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marvel - Did Avengers: Endgame break its own rules?


At the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, there was exposition dialog explaining the rules of time travel this movie was working under.


Banner explained that modifying the past will not alter the present. This movie does NOT work like Back to the Future, and they even mentioned that specific film.


They said that going back into the past and removing the Infinity Stones would not change the effects they had on the present.


Taking an object from the past wouldn't remove it from the present, so you would expect the opposite to be true: going back in time and leaving an object behind would not be adding it to the present.


Then, right at the end:




Steve Rogers went back in time, and chose not to come back. The other characters then encountered a very old Steve Rogers.



Doesn't this break the rules?



Something was left behind in the past (Steve Rogers himself), but he should not have appeared in their timeline.




Answer



Even though he was living his life with Peggy in the alternate timeline, once he was done he could probably have used another mechanism entirely to return to his own. For instance, his alternate timeline presumably has a sorcerer supreme who possesses the time stone, so he could go and ask for a favor, or might have simply made it part of the arrangement when he returns the time stone to the Ancient One in the first place.


This also allows him to provide Sam with a replacement for the shield destroyed by Thanos, which he apparently got by trading Mjolnir.



Edit:. this article basically confirms that he lived with Peggy in a branch timeline and used unspecified alternative means to get back to the 'prime' reality.


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