User blog comment:LoveWaffle/We Didn't See It Coming - Iron Man 3 and the Future of the MCU/@comment-5977347-20130513205536/@comment-1618941-20130514042744


 * "It is made unclear if Kilian simply used the name the ten rings to make the Mandarin more menacing or if he indeed the group's leader."

It was pretty clear actually.
 * 1) The first part of the puzzle came from Killian's anecdote to Stark (chained to the bed) where he said he'd had the epiphany on the rooftop: "Anonymity" The idea of creating a target and staying in the shadows.
 * 2) The second part was Slattery's own exposure of the ruse.
 * 3) The third ingredient is the sequence of events. The Extremis is unstable, blows people up, so Killian needs to cover it up. He chooses to adopt the Ten Rings as the cover, both to lend credibility to the story, and to pique the interest of Stark (whom he needs to perfect the formula).