WARNING: Spoilers ahead for HIMYF episode 8!
How I Met Your Father’s premiere episode twist ending revealed the exact night Sophie met the title father, the series has been careful to avoid direct hints of which character it is. Alternatively, HIMYM’s Ted Mosby opened up the door to any girl he meets possibly being the mother, with the original series rather being more strict about who the mother wasn’t.
While Ted went through several important relationships before meeting Tracy in How I Met Your Mother’s finale, many of them ended up seeming unimportant when it became clear that the woman wouldn’t be the mother. Ted’s off-and-on romance with Robin exemplified this issue, largely because he revealed she would only be “Aunt Robin” in the very first episode. While Ted and Robin’s relationship was still extremely important to HIMYM’s story and finale twist in which the couple ends up together, the focus on their romance often distracted from what viewers were primarily looking forward to in the entire series: The mother's identity. Ted and Robin had a rocky road to becoming an endgame couple, but it was always stipulated by the fact that she was not going to be the mother viewers anticipated meeting.
Hulu’s How I Met Your Father cleverly avoids this issue by never referring to Sophie’s close male friends from that night as her son’s “uncle.” Right before Sophie and Jesse share their first kiss in How I Met Your Father episode 8, Future Sophie refers to him as “a certain someone,” which gives absolutely no indication as to what his role is in her life in 2050. While Sophie and Jesse appear to be taking on a similar role as Ted and Robin, the reboot is making the creative decision to still give hope for their future romance. If Sophie and Jesse become an official couple and subsequently break up, there’s still a chance that he’s the father, with the notion that he could be the title character enhancing the larger mystery.
In HIMYM, it was established in the pilot that Ted’s closest female friends, Lily and Robin, would not be the mother. On the other hand, How I Met Your Father suggests that all three of Sophie’s best male friends, plus other suitors like Ian and Drew, could be the future father of her son. Since the most interesting dynamics in the series involve the main characters, it’s more exciting to leave Jesse, Sid, and Charlie as candidates for HIMYF's title character. By making each main character an option for the dad of Sophie’s child, How I Met Your Father also introduced a twist of undermining the core, seemingly stable relationships. While Sid is engaged to Hannah, and Charlie and Valentina have possibly been set up as a new version of Marshall and Lily, there’s no guarantee that they stay together or, more importantly, that Sid or Charlie won’t father Sophie’s son.
Had Ted never referred to Robin as “Aunt Robin” so early on, How I Met Your Mother’s twist ending may not have been so controversial. Even if Robin maintained her role, not as the mother but as the best friend he still ends up with, Ted choosing not to reveal that she was “Aunt Robin"may have made viewers much more invested in their off-and-on relationship. With Sophie and Jesse finally kissing in How I Met Your Father season 1, viewers have no idea whether they’ll date and break up, get married, have a child, or have a similar series of off-and-on relationships with one another. By not calling Jesse or any of her male friends “uncle,” How I Met Your Father keeps viewers guessing about the main characters’ endings in relation to Sophie much more than How I Met Your Mother.