How I Met Your Mother/Heartwarming

• In "Front Porch," Robin shows a picture of her and her best friends hanging out at their favorite bar, only to start tearing up. Sadly, only the listening viewers know this.
  • From the same episode, Lily shows how much she loves Marshall.

Marshall: Number one reason to wear a night shirt. You don't have to wear anything underneath.
Ted: I can vouch for that, could you cross your legs buddy?
Marshall: Number two, they're sexy.
Lily: I can vouch for that, could you uncross your legs buddy?

• Marshall gets a marching band to make up for the lost little love rituals he and Lily had in the past days in "Three Days of Snow." Best because it's double-subverted. It shows Marshall and Lily about to meet, subverted when it's revealed that it takes place over three days, and double-subverted with the marching band.
  • Let's also not forget when Barney flew all the way to San Francisco after Marshall and Lily broke up after the first season and convinced Lily to come back and that she and Marshall belonged together, bought her a plane ticket home and swore her to secrecy about the whole thing. That moment showed that Barney really does care for his friends.
  • And of course when Barney marries Lily and Marshall. "Barney, slow down!" "I CAN'T."
• Marshall and Lily's realising they don't have their vows, and instead just adorably listing the reasons they love each other, from "You make me happy, all the time," to "You made an egg dish and named it after me."
• Ted made it rain for Robin. Sure, it just prolonged the inevitability of their break-up, but come on.
  • And of course the perfect end to a relationship: "You stole a blue French horn for me." "I would have stolen you a whole orchestra."
    • Could also count as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• The last scene of "How I Met Everyone Else", where all the way in the year 2026 at their college reunion, Ted, Marshall, and Lily -- even though Lily's wrinkled, Ted's gray, and Marshall's balding -- are still thick as thieves and goofing off exactly the same way as they have always been, smoking confiscated pot in the hallway and complaining about being old. It becomes even more heart-melting when a very stoned Ted looks around in confusion and giggles "Dude, where's my wife?"
• When Ted decided not to confront Stella after she goes back to Tony, and to be happy for her instead.
  • And then in "Fast As She Can" when Ted is in Stella's car and is honest about how badly he wants to find his true love, she returns the favor by giving him reassurance to go on.
• The look at the end of 'The Leap', between Barney and Robin.
• The very end of The Leap:

Future Ted: That was the year I got left at the altar. It was the year I got knocked out by a crazy bartender. The year I got fired. The year I got beat up by a goat. A girl goat at that! And dammit if it wasn't the best year of my life! (Present Ted finally jumps) Because if any one of those things hadn't happened I never would've ended up in what turned out to be the best job I ever had. (flashforward to Present Ted teaching at Columbia University) But more importantly? I wouldn't have met your mother. Because, as you know, she was in that class. Of course, that story's only just beginning!

• The final 5 minutes of Sandcastles In The Sand, especially this part:

Future Ted: And so they watched it again... and again... and again. They watched it over and over that night, until finally... they stopped watching. (Barney and Robin start kissing)

• In the episode Miracles, Barney left a business meeting and ran all the way to the hospital because Ted was hurt. It's even more touching when you take into account the fact that the two were supposed to be done with their friendship. And after Barney gets hit by the bus, they finally make up.

Barney: Ted?... can we be friends again?

• • • And then the hug between the three guys.

Marshall: (tearing up) We're all brothers!
Barney: Yeah, but I'm your best brother, right?

• Lily sitting back down and watching to the end of Barney's play, even though it's deliberately designed to torture her, because he's proud of all the work he did on it. Really proves the point she was making about how she would sit through any play he was in.
• That look of longing Barney gives Robin at the end of "Miracles," the season 3 finale. Marshall and Lily ask Barney what he'd seen flash before his eyes during his life-or-death moment, they jokingly suggest boobs, scotch, money, suits, and boobs wearing a suit of money and lactating scotch. Barney watches Robin laugh, and nobody sees.
• "I'm gonna be an uncle?"
• Ted being as great as anyone can be when their best friend starts dating their ex. Not only he's totally okay with it, he wants to make sure Barney and Robin stay together:

Ted: Barney, I'm only gonna say this once so listen up. I love you, and I love Robin. And I wanna make this work.

