Thread:Elledy92/@comment-26838855-20190425183005/@comment-1894786-20190430003622

All putting the Stones back does is ensure the survival of these timelines in the case that the Stones are needed to prevent calamity. And it also puts them back on the general path of the MCU, since the Stones "never vanished" in these timelines, but being nearly identical to the MCU is not the same as being the MCU. Most timelines in the comics are identical to 616 save for some small thing or another.

Howard still got parenting advice from Tony that he didn't originally have. And the Tesseract has been replaced by a shiny blue (Space) Stone. While it could end up in the same destination as the MCU, Howard may have taken that advice to heart and spent more time with Tony than he did in the MCU. That's speculation, but it's reasonable and logical speculation that can't just be ignored.

The Ancient One's path is completely unchanged as she recovers the Time Stone and even says in Doctor Strange that she's peered through time for centuries so there's no paradox with her, but Loki escapes with the Tesseract in his time, and HYDRA believe Cap is one of them, while Cap himself discovers Bucky's alive two years earlier than he should. Not to mention the Scepter is replaced with the Mind Stone. Putting the Time and Mind Stones back cannot possibly erase this timeline, and it's certainly not putting it on the same it's already radically diverged.

As for Asgard, Jane was already attacked by Rocket before the Dark Elves even showed up. Surely the protection around her would be intensified rather than let her wander around the palace like she did in the actual movie. And Frigga is a sharp woman, if she can tell Thor is from the future just by looking at him, surely she can tell by his pained and emotional comments that something bad will happen to her. Again, it's speculative but she could've easily avoided death in this timeline, resulting in Jane having no need to leave Asgard with Thor and Loki on their Revenge Quest. Not to mention the Aether has disappeared and a solid, red Stone is in its place.

And 2014 is in the same boat as 2012, there's no way putting the Stones back could reset the timeline or set it along the same path as the MCU. Quill is passed out. He barely beat Korath to the Stone in the original timeline, he was probably found and killed by him in this one. And whether or not this timeline's Gamora survived Tony's snap, she's gone. Her selling the Power Stone to the Collector is what got the Guardians to form in the first place. With the Guardians out of the way, and all of Thanos' forces gone, Ronan can decimate Xandar with no resistance.

And then there's Vormir. After Infinity War, the Russos confirmed that the second Thanos got the Soul Stone, Red Skull was no longer tied to Vormir. Even if Cap gets there and chucks it off the cliff as Clint is waking up in the pond... Red Skull is gone. He up and left, just like he did in the MCU after Gamora died. Unless the Soul Stone re-enslaves him, which is very unlikely since it was the Space Stone that condemned him to that fate.

And then we come to the 1940's. I'm still very firm on the fact that this is also an alternate timeline. I just came back from seeing the movie again last night. The Time Machine lights up when Steve is supposed to return. And Bruce even says that Steve missed his timestamp. He was registering a trip, a trip Steve was making from another timeline. And the way the scene is framed, Bruce and his tech set-up is facing Steve's bench. He never mentions someone being there, and the first ones to notice are Sam and Bucky, almost as if Steve appeared there suddenly.

Not to mention there's the extra shield. Assuming Steve was living in the MCU all this time, in secret, when and where would he have gotten another Vibranium shield, if he was meant to be hiding in secret until this very moment? Isn't it just as likely that he went to an alternate 1940's identical to that of the MCU, lived his life with Peggy for decades, waited until she died, somehow got his frozen counterpart's shield, went back to the MCU when Bruce registered his jump and appeared on the bench?