Robin Scherbatsky

Robin Scherbatsky is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Cobie Smulders.

Character History
Robin is a news anchor for a fictional New York cable news channel. Like Smulders, she is originally from Vancouver, and has a younger teenage sister named Katie, who appears in First Time in New York. Although she was a reporter for "fluff news pieces" at the end of news segments at the time of first meeting Ted, over the series she has worked her way up to be lead news anchor at Metro News One, a minor cable news channel.

She dated Ted, who, believing he loved her, professed his feelings for her on their first date. After that incident, Ted and Robin split up, on the grounds that they wanted different things in relationships. They remained friends until it is later revealed that Robin has feelings for Ted, just as he embarks on a relationship with baker Victoria, whom he meets at a wedding. When Victoria goes to Germany for a culinary fellowship, Ted lies to Robin and tells her he and Victoria broke up in order to start a relationship with Robin. Robin, however, finds out, and this almost ends her friendship with Ted. They manage to rebuild their friendship, and in the first-season finale, Ted again professed his feelings for her, but she already had a date of sorts with Sandy for the company camping trip. The trip, however, is canceled by a thunderstorm — that Ted himself caused. Robin decided to finally act on her feelings when Ted came to see her that night, and the two finally embarked upon a relationship. This relationship comes to an end nearly a year later in the second-season finale, at which point Ted reveals that he no longer sees Robin as "The One." He also reveals that Robin traveled the world and lived in many different countries. Many people think she is Ted's wife but, when he is talking to his kids he refers to her as "Aunt Robin" ruling out the possibility she could be Ted's wife.

She has performed several embarrassing dares on television in exchange for money from Barney, including saying the word "nipple," spanking herself, and honking her own breasts. In Mary the Paralegal, Robin won an award for her report on Pickles the singing dog, and attended an award show with the group. She brought Sandy Rivers, a fellow reporter, as a date to make Ted jealous.

Robin once recorded a minor Canadian pop hit called "Let's Go To The Mall" as a teenager under the name "Robin Sparkles." After an accompanying music video and the ensuing year-long mall tour, she developed a serious aversion to shopping malls. Robin followed "Let's Go To the Mall" with the "artistic follow-up" "Sandcastles in the Sand."

Like Smulders, Robin was a Canadian teenage tennis player. Robin claims to have never played any team sports in Purple Giraffe, but missed her high school prom due to field hockey tournaments, according to Best Prom Ever.

Robin is the only main character on the show who smokes cigarettes; however, none of the other characters, with the exception of Barney, who pointed it out, know this. Ted asks her about it in Moving Day, and Robin tells him no, but is then shown smoking in the hot tub in her apartment later in the episode. She has an in-depth knowledge of cigars and was shown enjoying one with Barney in Zip, Zip, Zip at his cigar bar, with a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, in Marshall's car in a flashback with Lily in the episode Arrivederci Fiero, and with Barney in Ted's new car in Circle of Screaming. Robin is also an avid gun enthusiast, having a subscription to Guns & Ammo magazine and having taken Marshall to the shooting range in order to get over Lily. She has been known to use the word "Literally" far too often as pointed out by Ted in a season 3 episode titled "Spoiler Alert," and can not tell a lie without giggling.

In the end of the season 3 episode "Sandcastles in the Sand," Robin starts to kiss Barney while they're watching Robin's music video. In the next episode it's revealed they slept together. While at first she insists that it "never happened", feeling guilty, she later apologizes to Ted about the fling, explaining that she was feeling vulnerable following being dumped by high school boyfriend Simon (James Van Der Beek) a second time. Ted seems to accept this explanation, reserving his anger for Barney. It is also revealed that by Ted's 31st birthday, Robin will be living with Ted.