#endgame theory

[goldcranes]

ENDGAME THEORY beth x borgov, the queen's gambit, rated e 11.9k words read here on ao3

[mythgenderedloki]

Okay so I haven't seen endgame in a while so forgive me if I get the details wrong but...

What if the reason Thor was so desperate to be the one who does the snap was so he could bring Heimdall and Loki back?!

Bruce only wanted to undo Thanos' original snap and bring back the half of the population that were dusted. Its just hit me that Thor loses everyone he cares about before the snap. Undoing it won't bring back his home, his friends or his brother.

However, Thor could have modified his snap in a way which would have saved loki. He could have used it to undo the deaths of everyone Thanos killed, meaning Heimdall and Loki.

That's was he was begging Tony to let him wield the gauntlet; it was his only chance of bring his family back... And he denied this last hope...

[luke-o-lophus]

Hear me out now.

What if Steve stayed back in the past after returning the stones so that he could rescue Bucky from HYDRA....

But every time he got close to it, the TVA reset him because that wasn't "supposed to happen" according to the Time Keepers?

[anerdsdiaryofsorts]

So here's the whole scene. Watch only if you want depression.

[imaginationhyperload]

Oh please “Thor never tried to visit Loki in the dungeons” MY BUTT! Friega literally warned Thor against trying to see him during the time heist!

[cap10frogguy]

For those who still seem to be hung up on Steve leaving Bucky in the lurch after Endgame—

First, please, think for a moment. Bucky isn’t the end all be all of the MCU, and neither is his relationship with Steve.

Secondly, based on what we were told about how the timeline works, we don’t KNOW that Steve didn’t go back in time, start a relationship with Peggy AND root Hydra out of SHIELD while he was at it. She would have found out sooner or later, and once she realized what was going on the two of them would not have rested til that was taken care of.

So Steve would have made that timeline a better place, but it wouldn’t spill over to the main MCU. It couldn’t. And after Endgame occurred in that other timeline, perhaps he showed up after the Cap of that timeline went back in time, and got sent back to where he had been left.

Now that that’s over, make sure to watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier, cause it’s really cool. Sam’s really getting a chance to shine, and you even have your cinnamon roll Bucky to watch.

[mcufandomrealm]

There a possible: old Steve is alive.

[nomad-x-whitewolf]

ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD

I saw Endgame tonight and it got me thinking about the future of the MCU and particularly how they were going to do a Loki series and a Wanda & Vision series on Disney+ if both Loki and Vision are irrevocably dead. Then a theory came to me: The Ancient One and Bruce’s explaination of Timelines gave us the answer to how they’re actually alive.

The Infinity Stones and Timelines:

There is a single, unchanable Timeline that is directly linked to the Infinity Stones—here on out referred to as Canon Timeline.

The Ancient One explained that a timeline would diverge from the Canon Timeline with the departure of an Infinity Stone.

Bruce reasoned that the Diverged Timeline would reconnect with the Canon Timeline once the Stone was returned—yet, “the future cannot change the past.”

This implies that the timeline does not, in fact, reconverge five minutes later when the Stone is returned to the Divergent Timeline but instead when it is removed from the Canon Timeline.

Meaning, there can be up to seven Timelines existing simultaneously:

Canon Timeline

Space Timeline, starting in 1970

Time/Mind Timeline(s), starting in 2012

Reality Timeline, starting in 2013 (I think?)

Soul/Power Timeline(s), starting in 2014

These five to seven timelines would not reconverge when Steve returned the Stones to their rightful Timelines but instead when Steve removes them from the Canon Timeline in 2023.

The film ends when Steve departs so we cannot see the repercussions of the Stones’ departure from the Canon Timeline.

(Please forgive my hastily GoogleDocs drawing to illustrate)

So what does this mean?

Thanos had none of the Infinity Stones in his possession when they were pulled from their timelines, causing the divergences (rather the whole point).

Power (and Soul?) Timeline Thanos is the one who comes through the portal and gets dusted in Endgame.

As he is dusted by all non-Canon Timeline Infinity Stones, one can only assume he was dusted in all timelines (except Canon, as he was killed in 2018).

What this means to me is that, while Canon Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones, they still continue to exist in the Divergent Timelines in their original locations since Thanos was dusted in 2014 before stealing any.

When Steve left 2023, all of the Divergent Timelines reconverged with the Canon Timeline.

If Thanos was dusted in 2014, this means that, in these Divergent Timelines’s 2018...

Thanos didn’t destroy Xandar and steal the Power Stone from the NOVA Corps

Dr. Strange didn’t give Thanos the Time Stone (explaining why The Ancient One couldn’t see Strange give Thanos the Stone—it didn’t happen in her timeline)

Thanos didn’t destroy Knowhere and steal the Reality Stone from The Collector

Thanos didn’t sacrifice Gamora for the Soul Stone on Vormir—not to mention 2014 Gamora stayed in 2023

Thanos didn’t rip the Mind Stone from Vision’s skull, killing him, so he’s still alive

The Space Stone is two-fold: One, in the Space Timeline, Thanos wasn’t there to kill Loki for the Stone and, two, in the Mind Timeline, Loki stole the Space Stone and fled—meaning we don’t know what this Loki has been up to since 2012 (potential plot for Loki’s Disney+ series anyone?)

After Steve left to return the Infinity Stones in 2023, the four plus timelines would have to reconverge into the Canon Timeline and sort themselves out in some way (above my paygrade).

And, thus, Loki and Vision live on to have their own Disney+ shows.