How I Met Your Mother: If Robin was the Star... ✨

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00:00How I Met Your Mother was a great ensemble show,

00:03but everything was framed through Ted's perspective,

00:06and Ted's perspective is, well, a little suspect, to say the least.

00:10This is gonna happen. She can't say it's not meant to be.

00:13It is meant to be, and you know why?

00:15Because I mean it to be.

00:16While How I Briefly Met My Second Husband's Dead Wife

00:19might not be as catchy of a title,

00:21it is interesting to think about how the entire show

00:24might have changed for the better

00:25if it had been centered around Robin instead of Ted,

00:28and how it could have also led to a much more interesting,

00:31fulfilling ending for everyone.

00:33It would have obviously been a quite different show,

00:36but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

00:38I don't know where I'm gonna be in five years,

00:41and I don't wanna know. I want my life to be an adventure.

00:43At the beginning of the show,

00:45Robin is in a very different place in her life

00:47than the rest of the gang.

00:48They've all been friends for years

00:49and are settled into relatively stable jobs.

00:52Robin, on the other hand, has just moved to the big city

00:54without knowing anyone to chase her dreams.

00:57To top it all off, I have no friends.

00:59Wrong.

01:00You have four friends right here.

01:02Right, guys?

01:02Uh, yeah.

01:03You're totally in our gang now,

01:05and once you're in, you're in for life.

01:07She wants to make it to the top of her industry

01:08as a news anchor,

01:09and she's starting from the bottom

01:11and doing whatever she can to climb her way up.

01:14She's actually already had one successful media career

01:17before we even met her.

01:18I was a teenage pop star in Canada.

01:22Robin isn't afraid to go after what she wants,

01:25even if it's a long shot.

01:26This idea of being a big dreamer

01:28is actually something that she shares with Ted,

01:30though they both just focus their attention

01:32on quite different things.

01:34Ted is obsessed with love,

01:36or really the idea of love,

01:38and is willing to do whatever and hurt whoever

01:40to keep chasing that perfect relationship

01:42that he feels is out there waiting for him.

01:45I don't plan out every second of my life like you do.

01:48I don't plan out every...

01:49Oh, really?

01:49What is all of this?

01:51Robin, on the other hand,

01:52is focused on those career goals above all else.

01:55She's willing to put the entire rest of her life on hold

01:58if it means chasing down an opportunity to succeed.

02:01Having Robin as the central focus of the show

02:03would have allowed more time to really dig into this drive

02:06and how it affects her,

02:07and how she grows over time,

02:09by digging into her psychology from her perspective.

02:12The original show kind of seemed to want to punish Robin

02:15for wanting a career.

02:16She didn't even really want it all,

02:18as we classically think of it,

02:19a job, spouse, and family.

02:21She was really mostly just focused on career success,

02:24and the show pretty much always framed this

02:26in a negative light,

02:28whereas Ted, being the main character,

02:29was let off the hook for some quite bad behavior.

02:32And to be fair,

02:33going after a career with that kind of single-minded focus

02:36will likely lead to plenty of bummer times.

02:39So it's not like she would have had

02:40some perfect smooth sailing right to the top

02:42if she was the main character.

02:44I'm always putting my career ahead of my relationships,

02:48and to be honest,

02:50there's a lot of lonely nights in that job description.

02:52It's just that it would give us a better opportunity

02:54to understand her and what drives her,

02:56and to see those ups and downs as part of her growth,

02:59and not just her stuck on Ted's rollercoaster of love.

03:03Speaking of love,

03:04Robin's lack of obsession with love and relationships

03:06could have been really interesting to forefront

03:08in an era when so many female characters

03:11were made to be so totally fixated on finding a man to marry

03:14above everything else in their lives.

03:17Guys are like the subway.

03:18You miss one, another one comes along in five minutes.

03:21Unless it's the end of the night,

03:22then you get on anything.

03:24Heyo!

03:25We could have gotten a more full picture of Robin

03:27and her relationships

03:28outside of her being a main love object for Ted.

03:31I think I'm in love with you.

03:33What?

03:34What?

03:35What?

03:36Which was always looming in the background,

03:38even when she was with other people.

03:40It also could have provided the opportunity

03:42for some healthier central relationships

03:44than Ted's whole thing.

