I’ve been thinking it over since seen the movie last night, and I think I have a pretty good handle on how the time travel worked in this movie.
Right of the bat, time travel works by the traditional Marvel Comics time travel rules: Any change to the past creates a parallel timeline that branches out at the Point of Divergence (POD). During the execution of the Time Heist, the Avengers created 4 branches:
- Timeline POD-1970: The Space Stone is removed from the timeline in 1970. This is the timeline where history changes the most. No Tesseract means Mar-Vell never comes to Earth or at least has no reason to stay. Carol Danvers never gets her powers indirectly from the Tesseract. Nick Fury never interacts with her so he does not come up with the Avengers Initiative. The removal of the Space Stone means Thanos’ plans can never be completed. Moreover, that is just the start as the butterfly effect would only get worse as time goes by.
- Timeline POD-2012: The Mind Stone and Time Stone are removed from the timeline and Loki escapes with the Tesseract. Ultron and VIsion are never created. The Maximoff Twins never get their powers. This would also have been the Most Fucked Timeline as the removal of the Time Stone means that it cannot be used to stop Dormammu in 2017. After gobbling up Earth, he would have presumably gone one to wipe out the entire universe by absorbing it into the Dark Dimension. The Ancient One was very right to initially refuse to hand over the Time Stone.
- Timeline POD-2013: The Reality Stone is removed from the timeline before the Dark Elves’ attack on Asgard. With the Aether gone from the universe, Malekith’s plans are completely foiled. Also, because the Aether is no longer in Asgard, Malekith presumably aborts his attack, meaning Frigga doesn’t die. This also means no fake Loki death, and no substitution of Odin as ruler. Mjolnir’s disappearance means that Thor goes to Eitri to sooner to get a replacement and might have Stormbreaker in hand when it is time to face Hela. Moreover, Frigga might also find a way to deal with Hela without resorting to destroying Asgard.
- Timeline POD-2014: The Power Stone is removed from the timeline. Overall, this timeline would have been the one to benefit the most, on a cosmic scale. The removal of the Power Stone means Thanos’ plans can never be fulfilled, but even that would be a moot point because Thanos exits this timeline in pursuit of the Stones. This timeline would be rid of Thanos and his armies, and the removal of the Power Stone means that the events of GotG never take place, so the Battle of Xandar never happens and Ego never learns of Starlord’s existence and powers, so he continues his quest.
Presumably, all of these timelines were wiped out of existence when Steve returned the Stones to their proper eras. However, in the process, Rogers goes back to the 1940s or 1950s leaving us with two possibilities:
- Branching timelines: Steve staying in the past creates a branching timeline where he lives a full life with Peggy. However, his presence in the Prime Timeline at the end of the movie to hand over his shield argues against this.
- Time loop: More likely option. Rogers was always meant to go back in time and his life with Peggy was part of the MCU timeline all along. This means that he was Peggy’s hitherto unseen and unnamed husband all along. This is the cleanest option but it implies that Steve was able to go for the better part of 80 years without using his knowledge of the future to interfere with the unfolding of history. If we assume an assist from the Ancient One to wipe his memory until 2023 and make sure he is not recognized, this works out perfectly
The only two people who are shown to be straight up more powerful than Thanos and capable of fucking him up barehanded are Carol and Wanda, both of whom were empowered by an Infinity Stone.
If we assume the timeloop hypothesis, then there were 2 Steve Rogers from the late 1940s onewards: the one on the ice and the one married to Peggy.
No she wasn't. Quill was getting ready to go looking for her at the end.
Nope, that's not how it works. The moment they got the Stones from the past, a new parallel timeline branched out. The events at Vormir remianed unchanged. The Gamora who died there remains dead.
2014 Gamora, on the other hand, is unaccounted for, since Peter Quill is getting ready to look for her at the end.
I'm liking the theory of Ancient One induced temporary memory wipe that expires in 2023.
Steve is best buddies with a guy who owns a literal
mountain of vibranium. The only weird things is that Shuri restrained herself from "upgrading" the shield.
All the trailers for
Far From Home show that all of Peter's supporting cast is still in high-school with him, so that indicates that they all got conveniently dusted and resurrected.
All six Infinity Stones were destroyed in 2018 by Thanos.
The Thanos who died in 2023 was the Thanos from a alternate timeline that was created when the Power Stone was removed during the Time Heist in 2014. The original timeline (where Thanos used the Stones to create the Snap and then destroyed them) remained unchanged.
The Ancient One was objecting to the Avengers removing the Time Stone from her new timeline because it would left it exposed.
I agree the power levels were all over the place, very annoying.