• The two-minute date.
• Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap: Lily making up with her father.
  • And Maggie Wilkes, from the following episode.
• Barney stopping Robin from being deported by landing her a job. Could also count as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

And so thanks to your Uncle Barney we got to keep your Aunt Robin.

• The end of Of Course. So. Much. D'awwwww.
• From the episode Showdown: "Congratulations on thirty-five wonderful years hosting The Price Is Right."
• In the season five finale, Barney pretending to be a doppelganger of himself so Marshall and Lily would start trying to have kids (It Makes Sense in Context), as well and Marshall and Lily's obvious gratitude and appreciation for his gesture, complete with a mention that Barney still loves Robin. If Barney's not their kid's godfather it'll be an injustice.

Lily: I think I know what happened. Yesterday Barney thought he had to say goodbye to someone he truly loves. And it got him thinking, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing if a baby joined our little group.
Not!Doppelganger Barney: Babies... can be cute.
Lily: And someday, he's gonna make the best uncle in the world. Because this Barney? He's family to us. (Lily puts her arm around his shoulders and kisses him on the cheek. Barney smiles. Marshall tips him.)

• • The tipping part is going along with Barney.
• Barney's love for Robin throughout Season 4, but most notably this explanation in Do I Know You:

Barney: Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. Boyfriend? I don't want to be Robin's boyfriend.
Lily: What do you want, then?
Barney: I don't know! I just wanna be with her, all the time. I wanna hear about her day and tell her about mine... I wanna... hold her hand, and... smell her hair..."

• • and this one in Mosbius Designs:

Barney: Let's be clear. I'm not in love with her, I just... miss her when she's not around, I think about her all the time, and I imagine us one day running toward each other in slow motion and I'm wearing a brown suede vest.

• The ending of Cleaning House. Oh, Barney...he was seriously woobified in that episode.
• When Robin considers moving back to Canada and Marshall tells her that the group love her and would come to Canada after her - it would be an adorable speech coming from any of the other three, but it seems especially heartwarming coming from Marshall; he has relatively the least close relationship with her, but still obviously adores her.
• In Shelter Island, when Robin arrives at the wedding and tries to talk Ted out of marrying Stella. Regardless of who you ship, Robin pretty much sums up Ted in a soft, sweet, gooey nutshell: "Look, you're rushing into this. It's- it's like you're trying to skip to the end of the book. Ted, you're the most romantic guy I know: you stole a blue french horn for me, you tried to make it rain! ... But after all that, this is how your great romantic quest comes to an end? You're just disappearing into someone else's wedding, someone else's house, someone else's life without a second thought. That's not the amazing ending you deserve. That's not Ted Mosby."
• Recurring character Punchy Punchinello, who hasn't done anything but punch Ted when he shows up in the series, shows that he actually really cares about Ted.
• Barney to Robin after she asks him if she ever made him feel needed whilst they were dating and Barney replies that she didn't:

Barney: Wait, where are you g- that's a compliment! You're the least needy woman I've ever met. That's awesome! I mean, no guy's gonna say "Who's your daddy?" to Robin Scherbatsky: you're your own daddy. And mommy. And weird survivalist uncle who lives in a cabin with a shotgun blaming stuff on the government. And that is what makes you the most amazing, strong, independent woman I've ever banged.

• Ted, upon realizing how lonely Zoey actually was on Thanksgiving, returns with the gang to her place to celebrate the holiday.
• This is mild compared to the others, but here goes: From M.A.G.G.I.E, seriously, how sweet is it that Ted's class genuinely wanted to hear his lecture about bridges?
• Marshall's father coming through for his son one last time.
  • And the speech after. Marshall truly cares about his friends.
• From "Natural History":

Marshall: Lily, I know you'd be okay if we were poor and I was trying to save the world. But would you still be okay if I made a lot of money and spent all of it spoiling our kids?

