The long-anticipated series finale of How I Met Your Mother has come and gone and fans have largely expressed their intense anger over how the series ended its nine-year run.

(WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

Fans who long ago predicted that the titular mother character (whose name was finally revealed to be Tracy McConnell) would die sometime before the year 2030 were proven correct in the finale. Tracy was revealed to have gotten sick and died in 2024 -- six years before Ted sat his kids down and told them the story.

However, they were infuriated just moments later when it was revealed that Ted was really telling his kids the story because he was seeking permission to ask out their Aunt Robin (who, in a shocker mere minutes into the finale, had announced that she and Barney had gotten divorced). The finale scene of the series showed a mirror of a scene from season one, where Ted and Robin first got together. Robin pokes her head out her apartment window to find Ted standing at her curb and holding the blue French horn.

Fans reacted in a largely negative way on social media, decrying how the creators chose to kill off Tracy and bring back a Ted/Robin storyline after making it seem like it was finally over between them.

"#HowIMetYourMotherFinalepisode Just as I expected. But seriously, killing Tracy just to get Ted and Robin to be together? I just decry you," one fan wrote.

As a result of the backlash, series co-creator Craig Thomas defended the decision on his own Twitter page:

Star Josh Radnor has also spoken out about the ending, defending the decision that left his character ending up with Robin after all to Vulture.

"...part of the DNA of the show is they lead you one way and then they pull you back. You think you're watching one thing in an episode and then it turns out you're watching something completely different," he said. "I think that the twists in the finale were in keeping with that."

Tags: How I Met Your Mother CBS television