03:46And now, a very single and available Maggie Wilkes

03:49is on her way to this very spot.

03:51I sent a cab with a female driver

03:53so she'd have no other interaction with a man

03:54until she got to me.

03:55But that's not to say that Robin was perfect at relationships.

03:59She was, of course, a pretty big commitment foe.

04:02Part of this was just due to her not wanting to get tied down

04:05and have that get in the way of her career.

04:07But there was clearly more at play there.

04:09Robin's deep-seated need for attention

04:10can be traced back to her father's emotional distance.

04:13Of course, at the end of the day,

04:14this show is a lighthearted comedy,

04:16so it wouldn't make sense to turn full-on drama

04:18in unpacking Robin's deeper issues.

04:20But even as it is,

04:22the show wasn't afraid to have its emotional moments.

04:24So with Robin at the center,

04:26more of those moments could have been focused

04:27on allowing us to understand her better.

04:30The show also constantly butted up

04:32against Robin's desire to not have children.

04:34I don't want kids.

04:36I've never wanted kids.

04:37And never in a million years will I ever want kids.

04:41At the beginning,

04:42it was just framed mostly as an obstacle for Ted,

04:45something that made it clear

04:46that they wouldn't ever truly be compatible.

04:48But as the show progressed,

04:50similar to the treatment of her putting her career

04:51over her love life,

04:53it seemed that the show wanted to penalize her

04:55for making the quote-unquote wrong decisions.

04:58In this rom-com world,

04:59as seen through Ted's lens,

05:00all women should want to get married and have babies.

05:03And Robin not wanting or prioritizing those things

05:06was something to be punished for.

05:08Getting to see Robin grappling

05:09both with almost all of her major relationships

05:11wanting children when she didn't,

05:13and then being told that she won't ever be able to have kids

05:16would have allowed for more unpacking

05:18of that internal turmoil

05:19and how it really affected her.

05:21Of course, it's one thing not to want something.

05:24It's another to be told you can't have it.

05:25Robin did finally work through her commitment issues

05:27by the end of the show,

05:28but it would have been great to have the show cherish that

05:31and show it as a positive

05:33rather than just something

05:34they were just as quickly going to throw away

05:36for Ted's benefit.

05:37Robin is far from perfect.

05:39She has a deep-seated,

05:40not-like-the-other-girls-cool-girl persona

05:43that hinders her ability to form friendships with other women.

05:46What is it with you and women?

05:48Ugh, they're so annoying.

05:50Girls are always whining and crying over every little thing.

05:54This was a pervasive trend at the time,

05:56though, of course, in the show, it's not framed as being out of a desire to appeal to men,

06:00but just the way she is naturally,

06:02which is central to the cool girl mystique.

06:04I love a scotch that's old enough to order its own scotch.

06:07She just happens to hate everything other girls like,

06:10and love everything men like,

06:12and is also super hot in a very specific way.

06:15But she's totally not even trying.

06:16The show places all of this on her upbringing,

06:18and the fact that her father pushed her into stereotypically male interests

06:21and pursuits from an early age.

06:23He wanted a son,

06:24and the fact that I was a girl didn't change his plan.

06:26What do you mean?

06:28My full legal name is Robin Charles Schrabatsky Jr.

06:31But given how rampant the cool girl persona was at the time,

06:34and how women were finally starting to push back

06:37against that limiting, constraining trope

06:39by the time of the show's later seasons,

06:41Gone Girl dropped just a few months after the show's final season aired.

06:44Allowing Robin more time and space to really work through that struggle herself

06:47could have been really illuminating.

06:49While the show didn't let Robin truly escape her,

06:51not like the other girl's persona,

06:53she did grow in other ways.

06:55Unlike Ted, she doesn't get everything she wants.

06:58Things in her life repeatedly don't work out for her,

07:00and aren't rectified through rom-com magic.

07:02So she just has to learn to live with it.

07:05Like when she, for the first time in her life,

07:07chooses her relationship over her job,

07:09and her boyfriend leaves her for the job.

07:12You can imagine what it's like to have the phone ringing

07:13at your dream job on the other end?

07:17Yes.

07:17But instead of it all just working out

07:20and her coming out on top in the end,

07:22she just has to start carving a new path for herself.

