So it looks like Kevin Spoilers is the last one out with a Shang-Chi breakdown. You can
Unsubscribe, dislike but don't let the door hit you on the way back as we have a lot of
big theories for the post credits scene of the marvel movie that I haven't seen discussed
in any other videos.
They were great, sure they were great but I think there's a lot of big clues as to when
the movie is set in the timeline, how it sets up Secret Wars and also what it tells us about
the upcoming She Hulk show. We're gonna be discussing it all in this video but heavy
spoilers ahead so if you haven't had a chance to check it out then I highly recommend that
you check out now. Smash the thumbs up button if you enjoy it and don't forget to subscribe
for breakdowns like this each and every day.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let's get into Shang-Chi and the
legend of the ten rings.
Ok so First up I wanna discuss the second post credits scene first as I think that's
the more straightforward one of the two.
As always if you don't wanna hear the sound of my voice narrating what you've just seen
in a dullset british accent then timecodes will be linked below and I won't be mad at
you for skipping ahead, I promise.
Ok so now they're gone, what a bunch of bloody d**kheads they were ey. Put all this work
into the video and they just skip ahead, pfff anyway the second post credits scene sees
Xialing taking over her fathers organisation the Ten Rings. We were told that she was disbanding
the group, however we find her in a similar position to what Wenwue was, sitting on a
throne as her fighters start to train to take over everything.
Now we start the movie over 1000 years ago and see first the the ten rings enabled her
father to become immortal and build this organsation over the cenutries.
I think we need to talk about how the movie plays out in order to understand how we got
to this point but there are a lot of hints that she was always going to go this way.
Early on in the movie we take a trip into the past and learn the full backstory of the
real Mandarin.
I said the real Mandarin. The real Mandarin.
Perfection.
Tony Leung perfectly plays the antagonist and he makes for one of the most compelling
villains in the MCU due to his heavily emotionally enthused portrayal of the Marvel Unvierses'
greatest criminal mind.
Due to the power of the rings, Wenwu builds a vast empire known as the Ten Rings and in
the movie we learn very much the power of ones name and how it builds a legend.
This idea of family and the past has a massive influence on the key characters in the film
and it very much sets up which direction both Shang-Chi and his sister will be travelling
on. Turns out this idea of a name and the power that it holds is what inspired Aldritch
Kilian to adopt the moniker the Mandarin and Wenwu very much brushes the idea of Iron Man
3 to the side in order to cement himself.
After Wenwu meets the guardian of a mystical village called Ta Lao, he falls in love with
her and he decides to leave the rings behind. The pair start a family but after she's murderded
by a group known as the Iron Gang he becomes the man that he left in the past in order
to exact revenge.
Guy said get the Iron Gang and they thought he meant Iron Man ey.
Now Early on in the movie, Wenwue pushed his son to follow in his footsteps and he very
much brushes Xialing to the side. However she is spurred on by this and secretly she
trains herself in the ways of the Ten Rings. This idea of living up to what her father
wanted her to be I think very much explains why she took over the Empire instead of tearing
it apart and I do believe that she will be one of the big foes in the next film.
The film follows Shang-Chi and Xialing as they try and stop Wenwue from unleashing a
soul sucking monster who reminds me of my mother in law who has hypnotised the villain
into believing that it's actually his wife.
Ey we've all woke up to worse.
Wenwue attacks Ta Lao because he believes that destroying a giant doorway holding her
soul will free her but he learns the truth too late and he's killed by the monster. This
allows The Ten Rings to be taken over by Xialing who steps into his place as the new ruler.
In the final scene she's joined by Jon Jon and also Razor Fist showing that she's encompassing
her already established endevours and pulling them together with her father's organisation.
Now though it is possible that she's gonna end up guiding the Ten Rings on a more positive
path, I think that we can tell by the themes in the film that she's more inclined to be
like her dear old dad.
The two parental figures in the film aka Ying Li and Wenwu both have a lot of influence
on their children and Shang-Chi ends up acting more like the former whereas Xialing becomes
a lot like the latter. It is possible that in the future we will see Shang-Chi end up
as a guardian of Ta Lo, much like his mother.
If his dad wanted him to take over he should've put ten rings on it.
Ey.
(crickets)
I think that a couple of phases will have to happen before we get to this point but
this idea is hinted at when Shang-Chi ends up unlocking the full potential of the rings
which glow orange the same as they were when his mother possessed them. This is something
that his father could not do and the idea of being worthy is something that we've of
course seen in the likes of Thor's Hammer...molnigir...mljonir?
Juxtaposing this Xialing will take the opposite path and much like her father she'll end up
continuing to boost the Ten Rings as a vast criminal empire.
