Eleven-Hundred Words on "How I Met Your Mother"
I recently had some time to kill and finished off Season 8 of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) in basically a marathon. And this happened. Read at your own peril.
The season finished in its usual dramatic fashion, leaving us all wondering “Okay, now how in the world do they plan on resolving this?” and begging that the muses are kind to the writers. Oh, and we know who The Mother (cue dramatic love theme) is. So that's interesting.
I recently had some time to kill and finished off Season 8 of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) in basically a marathon. The season finished in its usual dramatic fashion, leaving us all wondering “Okay, now how in the world do they plan on resolving this?” and begging that the muses are kind to the writers. Oh, and we know who The Mother (cue dramatic love theme) is. So that's interesting.
My next, rather stupid, course of action was to lurk into a few forums and read other people's opinions on the episode. You would think I'd know better after a while but two things work against me in this regard. First, I have a bizarre urge to know what other people think about things I enjoy (no idea why). Second, I'm mad as a hatter and expect fan discussions to get more civilized. I am continually wrong.
I should stop here and point out that while HIMYM is a good show and I keep it in my queue, it's not something I make a point of watching every week. It usually stacks in the queue and sits, patiently, for me to get around to watching it. To put it another way, I'm not nearly as invested in this show as most people are. To be completely truthful, I'm not nearly as invested in most shows as the other fans are.
Frankly, summing up the Robin-Ted-Barney story-arcs of the last season and a half is much too complicated. The season ends with Robin deciding a “sign from the universe” is nothing more than her reading into things and Ted ending up with a locket that would have calmed her cold-feet by matter of pure happenstance. Ted's also moving to Chicago because, while he wants Barney and Robin to have a happy successful marriage, he doesn't want to have to watch it, on account of still being in love with Robin. Oh, and Lilly reveals that Robin got upset when Ted was marrying Stella (which in a round-about way is how Ted got the locket).
All of this drama has annoyed, no entirely unreasonably, a portion of the fan-base, in particular the Barney-Robin shipping community. “ENOUGH WITH THE TED-ROBIN MELODRAMA!” they proclaim. “WE WANT OUR BARNEY-ROBIN WEDDING!” And who can blame them? Barney-Robin has been a roller-coaster for those invested in it and some freak out at the possibility of the writing staff ruining the big moment these fans want for their happy fictitious couple. Another segment thinks the writing staff is ruining Ted through theses moments of idiocy.
To be fair to the shippers, yeah, I don't really get the reveal about Robin's freak-out over the Ted-Stella marriage either. Granted, I haven't watched any episodes about that in years, but that doesn't fit with what I remember about the show. Perhaps someone wiser and more dedicated than I has an answer. But on the other hand the title of the show is How I Met Your Mother, not The Love Life of Barney and Robin. At its premise it's Ted's story, the other characters are just part of it. And yes, Ted Mosby, you're an idiot. You should not be giving something as emotionally-charged as that locket to Robin as a wedding present. The smart move would be to have Barney present it, but again, Mosby, you're an idiot. (For her part, Lilly doesn't exactly call him out on this, but does warn him to be very careful).
Anyway, personally, I was having a hard time resolving this whole “I still love Robin” business with the “I'm no longer clinging to the dream of being with Robin” from last season and his insistence that if Robin wants Barney she should go get him. I pontificated upon these thoughts and came to view it thusly: Ted's let go of the dream, the actual dream / fantasy / hope, of being with Robin. For him, that ship has sailed. Hope has fled. The light at the end of the tunnel is an on-coming training. Game over, man, game over! However, that doesn't mean he still doesn't love her. Realizing his dreams have been smashed did not magically flip a switch and make all his emotions for her disappear. That's part of the equation. Without burdening this with details of my personal life, let's just say I've been where Ted's at right now, as far as I understand the show.
