I am now going to tell you how all y’all misunderstood Cap’s final scenes in Avengers: Endgame. [Spoilers]

Spoilers.

Spoilers spoilers spoilers.

Spoiler McSpoilerFace.

All your spoilers are belong to us.

SO many spoilers.

SPOILERS! I shall not warn you again!

Last chance to escape the spoilers to the peace and safety of a new dark age!

Okayyyy….

So, you know the basics: they sent Cap back in time with the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir —

Best.

Scene.

EVAR.

— in order to put everything back, he does so, decides not to actually go back to the present and instead goes and has a life. Gets married. They don’t tell you who, but his last scene shows him dancing with Peggy, so all y’all jumped to the wrong conclusion. And then got upset, because what about her husband and kids from the original timeline?

Yeah, well, don’t worry about that. Cap knew damn well what Peggy did after the war, and he’s not an asshole — BECAUSE HE’S CAPTAIN DAMN AMERICA, THAT’S WHY — so he’s not going to interfere with the timeline. At all. He’s going to go live out a quiet life in obscurity, and let it all play out, which is what had always happened. That’s responsible time travel, that.

But what about the wedding ring?

Easy enough to explain, actually. Say that you’re Captain America, and you’ve been told that Black Widow had to die in order to get an Infinity Stone that you’re now going to put back at the exact moment that you lost it, and oh hey the Stonekeeper was that Red Skull guy , didn’t you know him?

…and — here’s the crazy part — you have Mjolnir and all six Infinity Stones.

Gee. I wonder if you’re going to swing to the Soul Stone first and politely ask the Red Skull to fiddle with the system a little in order to get Natasha back. And when he says no, well, you can keep just hitting things — like, you know, the Stonekeeper — with the Stones until it all somehow works out right, hey? I dunno, man. It’s a real mystery no wait it’s not because Captain Goram America. Besides, after that you have Black Widow along to help you put everything back.

No wonder Professor Hulk couldn’t bring her back from the dead! And, yeah, I know, I know: Bruce and Natasha seemed to have something going on, there. But they clearly had moved on from each other, and there was a lot of never-fully-faced tension going on in Captain America: Winter Soldier between Steve and Natasha, and …tell me I’m wrong.

We’ll never see this played out on the screen, of course. Chris Evans is done keeping his body in 10/10 condition for years at a time just to make these movies (although it certainly was the right decision at the time, hey?) But if you’re looking for a way for Cap not to be even a little bit of a jackwagon in the Endgame, there you go. He saves Natasha, goes back to have closure with one last dance with Peggy, and then everybody goes off and be adults. Bittersweet, but that’s maturity for you.

Moe Lane

PS: By the way: while you weren’t looking, the Russo brothers managed to turn eleven years and 22 movies into the leadup for a nigh-perfect dad joke.

“I am inevitable.”

“And I am Iron Man.”

Brilliant. After I was done being sad, I almost bust a gut laughing.

10 thoughts on “I am now going to tell you how all y’all misunderstood Cap’s final scenes in Avengers: Endgame. [Spoilers]”

  1. Hmmm. Who was it who said ‘They are going to deal with the controversy by just ignoring it, and that is the right call’?
    .
    Steve and Natasha? I honestly do not see this one. She is beautiful and they have chemistry. However, yeah.
    .
    The central tragedy as well as the foundation of ‘A Man out of time’ is based around and because of Peggy. This was the payoff. The happily ever after.
    .
    So you are saying that instead he gets to go back to his old life in a world where Peggy loves him (after seeing that dance, tell me I am wrong), but has to live out a Tantalus like life for the remainder of his days? I do not believe God is that cruel.
    .
    The other thorn in the pudding is Peggy herself. As much as Steve had to be displaced and then came back to a world in which Peggy lived a life without him, she in turn had to live that life without him- however, she at least had the certainty that he was dead. After all, what force would keep Steve Rogers from making that dance if he was alive? One would say this was borne out, it just took 22 movies and the power of the Infinity stones and a Norse hammer, but he got the job done.
    .
    It takes two to tango (dance metaphor) and I am pretty sure she does not make this call either. Again, after seeing that dance, tell me I am wrong.
    .
    Sorry Moe, but I am a romantic at heart.

