I know this is controversial but I really think it’s overhated. It has a lot of great episodes (Knight Vision, No Questions Asked, How Your Mother Met Me, Rally). I look at it as the last weekend the gang has before their life changes forever (the Italy move, the wedding, Ted going to Chicago) and I thought the storytelling of each episode only being a few hours out of the longest weekend of their lives was clever. They tied in Tracy really well and wrapped up the epic saga in a smart way. Looking back on multiple rewatches it makes complete sense that the story was about Robin the whole time

Marshall was right all along

What are some other lines that you can recall ? aside from the obvious "legen wait for it DARY, LEGENDARY!!"

Saying "I love you" on day one with Robin was crazy, but breaking up with Victoria (twice lol) are up there too. What’s his absolute peak "Classic Schmosby" moment for you guys?

I think this is pretty obvious, but I like to think that Ted exaggerates and alters the real story, just like Neil said, and that all the girls Barney dates know he's lying I think if you think about it, a guy who tells exaggerated stories and practically puts on a performance when he meets you (even throwing in magic and costumes) is much more attractive than A guy acting like a heartthrob in a bar, it would be very unusual to see someone like Barney, and personally, it would be very atractive and fun to see someone putting on this whole show just to talk Honestly, if I found someone like that, I'd play along too and end up giving in

edit:Hey, I think some comments are trying to use the theory that Ted is lying to his kids to make himself look better and get them to accept him getting back with Robin. What I was trying to say is that probably not all the girls were stupid enough to believe Barney's lies, and they probably just played along because they wanted to go out with him too. I don't really think Ted lies much; I just think that He doesn't have all the perspectives on the story, or he might even forget things, or his mind might alter the facts without him realizing it.

i normally never skip episodes; even if i hate the plot of certain ones i still pull through.

but this episode, Robots vs. Wrestlers, gets on my nerves so much that i physically get repulsed and have to skip.

the blatant disrespect of the group towards Ted, art, architecture, history, and basically anything creative really upset me. and i can't really make sense of it because they don't seem so anti-art in other episodes, but somehow they become like, simpletons almost? to the point that they damage a gong that's possibly worth millions.

also they were super mega mean to Ted in this episode. openly mocking the only person in the group trying to teach about the things they love... possibly the worst episode of the entire show

Hate what the writters did to this relationship, not mad on the fact that they didnt work out, but on how it happened, barney clearly cared about her, i think he did try to be a better person for her, everbody knew how who he was and

The life he lived, but to end it all after he cheated on her kinda feels like a cheap shot, she defintely deserves more, but i think it was the perfect time for him to really start growing and not fall back into the past idiot he used to be.

In this episode, Ted and Robin were hooking up, no strings attached. In the beginning of the episode, Ted said someone always gets hurt when two exes get together. He saw that Barney loved her and Ted hooking up with her was causing him a lot of pain so Ted stopped it.

This was the first time Ted took a backseat to Barney and Robin. That's when he knew this wasn't just a hookup, Barney really loved her. And Ted was fine with it, he was over Robin and decided Barney's feelings were stronger than whatever he had with Robin. The fact that they could hook up without catching feelings showed that Ted didn't have feelings for Robin anymore and vice versa.

this was one of the moments i hated them as a couple

This has to be one of my favorite robin scenes.

Pretty much the title. She tries to get back together with him multiple times but conversely rejected Ted multiple times. She panics and wants to run away with Ted at her wedding but even then when Ted refuses she wants to run away alone, meaning she asked Ted bc she just didn't want to go alone.

Also she says yes to Barney after ALL his treachery and bad behaviour but was extremely mad at Ted for lying to her about breaking up with Victoria (Even though she invited him knowing he was in a relationship)

It seems like she is actually into Barney because of who he is (they are very similar) but dates Ted because he is a "nice guy" and a safe option.

One of the things I love most about How I Met Your Mother is how cleverly the dialogue is written. The jokes aren't just funny on their own, they often build on each other, with every character contributing another layer.

One of my favorite examples is from the episode where Marshall is (supposedly) mugged by a monkey. When the gang realizes what actually happened, they all use money-related expressions without missing a beat:

Ted: "He's behind bars."

Lily: "Naked in a tree throwing his own feces."

What's your favorite example of HIMYM's witty writing, clever dialogue, or a joke that was smarter than it first seemed?

Classic Schmosby, he got syphilis from a Chicago city councilman.

As someone whos seen the show twice and over halfway through my third rewatch ive thought...

What moment in the series did each character have the most juice? When were they at the peak of their powers as a character within the parameters of star power/appealing to the show audience

Some examples would be Barney near the end of his relationship with Nora (the Neverending second episode)... Marshall taking Lily back... Ted with the raindance in season 1... (some examples of potential picks)...

Anyways for the main friend group only what would your suggestions be?

