User blog comment:LoveWaffle/We Didn't See It Coming - Iron Man 3 and the Future of the MCU/@comment-5977347-20130513205536/@comment-3317214-20130519001025

It provides some trivia, but your opinion of a work shouldn't at all be based on what the people behind it intended.

You just explained why it's not crap. It provides some trivia, and some great insight into the vision behind the work. But yes, your opinion of the work shouldn't be based at all on what the people behind it intended. Authorial intent is not crap. It should just be ignored in this case.

''I can't ignore what isn't there. What is there is a Mandarin that's just a character to take the blame for Killian's activities, and Killian's boast. If they intended to make Killian the Mandarin, they failed spectacularly. Although I can't hold that against the film because authorial intent is crap.''

It was there. Right in your face. You're putting it to one side, just calling it "Killian's boast" as if it didn't count. Just because he boasted, it doesn't mean he wasn't being truthful about it.

He created the Mandarin (and was so into the symbolism that he tattooed dragons on his chest), so I'm pretty sure he gets to call himself the Mandarin.

''The Mandarin character didn't want to escalate the War on Terror. He just hated America.''

The Madarin character wanted to pursue acts of Terrorism against America. Which is by definition, escalating his side of the War at least.

''Aldrich Killian wanted to kill President Ellis because it was a means to an end. The Mandarin character wanting to kill the president was the end. Two entirely different things.''

Again, you're talking about the reasoning behind the goals, rather than the goals themselves. They both wanted the President gone.