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Let’s Talk about 十環傳奇

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After kidnapping Tony Stark, plotting against Iron Man, and being imitated by an upstart supervillain, Wén is the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse re-interpretation of the infamous supervillain, the Mandarin from the comics

The history of the character, in the comics, is a complex one; that’s mired in unfortunately dated tropes, that was (probably) too complicated for Marvel Studios (at the time) to handle delicately.

In the hopes of having their cake and eating it too, they attempted to have Iron Man face-off his long-time foe from the comics, and literally reskin the Mandarin to not be a caricature of outdated tropes: by being a witless pawn of another reskinned villain?

The infamous twist reveal in Iron Man 3, led to great public outcry from the fans, and threatened the foundation of the then-nebulous Marvel Cinematic Universe

Having scored world-record-breaking success with the duology that ended Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…


Phase 3A

Marvel Studios was ready to embark on a journey to ever more ambitious horizons…

What’s interesting is how they re-interpreted the character’s powers, with a spin that’s inspired by actual Chinese culture

Read: Iron Man Vol. 5: Rings of the Mandarin (Collects Iron Man (2012) #23-28).

The Mandarin’s jièzhǐ was turned into Wenwu’s tiěhuán, and the Ten Rings organization was given an origin befitting the movie‘s love letter to xiá. (Hot on the heels of Crazy Rich Asians,) the movie was also a story about family: nature vs. nurture.

Ten Rings, in Traditional vs. Simplified script.
TraditionalSimplifiedDefinition
quán, authority
, power
zhuàng, sturdy
wěi, extraordinary
jié, outstanding
shì, influence
hóng, grand
xióng, mighty
qiáng, strength
wēi, dominate
Source: Reddit & Fandom.
The Ten Rings are now under the control of Xiàlíng, Shàng‘s sister.

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