Originally Posted by
Slowpokeking
They are a major villain group and has been set up since the first Iron Man, which the Ten Rings kidnapped Stark and worked with Iron Mongor. A Ten Rings member also gave Ivan the ticket in the 2nd movie, but all these setup has all been discarded in the 3rd one, we got a total imposter.
I always feel bad that there was a chance to build the Mandarin up to be the first "ultimate antagonist" of a superhero trilogy. But they didn't chose to do so. He doesn't have to be Chinese at all, just stand as the leader of the Ten Rings and follow the previous setup, which sucks.