The Character of Ted Mosby
How I Met Your Mother, a good show once upon a time, still lays hidden in our hearts. The adventures and life of the MacLaren’s gang caught out attention back in 2005 and held it until 2010. (No, the show didn’t end then; that was just the last time it was good.) But this isn’t about How I Met Your Mother‘s stealthy decay in quality. It’s about its main character. Ted Mosby. Or the most famous romantic on television.
Because Ted loves love.
(Why are we quoting Terry from Brooklyn Nine-Nine?)
But it’s true. Ted Mosby is, above everything, a romantic. He wants, desperately and carelessly, the woman of his dreams. The family of his dreams. The life of his dreams. He wants her.
Why?
Connecting this to Ted’s childhood and college life is a bit of a stretch. We’ve seen that he was a bit of an outcast, a bit ostracized, probably not traditionally cool. Back then, Ted probably didn’t get everything he wanted, women-wise. Still, however, he has never felt bad about high-school and we know about his rather toxic relationship with Karen during college.
The truth is, Ted is just a person who attaches easily. Psychologically, that could stem from a number of things, none of which is definitive enough to stand as objective character analysis. But nevertheless, it’s true; Robin said it herself: Ted is an ‘I love you slut’.
Which is perhaps one of the reasons why he didn’t find ‘the one’ earlier. Either he got too attached or he didn’t get attached enough to truly care. Stella? Got too attached and didn’t see things clearly. Victoria? Wasn’t attached enough to truly care because he was never over Robin. Zoey? Too attached to see the toxicity of the relationship.
In fact, Ted has been in a number of very toxic relationships exactly because of his desperation to find love. He falls in love with the idea of the person, with the idea of a life with them, and doesn’t see clearly beyond that. This is especially evident with Karen, Zoey, and Jeanette.
But Ted’s attachment issues do have a silver lining.
They are the reason the gang got together in the first place. And then it was Ted who, probably subconsciously, kept them all together. He was friends with Marshall first. Then, he was the one to introduce and integrate Barney in the group. And finally, of course, Robin.
So it’s logical, to some extent, that when Ted and Tracy finally get together and start a family, the group falls apart. Each goes on to do their own thing and, slowly but surely, their friendships start fading away.
But back to women.
We’ve established that Ted’s love life is rather unsuccessful because of his desperate need for a companion and the immediate subconscious attachment that follows that. So now let’s talk about Robin.
It makes sense that Robin hung around for so long. Mosby was never truly over her. (Which is why, in the real world, How I Met Your Mother‘s ending makes sense; people go back and forth and love is complicated; that’s real life. In the tone of the show, however, and in the poetic reality that it’s aiming to exist in, that makes zero sense. In that reality, one of the main themes is Ted getting over Robin in order to finally find ‘the one’ and that theme is completely shattered by the ending.)
Robin was Ted’s ultimate challenge. The ultimate test to see if he was finally ready to truly love and to truly commit to a person. Because Ted never really wanted Robin. He wanted the life that comes with her. And, ironically, she was the one who couldn’t give him that life.
So he finds it with Tracy.
And he’s happy. Actually happy. The truth is, he finally has everything he’s ever wanted: a family. A beautiful woman he loves next to him — always. Or so he hoped.
Because, as sad as it is, Tracy passes away and Ted, yet again, loses more than he’s ever lost before.
And really, Ted Mosby is actually a very tragic character.
He desperately wants something his whole life. So much so that it blinds him in everything else he does. So much so that it controls his entire being. He fights for it, day after day, woman after woman. He goes at it, heart first and head second. And then finally, after years of searching, Ted finds that thing — and then he loses it.
Not your typical sitcom protagonist, is it?
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