imagine if the avengers had actually discussed the plan for more than an hour, and found out from nebula that you have to sacrifice what you love most to get the soul stone (basically a soul for a soul), and steve volunteered himself for the mission. face to face with the red skull, he’s asked if he’s willing to make the sacrifice, to lose what’s important to him. steve replies, “go ahead and try. i’ve already lost everything else.” after its done, steve just laughs and says, “that’s all?”
& steve makes it back alive with the stone. he makes it back to the avengers compound. they don’t recognize him at first, but once they see past the change in structure and size, its obvious. they ask what happened, and he replies “a soul for a soul”. he gave up captain america, let him go once and for all, and that was enough.
this would have been perfect tbh. It’d justify the red skull presence as the guardian of the stone and the whole story would come full circle.
Also can you imagine what a beautiful message it would be? That you don’t need to have super strength to do good and to be a hero and that the most special thing about Steve was his heart and his ethics all along, not the serum. Steve realizing that he is good enough even without the super soldier serum and still valuable to the Avengers and appreciated by his friends.
In the next movies he would be operating just as Steve Rogers, a commander and strategist for missions, sending the teams to execute the plans he masterfully elaborates. Or he could retire too, become the artist he always wanted, adapting again as he always did so many times before and moving on. A message about the value of a found family, perseverance, never giving up and fighting to change what you can but making the best of what you can’t. That’s life and everybody would be able to relate to it
This
