Who was Robin?

 Reveal your True colours

Robin Scherbatsky is portrayed as the fiercely independent woman, the one who loves sports, guns, cigars, scotch and is the ultimate vice girl who rejects traditional roles such as motherhood and marriage (the latter of which she softens on) while working hard to break ice in the world of journalism. She is also portrayed as the woman who would be better of with Barney than being with Ted, who is portrayed as being in constant pursuit of Robin. However on watching the show closely you begin to realise that Robin's views aren't as clear cut as meant to be. The subjects are 

• Marriage 
• Motherhood
• As a person
• Barney
• Ted 

Barney and Ted will be discussed separately in the two following articles, but here I would love touching on the first two pointers: Marriage and Motherhood. 

Marriage 

Robin from the start has made it crystal clear that she doesn't want to get married and iterates this statement throughout the show with great firmness till Kevin proposes to her, while her breakup with Ted was triggered by a ring that wasn't even meant for her. The truth is she had been talking about the idea of marriage for quite a bit of time but wasn't ready for it. 

The first time she is known to talk of marriage is 19 years before she married Barney, when her father bought her on a trip to New York and she was at Central Park and she buried her locket to be her 'something old' at her wedding.

Fast forward a few years, she has a serious talk of marrying 3 men which goes as follows: 

Ted

• Reluctant to date him saying "I dont want to get married now, maybe ever. I feel if we went out I'd either have to marry you or break your heart". While Ted saying "I think I'm in love with you" was out there this statement by Robin was intense knowing they barely knew each other. This also showed that Ted was a guy she had an intense affinity to. 
• When Ted told her during Marshall and Lily's fake wedding " I can't believe you dont want to get married" she replies saying "I never said never"
• Depressed over Ted marrying Stella, Lily finds her drunk in the bar where she asks her "Why isn't Ted marrying me?". She reveals her real reason to move to Japan was Ted's relationship with Stella. She later comes back to try to talk Ted out of marrying Stella, only for Ted to be left at the altar.  This is when she was still not ready for marriage 
• The marriage pact between the two of them was her creation. She stuck by the deal when Barney tried creating the same deal. She affirmed the deal once, before it was dissolved by Ted in 'No Pressure' in order to get back with her. In a deleted scene from the finale she brings up the deal and says despite her being single at 40, she doesn't wish she made the deal with anybody else 
• She tried running off with Ted, on the day of her wedding to Barney only to be talked out of it by Ted. 
• Brief estrangement from the group triggered on seeing Ted kiss Tracy and have a family with her. Reluctant to attend their wedding for aforementioned reason. 

Barney

Goes after him in S8 by saying " The only way to get him out of my system, is to get him into my system" comparing him to her Lobster allergy. She accepts his proposal, but is very angry at his ruse. Kept questioning whether she was marrying the right person, before trying to run out on him. They eventually married, but divorced shortly later 

Kevin 

Proposed to her, she wanted to say yes but made it clear she didn't want to and couldn't have children, following which he unproposed to her. 

Children 

Robin is well known for saying she didn't want to have children, and hated them. Yet she was depressed about being infertile. I am also presuming her hatred of children came after her best friend Jessica dumped her following her having a children. She didn't even hold Lily and Marshall's son Marvin until he was a few months old. However her views being a mother wasn't clear cut as popularly thought.  

Barney 

During their pregnancy scare, she was visibly distressed saying, "I don't want kids, I've never wanted kids. And never, in a million years, will I ever want kids. I can't have a baby". This was before she came to knowledge of her infertility

Decided against adopting when they were getting married 

Makes it clear to Barney's mother that she won't be having grandchildren

Kevin

When he proposed she made it clear that she couldn't and didn't want to to have children. She told him "It's not that I can't have kids, I've never wanted kids. Haven't you ever wanted kids? My views on kids are never going to change. I'm worried you're going to wake up in a year or 50 full of regret". Following this he un-proposed to her setting off what is a very turbulent 18 years for her. 

Ted 

• Even before she told Ted "I love you", which coincidentally was the first time she ever said it, she had this conversation with Ted's mother

Ted: One last thing about my mom, she grills every single one of my girlfriends about when we're going to get married and have kids 

Robin: But this is the first time she's meeting me 

Ted: Doesn't matter, and you'll know this when she mentions my cousin Stacey: 6 kids in 5 years. The woman's basically a ride at a water park 

Robin: I don't want to get married and have kids, what am I supposed to say? 

