They had a big amount of time in the show dedicated to "waiting an acceptable amount of time" after someone died, and apparently they had recorded the ending scene with the kids on the couch years ago so they wouldn't have aged 10 years over the course of the full 9 seasons of the show....

That being said I fucking hated how i met your mother after the first 2-3 seasons, it just dragged on and on and was nothing more than a discomfort to think of some of the depraved things that Ted was sitting down telling his kids that he done, constantly the fact that the show was being narrated to someones kids made me slightly on edge during all of it, Lily and Marshall were probably my favourite actors in the show but their characters were written as the most copy paste "the couple" group in a sitcom ever, was horrible to watch. Even in the finale what became of them? Marshell worked a shit job, he got made into a Judge, he became a supreme court Judge, that's it those 3 lines are everything that happened to a character running 9 years, said literally as those 3 lines not shown in any other way really.

Bolded is the part i was replying to. They explained it very well.

What Robin got from Barney was momentary satisfaction, that was enough for the moment but there was no substance. He was a player who could convince with words any girl  to sleep with him. He had no problem convincing Robin to marry him right before the wedding, because he was good with words so he knew exactly what she wanted to hear. But that doesn't mean that there was something strong enough between them to keep them together. 

As for Barney. Again I disagree. His character was in some ways very realistically written. He is a wominzer who thinks that he's met the one! But the initial excitement can only last so long. Just look at young couples. They are crazy for each other at first and then they divorce. It's excactly the kind of love that Barney and Robin shared. Someone who has slept with probably thousands of girls can only be satisfied with one for so long. 

The show could have wrapped up in a very different twist, we had been talking about it and it would have made the audience less... caustic I think.

Imagine if after all of it they had met who was being shown as the kids mother all the time but the whole group befriended her as they did but only during the Robins wedding season we were to find out that her name was also Robin and to distinguish between Robin Serbotski and New Robin they started to refer to her as "Aunt" Robin as a group which would have gone back over the parts were he spoke to his kids about a "aunt robin" I dunno...

It was a pretty stupid story to have to wrap up and they just done it in a shit way. Could you write it ending better? just have an older version of the mom come in with tea and tell the dad stop creeping out his kids sitting them on a couch for 9 years?

That show was awful anyways, no big loss.

We can argue about fictional characters until the end of time. But I'll reply one last time and leave it at that, as I'm not going to convince you that I'm right and know that won't change my mind, as I've given it a lot of thought.

Barney seemed to be changing. He didn't ncessariy actually change. Haven't you had friends who meet a girl, go through the most insane transformation, only to go back to how they were after they broke up? I've had several of those. Some where not Christian and because their gf was, suddnely became the biggest prudes in the world, refusing to even masturbate. Two years later, when their gf dumped them, they went back to their old tricks. They way I saw it, Barney was such a guy. I belive that people improve/become worse but rarely do a 180 and change completely. A divorce doesn't undo anything. Just because I broke up with my exes doesn't mean I don't cherish what we once had. Their 5(?) years together meant something to both of them. Robin couldn't even see him around other women and Barney seemed to try hard to make it seem ad everything was ok with him. It was actually a good thing that we never saw the bimbo, cuz it was not about her, but about his baby. Even villains have a soft spot for their children, so the only thing that could relaistically change him a bit would be a child. I've heard from people that that changes you (again, not completely but still gives you a different meaning in life).

"while barney was never going to be the best husband, they clearly tried so hard to show you that he will always try his best"

Barney wasn't rying his best. He was doing flashy things. Oh, let me lie to you and pretend Im marrying a fat chick jsut to make you desperate. Let me lie to you again about the whole dress rehearsal. It's actually fun to experience but a marriage doens't work like that. Those tricks work at the beginning of a relationship. 

"that would make sense if the kids staying and listening to the story made sense in the first place. who on earth would sit and listen to 208 stories (number of episodes) of how his/her father met their mother"

Of course it's not realistic to either sit through all those stories or for Ted to remember them in such detail. But it's one of those unrelaistic things that the viewers learn to accept. The point is that most of the time he was talking about Robin. As a viewer I would be disappointed if there was so much emphasis on Robin every freaking season and then nothing actually happened between them in the end. Then why make it about her? So that the kids would have to worry that their dad wants a divorce, since he likes Robin so much as she's the one that got away, so he had to settel for their mom? Their mom being dead, was the only way the story he was telling his kids would make sense. Even if they killed Robin, the kids would be given the impression that their mom was the consolation prize and that he wishes he had chosen Robin instead. 