Now because of where we're introduced to her, I think we can guess who she will be working
with. In the movie we meet her in Macau and learn that she ran away from her father's
compound in order to create a fighting tournament there.
Xialing built a vast business that pulls in people from around the world and it could
be possible that this caught the attention of someone else who was operating in Asia
at the time. In Falcon And The Winter Soldier we learned that Sharon Carter had ended up
building her own criminal empire in Madripoor and that she was now going under the identity
the Power Broker in order to remanufacture the super soldier serum.
Though this was destroyed, the series ended with her getting a foothold in the US and
she was given access to all manner of operations. We know that she was speaking to someone else
about joining her plans in taking over and it is possible that the pair know one another
and that they will be working together in the future to infiltrate the US.
There are also currently a vast number of Black Widows out in the world as well and
I have a feeling that Xialing might end up reaching out or working with these groups
in order to build an international empire that has agents in every country around the
world
I think that's what the finale teases with and as the credits state the Ten Rings will
return. Now interestingly this idea of her mother's ideology being part of the organisation
can also be seen in the symbol itself as her flower is now in the centre. Originally there
were two blades but this has been changed up in order to reflect the new mindset.
Anyway shoutouts Ryan Arey from Screen Crush for pointing out that the rings themselves
could actually be a combination of the rings and the quantum bands. In the comics they're
far more like the Infinity Stones with each ring possessing it's own power and ability.
However Marvel clearly didn't want to simply just repeat the past and they've meshed the
two ideas together in order to form the rings.
What do you mean I said I wasn't talking about what the other vidoes were.
No but this has actually been shown in things like the Tesseract which was an amalgamation
of the space stone and also the cosmic cube from the comics.
As for the bands they could only be weilded by someone who was deemed as being worthy
and these cosmic bracelets were worn around the wrists much like the rings are. They themeslves
pulled from the Quantum realm and it is possible that this beacon may have also awakened Kang
the conqueror who's home of Chronopolis could be seen in Ant-Man Quantumainia.
I actually think that Xialing will attempt to get these back from her brother as they
are of course the symbol of the organisation and there's also a possibility that she is
worthy too. Much like her brother she has aspects of both her father and mother in her
personality and these two sides of the same coin to me are the key to unlocking the full
potential of the ten rings.
Now in the comics the rings themselves were actually created by an alien race known as
the Makluan which Fing Fang Foom originates from. In the prologue it is said that the
rings possibly originated from a crater and this could've been caused by a meteorite which
the great protector may have travelled along with.
Fing Fang Foom is a potential character that the beacon could've reached out too and it
is possible that he will be coming into the sequel as we've already been introduced to
dragon like creatures in this one. Xialing was able to control the great protector and
there is a possibility that the beacon will call out to Fing Fang Foom who will come to
Earth and team up with her in order to take over the planet.
Now speaking of the rings, that takes us perfectly into the second post credits scene which heavily
revolves around their true nature being revealed.
As we've talked about they sent out a beacon and though it could be messaging the Makluan,
I actually have another theory that I think makes a lot of sense from what we know about
the future of the MCU.
However before we do that I have one, just one request and that is that if you're enjoying
the video so far I'd also massively appreciate the like as we did post quite late and it
just helps us in the algorithm. Namely against Ryan Bloody Arey, Bloody Ryan Arey.
I must break you.
Ok so the film itself ends with Wong arriving at a restaurant and from here he takes Shang
and Katy to the Sanctum Sanctorum. Here they encounter Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers through
similar hologram tech to what we saw in Endgame. Now in Endgame Carol's hair was quite short
and due to the length we see it here I'd say that it's been at least a year since the blip
brought everyone back. Bruce is also back to normal and no longer professor hulk and
I think the last Avengers movie gave us a big clue to how this could have happened.
In the film we watched as Banner figured out a way to push time through someone instead
of pushing someone through time and it is possible that he used this to reverse the
effects of his transformation.
We do know that Mark Ruffalo will be appearing in the upcoming She Hulk series and I'm guessing
that if Smart Hulk was in it that the CGI budget would balloon out of control so they
scaled things back. Though I enjoyed Smart Hulk I'm someone who prefers the idea of the
jolly green giant being a curse so I'm glad they pressed the reset button on it and returned
it to what it was.
Now due to our rough estimation about the timeline I would say that this movie takes
place way after the events of No Way Home. In the trailer for the upcoming Spider-man
movie we watched as Wong went on Vacation and it is possible that he then met with the
Abomination and started to train him like what we see in the movie.
Anyway the beacon could have a number of potential people that heard it and I've seen a lot of
people say that they believe that it's galactus. Personally I don't think that's the case as
he's not connected to Shang-Chi or the rings. That would be like introducing Darkseid through
a Jimmy Olsen comic and eh...what do you mean that's what happened.
