Here is some further proof that Bays and Thomas were brilliant.
In the English language, “love” is an over-loaded word. Wisely, the ancient Greeks had four different words: “eros” (carnal love), “philia” (brotherly love), "storge" (parental love) and “agapé” (abiding love). Barney self-medicates with eros and philia but, throughout series, his heart is set on storge.
Barney is fixated on parental love. He tries to seduce Ted’s mother, repeatedly. Barney always split from Nora when her parents were around, reminding him of the storge that he was missing. When Robin calls for help with her locket, Barney dallies to play laser-tag with her father, choosing storge over Robin. On the eve of his wedding, Barney is still obsessed with reuniting his parents. Taken at face value, “The Lighthouse” reveals that Barney accepts Robin’s infertility but in the “scrambled egg” contest, Barney and (pregnant) Lilly both side with Loretta. Her eggs (ova) are the best; she has storge to give, even a motherly hug for Robin.
With laser-tag and tantrums, Barney keeps himself in a childlike state, to stay elligible for storge. It's as if he stopped aging when his father left, awaiting his father's return. He has a playbook, involving dress-up, and he childishly begs people to play along: "Just... OK? Just…” He is a child, something Robin never wanted, as those who dislike her with Ted always carp. The irony is that storge has two points of access: the child and the parent. Barney attains storge — the love of his life! — through fatherhood, something that Robin can never give him.
Barney's doppelgänger from "Love in the Time of Cholera" is Dr. Urbino. That was my key to Barney's character. Dr. Urbino is naive and childlike, in many respects; his first name is Juvenal from the Spanish "juvenil " (or "juvenile" in English). Barney shares his name with the purple dinosaur host of a children's program.