"who wants to see robin with ted? they want at it so many times it got boring. other than that, he wants to date/marry his best friends ex wife? it doesnt feel right.  The show was about the mother, yet they just killed her off and made the ending again, about robin. it isnt why people watched the show."

I didn't like them as a couple and most people didn't either. Whether it's boring or not, it's the ONLY way his story, i.e. the entire show could end and make sense. Didn't Barney also marry his friend's ex? It was weird to begin with. People watched the show for different reasons. The mother was a part of it and her ending up being dead doesn't change his story of how they met. Which was great. What he shared with her doesn't change because she's dead. 

@naruball

why do you always say robin got nothing from barney ? wasnt barney the one who followed robin all over the world to her satisfaction ? barney gave up everything to be with her and it just didnt work. she was the one who wanted barney to change and he did and again she wasnt prepared go give up anything for him..robin in other words is a child if she cant play then she quits playing.

how i met your mother title is obviously misleading because robin is not the mother tracy is simple as that and all that mumbo jambo for nothing..he used his dead wife to be with another woman and that i call evil as i said in a previous post.

So the only explanation you/writers in your opinion have is the locker? That was the event changing moment, disregarding everything that happened previously, or the Ted - Robin meet up on the beach which supposedly should have put their relationship chance to rest? 

And you don't have a problem that a counter weight to a whole season is one episode and.Barney and Robin getting drunk? Don't you feel there is a huge balance problem here?

If the Robin/Barney relationship was so momentary without substance as you say, why devote so much time to it? Why was Robin getting back to Barney all the time, expressing her love, when Ted was just around the corner, always the same, always in love?

Yeah with Barney it seems we'll have to disagree. You see it as realistic, I see it as lack of vision and inconsistent, out of character writing, or lack of 1 season like I said in the first post. Writers seemed to try and convince us that Barney has changed. Reasons I've brought up, Banana brought up, all point to that. For us it looks like they wanted desperately convince us Barney wants to settle down, it wasn't just Robin, he was engaged to Karma. Why all the romantic hassle if it wasn't really what he wanted? You only point to the laser tag, I can point to broken engagement, "The Robin" from The Playbook, the ice skating.

And another thing. Why did Robin want to get married (and Barney with her) when she still wanted to be a Worldwide news presenter? Didn't they talk about it before? How did they think it would work out?

I don't have a problem with them divorcing per se at all. Couples divorce all the time. My problem is the lack of balance that I was talking about before. Getting married - full season -> getting divorced one episode.

And you never adressed my point why Ted and Robin was a no go all the time before. Was it the locker again?

That's not to mention the way they handled Tracy's character, which I will adress later.

I liked it, actually. I believe it's a pretty good ending, and it all makes sense.

SPOILERS:

The story is centered about Ted's relationship with Robin and the mum only comes in the last part of the series.
In fact I always thought that the mum would have been a random actress, but that wouldn't have been a surprise. I mean, "ok, the mum is going to be a random actress, what's all the hype about?"

The fact that Barney has a daughter from a one night stand is perfectly fitting with his character. If you act like that you have to be aware of consequences. I loved Barney from the first episode, and I believe this ending is perfect.

Ok, you have a point about Barney following her and giving up his job. But other than that? Does a marriage work when the attraction is towards one's tricks? Barney was all about legendary moments, which, let's face it, in an actual marriage they don't happen that often. Robin wanted a more stable relationship. She was marriage material. Barney wasn't.

Ted didn't have to get his kid's permission to start dating Robin, but tried to explain to them why he wanted to start dating her again. How is that bad or using his dead wife? The title is not misleading. It would be, if there was no mother intoduced. How I met you mother was his entire journey until he met her, which isexactly what we got. 

Your definition of evil differs significantly from mine. 

It was the only end possible...

It was so Ted... the show was always about Ted and Robin.

What I can say us that the end was kinda predictable.