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Let’s dissect how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has updated the Ten Rings as weapons in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, now in theaters.
In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, fans finally get insight into the titular relics, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe elevating them from being just the name of a terrorist group that debuted in the first Iron Man movie. The ten rings are revealed to be a mysterious source of power in the form of metal bands that fit on the arms of Wenwu (Tony Leung), so with that in mind, let’s break down their strengths, weaknesses and known origin.
What Are the Ten Rings’ Powers?
These rings basically follow what the wielder wants them to do in battle, coming off quite fluid in their power. Apart from granting him long life, Wenwu uses them as boomerangs, akin to Mortal Kombat‘s Kung Lao and his hat, while also generating energy fields and concussive blasts, acting as bombs when he fights armies in centuries gone by. They move at rapid speeds, seemingly teleporting at times. A lot of their powers appear to depend on the user’s combat style, with Wenwu using them as a whip, as well as a chain. He can even command the rings to swirl around him, forming a protective shield.
When Shang-Chi starts exerting influence on them, the concentrated energy blasts generated are different. The rings glow bright orange as opposed to the purple with Wenwu, and in his case, Shang-Chi uses them to generate fireballs, push himself off for temporary flight, and also, as grappling hooks and pedestals to jump off, seen in the finale when he’s on the Great Protector dragon. He even drops them into the Dweller-in-Darkness’ body, and from a distance, commands them to blow the creature up, creating a true WMD.
What Are the Ten Rings’ Weaknesses?
The audience gets a glimpse of the ten rings’ weakness at the beginning of Shang-Chi, when Wenwu fights Shang-Chi’s mom, Ying Li. She’s able to harness the power of nature, namely wind, just outside the realm of Ta Lo. This slows down the rings’ movement as they’re chucked at her, making their trajectory easy for her to predict. She’s even able to control them, make them static and forcing them back onto Wenwu.
After training with his aunt, Nan, at Ta Lo in the same discipline as his mom, Shang-Chi is able to do the same. He starts pulling the rings towards him when fighting his dad, creating vortexes that trap them just like Ying Li. Eventually, with his willpower as strong as ever, he gains full control over the rings but refuses to kill his dad. He drops the rings to the floor, seemingly depowered. This suggests that if one’s mental connection is weak, the rings will be rendered inert, or if one has no interest in using their power, they can discard the rings.
Where Did the Ten Rings Come From?
The beginning of Shang-Chi hints that Wenwu found the rings either in a tomb or crater, alluding to the relics’ alien origin from the comics. There, the Mandarin found the rings on Earth when he killed the Makluan explorer Axonn-Karr in his downed spaceship and stole them to try to rule the world. They were Makluan pieces of technology, hosting souls of dead warriors, and could be used to rearrange matter, manipulate forces of nature and create energy blasts.
However, the film doesn’t provide a set origin. The mid-credits scene confirms this as Captain Marvel admits they’re not anything she’s come across in her alien research, while Bruce Banner explains that their energy signature dates back over a thousand years, meaning they were here way before Wenwu weaponized them. Wong seems to believe they could be multiversal in nature, which might explain why they could unlock the gate for the dimension-crossing Dweller. This will likely be explored in the sequel, as the rings are last seen sending out a signal.
To see the MCU’s newest hero, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.
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