Again, keep in mind you'll have to see things from a different perspective.
Barney and Robin's divorce
Many fans were enraged by this divorce, because almost the entire ninth season and parts of the eighth season were dedicated to their wedding. Having it all end in what was essentially a footnote offended many fans.
However, you should have seen this coming. The main reason is, I found it very difficult to believe that Robin actually loved Barney. I'm not even saying she didn't love him as much as he loved her, but that it's hard to believe she loved him at all. It always seemed more like an infatuation spurred by envy. Robin wants what she can't have, which is why she chased him while he was with Nora and Patrice.
Sure, she told him she loved him. But actions speak louder than words, and I don't remember Robin ever showing she loved him. From the very start, Barney broke up with Nora because of Robin, but she didn't leave Kevin for him. And in the end, she asked her ex-boyfriend to run off with her so they can start a new life together literally minutes before her wedding. In between all this, I didn't see any indication she actually loved him.
This, of course, wasn't for no reason. In the penultimate episode we saw Robin expressing deep and valid concerns about her relationship with Barney. She could never trust him. Starting with his proposal based on lies and emotional manipulation, which was literally (not figuratively!) the most unromantic proposal I have ever seen. It's mind-boggling she agreed to it in the first place.
Robin was right: Barney's biggest gestures to her were based on lies. Add to that Barney's reluctance to abandon his lifestyle and his own doubts about going through with the wedding - for extremely superficial reasons, I might add - and you have a recipe for disaster:
"It just occurs to me that once I put this tie on I can never take it off. I have to wear this tie forever, and ever. And sure, this tie is skinny now, but what happens if it gets fat and starts bossing me around? Did I make a mistake, would I have been happier with the other tie?"When Robin's mother tried to calm her down, she asked her if she had someone dependable. Robin immediately thought of Ted, who dropped an important meeting to help her find the locket while Barney couldn't drop a game of laser tag. This bubbled to the surface minutes before the wedding, and she told asked Ted to run away with her. Her fears are assuaged by Barney's vow to be completely honest with her from that point forward... A vow he breaks in less than thirty minutes, when he lies about the flower gorilla.
That convinced me these two would not last forever. When Ted closed the episode with "And it was legendary," I remembered Robin pointing out "legendary" meant "not real" and I saw that as a foreshadowing of their inevitable divorce. It would have been nice to show us the marriage was not working. The way it was done, it gave us the impression that Robin's schedule was the only reason they got divorced. But the truth is, it was merely a catalyst.
Reversal of Character Development
Barney was broken. He had some serious mother issues, which according to Lily left him "the emotional equivalent of a scavenging sewer rat." But he still tried to be a good person. In "Game Night", it's revealed he wanted to join the Peace Corps with his first girlfriend, Shannon. When she betrayed him, he finally turned into the manipulative, petty, sociopathic womanizer he was for most of the series.
Fun exercise: PCL-R is a 20-item checklist used to diagnose psychopathy. It's eerie to see how many of these describe Barney perfectly.
His relationships with Nora, Quinn, and Robin slowly transformed him into someone resembling a real human being. But even while this transformation happened, we saw signs that it would be hard for Barney to abandon his lifestyle completely. From his jokes about an open marriage, to the lies and scheming, to the reluctance to get rid of The Playbook, we saw the old Barney trying to hang on.
Robin was his one chance at redemption. But it wasn't meant to be. Remember one of Barney's mottos? "When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story." So Barney reacted to the divorce the same we he had done before with Shannon, by becoming "awesome" instead. He realized that if it wasn't going to work with Robin, it wasn't going to work with anyone else. To shield himself from being hurt again, he fell back to the familiar, to what he does best.
In "Exploding Meatball Sub," we also catch a glimpse of Barney's petty and manipulative side years into the future. Oh, and Barney and Robin aren't wearing their rings.
When I was trying to come up with my ideal ending, I struggled with Barney's character the most. On one hand, he did horrible things to hundreds of women and showed no remorse. For this, he deserved to end up an old man filled with regret, waiting to die alone as he tries to convince himself he lived an awesome life. On the other hand, Shannon and Robin turned him into... this. That's why I think the ending he actually got was perfect. Him having a daughter was both a punishment and a blessing.
