User blog comment:LoveWaffle/We Didn't See It Coming - Iron Man 3 and the Future of the MCU/@comment-5977347-20130513205536/@comment-3317214-20130522234408

Crap = Useless

Yeah, but you admitted that it wasn't useless. Therefore, it's not crap.

''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.''

It's totally transferable. At least transferable from an actor Killian hired to the creator of the Mandarin himself. The Mandarin is symbolic. And Killian, having created those symbols, gets to wear them.

Again, authorial intent is crap.

It still makes sense to assume that though. And authorial intent is not crap. See above.

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

The Mandarin was going to broadcast the President's death. Tell me how that had nothing to do with the Patriot armour, and kidnapping the President.