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Heartwarming / Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

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Heartwarming pages are for post-viewing discussion; they assume that you've already seen the work in question, and as such are spoiler-free.

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Nothing like getting smashed and doing karaoke the night before your next shift with your best friend.

  • Shang-Chi standing up for Katy to her mother over her career.
    • Shang-Chi's relationship with Katy's entire family, of which he seems to be an honorary member of sorts. Katy's mom dotes on him, he and Katy's little brother have some easy banter going, and Katy's grandma adores him. And if the fond smile on his face while he listens to her stories is anything to go by, it's pretty clear that the feeling is mutual.
    • The fact that Katy's grandmother still makes offerings to her deceased husband. When Katy tells her grandmother she doesn't have to do it, she explains there are some traditions you take with you.
    • Katy's grandmother urges her to marry "Shaun" because he's good-looking and a great catch. While they both demur and say they're Just Friends, Shang-Chi looks legitimately flattered by the compliment.
  • Shang-Chi doesn't start the bus fight until one of the goons punches his best friend Katy. The act switches Shang-Chi from meek mortal to martial arts master in one second. His immediate response after punching the guy across the bus? Ask if she's ok.
  • Wenwu gives his son a twisted compliment in saying he was glad his own men couldn't kill him. He's not kidding either; he really doesn't think his men could kill him.
  • Wenwu's motivation for all the things he does in the film? The desire to save his wife. The domestic happiness he and his family shared before her death is also quite touching, especially as he was willing to set aside his criminal empire and even forsake his immortality and the power of the Ten Rings in order to be with her. Even as his men are fighting through her home village, Wenwu takes time to pray at her shrine.
    • When he hears that his children escaped, rather than flying into a rage or trying to recapture them, he just sighs and says they'll return once his wife is back.
    • He also has his men armed with mostly non-lethal weaponry and restraining gear for the battle, intending on taking the villagers alive instead of outright murdering them all, likely out of regard to his wife's people, even when he still believes that they are simply holding her captive.
  • When Ying Li is confronted by her husband's rivals, the one request she makes is that her children are kept out of it. That request is granted.
  • Wong mentoring Emil Blonsky implies that the Abomination has softened his militant nature and is genuinely striving to redeem himself.
  • Wenwu is very civil towards Katy. Unlike Katy's parents, who urge her to find direction, and her grandmother asking her to marry "Shaun", he doesn't ask the usual questions you would expect a dad to ask his son about a lady friend. He asks what her given name was, and advises her that names can define who you are and what your impact will be. Katy is surprised that the man that Shang-Chi described as a monster can actually be civil.
  • A subtle one, but when Wenwu finishes his story regarding his time with Ying Li during dinner, he claims he is not lost anymore. Xialing, emotional from the memories, looks up at her father, who is looking at her with a warm, fatherly smile. While he found it all but impossible to relate to his daughter after his wife's passing and focused on Shang-Chi instead, it's abundantly clear that for all his mistakes, Wenwu never stopped loving his daughter.
  • The friendship between Trevor Slattery and Morris. Morris is genuinely distraught when he thinks Trevor has fallen in battle, but when he sees Trevor is just acting he calms down with relief.
    • The fact that Trevor is only held captive by the Ten Rings as their personal court jester rather than executed with ten bullets as implied by All Hail the King. Despite their merciless persona in the past films, the Ten Rings do know when to show mercy to their captives, especially since Trevor is more of an Unwitting Pawn than someone maliciously mocking Wenwu for their own gain.
    • While it's played as much for laughs than anything, the legitimate joy Trevor has when he realizes Morris is real (and not a hallucination of his captivity) is absolutely adorable. And the fact that he seems to legitimately understand Morris shows the genuine connection he has with him.
  • The entire flashback to the days of happiness after Wenwu marries Ying-Li; we are treated to the couple posing for a classically romantic Chinese wedding photo, Wenwu gently holding Shang-Chi as a baby, Ying-Li letting Shang-Chi listen to his little sister growing in her stomach, the entire family having quality time and home made dinners together; not to mention the positively adorable sight of Wenwu, the mighty warlord who conquered the known world, playing DanceDanceRevolution in joyous laughter with his wife and children.
  • Ying Nan warmly welcoming Shang-Chi and company to Ta Lo. Her hospitality even extends to Katy, who upon shyly introducing herself, also receives a warm welcome and a bear hug of her own. Katy is visibly touched.
