When you boil down to it there are basically two time travel rulesets.
You have The Back to the Future single universe, (where McFly caused his own existence to start fading away when he started seducing his own mother)
Then you have the Star Trek reboot time travel (a new Star Trek timeline is created by the time travel at the beginning of the movie).
In Endgame they claim to go by the Star Trek rules, and are quite clear numerous times throughout the movie that this is how it Fucking works. But then elderly Captain America goes by the Back to the Future rules? How can they just Fucking switch it up like that to deliver some Fan Service? Time paradoxes are literally impossible in this movie and multiple characters go over this! (Banner (twice) and the Ancient One for starters).
Cap lived his life in an alternate timeline branched off from reuniting with Peggy. For all we know he could very well have saved Bucky there, stopped Hydra and prevent 9/11, but he eventually returned home when his Peggy died.
Carter Rivera
Either he went back to the main timeline or the scene he appears older is the timeline he went to Star Trek time travel was the best choice
Ryder Allen
the almost branched out but it got merged with the prime timeline the moment the stones where put back in their original point in time.
Jaxon Myers
He created his own branch.
Xavier Scott
LOL how did he return home? Ridiculous explanation.
Fucking how?
That's not possible according to the MCU time travel rules. See multiple folks on explaining why.
If he created his own branch he wouldn't meet them on the bench.
Julian Flores
their is no merging in time you fuck he changed history by just being there that's all it takes
Andrew Roberts
well if you made virtually zero changes then there might not be a divergence, but they were doing big things like taking Mjolnir and Thanos out of 2013 and 2014.
Carter Perez
He created his own branch, then traveled back to the main branch and went to the bench without exiting the machine while they were there.
Chase Kelly
the divergence occurred when he remained if we use conventional time travel this means nothing as the timeline was untimely supposed to be changed in this way
Ian Walker
He fulfilled his prophecy. In Civil War Sharon Carter explains that Peggy had a secret life and even had a secret lover and she also tells Steve that Peggy called out for him on her death bed. Steve was always meant to go back in time and live behind the scenes. It’s exactly like the Multiverse episode of Family Guy where Stewie was always meant to start the universe even though he is living in it
Adrian Torres
No matter how you want to slice it there is no way the old cap should be able to communicate with current MIC. It's a different timeline because he has alter3d it by being there. Bench scene is absolute bullshit.
Josiah Howard
Here's where I'm hung up:
Trek rules: Cap goes back to return the stones/mjolnir in order to maintain the timeline, as to save alternate timelines from branching off and becoming doomed, according to TAO.
Cap does this successfully, stays with Peggy in the 40s and keeps a low profile as not to let anyone else know about his existence.
For that,I'm all on board. It makes sense in the way a time travel plot in a superhero movie can. I maintain my suspension of disbelief.
But, hypothetically, Cap goes back in time to be with peggy after returing the stones, and starts interfering with shit; preventing 9/11, stopping hydra, etc. That would absolutely create a branching out timeline - but does that branch create an alternate Cap? Would there then be an Old Man Cap in the prime timeline, and an alternate Old Man Cap in the alternate timeline?
Gabriel Williams
maybe according to the final version of the prime timeline the cap was supposed to stop 9/11 but never fuck with hydra
James Robinson
first off your rules are bullshit and second: whatever happened, happened cap was always going to go back in time and live with peggy *in the timeline that became the only timeline* nothing he did in that timeline would be "interfering" because whatever he did, he always would have did the only way you can change a timeline is by adding/taking away an infinity stone
and by the way stop banging on about 9/11. it killed less people than an average day of road accidents. cap was in a war where hitler turned 6m people into soap. he wouldn't even get out of bed for a few hundred overpaid bankers.
Jace Collins
Bro. These aren't my rules, this is how different shows/movies use time travel.
The MCU uses the Star Trek forked timeline variant. This is thoroughly explained by multiple characters multiple times in this movie! There is no single timeline like in Back to the Future!
Did you even see the movie?
Chase Adams
They're not my rules, they're the rules as explained by the film.
And 9/11 might not have had a significant number of deaths, but it did have a significant impact on the world.
They never said the only way to change the timeline was by removing an infinity stone. They merely used that as an example since the time stone was critical to defending the Earth from Dormommu.
Oliver Brooks
He's still an asshole for leaving himself on ice or an even bigger asshole for rescuing himself and then cucking himself.
Elijah Perez
Old Cap seems like something the studio put in. It doesn't make any fucking sense from a character or technical perspective.
Grayson Bell
>Cap defrosted himself and double teamed Peggy with his other version.
Jonathan Ramirez
They should have made an INFINITY TRILOGY and made part 2 like Back to the Future/X-Men Apocalypse where Stark and Nebula arrive on Earth a few years later and everyone's gone fascist because of the ensuing post-snap chaos. Scott Lang shows up and teams with Stark to go back in time and undue the snap while the dark mirror universe Avengers try to stop them. Part 3 could have been the rematch with Thanos!!!FACT!!!
