For Millennials. By Millennials.
Iron Man came in 2008, giving birth to the marvel cinematic universe we now know and love. After much waiting and anticipation, the Avengers: Endgame is here. The ending has satisfied many; after all, it grossed millions on the first day. There were moments in the movie that made us cry, laugh and smile.
The movie makers certainly didn’t fail to weave the multiple story arcs into a perfect conclusive story for the fans. Yet, the movie involved time travel, so naturally, some parts of it didn’t make sense, leading to some loopholes.
After exploring that Avengers: Endgame ending, let’s talk about the loopholes, we can’t find a solution for.
Nebula Killed Her Past Self. Wouldn’t That Have Killed Her Future Self Too?
A significant problem in the movie occurs when 2014 Thanos gets hold of a 2023 Nebula (Karen Gillan) that has traveled back to Morag with Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) to get the Power Infinity Stone. Even though War Machine brings back the power stone, the 2023 Nebula is stuck with a 2014 Thanos, Gamora, and Nebula. What’s worse is that Thanos sees the future unfold through the network in a 2014 Nebula’s brain. Moreover, he sends 2014 Nebula to the end, the Avengers: Endgame present 2023. Then the still-evil 2014 Nebula uses the time machine at the Avengers HQ to bring past Thanos, Gamora, and his army into the future. And a crazy battle ensues.
In the middle of it, we see the 2023 Nebula convince 2014 Gamora to take her side and eventually kill her 2014 self.
Not only would this reverse the entire arc in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it would also erase the 2023 version of Nebula. It’s the classic time travel grandfather paradox. If you go back in time to kill yourself, you wouldn’t be alive in the present. Essentially, Nebula can’t exist to kill herself. This loophole wasn’t explained and probably won’t need to be resolved since Thanos is dead and the universe is restored to its natural state.
It shouldn’t matter since we got our happy ending, but it does make you scratch your head if you think too much on it.
How Come Spiderman and His Classmates Are Still In High school?
After that heartbreaking funeral scene of Tony Stark, we see that Spiderman, aka Peter Parker (Tom Holland), reunites with his high school pal Ned (Jacob Batalon). Even though the real actors are aged above 20, the characters in the movie Spiderman: Homecoming were supposed to be 15. So, in Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Parker and his friend Ned are about 16 or 17 at most.
Peter Parker disintegrated into dust when Thanos snapped his fingers in Avengers: Infinity War. We know from the reunion that Ned did not. Five years went by until the events of Avengers: Endgame occurred, where the Avengers team used time travel to capture all the stones and bring 50% of all human life back to earth.
Five years means Peter Parker and his friend had to be about 20 by now. Even if, for some inexplicable physics-related reason, Peter Parker didn’t know their age, his friend Ned still should have. And he definitely should not have still been in high school. We know things didn’t go very well for the planet after the Thanos snap in 2018, but did it mean that everyone would just be stuck in high school?
Captain America Living a Peaceful Life Would Have Messed up All The Timelines
Since this is also related to time travel, this will make your brain hurt as it did mine. So, brace yourselves. When Steve Rogers returned in time to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places, he also took a little detour. That means he went ahead and lived a peaceful life with Peggy Carter.
Now, as discussed previously, this is a bit problematic. Not that we have anything against Captain America living a peaceful life, but we’re pretty happy for him. It’s just that from a time travel point of view; it makes no sense. When Steve Rogers returned, he created a new timeline for himself. Yet, it doesn’t make sense when he returns to 2023 as an old man to the surprise of Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and The Hulk.
There’s a theory that the only way it could have been possible is that every timeline always has two Steve Rogers in it. Does that mean Peggy Carter always keeps one Steve Roger a secret from the other? And how do both Steve Rogers never accidentally bump into each other as they did in Avengers: Endgame? Do they somehow have a secret meeting about it and agree to it? It’s all muddled up at this point.
Thanks to the comments below, we’re given another theory over it. The alternative would be if he had some device to travel back from a different timeline to this one. But how did Captain America return all the infinity stones and still lead a different life at a different time and then return to this original one?
Loki May Have Created a New Timeline For Himself As Well
As the team of 2023, Avengers make their way back into the past in groups of three; we see Tony Stark, Captain America, and the Hulk make their way to 2012, where they give Tony an arc reactor failure when he meets Secretary Pierce. This allows them to remove the Tesseract briefcase containing the Space Stone. Though, the angry and uncontrollable Hulk of 2012 makes matters worse, leading to the Space Stone getting into the hands of Loki. 2012 Loki, being 2012 Loki, uses it to escape into a possibly new timeline he creates for himself.
This is complicated because Loki escapes the eventual Battle of New York in that 2012 reality. Plus, given that he was still working for Thanos at that moment, he would have just handed that Space Stone to Thanos in 2012. That means the events of Thor: The Dark World did not take place. This would further change the timelines as Asgard may not be destroyed, and Thor would still have his trusty Mjolnir. Consequently, the events that led to Avengers having a civil war among them wouldn’t have happened either. So, what does it all mean?
Moral of the story: Time travel will hurt your brain if you think about it too much in any movie. Avengers: Endgame still manages to satisfy us with its ending if you don’t ponder over the details too much. And that’s okay. No one’s complaining.