• Barney's imagination spot in "A Change of Heart":

Barney: "I want to be confused...with you."

• At the end of Legendaddy, when Barney was attempting to remove his younger half-brother's basketball hoop, he and his father had this exchange:

Jerry: Barney, what is going on?
Barney: This is mine.
Jerry: I don’t understand..
Barney: J.J gets a childhood, a dad, a real family, and a basketball hoop? No, no, I at least get the hoop, I’m taking it with me.
Jerry: Please, just come down, and talk to me.
Barney: Why, why should I? You’re lame, ok. You’re just some lame suburban dad.
Jerry: Why does that make you so mad?!
Barney: Because if you were gonna be some lame suburban dad, why couldn’t you have been that for me?!

• • Followed by Jerry still teaching Barney how to use the screwdriver.

Jerry: Righty tighty lefty loosey.

• • And then followed by Barney taking the basketball hoop to Ted's new house and (calling back to something Ted had said earlier in the episode) asks if he still wants a basketball hoop for his kids.

Barney: No, you were right. A kid needs a hoop.

• The fact that Barney can't stop smiling every time he says Nora's name.
• Barney and his dad's conversation while driving back to his dad's house.
  • With a mention of Barney thinking he's already met the perfect girl, obviously alluding to either Robin or Nora. It's currently unknown and up for debate on who, though.
    • As of "Challenge Accepted" it's Nora.
      • As of "Disaster Averted" it's Robin.
• Zoey revealing why she wants preserve the Arcadian, along with Ted telling her he loves her.
• The last two minutes of "Challenge Accepted."

Lily: Baby... I'm pregnant.

• • Including Marshall peppering his beloveds face with gentle kisses.
• Also from "Challenge Accepted:"

Nora: It's never too late, Barney. -Walks off-
Barney: Challenge Accepted.

• "Three Days of Snow". That is all.
• When Ted made it rain. That is all.
• Almost the entirety of "Drumroll, Please" (but especially the very end).
  • For this troper, what totally makes it is Victoria saying "Thank God," as soon as she sees him, showing that she evidently regretted the whole "One night only," thing as much as Ted had, and had been hoping they'd be able to find each other.
• Barney getting Lily to come home.
• Ted's unwavering belief in "Slutty Pumpkin" (and his chat with Robin at the end).
• Marshall and Lily at the end of "Swarley".
  • And at the end of "The Limo".
  • And obviously at the end of "Something Borrowed".
  • Can we just say Marshall and Lily, full stop?
• One of the Christmas episodes features Marshall trying to get Lilly the perfect gift. He's forced to run after the delivery truck, and helps the delivery guy deliver Christmas packages. Aww.
  • And later that episode, one of this troper's favourite heart-warming lines: "Can we just skip apology and go straight to the forgiving?"
  • Also, that "perfect gift" was an E-Z Bake oven, which Lily told Ted, way back when the two of them were getting stoned in college one night circa 1997, was something that she had always wanted but couldn't have because her mother wouldn't let her conform to gender stereotypes. After all that time (and weed) Ted still remembered that throwaway line and was the one who told Marshall to get the oven for Lily.
• The look that Barney and Robin gave each other near the end of "The Leap. And the speech that Barney gave to Robin when she said she wanted to save Barney the trouble --

Barney: Maybe I don't want to be saved the trouble. Maybe I want the trouble. I haven't wanted the trouble in so long but with you, the trouble isn't so....troubling

• Lily's speech to Ted about how life isn't planned and how that things aren't always going to carry out and sometimes you just gotta go with it.
• There's also Barney--Barney!--trying to hold back tears at Marshall and Lily's wedding.
  • Or the flashback in "Bachelor Party" to Barney's visit to San Francisco to get Marshall and Lily back together, and the revelation that he stole women from Marshall in "The Scorpion and the Toad" because he wanted to make sure they got back together. Well, partly, anyway.
  • Or EVERYTHING involving Barney in "Miracles", from his devotion to Ted, to that look at Robin when Marshall and Lily are joking about what he loves most.
• Stella and Ted in the car at the end of "As Fast as She Can" makes this troper cry like a little kid, every time:

