Why old Cap?
When everyone else went back in time, they created an alternate timeline. Why, when Cap went back in time and stayed, was he in the same timeline?
shareWhen Cap went and stayed with Peggy, he did so in an alternative timeline. Once she died, as we saw in Civil War, he returned to the proper timeline to pass on his shield and see his friends again.
shareSee this bit slightly confused me. Surely by going and staying in the past doesn't it risk the current present not existing as something could change.
Also I presume there would also be 2 captain americas in the past. He'd have to hide as if people noticed him it would complicate things more as he should be frozen and perfumed dead
The directors say Cap went to an alternate timeline and returned at the end
The writers say it was always their intent to have Cap be Peggy's "secret husband" dating back to "Winter Soldier"
Both versions have merit, so in my view it's very much up to the viewer to choose.
Here's how the writers' version might've played out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmj4rs1KrI
Strip away the comedy, and I actually agree with this scenario - I think (and this is SOLELY a matter of preference) that Cap did in fact remain in the "prime" timeline as a bystander.
People who disagree claim Cap would never have stood by and allowed Hydra to take over SHIELD (especially while married to SHIELD's director, Peggy Carter), nor would he have allowed Zemo to trigger the "Civil War" events, and so on and so on.
It's a valid point, BUT I think after "Endgame," Cap was a very different person with much broader, more universal vision. He knows how the "future" will play out if he does NOT interfere. He knows he could make things worse if he DOES interfere. So he does the heroic thing by resisting his natural urge to interfere, and live out the life Tony told him to live.
By the rules of time travel set by the film, the writers' version doesn't seem to make sense. Everything would become preordained if Captain America had to defeat Thanos then go back in time and marry Agent Carter to preserve the timeline. That seems like the exact same sort of paradox that can't exist, only in reverse. Just like going back in time and killing your past self doesn't result in your current self dying, needing your future self to go back in time and perform some action in order to preserve your existence doesn't make sense. What if Thanos killed Captain America in the battle? All of a sudden nothing that happened in the past 75 years actually happened. That doesn't fit with the rules the Hulk laid out, does it?
It's also inconceivable that Steve would be able to sit idly by and let all the tragedies he knows about, whether comic-only like Hydra infiltrating SHIELD or Thanos succeeding with his snap, or real-life like 9/11, happen. Nor would he *ever* be able to let Bucky spend 70+ years being tortured and corrupted.
I know it's just a movie, but if we're taking it seriously, I think the only thing that fits with the rules and Cap's personality is that he willingly split the timeline in order to marry Peggy, he was Captain America from 1945 onward and stopped Hydra, rescued Bucky, prevented 9/11, stopped Thanos before he snapped, and probably revived that timeline's Captain America when he was too old to continue. Or, he revived him in '45 and there were two of him, and he assumed some other identity. The bottom line, to me, anyway, is that he stayed a hero in the new timeline, then came back to his original one to pass the Captain America moniker on to Sam.