To those saying Barney hated kids, that couldn't be further from the truth. In "Single Stamina," he is angry that his brother marrying, but once he hears they are going to adopt a baby he completely melts. In "The Rebound Bro," he "adopts" a kid with Ted. In "Symphony of Illumination," he is ecstatic when Robin tells him she's pregnant with his kid ("I'm gonna be daddy!").
Robin reverting to someone even more focused on her career is also a reaction to the divorce. In part, because Barney becomes his old self again. But more importantly, Ted - who she thinks should have married in the first place - is in a happy relationship with The Mother. There's no scenario in which a divorced Robin could still hang out with "the gang."
Ted's character development was not destroyed at all. He spent most the series trying to let go of Robin, and there's no reason to believe he didn't do exactly that. I don't believe he still had feelings for Robin while he was with The Mother. Hammering the point that Ted had let go of Robin all season was important, otherwise it would have cheapened his relationship with Tracy.
But more on Ted and Robin later.
The Mother's Death
Most fans fell in love with Milioti's character. I felt differently. Even though she was very likable and seemed like a perfect match for Ted, I grew to dislike how her character and her relationship with Ted were being portrayed for two main reasons:
- The Mother was Ted with lady parts. She had way too many similarities with Ted, including odd quirks (eg: driving gloves, road trip habits, pretentious pronunciation of words like renaissance, calligraphy and coin collecting hobbies, the detective bit).
- Nauseatingly saccharine scenes between Ted and Tracy in flash-forwards. Every single scene between these two showed them being lovey-dovey and it made their relationship unbelievable. In the sense that it cannot be believed. Hell, even an absurd couple like Marshall and Lily had their disagreements.
That's why I thought her death would be good. Ted remembers her fondly... So he exaggerated in describing her similarities with him. The sweet scenes between them would show they shared a beautiful life together, which was reinforced in "Vesuvius." They agreed they had officially become an old married couple who shared all their stories, which would dull the pain of her untimely demise.
It was also heavily foreshadowed. The theory that The Mother was dead (or dying) started to gain traction after "Time Travelers," when Future Ted says he would have told The Mother this:
"I'm Ted Mosby. And exactly 45 days from now you and I are gonna meet and we're gonna fall in love. And we're gonna get married, and we're gonna have two kids. And we're gonna love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away. But I'm here now... I guess, because... I want those extra 45 days... with you [...] because I love you. I'm always gonna love you till the end of my days and beyond."If she is still alive in 2030, there's no need to go back and change time to spend those extra 45 days with her. The only reason why he'd need to do that is if she's dead in 2030.
Obviously the scene above at the end of "Vesuvius," where Ted tears up and looks at The Mother after she asks "what kind of mother would miss her daughter's wedding?" was like adding a gas can to the fire. And why did Future Ted decide to tell this story? Why did Future Ted never refer to her in the present tense? Why are were there hints like this one? The signs had always been there.
Barney and Robin's divorce and Tracy's death would pave the way for the big revelation at the end: Ted and Robin getting back together.
Interesting thoughts. I'd like to refer to this part about Ted and Robin's relationship that you commented on:
ReplyDelete'Ted's character development was not destroyed at all. He spent most the series trying to let go of Robin, and there's no reason to believe he didn't do exactly that. I don't believe he still had feelings for Robin while he was with The Mother. Hammering the point that Ted had let go of Robin all season was important, otherwise it would have cheapened his relationship with Tracy. '
In a way I agree. I think Ted's lingering feelings for Robin post-breakup constitutes the core of the series. For me, the big takeaway is that this is a story about someone who tries to live his life given that he cannot find an 'off-switch' (in reference to what Ted told Barney in Last Time in New York) for his feelings to Robin. One of the key themes of the story is that life doesn't have many off-switches; what's one going to do when a lot of stuff (eg feelings for an ex) remains switched 'on'.