I know I'm late to the game, but I recently finished "How I Met Your Mother." What started out as a pretty solid sitcom devolved into a mess of poor characterization and manufactured drama to keep up the mystery that they refused to solve. The story of this show is not about he, Ted, met his children's mother, it's how he wanted Robin more than anything else. Ted's a liar from the very first moment we hear his voice, and his children even call him out on it at the end. Why would we root for a guy like that?

Ted isn't the only problem with the show, but he's the biggest one. Instead of growing from his relationships, he becomes more childish. He continues to rely on fate and claim "this is destiny" with every girl he meets. But it's not until the last season that he finally admits he's lost. So he packs up to move away. What? He lives in New York, there's a billion people there. Surely he could meet someone. Oh right, he's too busy being hung up on a girl he dated years ago so instead of letting go, he has to physically move hundreds of miles away. It just has the air of "taking my toys and going home." By the end of the show, I don't care about Ted and his quest. I just want it to end.

Character wise, they blew it with just about everyone in the cast in that last season+. Marshall suddenly takes a huge life-changing job without consulting his wife, who he had previously run every decision by? He knows it will break her heart, but he still does it? That character has always put his family before himself. He hosted a BBQ on his father's grave because he was too nice to tell people 'no'. But we're supposed to believe that he would torpedo Lily's dream job because he got one he wanted? I don't think so.

Barney and Robin together never made sense to me. I don't think it made sense to them either, but knowing how the show was going to end, they must have had to find a way to put Robin out of reach of Ted. That way the plot device that is the mother can show up and die within a few episodes so we don't actually feel bad about it and can cheer when the show ends how it does.

That being said, that final scene was perfect for Ted. He is ostensibly telling this story to his kids about their mother, but he's lying. He's telling this story about their mother that barely has any time actually spent on the mother. So the idea that he is still, for some reason, in love with Robin and goes after her one last time, makes perfect sense. He's the eternal romantic, so even though the odds are against them, he goes for it. What we don't see is how this latest try likely fails as well. They've already been down that road. Marshall actually calls it in a pretty early episode: "Oh please, we all know how this movie ends. Ted falls in love. Love kicks Ted in the sprouts. Roll credits." Every relationship previous to this has failed in some spectacular fashion. Even the few times he tried to date Robin: crash and burn. And when he finally meets the woman he fathers children with, BOOM, sprout punt. Maybe third time's(or however many times) the charm for Ted and Robin, but those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it. "How I Met Your Mother" is about how Ted consistently ignores his own past.

Ted falls in love.

Love kicks Ted in the sprouts.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Roll credits.

Editor's note: After writing this article, I found the alternate ending. If that was the actual ending, this article likely would have had a very different tone.