I have a confession to make…

I love the notion of Time Travel in books, movies, and TV. It can be super creative. I also like the notion of a multi-verse, although I get confused by it… And, well, time travel is almost always confusing.

Usually the problem is either that it’s taken too far, or that it works on paper, but when you think of the ramifications of it, the entire thing falls apart.

I admit that I haven’t seen EVERY movie or show, or read every novel about time travel. And I haven’t read all the physics books about it either. And while I can’t say that I, “don’t care” about how it logically works- because you kind of have to care- at least a little to make it make some kind of sense, I have to say how much I “care” about the actual science is way lower than the amount I care about what the writers DO with the notion of time travel… I enjoy the worlds they create. I enjoy the growth and the existential crisis that comes along with it.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I have been watching Loki and it’s so fascinating… because there’s both time travel, and multiversal ramifications.

Really, the only thing I don’t understand about the MCU’s time travel logic is that scene from Endgame where Cap goes back in time to put the stones back and then reappears not in the quantum tunnel platform thing, but on that bench to give his shield to Sam… and he’s an old man.

I understand that he went back in time and married Peggy, and supposedly lived a normal and happy life with her. However, there are so many things that happen between the time Steve became a Capsicle in The First Avenger (1945) and 2023 the moment he comes back to in Endgame.

Did he allow Bucky to stay with Hydra? Did he allow Hydra to grow within Shield?

Now, I know that in MCU Time Travel, traveling back in time just creates another timeline. I understand that.

So, for the Steve we meet in The First Avenger… and get to know in all his subsequent films, including the 4 Avengers group films… everything happened for HIM exactly as we saw in the MCU proper.

Ok. Good.

But, since Tony, Steve, Smart Hulk, and Scott Lang went into the Avengers 2012 timeline-sort of… they’ve created a branch just by arriving there.

Then, there’s the version of events where The Avengers from 2023 took the stones and left.

Then, there’s the version where Cap eventually returns the stones after they’re done being used.

Then, of course, in what we saw in Endgame, we saw Loki take the Tesseract. So, since the TVA arrests him in the show Loki- and “resets” the timeline, does that imply that now, for The Avengers-whether it be the original 2012 ones who were there, or the time-traveling ones from 2023- never see Loki portal out with the Tesseract because he never gets the Tesseract… As in, The Avengers from 2023 time travel and get the briefcase with the Tesseract and Hulk has to take the stairs and causes the Tesseract to come out and slide to Loki’s feet- are we suggesting that in the “reset” timeline, he doesn’t steal it?

I’m not a physicist, so I don’t know if I’m reasoning this out right…