Ted: Okay, I'm going to say something out loud that I've been doing a pretty good job of not saying out loud lately. What you and Tony have, what I thought for a second you and I had, what I know that Marshall and Lily have, I want that. I do. I keep waiting for it to happen. I'm waiting for it to happen and I guess I'm just tired of waiting. And that is all I'm going to say on that subject.
Stella: You know how I talked my way out of a speeding ticket?
Ted: How?
Stella: I was heading upstate with my parents, I was doing 90 on the country roads. I got pulled over. So this cop, gets out of his car, swaggers over and he says, 'Lady, I've been waiting for you all day.' And I said, 'sorry Officer, I got here as fast as I could.'
Ted: For real?
Stella: No, it's just a joke. [pause] I know that you're tired of waiting. And you may have to wait a little while more but, she's on her way, Ted. And she's getting here as fast as she can.

• Barney comforting Robin after Simon dumps her in Sandcastles in the Sand.
• The ending of the season four epispde "the Possimpible".

Barney: Congratulations, Miss Scherbatsky. It looks like you're gonna have to stay.
Followed by...
Future Ted: So thanks to your Uncle Barney we got to keep your Aunt Robin.

• • Not to mention the look on Barney's face when Robin hugs him...
• Barney, of all people, tearing up when he thinks Marshall and Lily are getting a divorce in "Dowisetrepla".
• Barney and Robin deciding to lie about them being girlfriend and boyfriend, without realizing that's what they really want.

Ted: (to Lily) You do realize they were lying, right?
Lily: No, Ted, they don't realize they weren't lying.

• The Rough Patch: after realising that their relationship is wearing both of them out, Barney and Robin get back together as friends.
• Of Course: not only do Ted, Marshall and Lily run into the bathroom and hug Robin to stop her crying, but Barney gives her the Superdate, giving her her first date with Don. Fireworks both literally and figuratively.
• In "Home Wreckers", Marshall being the only one siding with Ted when he bought a broken-down house out of pure impulse. The scene where Marshall was grilling sausages in the patio where Ted said he would one day do was just plain sweet. And the end of the episode, where we see shots of the old, decrepit house eventually transforming into the very house that Ted and his family would live in.
• Barney finding out that his brother was adopting a baby and he was going to be an uncle. The pure happiness that appeared on his face and the hug between him and his brother said it all.
  • Especially since the entire episode has been about him being angry at his brother for 'abandoning' the companionship he had gotten used to. But the SECOND he's told he's gonna be an uncle, he stops and just hugs him. It's beautiful. And then of course, there's just the little scene of him promising the little guy that when he gets old enough they're gonna hit the town 'uncle and nephew style'.
• In "The Chain of Screaming", after Marshall confesses to Lily that he quit his horrible job in a fit of pique and promises to go crawling to his ex-boss tomorrow to beg for it back, Lily softly tells him "No you're not", and launches into the most beautiful, gentle inspirational speech this troper has ever heard.
  • And afterwards, Ted selling the brand new car that he had excitedly bought to celebrate his promotion, so that he could give Marshall and Lily a loan.
• Barney's conversation with John Lithgow as his father at the end of "Hopeless", doubling as a Tearjerker.
• Challenge Accepted:

Barney: Want to get a cup of coffee? 20 minutes? Look, I was such a jerk to you, you can spend the entire time calling me every dirty name in the book.
Nora: I speak four languages. I'm gonna need more than 20 minutes.
Barney: I'll call you. You look beautiful, by the way. And here I thought it was too late for sundresses.
Nora: It's never too late, Barney.

• Marshall hugging his ex-boss Arthur who lost his dog Tugboat in his divorce. Remember that Arthur is the reason Marshall didn't get the job at the NRDC.
• Barney and Robin dance in the Season 7 premiere. Robin almost confesses to him that she still loves him, if only she were a second faster than Nora's call.
• In the next episode, Barney, for the first time, sticks to his promise to a woman. He makes up with Nora.
• In Disaster Averted, Barney apologizing to Robin for calling her pretending to be her dad:

Barney: No, it was so not okay. I was a jerk. And if you don't mind my saying, your dad is a complete idiot for not calling. He should never let a day go by without calling you because when I let a day go by without talking to you... umm, that day is just no good.

