- Jul 27, 2015
- 9,685
- 47,483
Can someone help out here?
We are talking about 2 different instances of time travel. 2014 Thanos travels to the future due to the 2014 Nebula tricking the team, however, he is still "Past" Thanos. Remember, per the rules, changing the past does not alter the future, just creating a new branched timeline. The only thing Past Thanos affects is the 2014 reality, and his departure creates that timeline branch. The Prime Line remains constant, and that's the time Past Thanos joins - leaving his 2014 timeline branch to be whatever it is. That's why when Past Nebula died, Present Nebula didn't.
In Steve's case, he is Present Steve going back in time. He remains Present Steve even in the past. The only branch it affects is Past Peggy. A safe bet is because Present Steve knows about the Prime Line and how the whole thing went down, he was able to branch back at that point where he gives the shield to Sam.
It’s literal multiverse theory rather than time travel. The “branches” are actually alternate universes.