Who knows in what ways him entering a relationship with that girl would in actuality affect the future they wanted.
It also retroactively cheapens the bittersweet ending of the first CA movie, but that's another subject.
Also, how could Peter Parker's friends still be at school when 5 years had passed?
As far as I can tell, the only way this works, is for us to ONLY be following Caps timeline. Essentially when Cap did what he did but appears in the future that means at some point we stopped following the right timeline and we were then only following his... And even this solution has holes.
You gotta love time travel in movies...
You're on the right track.
If Cap is in a reality (which most consider our main MCU timeline) and time travels to a "new" reality where he grows to old age with Peggy then who is to say this "new" reality isn't the one we've been watching the whole time? We've already accepted that this new reality can be a reality. As long as it can be a reality then there's nothing stopping it being the main one we've been watching the whole time. Just as long as this new reality can allow for the Avengers to do what we saw take place in the MCU. And so far I see nothing wrong with Cap being Peggy's secret husband who fathered two kids that the MCU briefly mentioned.
Beats me.
sharePlain and simple, it was a plot to end the Captain America story just like Iron man doing the snap and dying was to end Tony/Ironman's story.
Personally I go with the theory that Cap went back in time and created a new timeline in which he is married to Peggy but is still Captain America and retires sometime after Civil war. He then returns to the present timeline to give his shield to Sam. I think old man Cap was on that bench all along.
"It also retroactively cheapens the bittersweet ending of the first CA movie, but that's another subject."
Correct. Part of what makes Captain America heroic is sacrifice. When he doesn't have to make that sacrifice because of a McGuffin, it absolutely makes him less heroic and, as you say, cheapens the ending of the first Captain America movie.