    1. I will say fair enough while still maintaining my theory. However: ain’t no way Steve is letting Nat stay dead. Ain’t. No. Way.

      Moe Lane

      PS: Foolish inconsistency, hobgoblins, I contain multitudes, yadda yadda. 😉

      1. *fistbump* absolutely.
        .
        My guess is the conversation could go a couple ways:
        -‘See this hammer?’ ‘See this stone?’ ‘Pick an orifice.’

        -*playing with Mjolnir*’This is a drop off, Johnny. Simple exchange. I give you back the Soul Stone. You give me back Natasha Romanov. Simple… and we do not have to test how much an Immortal Guardian can take.’

  2. Here’s my concern:

    Cap #1 goes back in time and creates a new timeline (timeline #2) in which he lives with Peggy and maybe goes on adventures, saves Bucky and by extension, Howard and Maria Stark. Maybe even Janet Pym. Anyway, he then comes back from timeline #2 sometime after Peggy likely dies. Okay.

    But then, what about the Cap native to timeline #2? He wakes up, and finds out that Peggy has been living with an alternate version of himself and is now dead. Okay, well, he just goes back in time, just before Cap #1 came back to be with Peggy. So, now there’s Cap #3 in the same situation as Cap #2 was…

  3. A few comments…

    What bugged me about the “Marries Peggy” situation isn’t “what happens to Peggy’s original family?” Presumably her original husband marries some other woman. And the kids that Peggy would have had with that other guy still get born. They just all have the last name ‘Rogers’ instead.

    No, the problem that I have with the “Marries Peggy” situation is this –

    Sometime not long after the end of the war, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark help found SHIELD. And we’re to believe that Steve Rogers stays anonymous and doesn’t help out his wife’s new organization? Or that Howard Stark somehow never discovers that Peggy’s new husband is a man that he’s worked with directly, and has a good deal of respect for? And that word never gets out to ANYONE (including Dr. Zola, who would likely have no compunctions about leaking it) that Steve Rogers is very much alive?

    I’m having a lot of trouble buying it…

    One of my biggest disappointments with Infinity War and Endgame is that they used Red Skull… but never gave him a face to face with Cap. What was the point, really? They could have had anything present as the custodian of the Soul Stone. But they had Red Skull, and then never had him meet the one other character who might have cared that it was him. I’d love to have a plot summary of the discussion between those two when Cap arrives to return the Soul Stone (without knowing beforehand that Red Skull is there, of course, since Clint had no clue regarding his identity and wouldn’t have been able to tip off Cap).

    Regarding Natasha –

    If Cap could figure out a way to bring her back, he would do it in a heartbeat. Having said that, 1.) I don’t think Red Skull had any real control over keeping the Soul Stone secure. I think he was only present to tell people how to obtain it, put there by another power (which begs the question – who or what is that other power?). 2.) It’s unlikely that Cap could safely use the stones. Banner was badly hurt after using them once, and it’s stated that he was almost certainly the only member of the team that could safely use the gauntlet. Tony died almost immediately after doing so. Steve’s tougher than Tony. But he’s not that much tougher.

    IMO, the only way that this theory works is if Cap “convinces” Red Skull to let Cap talk to whoever created the scheme for securing the Soul Stone in the first place, and convinces them to take the Stone back in exchange for Natasha’s life.

    1. Regarding the Stones: Cap would certainly not survive using all of the Stones to, say, wipe out half the universe or render them down to the atomic level. But I suspect that using one or more of them to *impress* upon the Red Skull how *important* it is that Steve speak to someone in authority right *now* would be within his capabilities.

    2. It was an odd choice for the Red Skull- especially since they were not even able to get Hugo Weaving. There is something there beyond the ‘Oh look, it’s the Red Skull!’

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