Ted Mosby, the narrator of How I Met Your Mother spent many, many years looking for Mrs. Right and maybe spent even more time telling his kids how he met her. Ted is in every way, an incurable romantic; he does possess some toxic traits and can be quite inconsiderate but his narrative is anchored mainly by the pursuit of his soulmate.
Ted has dated a lot of great women and a few not-so-great ones. And while some have left pretty deep marks on him like Robin or Tracy, some of his flings have been quite erratic and non-committal.
Karen
Karen was easily the most hated of all of Ted’s exes, not just by the fans, but by his close friends too. She was enormously snobbish and elitist and looked down upon regular, wage-earning people of her generation, and that makes Karen come across as superbly out of touch.
But her ridiculous high-brow tastes and pretentiousness are not the worst things about her; turns out, she was also a toxic influence on Ted and wasn’t totally transparent with him. She cheats on Ted in college and when they reunite she uses Ted to break up with another guy, simply because she doesn’t want to have the difficult conversations which demands her to be accountable for her actions.
Stella
Stella deceived Ted, she lied to him about getting back together with her ex-husband. She even let her husband make a film about their story and use Ted as the baddie. The most shocking thing about Stella was that she was depicted for very long as a grounded and secure woman who was a single mum and wanted to be in a relationship on her own terms. She also appeared to be honest and appreciated transparency.
Her arc was terrifically relatable and endearing until of course, Ted discovered that she lied to him about several things. She can’t be blamed for reuniting with her ex-husband and the father of her child, but she treated Ted quite abominably by leaving him at the altar.
Carly
Though Carly’s character was designed to be a millennial, she came across as someone who’s a wannabe hipster who was only interested in things that are trending and supposedly cool. This made her look shallow and vacuous. And as evidenced in pop culture, millennials are not really like that.
But her character was mainly used as a plot device to convey how Ted was growing older and was not looking to date twenty-somethings anymore since they did not have much in common. Plus she also seemed pretty ignorant of the world around her, as she asked Ted if he was in the Vietnam war.
Blah Blah
Blah Blah was quite horrible to Robin and fans probably haven’t figured out to this day, why she was so nasty to her. Blah Blah’s character was designed to be really basic and generic, so she comes across as someone so unremarkable and forgettable that Ted wouldn’t even remember her name.
The only thing that stood out about her was her sense of insecurity since she was jealous of Robin almost instantly after they met, and for some reason believed that Robin was antagonizing her and made everyone quite uncomfortable with her pettiness.
Becky
Fans were shocked that the cerebral Ted would be drawn to someone like broadcaster Becky; her character was of course, really ill-designed and quite problematic because she was made to fit the ‘blond, weather girl’ stereotype. Becky’s little girl act was depicted as a social maneuver or a dude magnet which made all kinds of men vulnerable to her charms.
But the worst trait about Becky would probably be her lack of self-awareness; she doesn’t realize how her song ‘Boats, boas, boats’ is quite ridiculous or how her fake immature act gets in the way of her being taken seriously.
Royce
Royce came into Ted's life when he wasn’t in a great place emotionally and was questioning a lot of his things about himself and his future. He also had some self-esteem issues. Ted had been recently dumped by Stella who chose her ex-husband over him; soon after her ex would make a blockbuster film titled "The Wedding Bride" where he caricatured Ted’s character as the bad guy. And even though Royce came across as seemingly pleasant and breezy, she had quite a few hang-ups of her own.
Not only had she been left at the altar three times but she also had a debilitating gambling addiction and shared a bed with her brother at a tiny studio apartment. The thing is, none of these things make her a bad person, however, she mentions all of them much later, and in a really casual way, not realizing that any one of them could be a red flag for Ted.
Zoey
Zoey was a huge fan favorite but she had messed up priorities. Ted and Zoey are very similar and share many same passions, but they may be too alike; plus, Zoey was indecisive, she couldn’t seem to make up her mind about what she really wanted.
She never really wanted to step out of her comfort zone, which happened to be a one percenter’s bubble (since she was married to the super-wealthy Captain). But Zoey was smart enough to see that she could not sustain a future with Ted because they were both too unyielding and clearly not good at compromise.
Victoria
Victoria is intriguing, to say the least. Though she’s not confrontational and can be a bit socially awkward, she is smart and quite nuanced and is obviously a great partner.
This is also why she could see that Ted had lingering feelings for Robin, but refused to turn the situation into a nasty mess and instead gave Ted an ultimatum so he would break ties with Robin if he wanted to be with her. And though this may sound very similar to what Emily from Friends did, Victoria had made peace with the reality and was simply channeling her insecurities.
Robin
It’s safe to say Robin and Ted are soulmates in a very functional sense; they did envision growing old together. It’s important to note that Ted’s biggest anxiety was about growing old with the right person, and he always considered Robin to be someone who’d always be in his life.
Robin is simply a great ally and a tremendous friend; as a partner, too, Robin was very good at reading the other person, which is why she handled the split with Barney so well. Ted and Robin’s relationship transcended the need for labels, and they could simply pick up where they had left off.
Tracy
Tracy is perhaps one of the wisest people on the show, who’s not just a great friend, partner, and a terrific human being but is also very decisive about her priorities. Like when she helped Barney (who was a stranger to her back then) realize that some people deserve better, and that propelled him to pursue Robin more seriously.
Tracy is also everything Ted had hoped for in a long-term partner and though fans were quite outraged that such an incredible character would be killed off, her character design was quite flawless.