• Season seven premiere, Marshall & Lily are trying to keep Lily's pregnancy a secret until the third month, so go to the bar so they can order the drinks without the others knowing that Lily's off alcohol. The second they make that order, Carl immediately realises Lily's pregnant & happily hugs her. And towards the end of the episode, they tell Ted, Barney & Robin. They react as you'd expect.
  • And immediately after, when Ted starts tearing up while he's giving his best man toast, and all the guests are assholishly laughing and jeering at him (since Ted is infamous for having meltdowns during all his best man toasts for his old friends), and Marshall stands up, shuts everyone up with a furious "HEY!" and tells them all to back the hell down, because Ted's only crying because he's so happy for Lily, and says that Ted's "the best guy I know."
• Cindy "going for it" in "Big Days", when she just throws herself on the mercy of fate and luck and probability and kisses the woman she's in love with...and the woman reciprocates. And is overjoyed. And becomes her girlfriend. And probably her wife. And has a daughter with her. Because Cindy took that chance. She sure elicited a lot of emotion for a two-shot character.
• Maggie and Adam's love story and the ending of "The Window."
• In "Say Cheese", Lily has been insulting Ted all night for his history of dragging the random skanks who shack up with him and then invariably dump him within a few weeks (he can't even remember most of their names) into important or memorable events with the group, leaving photographic evidence marring cozy familial group shots. At the end, Lily finds an old photo of her, Marshall, and Ted in college and realizes that it was Ted and Marshall's first picture as roommates, and Marshall was wary about Lily being photographed with them ("what if we break up?"), but Ted insisted on including her ("what if you don't?"), and she would have never had that picture if Ted had treated her like just another random skank.
• When Future-Ted reveals that although Barney is still adamantly denying it even in the year 2030, he's 100% sure that Barney tackled him so that Robin would be the one to win the race to Woody Allen's restaurant, because it would have given her one bright spot in the incredibly shitty month she'd been having. Also, he saw Barney smiling when she won and then immediately covering it with cursing and annoyance.
• In "Doppelgangers", after Robin has been dumped by Don, she turns up on Ted's doorstep:

Robin (in tears): Say yes to this.
Ted: Okay.
Robin: Can I move back in?
Ted (pulls her into a hug): Yes.

• In the episode "Symphony of Illumination", Robin learns she can't have children. She doesn't tell any of her friends about this because she doesn't want their attempts to help. Ted still tries and Robin yells at him that she doesn't want his help. After Robin returns to the apartment, however, Ted reveals how he set up a light show to surprise her and tells her: "You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but I will never stop trying to make you feel better."

Future Ted: Kids, your Aunt Robin never became a pole-vaulter. But she did become a famous journalist, a successful business woman, a world traveler. She was even briefly a bull-fighter; that's a funny story, I'll get to that one later. But there's one thing your Aunt Robin never was... She was never alone.

• • Another small one from the same episode: Robin makes the decision to not tell her friends because she knows they'll overreact, and then she imagines each of their over-the-top reactions and desperate attempts to help her feel better. Later on, her friends still notice something is bothering her, so she tells them the pole-vaulter story. And, even though pole-vaulting is something most people wouldn't care about and they had never heard Robin mention it before, they all had the same over-the-top reactions and desperate cheer attempts to the news as she had imagined earlier for the serious problem, because they knew Robin was upset about her problem.
  • And then, when she does tell Lily and Marshall for real, they don't have the over the top reactions and instead just hug her and comfort her, holding back their own sadness in their concern for her.
• "Tailgate" gives a double dose of heartwarming. Marshall attempts to have a private discussion with his father while having a tailgate, but his brothers and other people keep interrupting him. As he's about to lose it, he looks back on all the tailgates he had with his father and realizes they aren't meant to be private.
  • Lily told her deadbeat dad the news of her pregnancy while he attended a board game convention in Chicago, his response was an emotionless "Great, thanks". Turns out the second he heard the news, he screamed in joy and ran off. He bought a big teddy bear and spent the entire night driving to New York.
• Barney's reaction to Robin saying that she is taking a job in Chicago in "Doppelgangers". The expression on his face when she delivers the news is touching in itself, but it's even more so when he completely loses his cool and starts spluttering that "This is a group decision! You can't just leave us!"
• In "46 Minutes", Ted, Barney, and Robin are distraught when Marshall and Lily officially move to their house in Long Island. After spending the entire night coping by getting drunk, being miserable at a strip club, bickering, and getting dragged into Manhattan's sleaziest poker den and then robbed by Stripper!Lily and her boyfriend, they finally turn up at Marshall and Lily's house early in the morning, where the couple is pleasantly surprised to see them:

