Rishire Writes

Last night, I was thinking about the different ways people come upon their husband/wife. It’s either love at first sight, a friendship that evolves, or whatever else there is. In thinking about this, I couldn’t help but see how perfectly the main characters of How I Met Your Mother exhibit each path. For those of you who either know nothing about this show or are behind on this season, Lily is married to Marshall, her boyfriend since freshman year of college, Barney is marrying Robin, his best friend’s ex-girlfriend, and Ted is still on the never ending quest for “your mother.” Obviously Ted will someday meet someone, fall in love with her, have his affections be returned, get married, and have kids, so for the sake of this post, let’s pretend that’s already happened.

Each of these relationships came about in very different ways. First let’s consider Marshall and Lily’s relationship. We don’t know much about who they were before they met in college, but we do know that Lily had a serious relationship with at least one boy in high school–Scooter. This kid is no longer in the picture, although he does show up in a few episodes including at her wedding, but that’s irrelevant. I’m not a How I Met Your Mother expert, but I’m pretty sure Marshall didn’t have any serious relationships before Lily. This makes Lily and Marshall’s relationship the love-at-first-sight kind. They met in college, they started to date, they fell in love, continued to go out for many, many years, and finally got married and had a kid. It’s almost a fairy tale relationship but spanning more than a single day. This sounds idyllic, but let’s be real, it’s rare.

On to Barney and Robin! Barney is the huge slut of the group. He hooks up like a college kid just out of juvie and has some serious commitment issues. He has all these technics of getting a girl into bed and tactics to get them out the door after the deed is done. He’s a total player, but he has been in love at least twice through the 7 season span of the show. He almost married this stripper, but dumped her for Robin who he’s loved since maybe season 3–like I said, not a HIMYM expert. Robin is almost just as much of a commitmentaphob as him, having been in a couple of serious relationships–most of them being with Ted–but bailing when things get too serious. I think she was even engaged to Kumar from those White Castle movies. In the end, she falls in love with Barney, the womanizer extraordinaire who has given up his playa ways to make an honest woman out of her. I’m going to clump their relationship background to dub it the hump-and-dump kind. They are more likely to hook up for years, then find that magical someone who can control their libido. This is more likely than the love-at-first-sight kind, but it is still quite rare to find the one after never trying.

Last, but not least, is Ted and his unknown wife. Since I don’t even know who she is, I, of course, can’t give any insight into her relationship history, but Ted’s is all I need to make this point. As Barney is a serial hook up artist, Ted is a serial dater, a serial fall-in-love-er. He is almost addicted to being in a relationship, hopping from one relationship to another. Not only is he addicted to being with someone, he’s also obsessed with love. He falls in love, then falls in love, then falls in love again. It’s almost hard to believe that he actually finds someone to marry and have kids with, but oh well, that’s the whole premise of the show I guess. Ted fell in love with Robin when he first met her. He fell in love with Cameron from House, Elliot from Scrubs, Victoria, Robin again, and basically every single person he’s ever laid eyes on. Sure he’s had his fair share of hook ups and one night stands, but he’s really just a relationship guy. After enduring relationship after relationship, he finally finds the one, gets married and has kids. That’s the dream! This kind of relationship pattern is a lot more common than the rest. Going from one failed relationship to another to finally end up with the one makes sense. This show may be mainly for laughs and not necessarily for commentaries about real life, which there are plenty of sprinkled in each episode, but it brought me to this, and I think this reading of each character’s string of relationships is borderline genius! You’re welcome.