After finishing writing this, I realize I may need to write my first fanfiction in over 5 years. Is this fandom active on AO3? 😂😂

Idk about y’all, but 9 is my least favorite season. Not because of the end, but because it is 20 episodes covering 3 days. It’s tiring to watch, getting boring and even weird at some points, thus leading to me fully watching it maybe 1/3 rewatches.

Sure, the wedding can be a thing. The first 3-5 episodes. At max the first half of the season. But I’ll break it down into, in my opinion, how I’d like to have seen it. This is 100% my opinion. If you disagree and think it was good as is, that’s fine but this post isn’t for you. Scroll. Disagree all you want with the specifics of the post, just not the premise of it

Ep 1: pre-wedding, only the most important parts

Ep 2: pre-wedding, ending with the doors opening to Robin about to walk down the aisle, she looks at her dad lovingly and he wipes a tear away

Ep 3: the ceremony and reception. Before they leave, Robin tells him not to pack his sleep shirt. When he starts to say “that’s how’s I sleep, you know that” she cuts in “I know. And you won’t need it”. Ted meets Tracy under the umbrella.

Ep 4: T&T on the train for first few mins. She explains her last two exes, as she wants to be transparent because she really feels drawn to Ted. R&B honeymoon. Very chaotic. Ted and gang at bar as he is gushing, but also anxious. He tells them about her ex who passed, the gang says he’s never going to measure up to memories of him

Ep 5: first date, at end she runs into ex finance. After telling him to “leave. Get on” shooing him away like as stray, she assures Ted that he’s different, that she hadn’t truly felt an instant connection since meeting her first ex. She clarifies she will never compare the two, but the ability to feel that way again was there. When he kisses her goodbye, she tells him she loves him. In a way that feels natural, sure, and like it should be habit, then she panics. He says “did you just pull a Ted Mosby?” She ask “what?” and he cuts her off with a kiss and says he loves her too

Ep 6: Tracy goes to bar to meet gang, Swarkles returns. Robin talks to Lily, she is having doubts as she feels jealous of Tracy. Meanwhile Ted asks Barney how he feels about being married and Barney says nothing has ever felt more right, that he was 100% sure he did right

Ep 7: montage of events(first 4-7 mins) (including M&L second child birth) until Ted proposes to Tracy. Wedding planning is the main focus as Ted pulls boxes of wedding planning binders from storage unit. His old lady neighbor asks “oh, is another one of your friends getting married”. When he says it’s him, she yells “finally” and mumbles “never thought it’d happen” to herself as she walks away

Ep 8: wedding planning, robin gets WWN job partly to get away from T&T. She loves Barney and feels confident in their marriage, but needs to get away from Ted in order to be completely loyal to Barney. She was still keeping Ted’s secrets for him

Ep 9: Tracy finds out she’s pregnant, they say goodbye to Robin and she hugs Ted and tears form. R&B head to Spain as Barney carries a large briefcase and laptop bag, clearly ready to work on the plane. Still in his suit, ofc

Ep 10: events during pregnancy, most of ep about birth and their scrambling to get the house baby proofed

Ep 11: T&T cope with parenting, Clint stays to help and is being weird, as always. Ted tells M&L “8 or above”, finally understanding but in the end remembers how he felt when they did it to him

Ep 12: R&B divorce, leaving Barney heartbroken for the first time since he first suited up. M&L judge T&T parenting and they have a parenting competition, similar to the Malcolm In The Middle episode

Ep 13: L&M pregnancy w/ third child and a look into T&T first kids life. M&L sneak his baby to see Santa

Ep 14: Tracy has a miscarriage (we never saw one in the show, statistically likely to happen out of the 6 kids born to the gang). Ted barely makes it through. Robin in trying to comfort him while in town, tries to kiss him he pushes her away

Ep 15: Tracy finds out she’s pregnant again, extreme anxiety from both of them. Marshall won’t stop baking cookies to help them in his own way, since he learned one single recipe he’s obsessed with

Ep 16: T&T second baby born, their assigned nurse disappears as Barney is hooking up with her

Ep 17: life update a year later and Marshall becomes a judge finally

Ep 18: Barney’s kid born, update on everyone else

Ep 19: Barney realizes he’s changed and is heavily conflicted, Marshall gets Supreme Court Job

Ep 20: Tracy gets diagnosed with illness and they take a road trip to see random things to cope

Ep 21: as things get worse, they explain to the kids and group, shows life as she declines. They plan her funeral together and make a film of her talking to the kids

Ep 22: her death and funeral. After kids tell him to go for Robin, it ends with the group in the future on a porch together talking. R&T hold hands and smile at the rest of them. “It was a long road, but there’s nobody else I would’ve wanted to take it with”. It fades into Simple Song as it plays clips of each character from episode 1

Instead of where she took him to get over lily.

