# The official HIMYM alternate ending... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554 "2014-10-17T01:48:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/21 "2014-10-18T16:34:16Z")
Huh. [I never knew how Hitler took the ending before.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdWcLe1UsWI) ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/22 "2014-10-18T16:50:25Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Huh. [I never knew how Hitler took the ending before.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdWcLe1UsWI) Can’t believe I’m gonna say this but, I AGREE with Hitler! ---
**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:** [October 18, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/23 "2014-10-18T20:44:51Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > The original finale didn’t work. > > The original storyline would have worked if they’d paced out the last season entirely differently. Had there been only 2-3 weeks at the wedding (maybe 5 at the absolute most), followed by 15 episodes of developing what happened between Ted & Tracy showing us more of the many hints they’d dropped over 8 years about how well the clicked together along with how they dealt with the illness, some time showing the Barney and Robin marriage dissolution (and coming up with a better reason for it other than “her career meant he was bored” - which is something that didn’t make sense for either character), some time showing Ted grieving & allowing the audience to go through it with them, and then wrapping back around to Ted with the blue french horn - it might have worked. It would at least have had a shot in hell of working. (It still has some problems. There’s still the “I don’t want to have _kids_ in Argentina” v. “I don’t want to have kids in _Argentina_” problem with Ted & Robin as a couple. Of course, had we spent more post wedding time with the characters and seen what had happened to them, it would be easier to understand how they were going to get over that.) > > As it was, with them stretching out the wedding weekend for over 10 hours, there were several episodes about how Robin & Barney were meant to be together. Not one, but several where they convinced the characters and argued to the audience that that was a relationship that made sense. There were more than a few about how Ted and Robin had let go of each other. Trying to undo all of that in under 30 minutes was crappy storytelling. Also, those 30 minutes turned 3 of the 5 main characters into horrible people (there are arguments that they already were horrible, but the ending they wrote cemented Lily, Robin, and Barney as just awful human beings.) > > The “alternate ending” (which I don’t think they put together until after the reaction to the first ending) is trite. But it fits more with the tone and arc of 9 years leading up to it than the original. Yeah, I never had a problem with the mother dying. The problem is with Robin/Barney. They should have went out of their way to set them up as the right people for the time, but that a marriage wouldn’t work. It takes more than altering a small part of a final episode to fix this. That’s why I think the only alternative was to make it trite. (They also could have killed off Barney, too, but killing two characters could be a problem.) I really does feel like they planned to end the whole thing in Season 8, and didn’t think through how they extended it for Season 9. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/24 "2014-10-18T20:58:22Z")
> [@](#): > > (They also could have killed off Barney, too, but killing two characters could be a problem.) Also, would the prime time audiences be prepared to handle a man being literally ripped to shreds by all his former conquests in glorious Technicolor? As this is the only way Barney could possibly go out. “Kids, after that night, they were finding pieces of your Uncle Barney for the next month. The entire building had to be condemned and I got the contract to design its replacement.” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/25 "2014-10-20T15:18:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > Also, would the prime time audiences be prepared to handle a man being literally ripped to shreds by all his former conquests in glorious Technicolor? As this is the only way Barney could possibly go out. > > “Kids, after that night, they were finding pieces of your Uncle Barney for the next month. The entire building had to be condemned and I got the contract to design its replacement.” Oh, I’d think that some variant of the scene from Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” where the condemned man is chased by the topless women would be appropriate for Barney. Same scene basically, without the topless part (but scantily clad), and Barney running desperately away, cut to him bent over breathing heavily in the street as if he’s actually escaped, stands up, smiles smugly, straightens his tie, and BAM! Hit by a bus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554.md?page=1)