Marshall: What're you guys doing here?
Barney: Just...wanted to know if the spare keys worked.

• pause*
  

Robin: We missed you.
Lily: Aww...come give Mama a hug!

• group hug*

• • And Future!Ted's narration afterwards:

• as the five of them devour pancakes and laugh around Marshall and Lily's kitchen table* Would the five of us always live within a few minutes of that booth? No. That's life, kids. But here's what I discovered: our booth was wherever the five of us were together.

• Sort of a Fridge Heartwarming: Ted allowing Marshall and Lily to think that Lily was drawn to Marshall's room by destiny, when Ted actually knew that it was because he (Ted) and Lily had been making out at the freshman kegger the night before, and he had given her his room number, and keeping quiet about it for 25 years. Sure it turned out he was wrong and had actually made out with a different goth girl, but he thought that's what happened. Shows just how much Ted treasures Marshall and Lily and their relationship.
• In the very gut-wrenching episode No Pressure, Ted is devastated that Robin makes it clear that they're Better as Friends. Marshall knows how hard this must be for Ted, so he requests Robin that she move out of the apartment.
  • The opening flashforward, where Ted and the mother are standing in the rain under her umbrella, and Ted looks at her and mouths "I love you" under the narration.
  • Also, the entirety of Ted and Robin's last date, with a special mention for when they go to the same restaurant as they went to in the pilot episode, and see the infamous blue french horn that Ted stole for Robin, now chained and padlocked to the wall.
  • Also, despite the fact that Ted was thinking about getting back together with Robin, he realizes that Robin is in love with Barney and vice versa after putting two and two together regarding the events of "Tick Tick Tick", and immediately tells Barney that Robin and Kevin broke up and that Barney should go after her. Barney then counters with another heartwarming moment, when he tells Ted that Robin isn't in love with him, but she's still his friend, so anything that makes her happy will make him happy, even if that something means getting back together with Ted.
  • The end of the episode, with Ted stepping out into the rainy street into a stream of dozens of women all carrying yellow umbrellas, as Future!Ted notes that "When one door closes...well, you know the rest."
• The ending of Karma: After spending the whole episode trying to figure out what to do with the spare room, Ted gives his apartment to Marshal and Lily who miss New York and revealed that he made the extra room into a nursery with its own crib. Which suddenly falls apart.
• The 3rd season episode "Little Boys", which revolves around Robin dealing with her discomfort with children, does not end with Robin softening towards children, but it does end with Future!Ted reminding his own children that "Aunt Robin eventually made her peace with children, and she went on to star in some very important works of art: yours" followed by a montage of crude, affectionate crayon drawings of Ted's two kids going to the beach, the zoo, etc, with their Aunt Robin.
• The ending of "Trilogy Time", that is all
• Part one of The Magician's Code. All of it. But especially when all of the characters are sitting together as a family, plus one more in the form of Lily and Marshall's son, named partially after the latter's late father: "Marvin Waitforit Erickson."
  • This scene:

Marshall: (to Marvin) You'll love the park, buddy, it's a great place to meet chicks. Or dudes. Or both!
Lily: We'll love you no matter what.

• • • Parenting: Marshall and Lily are doing it right.