529 "2014-04-05T18:59:48Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > when the supposed love of his life is barely in the story for 8 years and then mostly can’t actually interact with Ted in the last year, while Robin and Ted’s love for her features throughout, it’s hard not to get the idea that Robin is who Ted really loves. > > The love of his life died offscreen. In TV, people tend die offscreen when they are unimportant. Then five minutes later, it was about Robin again. As the kids said, the whole point of the series has been about how great Robin is. It’s an uphill battle to convince people that the Mother is the more important person to Ted You have a point. The problem is, Cristin Milioti in fact _ **is** _ that charming. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/530 "2014-04-05T19:03:05Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I don’t think Cam and Benson qualify. The former wouldn’t consider herself child-free at all, as she went out of her way to adopt her deceased ex-lover’s daughter and thinks of herself as a mother. The latter has tried unsuccessfully to adopt, and I expect that, if you woke her in the middle of the night and asked her why she doesn’t have kids, would sleepily reply, “Because Kathy met Eliot first, damn it.” But that’s fighting the survey. The results were very clear: _ **by age 45, 18% of all women will not have given birth** _. Adoption, desire, sexual orientation, or anything else have nothing to do with it. Those are the numbers and therefore Cam and Benson qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/531 "2014-04-05T19:09:28Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > But that’s fighting the survey. The results were very clear: _ **by age 45, 18% of all women will not have given birth** _. Adoption, desire, sexual orientation, or anything else have nothing to do with it. Those are the numbers and therefore Cam and Benson qualify. I mean that Cam and Benson are not _childfree_–that is, they are not\* childless by choice.\* Benson bemoaned her unused womb to Eliot at least once and attempted to adopt at least once, and Cam, as I said, would say that she is not childless in the first place, as those tuition payments indicate. I am, in other words, saying that persons who adopt are not childless–that in the most important ways they are as much parents as those who bear or sire children biologically. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/532 "2014-04-05T19:37:05Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I mean that Cam and Benson are not _childfree_–that is, they are not\* childless by choice.\* Benson bemoaned her unused womb to Eliot at least once and attempted to adopt at least once, and Cam, as I said, would say that she is not childless in the first place, as those tuition payments indicate. I am, in other words, saying that persons who adopt are not childless–that in the most important ways they are as much parents as those who bear or sire children biologically. There’s no data separating out people who choose not to have children. All you can do is look at women who haven’t given birth. And in that case, TV covers a pretty wide spectrum of people. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/533 "2014-04-05T20:14:02Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > \ Tho I’ve lost what this has to do w HIMYM or why Robin was mad at Barney for flirting at the Halloween Party when she brought up divorce; or why she was mooning over Ted when she had already floated away from him on the beach I had a reason for bringing it up in the first place; I’m sure it will come back to me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/534 "2014-04-05T20:18:46Z")
> [@Cell\_Guy](#): > > I was okay with the finale until Ted showed up with the blue horn. I have irrational hatred for the blue horn! Interesting point - how many folks would have liked the finale a lot more if no blue horn at the end? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/535 "2014-04-06T00:07:59Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Interesting point - how many folks would have liked the finale a lot more if no blue horn at the end? Me - I got awfully tired of that stupid blue horn, too. Maybe at this point Ted has had his own blue horn made, so he doesn’t have to keep stealing it from that restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/536 "2014-04-06T04:42:20Z")
Interesting announcement from the creators. Apparently an “alternate ending” will be included in the season 9 DVD. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/05/how-i-met-your-mother-alternate-ending\_n\_5096555.html](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/05/how-i-met-your-mother-alternate-ending_n_5096555.html) According to Bays, they only shot one script, but were considering creating a different ending during the final edit. So they’ll include the other version on the DVD. The cynic in me finds it hard to believe that they were still trying to decide on an ending only a couple weeks ago (and didn’t bother shooting any alternate scenes to accommodate it). Sounds like an attempt to save DVD sales. On the other hand, it’ll be nice for those fans who were pissed at the ending and are willing to spring for a version they might prefer. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/537 "2014-04-06T05:19:52Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Given that you’re just now starting to watch the show > And given that you’re objectively 100% wrong on this point. I mean, point and laugh at how objectively wrong\* > > it’s funny, you lecturing people, given how wrong you are from your vast experience with the 10 or so episodes you’ve apparently seen. > \*I won’t spoiler anything, but your authoritative assumption that apparently comes watching part of the first season and a few random episodes of the show is so completely wrong that it’s funny. Seriously–this isn’t a matter of opinion. The idea that the “We’ll be each other’s back-up spouses if we’re still single at 40” is simply not the reason that Ted and Robin hooked back up in the finale. You can like or dislike the ending, but this is wrong. Period. There can’t be any debate on this point for spoiler-type reasons. Perhaps you’d be better off watching the show than lecturing people who’ve actually, y’know, _seen_ it. Okay, so how does that not being the reason affect my overarching point? How does it have anything to do with my “lecture”? I don’t have to have watched the entire show to know that you cannot declare one interpretation of something to be invalid. I do not have to have watched the show to discuss the other opinions I’ve read. At no point did I claim to have watched the entire show. What’s funny is the hoops you will go to in order to find something to try and piss me off about. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/538 "2014-04-06T05:27:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You have a point. The problem is, Cristin Milioti in fact _ **is** _ that charming. Huh. You agree with my post that **Fenris** says I can’t be right about because I’ve not watched the entire show. That, even though I flat out admitted that I was going by other people’s opinions, I can still know what I’m talking about. Funny how that works. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/539 "2014-04-06T05:56:11Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > As a minority of a minority (and I have no reason to believe the 18% figure isn’t accurate until shown a cite otherwise), how many “people who choose not to have children” should there be on TV. > > And again, whatever number you pick should include Molly on Mike & Molly, Cam on Bones, Agent May on Agents of SHIELD, Garcia on Criminal Minds, Benson on Law and Order SVU, Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy, and a bunch of others. Are you arguing that Molly doesn’t want to have children or am I mis-reading you? Mike and Molly are desperately trying. They haven’t been told they can’t yet, have they? ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560/540 "2014-04-06T05:58:38Z")
I can’t remember - was Robin shown to be upset when she found she couldn’t bear children? (& I’m still so disappointed in the ending that I won’t Rewatching episodes to find out) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560.md?page=26) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season/669560.md?page=28)