    • Later on, it is also Ying Nan who helps boost Xialing's confidence, saying that in Ta Lo, everybody is equal and welcome to train alongside each other. She then gives Xialing a dragon-scale upgraded version of her favored weapon, the rope dart, much to her niece's delight.
    • It isn't her mother's nagging or her brother's sarcasm that gets Katy to find direction with her life. It's Ying Nan hearing her open up about her lack of self-confidence and finding something to commit to by sending Katy to train with the archers.
    Ying Nan: If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing.
    • Trevor's shown during the training montage teaching the Ta Lo children how to play football. For their part, they bear no ill will towards a complete stranger infamous for his mockery of Chinese culture.
  • As Wenwu's soul is being sucked out, his last thoughts are a quick montage of all the times he was happy with his son... which includes basically every time we see them interact in the movie. His last act is to send the Rings to Shang-Chi in the hopes that he will use them better.
  • After abandoning his sister as a teenager, Shang-Chi chooses holding onto his sister Xialing over saving the world while the dragon Guardian is having its soul sucked out.
    Shang-Chi: I'm not leaving you again.
    • Not to mention the look on Xialing's face when Shang-Chi says the above line. After all those years of thinking that her brother had forgotten her completely, she finally realizes just how much he truly loves her.
  • After the battle, the first thing Shang-Chi does is search for Katy and wrap her in a giant hug. No words are exchanged, but it's visible to all just how relieved they both are that their best friend has survived.
    • Later, at the funeral ceremony, an exhausted Katy simply leans against Shang-Chi's shoulder. In response, Shang-Chi gives her a soft smile before leaning against her head.
  • Bruce Banner's last line ultimately sums up the whole experience:
    • To expand, the implication that the world's superheroes have been keeping in consistent contact post-Endgame lends credence to the idea that they've truly formed a community after simply orbiting each other tangentially.
  • During the mid-credits scene, Wong tells Shang-Chi and Katy to go home and get some rest so they'll be ready for what comes next. Instead, they decide to go to karaoke again and this time they bring Wong with them.
  • Katy's whole friendship with Shang-Chi: Even after learning that he has been keeping a major secret from her and being understandably freaked out by a bunch of armed criminals attacking the bus they were on, she never hesitates to have his back.
    • When Shang-Chi reveals that he needs to go to Macau to find his sister, Katy says fine, she's going with him. Shang-Chi tries to argue, but she says he's explaining everything to her on the plane.
    • Katy teases Shang-Chi that he changed his name to Shaun, like that would hide him from his father. He responds by grinning and putting in the airplane headphones.
  • The people of Ta Lo would have no obligation to help the Ten Rings soldiers who attacked them after the minions of the Dweller-in-Darkness are released, yet they give them their weapons with dragon scales to assist and fight all together. At the end of the battle, as Shang-Chi and Xialing somberly look at the fallen, some members of the Ten Rings can be seen helping and comforting the villagers, and even participating in the funeral rites honoring those who fell defending Ta Lo.
    • Razor Fist himself can be seen releasing a lantern alongside the main characters. Considering he saw Wenwu as a father, he likely feels his loss every bit as much as Shang-Chi and Xialing do.
  • In a twisted sense, Wenwu tells his children that he knew where they were the whole time. He felt he was too hard on both of them and gave them ten years to forge their new identities and see the world. The reason Wenwu summoned them back? He was convinced that once he brought their mother to life, they would be a family.
  • A minor example along the lines of Even Evil Has Standards: In the flashback to Ying Li's death, members of the Iron Gang arrive at their home, looking for revenge on Wenwu. However, when Ying Li protests that the children should not be involved in paying for their father's misdeeds, the leader agrees and allows the young Shang-Chi and Xialing to walk away unharmed.

Other material

  • Deleted scenes that give Razor Fist more development.
    • At the dinner scene, Wenwu tells the story of how he found a one-armed juggler named Mattias on the streets of Romania and adopted him. He also defends him when Katy and Xialing start making fun of his alias. What makes this heartwarming is that he doesn't treat Razor Fist as a thug or just another soldier, but as though he were his own son:
    Razor Fist: Your father took me in and gave me a home, and a purpose.
    Xialing: And a razor arm.
    Razor Fist: It's a razor fist.
    Xialing: That makes no sense.
    Katy: She's right because it's technically an oxymoron. If you think about it, "fist" is blunt, "razor" is like sharp—
    Wenwu: Stop, please. Mattias can call his razor whatever he wants.
    • While cornered by the soul-suckers, Razor Fist gives Katy a pep-talk before sacrificing his life to get her bow back.

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