Yahoo News This How I Met Your Mother fan theory changes the show
There's a new How I Met Your Mother fan theory doing the rounds – and it could well change everything you thought you knew about the series.
Courtesy of Tumblr user gingersaurus, who first posted the thought back in February, the theory suggests that because Ted (Josh Radnor) is the one narrating the story and is trying to convince his kids he should be with Robin (Cobie Smulders), he's manipulating the narrative to make Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) come across as 'the bad guy' in the story.
Related: Which of the How I Met Your Mother cast has had the most successful career since the show ended?
"That moment when you realize that Barney Stinson was probably not as much of a jerk or a womanizer as he was portrayed to be, but that the story was narrated by future Ted, trying to get his children to approve of him dating Robin again, so future Ted had to make the man Robin married look like the bad guy in the story," the user writes.
It's a pretty great theory, and could go some way towards explaining just why Barney was always just that little bit too extreme, especially considering it was never a secret that Ted wasn't exactly the most reliable narrator of all time.
But still, there are a few holes in it – and they mostly prove that even if Ted was exaggerating some details, chances are Barney was actually (mostly) as jerk-like as he was portrayed.
There's The Playbook, for starters, which was the centre of a great number of complicated storylines that would have been a little difficult for Future Ted to keep track of if they hadn't actually happened – from Barney winning Robin back in his 'final play' to the way Ted's relationship with Jeanette (Abby Elliott) ends after she finds The Playbook in Ted's apartment.
And then there's also the matter of Barney's behaviour in his other relationships throughout the series – like lying and cheating on Nora (Nazanin Boniadi) or dating Quinn (Becki Newton) the stripper – that hint that at least some of Ted's descriptions of Barney are accurate.
Still, it is a theory that makes you question what the show tells you – and maybe we'll get an answer if the series gets that reunion that 20th Century Fox TV chairman Dana Walden hinted at earlier this year.
"I hope we will have an opportunity to revisit these characters and tell these stories if [the creators and stars] have the desire to do it," she said.
"It's a beloved show that still continues to be popular all over the world."
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