User blog comment:LoveWaffle/We Didn't See It Coming - Iron Man 3 and the Future of the MCU/@comment-5977347-20130513205536/@comment-1895174-20130522165554

Clearly we have different opinions on what "crap" means.

Crap = Useless

''If JK Rowling claimed that she was Hermione Granger, then I would believe that. If Rowling was to say that, she probably means that Hermione was based heavily off of herself, or something similar. Of course she wouldn't mean it in the literal sense. With Killian, he's not saying that he is the exact character that Trevor Slattery portrayed. He's saying that he is the essence of that character. And he gets to say it, because the Mandarin is very symbolic, and he created it.''

So not the Mandarin. Possibly somewhat inspired by him, but not actually the Mandarin. It's a character, not an alias that can be transferred from person to person.

''Yes, I am assuming that Killian has dragon tattoos because of the Mandarin. It makes sense to assume that. For the record, it's also what the creators who put the tattoos there in the first place assumed.''

Again, authorial intent is crap.

''The Mandarin's strategy had to do with killing the President, which definitely involved the Patriot armour. And it also involved kidnapping him, which involved Eric Savin and the Patriot armour. Similar.''

You just described Killian's plan, not the Mandarin's.