Ted: You're know what, you're an adult with perfectly valid opinions, you shouldn't have to apologise for them 

Robin: I'm gonna lie 

Ted: I would 

Ted's mother: Talked to Aunt Caroline the other day, Stacey's pregnant again 

Ted: Oh, good for her 

Ted's mother: So dear, tell us what it's like being a journalist 

Robin: I'm just not ready 

Ted's mother: Ok, no pressure 

Robin: I thought you, um it's great 

Ted's mother: Focus on your job now because your career clock is ticking. There's time for marriage and kids and all that other stuff later. 

Ted: You lucked out with my mom last night huh, what a relief right? 

Robin: Oh what a relief it is to know I'm your one girlfriend my mom doesn't want you to have kids with. 

Ted: Hooray! 

Robin: I mean did she really think your college girlfriend would really pop out attractive children, cause i'm sorry. I've seen her pictures and that girl had a brow ridge like a cave man

Ted: Come on she was frowning under direct light....... 

Ted's mother about waitress: Isn't she sweet? 

Robin: If she's so sweet than maybe she should have Ted's babies 

Ted's mother: Excuse me

Robin: Nothing (storms off) 

Ted's mother: Robin, dear Did I say something to upset you? 

Robin: Why don't you want me to have your grandkids? 

Ted's mother: Do you want to have my grandkids? 

Robin: No, I mean I don't know. I just want you to want me to want to have your grandkids and you should! Cause I'm a genetic goldmine......

• As they were breaking up she told him "you know kids were never part of my plan, but if I were to have somebody's babies I'd have your babies" 
• When he almost married Stella she told him " I just thought if I changed my mind on marriage and kids, it was nice to think you were there"
• When she's devastated about being infertile, Ted is the only person who is there to cheer her up despite not knowing what the problem is. It isn't Kevin: her boyfriend at the time and subsequently dumped him for that, it isn't even Barney: who would have been the father had she been fertile.
• No pressure elaboration
• Wasn't happy about Tracy carrying Penny. Later estranged from the group on seeing them happy together and kissing, referring to them as " the guy I probably should have ended up with, with the beautiful mother of his child", showing how she felt inadequate about not being able to have children. 
• Out of Ted's, Marshall's and Barney's children she was the closest to Ted's children who love her, appearing as the subject of many of their drawings where it is just her and them together in multiple different settings like the zoo and the beach. She is also shown spending a lot of time around them with Ted's son saying "Whenever she comes over to dinner you guys are so obvious". When she ran into him and Penny, she took an immediate liking to Penny. The children push them to rekindle their relationship. She is also the person who would see them achieve major milestones like becoming 10 years old, becoming 18, going off to college and so on. However these parts are implied. The amount of time she spends with Luke and Penny is quite disproportionate for her being their dad's ex-girlfriend.

Her personality: what lay beneath her tough exterior

In the beginning she is shown to be a feminine woman with an independent tomboyish side. Her tomboyish side becomes more pronounced following her breakup with Ted. She is also shown to be emotionally closed off, and the only person she can open up to, is Ted and Lily and as her therapist it was Kevin. Her love for violent hobbies is also the result of her traumatic childhood and her horrible father, from who she's always seeking affection. Her feminine side is shown when she sees Ted in another serious relationship (exception to Zoey, Victoria (2nd time) and Jeanette), or her breakup with Don. She is also shown being a lot more skceptic of signs, though as she says she has "grown skceptical of being skceptical" 

She is also shown to being a commitment-phobe in the group however that side of her goes with time as detailed below: 

Ted (1st time)

• First really serious boyfriend
• Love at first sight
• Longest she was ever in a relationship (Setting aside marriage to Barney 
• First person she said "I love you" too 
• Only person (evidenced above) she ever considered having children with 
• First person she considered marrying, and spent a good part of 14-17 years regretting not having married 
• After they were broken up: 
• She was his roomate for at least three years 
• Had a solid friendship with, that only got stronger 
• Only person after Lily she was emotionally open to 
• Made a marriage pact with, acknowledging the only reason they didn't work was that she wasn't ready to settle down with 

      Barney (1st time) 

• 2nd serious boyfriend after coercion from lily  
• Dated for a very short while, breaking up after what was a very dysfunctional relationship
• Did have residual feelings 

    Don

• Rough start, however had a smooth relationship later. 
• Relationship ended after he took up a job she gave up to be with him 

Kevin

• 
  

The description shows that beneath her tough exterior, there lay a very emotionally vulnerable person who had abandonment issues which made her scared of getting into committed relationships and having children however that diminished over time as she became more open to the two things that scared her.  

Conclusion 

In summary, Robin did possess the characteristics that everybody loves to place on her, but those characteristics aren't as clear cut as people would like to think about. In fact she becomes really accepting and loving of this stuff with time.