So yeah, I finally got around to rewatching that whole How I Met Your Mother mess last week. You know how it is, stuck at home with nothing better to do. Anyway, I kept noticing this thing with Marshall and his dad. Like, every time some big moment hit him, boom, that Eriksen guy pops into his head somehow. Figured it deserved a closer look, so I dived right in.
Where It Started
Started off simple enough. I grabbed my laptop, pulled up Netflix, and just hit play on S1E1 again. Zero plan, really. Just wanted to see how often Marshall actually talked about his dad early on. And man, it was everywhere. Like constantly. The whole thing about being a good person, the goofy smile, the environmental stuff – Marshall just rattled it off like gospel. Felt kinda surface level back then, you know?
Really Digging In
After a few episodes, I figured I needed a better way. Got a notebook – the old-school paper kind – and started scribbling every single time Marvin showed up or got mentioned. Didn’t matter if it was a flashback, Marshall telling a story, or just him quoting the old man. Made two messy lists:
- Things Marvin Actually Said/Did: Like that bad driving lesson, the “you don’t have to lie to your girl” advice, the weird birthday burping thing. Real, concrete moments.
- How Marshall Reacted or Referenced Him: Like trying to be perfect after Marvin died, losing his faith when things got hard, that rage against the universe when his environmental dream died. Heavy stuff.
Spent hours rewatching key Marvin episodes, especially the heartbreaking one in season 6. Took notes until my hand cramped. Tried watching without focusing on their dynamic first – total waste of time, saw nothing new. Switched fast back to my lists.
Putting It Together
Sitting there with piles of scribbled notes, the pattern started smacking me in the face. It wasn’t just that Marshall loved his dad. It was more like… Marvin gave him this whole blueprint for how to live. Like an instruction manual for being Marshall Eriksen. And whenever life chucked a real curveball at him that the “Marvin Handbook” didn’t cover? Dude totally crumbled.
Take the job at GNB. His dad was this small-town lawyer helping folks. Suddenly Marshall’s working for the corporate beast? Total clash with the handbook. Watched him stumble through trying to justify that, the guilt written all over his face. Not sure he ever really fixed that one in his head.
And when Lily lost the baby? He straight-up turned his back on everything he thought his dad stood for. The anger, the bitterness. Felt like seeing the blueprint catch fire. It wasn’t just grief, man. It was the foundations shaking.
The Final Piece
Kept comparing my notes, flipping between early seasons Marshall and later seasons Marshall. It hit me hardest in the bar scenes. Marshall’s defining trait was always this naive, almost childish optimism, right? Pure Marvin. But layer by layer, as life kicked the crap out of him and the Marvin blueprint failed him, he had to figure his own stuff out. The idealism was still there, but it felt… tempered. Less like a kid quoting dad, more like a guy who finally understood what it meant. Choosing environmental law after the GNB mess? That felt like his own choice, finally. Informed by Marvin, yeah, but his.
Took me maybe a week total? Lots of rewinds, tons of messy notes, definitely ate too much pizza sitting on the couch. But seeing how that “great dad” shaped everything – the good and the messy parts of Marshall? Way deeper than I first thought. Solid stuff.
