Ted Mosby
Theodore Evelyn Mosby is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the U.S. television sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", portrayed by Josh Radnor. Ted also serves as the show's narrator from the future, voiced by Bob Saget, as he tells his children the "long version" of how he met their mother.
Barney Stinson
Barney Stinson is one of five main characters on "How I Met Your Mother". He is a manipulative, oversexed businessman in his thirties who always wears a suit, likes women with "daddy issues" and is frequently willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion. Throughout the earlier seasons, Barney is a huge womanizer, and has been described as a "high-functioning sociopath" by his best friend, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). Barney has a plethora of strategies and rules designed to meet women, sleep with them, and discard them. Through several seasons of the show, four of the main characters are couples, as Ted began dating Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and Ted's roommate Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) becomes engaged and later married to Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan). This leaves Barney the only single character, and, according to Harris, Barney is "resentful" that the other characters have paired up. Later on, in season 5, he dates Robin. They end up breaking up not long after, once they both realize they are making one another miserable.