Robin Sherbatsky came to New York City with big dreams in the world of How I Met Your Mother – and a lot of those dreams came true over the course of the series. She did manage to make it, to live a wild and independent life, and a wonderful one… but it wasn’t always easy. Robin has her ups and downs on the show, and at times debates if she’ll ever actually get where she wants to go – but she’s a lesson in perseverance.
However, if the Robin that fans first meet at Maclaren’s pub in the pilot were to look ahead, and see where she ends up (with Ted standing at her window holding a blue french horn), how would she feel about the way her life turns out?
Hate: Her History With Ted
Fans of the series are vocal about their dislike of how the series ended things – having Robin end up single, in her old apartment, with Ted, a widower, standing beneath it with that blue french horn. It seems that the writers chose to have Robin end up with Ted, the guy who asked her out in the very first episode, and who ended up in an on-again, off-again relationship with her for the entire series.
Whether or not Robin would be happy to hear she wound up with Ted (likely not, given that he told her he loved her within a few hours of meeting her!), she would undoubtedly be frustrated to learn that it took them decades of difficulty along the way.
Proud Of: Her Life ‘Was An Adventure’
Robin is vocal about the fact that she doesn’t want to plan her whole life, saying “I don’t know where I’m gonna be in five years. I don’t wanna know. I want my life to be an adventure”. And that is something that she definitely got! She worked in Japan, she became a bullfighter (and we never learn more about that), she traveled the world, she windsurfed in Argentina… all in all, she had some incredible adventures, and she would love to know that.
Hate: The Reveal Of Robin Sparkles
One of the best running jokes in the show is that Robin was a teenage popstar in Canada, called Robin Sparkles. She’s hideously ashamed of this when Barney finds it out and shows the gang her music video – so knowing that in the end, her friends know about her entire Robin Sparkles history, including the TV show, would be something she would hate. (Of course, it’s something that the fans absolutely love…)
Proud Of: Her Friendship With Lily
Robin occasionally alludes to the fact that she doesn’t have a lot of female friendships, and her closest friendship was with Jessica Glitter – who abandoned her as a friend after she had a baby.
She would be incredibly proud of her friendship with Lily, though, and knowing that no matter how far apart their lives took them, they were still close friends decades later.
Hate: Married (& Divorced) Barney
In the earliest episodes, Robin cannot stand Barney, and often looks down on the kind of women who would sleep with him (or fall for his plays). She would hate it, then, that she not only sleeps with Barney, but she dates him, and later marries him… after falling for his most complicated, long-range, elaborate play ever. And then to top it all off, their marriage doesn’t work out, and she ends up divorced – not something that pilot-episode Robin would love to find out.
Proud Of: Opening Up To Love
Much as her complicated history with Ted and Barney (and various other men she dates) may not be something that Robin is overly thrilled about, she would probably be much happier about the fact that she opened up to the possibility of love. In the early episodes, Robin is surprisingly cynical, and has no interest in relationships, commitment, or romance (and she makes fun of Ted for his beliefs in true love). By the end, though, she has managed to work through some of her issues around love, and she would be proud that she was eventually open enough to marry at all, and to fall in love again afterward.
Hate: Still Estranged From Her Parents
Robin’s parents are undoubtedly the worst in the series – and there are some pretty terrible parents in the running. Her mother is largely absent, and her father raised her as a boy, quite literally threw her to the wolves (from a helicopter), and then refused to build a real relationship with her… and none of that changes.
Season one Robin might not be too surprised that she never really repairs her relationships, and that her mother doesn’t come to her wedding (and she uninvites her father, for a while), but she would still be sad about it.
Proud Of: Sticking It Out In New York
It’s not easy to make it in New York City – and for a while there, Robin debates calling it quits and heading back to Canada when she starts to feel like NYC is going to chew her up and spit her out. However, she sticks it out – and becomes a real New Yorker. She even becomes a dual citizen, a successful news anchor, and hosts the New Year countdown at Times Square one year (thanks to a drunk boss leaving her in the lurch). She’d be very proud that she stuck it out.
Hate: Gave Up A Dream Job For A Boyfriend
In the grand scheme of things, this didn’t really derail Robin’s plans – but if season one Robin found out that she would later turn down her dream job as a news anchor in Chicago to stay with her boyfriend, Don Frank, she would be less than proud of herself. If she also found out that Don then took that job himself, and they broke up, she would be furious. About as furious as Robin was at the time, when she developed a habit of getting rip-roaring drunk, watching Don on the news, and leaving him angry voicemails.
Proud Of: Became A Famous News Anchor
Even without that Chicago job, though, Robin became the news anchor she wanted to be. She may have had to work her way up through plenty of thankless jobs, painfully early morning shows, gamified Japanese news, and an intern position, but she got to work at World Wide News – and she got the job of her dreams.
