Marshall Eriksen

Marshall Eriksen
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Carter Bays Craig Thomas
Portrayed by	Jason Segel
Information
Nickname(s)	Marshmallow, Big Fudge, Vanilla Thunder, Beercules, The Kid
Gender	Male
Occupation	Lawyer
Family	Marvin Eriksen, Sr. (father, deceased) Judy (mn: Gunderson) Eriksen (mother) Marvin Eriksen, Jr. (brother) Marcus Eriksen (brother) Olaf (grandfather, deceased)
Spouse(s)	Lily Aldrin
Children	unnamed son (expecting)

Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother, created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and portrayed by Jason Segel.

Character profile

Marshall is an easy-going, naive optimist from St. Cloud, Minnesota. At the start of the series, Marshall lives with his best friend Ted Mosby and long-time girlfriend, Lily Aldrin; he proposes to her in the pilot episode, which inspires Ted to get married and settle down.

Born in 1978 and of Scandinavian descent, Marshall met Ted and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University. Ted was his roommate and Lily lived in the same hall as they did, which led to their eventual relationship. He is a Columbia Law School graduate, and throughout his time at law school, Ted refers to him as "the kid". Even though he stands at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), he is the shortest male member of his family. Marshall became a lawyer because he was interested in environmental protection laws. Ultimately, he accepted a job at a corporate law firm where his only client is an amusement park riddled with various safety violations. He later joins the legal team at Goliath National Bank, where Barney Stinson also works. Later, in season 6, he quits his job at Goliath National Bank to work at an environmental law firm, just like he wanted to do when he graduated law school.

He and Lily have a solid, loving relationship, but it has been tested at various times throughout the series. In "Come On", Lily, who has been having cold feet about their approaching wedding, announces that she has been accepted to an art fellowship in San Francisco and leaves to find out who she is outside of a relationship. Marshall is devastated and spends the next few months in a deep depression. When Lily returns to New York and asks him to take her back, he refuses, his pride still wounded. They eventually reconcile and resume their engagement in "Swarley", and get married, albeit with some complications, in "Something Blue". Lily is also the only person that Marshall, a lawyer, "a person who argues for a living," ever gets tongue-tied with; every argument he has with her ends badly for him.

It is seen that while Marshall enjoys being in a relationship, he misses being a wingman with his single male friends Ted and Barney and occasionally complains about not involving him in their adventures, as seen in Definitions. He is known to think of himself highly, in regards to his appearance, as evidenced in "Spoiler Alert", where he thinks of himself as a young Harrison Ford, and in The Yips. He is also considered to be a catch amongst members of the gay community, and he acknowledges that, as seen in Single Stamina and Everything Must Go. He is deeply devoted to his family, which occasionally annoys Lily. She jokes that in his mind, the ideal woman would be his mother. When his father passed away in season 6, Marshall came to live with his mom for a small period of time to help her. He regressed to living as though he was a child again, which was seen in Desperation Day.

Marshall is fascinated with the paranormal, specifically Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster, both of which he believes are real. He is also fascinated in the existence of aliens. He can play the piano fairly well, as seen in the episode "Slapsgiving", where he performs a song after slapping Barney. In the episode "Sweet Taste of Liberty", he claims that he has never fought anyone before, but proves he is a formidable and experienced fighter in the episode "The Fight", having survived several brutal fights with his brothers. When nervous, Marshall is prone to blurting out the thing he least wants known.

It is revealed in "Last Cigarette Ever" that in the future, he and Lily have a son. In early 2011, after being told Marshall and Lily are capable of having a baby, Lily tells Marshall that his father had a fatal heart attack, which shakes Marshall to the core. Marshall and his friends agree his dad's last words towards him were "I love you", but they were actually about a foot cream. During his father's funeral, Marshall says in his eulogy that the last words his father ever said to him were "...rent Crocodile Dundee III..." His father's death causes him to change perspectives in his life, which leads to him quitting his job at GNB and pursuing a career in environmental law, as well as attempting to start a family with Lily.

In the season six finale, Lily announces to Marshall that she is pregnant.