So I feel like Ted only hates part of North Jersey because that’s the part most New Yorkers interact with? I just can’t fully grasp the whole feud between New York versus New Jersey. Most of my friends in Central Jersey are New Yorkers who wanted a bigger backyard, so they moved here. I also have New Yorker friends who goes to Jersey every weekend during the summer, so I don’t get it? What started this stereotype? Although, I totally understand how some part of Northern Jersey feels too crowded and not as “luxurious” (feel free to correct me, maybe I just freaking hate Newark). How Ted feels about “New Jersey” is how I feel about Newark lol. So is there any chance that Ted actually only hates that part of Jersey? Anyway, let me know what you think. Would love to hear from people who actually lived in the city or Jersey.

I don’t know if this is a much talked about thing in the forums since I don’t interact online as much but I really only noticed this detail in the 7th watch (I know I’m stupid).

When Robin thinks Ted proposed to her, she says “No, no, no, no………………… no”

When Ted proposes Tracy twice, she goes

“Yes, yes , yes, yes, yes…………yes” before Ted could even finish his sentence.

I liked this contrast made by the writers whether it was intentional or not. We get to see two sides of Ted’s lovers:

Robin: they have nothing in common. Their philosophies are different. Their values, personalities, everything is different. The only time that truly works is when loneliness gets to her. It’s not that she didn’t realise how much Ted loved her before. She definitely appreciated it. I’d say that they are polar opposites of each other. They were never meant to work together. But at some point in this long lonely life, you need someone who’s by your side. Don’t know if it’s selfishness or just necessity, it is clear that towards the end of the show both Ted and Robin are lonely. After Tracy’s death, Ted only has his children. While children might be great, you really do need someone who’s around the same level as you and gets you on some levels. While Marshall and Lily may still be around, they’re not there all the time.

Robin prioritized her career. Got ahead in life and found the fulfillment she was looking for. As a girl from Canada who started a whole new life for herself in a new city and by herself working through her 20s and 30s. While I hate this trope and stereotype that hardworking independent women end up alone in their old years, I think the show does a good job in showing how it’s really about the efforts you put to maintain a relationship. If you don’t put in the effort, you will indeed have no one: no friends, no family and no partner. And that is indeed lonely. In this rat race world, it is indeed hard to maintain a village. I don’t think Robin really would’ve been happy had she settled down earlier or stayed married to Barney. Robin would not have been happier with Ted if they had continued with their relationship in her 20s or 30s because that is not what she needed at the time. That goes same for Ted. He may have always been the complete romantic from the start but he was still not ready. The only reality where Ted and Robin work is the timeline where Ted isn’t so superficial and unrealistic about love but still carries the values and Robin needed to have achieved everything she ever wanted to finally be ready for a committed partnership. She will not repeat the same mistake as she did with that TV host that I completely forgot the name of. Life is crazy long (so is this rant). They got each other when they truly needed each other.

That being said:
Tracy: she was meant to be with Ted and Ted was meant to be with her. Tracy was everything Ted wanted her partner to be like. Ted found love that one truly only gets once in a lifetime. There were no other characters in the show ( mom candidates) who came to being as perfect for Ted as Tracy. She is as dorky as Ted if not dorkier. Ted idolized the Marshall Lily archetype and Tracy was truly the only one who would make that archetype possible with Ted. The kind of love where you are truly yourself with eachother without needing to hide any part of yourself. Nothing is “too much”. The warm comforting feeling you get when youre with someone who gets you in every way possible. The person with whom the boring parts seem exciting. That was the relationship Ted and Tracy had. I know a lot of people dislike the fact that Tracy didnt get as much screen time or story time on the show as being the center main character of Ted’s underlying story, and I am the same but having rewatched the whole thing front to back several times, it has made me appreciate and love her character even more. I hate the fact that she does but I can appreciate her appearance every time. And every time I watch the scene in which Ted finally talks to Tracy, I bawl my eyes out because that is exactly what meeting the truest love of your life feels like. There is no one that will ever beat Tracy in Ted’s heart.

I have seen some comments and posts about how Tracy is just a surrogate or consolation prize for Ted but I truly see the opposite. The ones who truly are the consolation prize for each other are Ted and Robin. And it really isn’t the worst thing ever either cuz a prize is a prize and how you feel is upto you. Ted lost the love of his life to death and waited 6 years before going back to dating. Would it had been any different if he dated someone new. While I do agree the whole arc with Robin was forced cuz that’s what they had planned since s1, the writers did best that they could given the limitations. I really would’ve ended the show’s last episode after the scene where Ted and Tracy got together and Ted says “that’s how I met your mother”. I hated the Robin ending in first watch but by the 5th watch ignoring the limitations set on the writers I can still appreciate this ending for Ted to not be lonely.