TCTTS said:
Would it even have to be 2014 Nat? Couldn't they technically travel back to just before the initial time heist and grab THAT Nat?
(Which I'm not advocating, btw - I think she should stay dead - just saying.)
i guess so, but then wouldn't that screw up that then newly created timeline?
they way they are handling time travel in this movie is pretty confusing
basically, you cannot alter your own past. Going back into the past just creates another reality that branches from there. But due to using the Quantum Realm GPS thingy, they are able to return to their own reality.
So it doesn't matter that 2023 Nebula killed 2014 Nebula. When 2023 Nebula went to the past, she created a new timeline. So there is now an alternate reality where Nebula and Thanos are dead before the GOTG ever forms. Do the Guardians ever get together in that alternate timeline? who knows. Ronin still knows about the stones, so he will probably still go after it, so they may still form up.
Back to the original question. If you go back and retrieve Nat from right before the time heist, you could then have "your" Nat back, but from that point forward, you have now created a split in the timeline where they do not have Nat.
Likewise, there is a timeline where Loki gets away with the Tesseract. Do they ever get it back? that was used to rebuild the BiFrost. That new timeline may be royally effed now. Also, steve returned the stones, but he did not return the scepter or the tesseract. Those had to be destroyed to remove the stones. So you know have a timeline where when project pegasus begins, that they go into storage to get the tesseract and see that they have a small blue stone instead. what happens then? With loki's scepter, if HYDRA doesn't get their hands on it, Wanda doesn't get her powers.
The Avengers may have saved their own Universe, but they really threw a wrench into all the alternate realities they created.
Still a good movie. Hopefully the Disney+ Loki series is based upon what happens in this alternate reality.