How are the events from Infinity War possible if this character is dead?

Question

So, in the climax of Avengers: Endgame,

the Thanos from 2014 travels forward in time to 2023 and dies in the climactic battle.

This should, logically, prevent the events of Avengers: Infinity War from ever taking place, since he ceased to be present in the time line 4 years prior to this.

However, the movie seems to imply that the events of Infinity War still happened, creating a time travel paradox - a variant of the Grandfather Paradox.

Is there any official statement as to what occurred, or is this just a plot hole in the movie?

Answer 1

You’ve misunderstood how time travel works in the MCU. You can’t change the future by changing things in the past because you are in your future not your past. Things don’t work like in Back to the Future, this was made very clear in the events of the film.

In fact the only way to change a timeline is to remove an Infinity Stone from it as explained by The Ancient One to Bruce. Therefore, the Thanos in 2023 is the Thanos in an alternate reality separate from the main timeline. As the Infinity Stone from 2014 was put back there the alternate reality where Thanos goes to 2023 then ceases to exist as explained by Bruce.

Answer 2

We don't know what the intent of the final snap was, but we do know the infinity stones should have power beyond 'remove half the population' and

'bring them back'

It's something of a guess, but to keep the timeline intact, it seems reasonable to assume that the final snap was intended to

return Thanos and his army to 2014, with all memories of their temporal excursion wiped

If that's the case, it would also close the issue of

the Nebulae not wiping themselves out of time, and explain where Gamora is (i.e. back in 2014)