And the other part of this whole mess that Robin is marrying Barney of all people. Barney. For the majority of the show he has quite publicly treated women as disposable, replaceable, and basically play-things. By his own admission, he may have sold a woman into slavery. Granted Barney's done a lot of growing during the last two seasons, but for 6 of the 8 years we've seen this show, he's been a self-confessed “monster”. And Robin prefers this monster over Ted. No matter how you look at it, that's gotta hurt.
I think that this was what Ted was getting at in episode 15 of season 8, when Ted says Robin should be with him and not with Barney. Intentionally or not, the writers have set up a classic friend-zone scenario complete with the obnoxious-jerk-of-a-boyfriend with the twist being that the jerk-boyfriend really does love the girl and he happens to be Ted's best friend too.
My entertainment is normally pretty escapist. In tabletop RPGs, I usually play good-aligned characters. I don't think darker-and-grittier is necessarily better or more mature. I don't particularly like relentlessly dark shows with grey-and-grey morality like Game of Thrones (registration line for my lynch-mob begins to the left) or Sons of Anarchy. Give me heroes and villains; my day-to-day existence has enough grey areas. However, I do have a soft spot for shows that portray characters who struggle to do the right thing in spite of easier and more beneficial or perhaps simply more practical choices. This is why, for all their flaws I like Once Upon A Time, Dexter, finished Supernatural out through its fifth season, mourned the loss of The Cape, and why I felt the ending of Dr. Horrible was so brilliantly executed. It's why I almost put HIMYM aside after the runaway-bride plot with Victoria.
If I understand the show correctly, Ted struggling to do the right thing. Perhaps, more specifically, he's struggling to know what the right thing is. He's just given Robin some big speech about not looking for signs in the universe and here he is, possibly interpreting the locket as a sign. We know the wedding happens. We know Barney and Robin end up together (though I have my own cracktastic theory about that). Heck we even know who The Mother is now. Yes, the writers have shown us more than her ankles. We know how things are going to end up, the interesting thing is watching the puzzle pieces fall into place.
In short, I just word-vomited 1160 words to say, in essence, I trust the writers. I think they're doing a realistic portrayal of a man with struggling with depression, unrequited love, and how to do the right thing. I think they're doing a grand job with the storyline and everyone should just calm the heck down and tune in next season.
The season finished in its usual dramatic fashion, leaving us all wondering “Okay, now how in the world do they plan on resolving this?” and begging that the muses are kind to the writers. Oh, and we know who The Mother (cue dramatic love theme) is. So that's interesting.
I recently had some time to kill and finished off Season 8 of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) in basically a marathon. The season finished in its usual dramatic fashion, leaving us all wondering “Okay, now how in the world do they plan on resolving this?” and begging that the muses are kind to the writers. Oh, and we know who The Mother (cue dramatic love theme) is. So that's interesting.
My next, rather stupid, course of action was to lurk into a few forums and read other people's opinions on the episode. You would think I'd know better after a while but two things work against me in this regard. First, I have a bizarre urge to know what other people think about things I enjoy (no idea why). Second, I'm mad as a hatter and expect fan discussions to get more civilized. I am continually wrong.
I should stop here and point out that while HIMYM is a good show and I keep it in my queue, it's not something I make a point of watching every week. It usually stacks in the queue and sits, patiently, for me to get around to watching it. To put it another way, I'm not nearly as invested in this show as most people are. To be completely truthful, I'm not nearly as invested in most shows as the other fans are.
Frankly, summing up the Robin-Ted-Barney story-arcs of the last season and a half is much too complicated. The season ends with Robin deciding a “sign from the universe” is nothing more than her reading into things and Ted ending up with a locket that would have calmed her cold-feet by matter of pure happenstance. Ted's also moving to Chicago because, while he wants Barney and Robin to have a happy successful marriage, he doesn't want to have to watch it, on account of still being in love with Robin. Oh, and Lilly reveals that Robin got upset when Ted was marrying Stella (which in a round-about way is how Ted got the locket).
