Avengers Endgame always had a singular goal in mind – to reverse Thanos’ snap, which seemingly killed off half of the Marvel universe. But there were some characters whose fates were less certain, whether the snap was undone or not. Warning: there are a lot of spoilers for Avengers: Endgame ahead so tread carefully.
Is Gamora still alive after the Guardians time travel?
Yes, Gamora is miraculously back from the dead – only it turns out she, as we know her by the end of Endgame, never actually died.
If this sounds confusing, the reasoning behind it is in the miracle of time travel.
To understand how Gamora survives her own death during Avengers: Infinity War at Thanos’ hands, one has to understand how time travel operates within Endgame.
For clarification, present-day characters are the ones from the year 2023.
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Present day Nebula and Rhodes time travel to 2012, to intercept past-Nebula, past-Gamora, and past-Star Lord from getting the Power Stone.
But past-Nebula captures present-Nebula and takes her to Thanos.
Past-Nebula poses as present-Nebula and uses her time travel device, made by Iron Man, to return to 2023.
There she opens up the time machine, allowing past-Gamora (from 2012) and Thanos into 2023.
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Now, many would assume that due to the laws of time travel, this can’t be right as Gamora, having jumped ahead from 2012 to 2023, skips her 2018 death.
But according to Endgame’s rules of time travel, which are still hazy at best, the future is not impacted by changes to the past, because one is always in one’s own present – even when in the past.
So, when Gamora time travelled to 2023, she was still her ‘present’ day self, who never died at the hands of Thanos.
The present, therefore, is not a single point in time but all time, as oneself is in it.
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Confused? Don’t worry, everyone else seems to be too.
All fans need to know is Gamora is back, even if by the final moments of Endgame no one knows where she is.
It looks like we’ve got our plot for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 at least partly figured out.
Avengers: Endgame is now playing in UK cinemas.