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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jun 25th 2021 at 12:23:33 PM
There's no in-universe reason why he shouldn't keep them if the opportunity to do so presents itself. But there is an argument to be made that letting him obtain actual superpowers detracts a bit from the appeal of a character whose central concept is "Master of Kung Fu".
It's a bit like asking, "Why shouldn't Tony Stark make Iron Man suits for Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America, and have them pilot those going forward?"
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I don't expect Shang Chi to keep the rings, but per Tobias's point, I'd make an exception here because the rings as presented are martial arts equipment (magic martial arts equipment, but still....), and actual magic powers are not at all at odds with the wuxia genre.
As a comparison, while Iron Man suits would detract from what makes Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye cool, at the same time, all three of those characters do use unique weapons and in two of those cases, those weapons are part of what makes them cool (sorry Nat, no one really cares about your batons or bracelets).
I remember when the first trailer dropped a lot of criticism of the character along the lines of "The first major MCU Asian superhero shouldn't be a guy who's just good at kung fu." And it wouldn't surprise me, given the number of Asian-Americans involved in the movie's production, if the concern made its way into the writer's room as well. So there's most likely an incentive to ensure Shang-Chi is a heavy-hitter who is more than just the best damn martial artist ever, but at the same time you don't wanna undermine his martial arts prowess by just throwing random powers at him. Therefore, kung fu superweapons.
I'm honestly not the hugest fan of the idea tbh but I do think it can be done well if it's emphasized that the Ten Rings are supplementary and complimentary to his martial arts. I could very easily see the movie asserting that Wenwu is too reliant on the strength of the Rings alone and that Shang-Chi is more worthy because of "the strength within" or some shit like that. But the Rings becoming a central aspect of Shang-Chi's repertoire would be massive disservice to the character IMO.
All that said, it'd be downright hilarious if Shang-Chi takes the Rings for himself, and then Wenwu, desperate to reclaim his power, stumbles on ten completely different rings that are Truer to the Text to the comics rings.
Edited by Watchtower on Jun 25th 2021 at 4:37:16 AM
I was kind of hoping for a while that there would be a scene where Wenwu is, say, watching a recording of Tony’s funeral and taking satisfaction in having outlived him.
But the downside is that there isn’t really precedent for Mandarin and Tony having an archenemy or even particularly adversarial relationship in the MCU. Tony basically got one of his lieutenants’ way once a decade ago and beat up a guy who bought some fake passports off a small timer affiliated with him a year or so later. Unless they retcon Tony having been fighting Wenwu offscreen all this time, they just missed the train on that. I am expecting a nod to the Trevor Slattery short, but they don’t have much to draw on for anything else.
Which is why I’m hoping they have, like, Rhodey in the present make a cameo as a hero investigating Wenwu in some way. Bring it full circle, but not in a way that gets in the way of it being Shang’s movie.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 25th 2021 at 1:55:55 AM
Shang ending up with the rings also kind of fits with the whole parental legacy/daddy issues thing where he's expressly told his father is part of him. So by taking the legacy weapon and turning it to heroism not crime would be a way to show him grappling with that concept.
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."I'm normally a person who complains about nonsense, and I know this sounds petty even for me, but until the movie comes out and we know things for sure, I genuinely do not like this idea for the 10 rings, if it's as the people here are predicting.
Like, ever since the trailers for IM 3 dropped, all I've ever wanted was to see the Mandarin in a movie. With the ten rings. Specifically, the rings with all the unique powers. I think its the epitome of coolness. XD I don't tend to have a lot of characters or concepts that I want to see in an MCU movie. The Ten Rings were like the one exception.
So for the Mandarin to be adapted weirdly twice, and for the rings to be weird chi blast arm bands now is just kinda frustrating I guess.
Kaze ni Nare!I don't necessarily mean him outright fighting Wenwu in the film, as much as a nod that indicates that Wenwu and Rhodey or Stark Industries or so on are in contention at the moment.
It could even cycle back to my theory that Shang's friend "Katie" is actually an alias of classic Shang-Chi character & superspy Leiko Wu, and if so it could be revealed that Rhodey is the one who assigned her to Shang or something.
I can imagine the rings even if they don't have 10 unique superpowers, may have 10 unique functions at least to maintain the whole 10 multi weapon theme of it.
So going by the trailer one function is to use it to generate seismic blasts while another appears to manipulate them like an energy whip.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."The primary reason I don't think we'll see Fin Fang Foom in Shang Chi is that full on alien dragons and such aren't really Shang's thing, and having him end up the big bad of a Shang movie would be taking the character so far out of his mythos so as to not really be a Shang Chi movie any more.
Even Mandarin is primarily there to fill a role once held by another character, so the things directly associated with him (like the Ten Rings themselves) get carried over without necessarily taking Shang too far out of his zone, with the dragon we do see being very explicitly a mystical guardian dragon, which while not a Shang-Chi thing, is the kind of thing other Marvel martial arts characters have dabbled in. But beyond that, and you run the risk of Shang Chi's series becoming "all the Iron Man stuff they didn't get to in Iron Man's films, but with a martial arts protagonist instead."
I'd rather see other Shang Chi characters and villains, or at least other characters tied to the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu brand like White Tiger or Iron Fist.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 25th 2021 at 6:31:58 AM

Yeah, that trailer definitely gives me the impression that Shang-Chi gets the rings by the end. Either he uses them to finally defeat Mandarin, or it's right at the end and him actually using them is kind of a sequel hook.