All of this drama has annoyed, no entirely unreasonably, a portion of the fan-base, in particular the Barney-Robin shipping community. “ENOUGH WITH THE TED-ROBIN MELODRAMA!” they proclaim. “WE WANT OUR BARNEY-ROBIN WEDDING!” And who can blame them? Barney-Robin has been a roller-coaster for those invested in it and some freak out at the possibility of the writing staff ruining the big moment these fans want for their happy fictitious couple. Another segment thinks the writing staff is ruining Ted through theses moments of idiocy.
To be fair to the shippers, yeah, I don't really get the reveal about Robin's freak-out over the Ted-Stella marriage either. Granted, I haven't watched any episodes about that in years, but that doesn't fit with what I remember about the show. Perhaps someone wiser and more dedicated than I has an answer. But on the other hand the title of the show is How I Met Your Mother, not The Love Life of Barney and Robin. At its premise it's Ted's story, the other characters are just part of it. And yes, Ted Mosby, you're an idiot. You should not be giving something as emotionally-charged as that locket to Robin as a wedding present. The smart move would be to have Barney present it, but again, Mosby, you're an idiot. (For her part, Lilly doesn't exactly call him out on this, but does warn him to be very careful).
Anyway, personally, I was having a hard time resolving this whole “I still love Robin” business with the “I'm no longer clinging to the dream of being with Robin” from last season and his insistence that if Robin wants Barney she should go get him. I pontificated upon these thoughts and came to view it thusly: Ted's let go of the dream, the actual dream / fantasy / hope, of being with Robin. For him, that ship has sailed. Hope has fled. The light at the end of the tunnel is an on-coming training. Game over, man, game over! However, that doesn't mean he still doesn't love her. Realizing his dreams have been smashed did not magically flip a switch and make all his emotions for her disappear. That's part of the equation. Without burdening this with details of my personal life, let's just say I've been where Ted's at right now, as far as I understand the show.
And the other part of this whole mess that Robin is marrying Barney of all people. Barney. For the majority of the show he has quite publicly treated women as disposable, replaceable, and basically play-things. By his own admission, he may have sold a woman into slavery. Granted Barney's done a lot of growing during the last two seasons, but for 6 of the 8 years we've seen this show, he's been a self-confessed “monster”. And Robin prefers this monster over Ted. No matter how you look at it, that's gotta hurt.
I think that this was what Ted was getting at in episode 15 of season 8, when Ted says Robin should be with him and not with Barney. Intentionally or not, the writers have set up a classic friend-zone scenario complete with the obnoxious-jerk-of-a-boyfriend with the twist being that the jerk-boyfriend really does love the girl and he happens to be Ted's best friend too.
My entertainment is normally pretty escapist. In tabletop RPGs, I usually play good-aligned characters. I don't think darker-and-grittier is necessarily better or more mature. I don't particularly like relentlessly dark shows with grey-and-grey morality like Game of Thrones (registration line for my lynch-mob begins to the left) or Sons of Anarchy. Give me heroes and villains; my day-to-day existence has enough grey areas. However, I do have a soft spot for shows that portray characters who struggle to do the right thing in spite of easier and more beneficial or perhaps simply more practical choices. This is why, for all their flaws I like Once Upon A Time, Dexter, finished Supernatural out through its fifth season, mourned the loss of The Cape, and why I felt the ending of Dr. Horrible was so brilliantly executed. It's why I almost put HIMYM aside after the runaway-bride plot with Victoria.
If I understand the show correctly, Ted struggling to do the right thing. Perhaps, more specifically, he's struggling to know what the right thing is. He's just given Robin some big speech about not looking for signs in the universe and here he is, possibly interpreting the locket as a sign. We know the wedding happens. We know Barney and Robin end up together (though I have my own cracktastic theory about that). Heck we even know who The Mother is now. Yes, the writers have shown us more than her ankles. We know how things are going to end up, the interesting thing is watching the puzzle pieces fall into place.
In short, I just word-vomited 1160 words to say, in essence, I trust the writers. I think they're doing a realistic portrayal of a man with struggling with depression, unrequited love, and how to do the right thing. I think they're doing a grand job with the storyline and everyone should just calm the heck down and tune in next season.