How I Met Your Mother’s controversial finale retroactively ruined the series for many. Luckily, the Internet rushed in to fill the void left in fans’ hearts, creating alternate takes on how HIMYM should have ended. The controversy over the ending—in which the titular Mother dies unceremoniously so that protagonist Ted Mosby could be free to resume a toxic on-again, off-again relationship with his former flame—even prompted the showrunners to include a (presumably superior) DVD-only alternate ending.
But while these alternate conclusions salve fans’ emotional wounds by including a period of proper mourning for The Mother or by eliminating her death entirely, none have the simple elegance of this Definitive Alternate Ending, a superior take in which Mosby is quickly Poochie’d before the finale can do any more harm. Perhaps this is a grand metaphor for how fans felt they were treated by the writers in the show’s final moments, or perhaps it’s—I HAVE TO GO NOW. MY PLANET NEEDS ME. [via Uproxx]