Bottom line: this whole thing is a headache. I could just accept it and move on, but I'm an autistic and OCD, so I'd much rather come up with headcanon to plug the holes.

It always seemed obvious to me that Runaways season 3 (excluding the finale, which time jumps and time travels) is set before the Snap, and Agents of SHIELD's final seasons are set in an alternate branch of the timeline. I was just a bit taken aback by that that is not in fact obvious to the fanbase, and that I may want to rethink my position.

I've come to accept that here on the Wiki, we follow the numbers, no matter how much the events on screen may or may not make sense. The numbers trump all. If the math points to a date, and it's not verifiably impossible, then that's the date. And that's ok.

@SpaceLemonade Stuff we see in the series do not allow for that. Runaways very firmly places itself in late 2017-late 2018 (the whole series), and AoS shows us a device which tracks things from a different universe, and it does not track the SHIELD agents, only Deke (who we already knew was from a different universe). The canon info is simply that these shows are set after the Snap in the same timeline. You can headcanon that they talk about it offscreen if you need to fill the holes, but this is the information we canonically have

@SpaceLemonade it is not "obvious" because it is speculation. AoS6-7 are set in the main timeline not alternate timelines. They are all main MCU, and when they branched off they were very clear to set it in stone.

@Marvelus I said it SEEMED obvious. As in my own internal logic brought me to the conclusion and I could see no other way for it to work. Obviously (hehe) I was wrong to make that assumption.

I am sorry. I didn't mean to sound like I were judging you.

@Brett3801 The thingy in Agents only identifies stuff from different universes, not whether its universe is different from the main timeline (which is only the main timeline because of the TVA; otherwise any universe is its own default reality). Correct me if I'm way off.

As for Runaways, if part of it is firmly set post-Snap, then it seems to me that the simplest explanation (ol' Occam) is that the last leg of Runaways is not part of the main timeline.

Of course, I understand now that my logical inferrences are merely speculation.

@Marvelus No worries, I was just making what I said previously clearer.

It identifies stuff from different universes, exactly. So if the Agents created alternate timeline, they would be not in their home universe, and the device would have picked them up

That's not the simplest explanation. The simplest explanation cannot possible be that the direct confirmations are wrong, the crossover features alternate versions of Cloak & Dagger, and that the Runaways in the main timeline never returned from the Dark Dimension/that dimensional travel somehow took them to not their native universe. The simplest explanation is that they don't mention it even though it happened. That's plenty simple

@ThatGuyNamedJoe Why did you say that Natasha and May are friends? Is there any scene where they say that? Just asking