it hurts make it stop
Ok but let’s have some real talk if Carter and Craig KNEW whilst writing this that they were going to break them up in a shoddy one minute scene after a whole season of building up the wedding, and in the episode immediately after they finally got their marriage. And then they have the audacity to wonder why fans are disappointed with their damn ending. I’m disappointed because you gave us scenes like this, and then expected us to believe that these two commitment phobes happily, contentedly imagining their future together sixty years down the line meant nothing in terms of character development. It’s downright manipulative to give us scenes like this, then tear them away at the last moment and act like they’re kings of ‘real life’. Frankly, after all the issues you had then address this season: infertility, their messy past, lying to each other, Barney’s trickery, Robin’s insecurities, not being open about their plans, communication… After you literally let us see them rationally overcome all these serious issues to form a truly lovable, healthy relationship that we were all rooting for, how can you expect us to believe in this sudden, out of character divorce? It’s like you suddenly realised you’d had them get to a stage where they could be comfortable in a relationship, and a divorce made little sense, so you stuck the excuse of WIFI. Don’t tell me what they did to fans wasn’t cruel and manipulative. They played us like fools to keep the ratings up because I’m sure they knew how popular Barney and Robin were. I’m still not over the fact that they strung us along, and made us all so sure about Barney and Robin, spending a whole season proving why their relationship was right, and Ted and Robin’s wasn’t, but Ted’s love was just around the corner, only to disprove it. Then wonder why fans weren’t fans of their ‘risk’. It’s not a risk, it’s like producing a bright, shiny cartoon episode for the finale of American Horror Story and wondering why people slated it. That episode didn’t just undo character development and such, it just didn’t feel at all like an episode of how I met your mother. If the entire series had been like that episode, I for one wouldn’t have gone near it with a 50 inch pole. If they wanted fans of a show like that, they should have made an entire show like that. If they knew they were going to do what they did to Barney and Robin, they should not have had scenes like this. They shouldn’t have taunted the fans like that, and they shouldn’t have written a conversation about a happy future together for a seemingly endgame couple who you’re going to break up at the last second. They should have written a show about Ted and Robin getting back together, not one proving repeatedly how they aren’t a good match and that two people can find somebody they really, truly love in a person who they might just have to ‘wait for’, but is damn worth it. They should have written a show about how friends grow apart and even the strongest platonic bonds won’t last, tragic as it may be, not one about how friends who love each other stick together no matter what. They should have written a show about how real life is tough, and real life takes away, and that there aren’t happy endings, even for people who deserve them. Not a show about hope, and how hard times can be gut wrenching, but when your friends are there for you, you can pull through it all. Damn it, if they are going to pull a finale that makes people cry in a bad way, question everything the show has taught them about life and love, ruin relationships we’ve come to care about and make shocking, upsetting things happen in a far too short space of time all in the name of warped ‘realism’, they shouldn’t have written a sitcom. I feel like sometimes they’re frustrated suspense drama writers who need to realise that they’ve made a show that caters to a certain audience, and to change the entire tone of the series on a highly promoted, long awaited finale is not a damn ‘risk’, it’s not ‘art’, it’s just selfish. And whatever you say about the show being ‘theirs’, which I 100% agree about, they should have written ‘their’ show to be like that episode, rather than letting us fall in love with scenes like the above, knowing its all a ploy for their super secret, super selfish spontaneous ending. If you have that attitude of nonchalance towards fans, then I don’t know what to say, I really don’t. If you claim to be shocked that fans want the couples you’ve been promoting for years to end up together, and for a totally different ending not to be thrown at us in one forty minute ‘what the fuck’ fest, then nobody should let you near a series.
