It's hard to dislike any of the main characters from How I Met Your Mother. The hilarious sitcom had a rockstar cast of lovable and relatable principals. Nevertheless, it is pretty unanimously agreed upon that the show peaked in its first five seasons, and eventually, some of the characters' signature charms wore off.
Nowadays, one of HIMYM's characters who is looked back upon with the most disdain is Marshall Eriksen, Lily started out cool, fun, and personable, but as the series carried on, some of her less appealing qualities came to the foreground.
Taking Marshall For Granted
Endearingly portrayed by Jason Segel, Marshall is perhaps the nicest regular on HIMYM. For the most part, he and Lily seem like absolute soul mates, an ideal pair. That being said, they do have their occasional fallings out as a married couple. By the later seasons, we start to notice a pattern: Lily is almost always the one who instigates the drama with Marshall, often running away or acting without consideration for her husband. Benevolently, Marshall takes her back time and time again. Sadly, she never seems to fully appreciate his forgiveness.
Forgetting About Her Son
When Lily and Marshall's son (Marvin Wait-For-It Eriksen) was first introduced via birth in the season 7 episode, "The Magician's Code," he became a staple of the show for a little while. After about a season, though, he seemed like little more than an afterthought in Marshall and Lily's regular lives. We're not saying that Lily literally forgot about her son, but her identity as a mother definitely grew less and less pertinent as the series went on. Sometimes her and Marshall would be at the bar and the show wouldn't even address who was watching the kid. This hardly seems like irable parenting.
Growing More Self-Centered
Perhaps Lily's advantage-taking of Marshall, as well as her increased absence as a mother, both stem from the fact that she grew more and more hedonistic as the series went on. Lily has always loved attention, relishing in birthday celebrations and hosting events. However, this self-centeredness eventually grew tiresome for viewers and fellow characters alike. Oftentimes, Lily acted without considering her actions' effects on others, creating an annoying and toxic cycle. By season nine, she had made major life decisions without discussing them with her husband, unwarrantedly meddled in her friends' lives, and insisted on inclusion in spaces where she was not wanted.
Butting Into Ted's Love Life
Speaking of Lily sticking her nose into other people's businesses, she developed a pretty egregious track record of butting into Ted's love life without permission.
Becoming More Childish
Lily's manipulation of other people's lives was pretty juvenile throughout the show, but her childish ways did not stop with those invasive acts. Throughout the series, Lily thew numerous tantrums and fits. Sometimes they were warranted, but they were nevertheless immature.
It was not uncommon for her to break down in tears, sputtering nonsense phrases when she did not get what she wanted. This joke was maybe funny the first time, but its repetition quickly rendered Lily irritatingly babyish. Perhaps her kindergarten students had worn off on her a little too much over the seasons.
Getting Way Geekier
By and large, most of the characters on HIMYM possessed potent Star Wars or Marshall's fascination with the Loch Ness Monster. By contrast, Lily's geekiness was simply irksome. Unlike her friends, she seemed constantly out of the zeitgeist and consequentially, her inner-nerd came across as directionless, frustrating, and (once again) childish. She geeked out not over phenomena that the audience could identify with, but over apparently trite things like apartment decorations, nondescript fashion, and Halloween costumes.
Going Easier On Barney
Despite how likable he was as a character, we cannot deny that Barney Stinson was a pretty deplorable person. HIMYM's suave womanizer, Barney did some pretty awful things on the show, especially to the ladies in his life.
Earlier on in the series, Lily would sometimes serve as a moral com for Barney, calling him out on is immoralities. As the show continued, she became far more lax, even being okay with Barney marrying her best friend. Again, we love Barney, but we wouldn't want to see anyone we know fall into a relationship with the cunning maverick. This is one front that Lily should have continued intervening on.
Getting Weirder With Robin
Speaking of Lily's best friend, her relationship with Robin Scherbatsky definitely took a turn for the strange in the later seasons. Early on, Robin and Lily were typical besties, the show's female counterparts to Ted and Marshall in a way. However, while Robin remained the same cool lady she always was, Lily developed a strange bisexual attraction towards Robin. While there's nothing wrong with bisexuality, the fact that Lily developed these feelings for Robin right in front of Marshall is a bit curious. Plus, the way the writers circled back to this trait time and time again started to feel like a weird fetishization rather than genuine character development.
Abusing Her Friends' Goodwill
Lily ran away from the gang on multiple occasions, creating unnecessary drama and ruining her relationships with each one (including her own husband). Still, she always ended up coming back, and her friends gregariously welcomed her back with open arms each time. The reason that Ted, Marshall, Barney, and Robin did so well together was ultimately because they were loyal to each other. Lily never seemed to understand this, as she broke that loyalty so often, and yet also took advantage of it by returning time after time, abusing the goodwill of those around her.
Becoming Flanderized
Stemming from Ned Flanders, the term "Flanderization" denotes the process by which a TV character's particular trait becomes exaggerated to the point of complete consumption. This seems to have happened with Lily, as her mousy innocence felt genuine when we first met her, but by the series finale, it became severely overdone. Come season nine, Lily was nearly a complete satirization of the sweet woman we were introduced to during the pilot. Once again, this folly is on the writers, for they essentially trapped Lily in this unflattering box.