Anyway I think that's unlikely and the three that possibilities that I've settled on are
Fing Fang Foom, The Celestials and The Beyonder.
Now we've already talked about the first and the second option will likely be confirmed
in The Eternals.
From the trailer we know that the Celestials have been awoken as have the deviants and
in the trailer we see a celestial egg travelling to Earth. In the comics this creates a new
one and though they are being portrayed as the good guys, it's possible that stopping
them will also be a requirement for saving the planet.
Now the last option is kind of my wild card but hear me out.
So the Beyonder isn't really that famous of a character but those who are aware of the
comics will know that he was pivotal to the Secret Wars story. In that book the multiverse
was torn open and the Beyonder pulled together the fragments of it in order to form a new
earth called Battle World.
This was divided up into continents all with their own rulers and we watched as versions
of characters from across the multiverse battled for their own survival.
We already know that the multiverse is gonna be a big part of the MCU in the next phase
and it would be awesome to see characters from the X-men and Sonyverse going head to
head in order to join the MCU timeline.
Now my theory for the next film is that we discover that a beacon has been sent out across
the cosmos and that it's been picked up by The Beyond. During this time Xialing ends
up gaining access to the ten rings and she takes these from her brother.
The Beyond then arrives on Earth to find her starting to take over and he takes her under
his wing to formulate the next part of his plan.
After tearing the multiverse apart he forms battleworld and puts her in charge due to
her knowledge of running a fighting tournament.
From here we will watch as things like the fox universe, sony one and the MCU battle
it out for supremacy and this will help to streamline all of the characters together
under one umbrella.
The multiverse also being split open and the rings being connected to the quantum realm
may also call forth Kang who could continue to be the big bad for the next phase. What
I love about the idea of he who remains and kang is that you never know if you're going
to be seeing a good or evil version of the character.
I think it would be amazing if the secret wars storyline happened and we met a version
of Kang that seemed to be good on the surface. He could help the heroes pull together the
multiverse into one timeline, only then to reveal that he just did this in order to be
able to rule over it.
I would absolutely love that twist and though it's a long shot I think the pieces are in
place that hint towards it.
Ok so as for my thoughts on the film, I have to say that I really really enjoyed the first
hour, though I did have some issues with teh pacing in the second.
I feel that everything was incredible until they hit the village and then from there it
kinda went off the rails a bit, slowed right down and introduced a threat that I didn't
really think was that necessary. Personally I would've preferred it if they'd kept the
Mandarin as the main baddie and that's simply because I found him far more interesting that
the soul sucking dwellers that were shoe horned in.
That being said the movie is steeped with a lot of history, amazing action scenes and
it also contains one of the best villains in the MCU. I actually thought that this film
would completely wipe all of Iron Man 3 out and though it does to some extent I actually
appreciate that they managed to incorporate Trevor in some way so people that liked that
movie, which I'm ashamed to say I did, don't feel like it's been dumped on.
This is what an origin story should be in my opinion and it really succeeded in it's
goal of getting me completely invested in Shang-Chi and the future of the Ten Rings.
Though it isn't Tenet in terms of complexity, I think that the character building here is
absolutely amazing and the action scenes are some of the best choreographed moments in
the entire MCU. Shang-Chi had the difficult task of not only competing with other comic
book movies but it also had to head to head with Kung Fu blockbusters as well.
I actually think that it manages to hold it's own against both in the genre and it excels
in terms of storytelling and action even if the second hour is worse than the first in
my opinion. I think one of it's big strengths is that it works really well as a standalone
movie and though it's clearly being pushed as the first asian american superhero I also
think that there are universal themes here that everyone will be able to relate to.
Normally I spoil marvel movies for myself due to the leaks and speaking to people that
have seen it but outside of the post credits scenes I went into this movie completely blind
and I'm so glad that I did.
Even with the faults I had, I can completely understand why the movie went the way that
it did just my personal preference would've been to have stuck with Wenwue as the major
threat rather than a hypnotic dragon.
That being said I really hope that this gets the attention it deserves and I know there
is probably a lot riding on this in terms of whether Venom, The Eternals and No Way
Home gets delayed.
So yeah if you haven't seen it for whatever reason then go and watch it and make up your
own mind as I know there's people who hated it and also some that think it's in the top
5 marvel movies.
However I will be going back to watch it all again and though I have my issues I think
it really did far more things to a high standard than the minor criticisms that I have.
Overall Shang-Chi was great and it gets an
8/10
Your Thoughts
Now just to let you know as a thank you for dropping a comment you'll be entered into
a prize draw on the 30th of september in which we're giving away 3 copies of the Zack Snyder
DC trilogy.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it's definitely worth
checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time. Take care, Peace