07:25Also, in addition to overcoming her commitment phobia,

07:27she learns to stop repressing her feelings.

07:30The Robin we meet at the beginning of the show

07:31doesn't like opening herself up to other people,

07:34in friendships or relationships,

07:35because she feels it'll just lead to her getting hurt.

07:38But over time, she learns that

07:40even if it does sometimes lead to pain,

07:42the close, fulfilling relationships she's able to build

07:44are worth the risk.

07:46And of course, seeing the show through Robin's eyes

07:48would have given us the opportunity

07:50to have a much different, and likely better, ending.

07:53With Robin only existing to be a love object for Ted,

07:55they had no problem erasing all of her growth

07:58and happiness gained,

07:59to again punish her for trying to live the life she wanted,

08:02and instead have her waiting around for him

08:04to come save her.

08:06If the show had been framed around Robin,

08:07so many things could have been improved.

08:09She could have kept her happy relationship with Barney.

08:11They had both done a lot of personal growth to make it work,

08:15and they could have used that growth

08:16to then work through their problems later on.

08:18But sometimes things and people do change,

08:21and while they seem to fit together for a while,

08:23it doesn't mean they would forever.

08:25This isn't a failed marriage.

08:27It's a very successful marriage

08:28that happened to only last three years.

08:30The breakup could have been handled in a much better way.

08:33Instead of just feeling like a last-minute thing thrown in

08:35so that Ted could get what he wants,

08:37she could have ended up not in a relationship at all,

08:39but not miserable,

08:41instead focusing on her career and friendships

08:43in a positive, fulfilling way.

08:45I am not everywhere.

08:49Okay, I'm some places.

08:51But pretty much anything would have been better than

08:53she cared about her job too much,

08:55so now she's miserable with no friends or love at all in her life.

08:58The gang is a married couple

09:00who I never see anymore.

09:03My ex-husband hitting on slutty cops right in front of me.

09:07The guy I probably should have ended up with.

09:10Centering Robin could have also helped avoid some other issues too.

09:14Of course, the entire show is premised around Ted meeting his kid's mother,

09:17but since the show itself didn't actually seem to care about all of that in the end,

09:20we've got a whole video on what went wrong there.

09:22It could have worked a lot better as a side plot.

09:25Without it being the central focus of the story,

09:27Tracy could have shown up way earlier and given us the chance to really see her

09:31get to join the group in a real way,

09:33so we could all enjoy how awesome she is for way longer.

09:37Are you okay?

09:38No.

09:39But there's nothing you can do.

09:41Do you want a cookie?

09:42Yes.

09:43Yes, I do.

09:45It also would have avoided the major pitfall of essentially just making it so that Tracy,

09:49who we waited nine seasons for,

09:51is actually just a baby incubator for the kids Robin doesn't want to

09:55and then comes to find out she can't have,

09:57so that Ted can end up with everything he wants in the end.

10:00Because this version of the show wouldn't be stuck trying to make Ted and Robin the OTP,

10:04Ted and Tracy could just be happily together instead of the show rushing to kill her off.

10:09The point of the story is that-

10:10Is that you totally, totally, totally have the hots for Aunt Robin.

10:13The show could have been about people learning and growing,

10:16instead of being about one guy getting told,

10:18Yeah, actually, being obsessive and over-the-top is good and correct,

10:22and you should totally keep doing it forever because you'll always be rewarded in the end.

10:26Even if it's imperfect looking back, there's a reason the show is so beloved.

10:30All of the characters struck a chord with audiences,

10:32and even if they didn't stick the landing,

10:34there's still a lot of good to be found in the rest of it.

10:37But that's also what makes it so fun to imagine seeing from other perspectives,

10:40how those events would have been seen through someone else's eyes,

10:43and how the different choices they might have made if they were allowed to be the focus

10:47might have changed things.

10:48Are there any other shows or films that you think would be interesting to see

10:51from a different character's perspective?

10:53Who'd have thought we were so important?

10:55But why?

10:57Was it all for this?

10:57Who are we that so much should converge in our little depths?

11:01We've already covered how we would have liked to see Samantha as the star of Sex and the City,

11:05and we'd love to know which other characters you'd like to see in the spotlight.

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