WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, now in theaters.
Since his comic book debut in 1973, Shang-Chi has been at odds with his father and his villainous legacy. That conflict serves as the emotional core to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film bringing this familial conflict to the big screen. And while Shang-Chi's father Wenwu is certainly an antagonistic character, he is also the most sympathetic villain introduced to the MCU to date.
Played by Tony Leung, Wenwu has been alive for centuries. He's shown in Shang-Chi's prologue sweeping across feudal China and conquering all opposition with his mystical Ten Rings, which also grant him immortality. After subtly steering the course of history, Wenwu learns of a mythical form of martial arts in an unexplored region of China known as Ta Lo, where he faces off against that world's protector, Jiang Li (Fala Chen). Despite their conflicting goals, the two fall in love, and Wenwu decides to leave his criminal empire, and the Ten Rings, behind to start a family. And just when the crime lord seems content to give up violence and immortality for domesticity, tragedy strikes to bring him back to his wicked ways.
After learning that Wenwu has relinquished the Ten Rings, the enemies that he accumulated over the course of his life emerge from the shadows and brutally murder Jiang Li. Grief-stricken, Wenwu dons the rings again to murder those responsible while rigorously training his son Shang-Chi not to become a victim like Jiang Li, having the teenage martial artist murder the man responsible for orchestrating Jiang Li's death. And as Wenwu rebuilds his criminal empire, his master plan isn't global domination but one fueled by love and grief as he searches for a way to reunite with his wife from beyond the grave.
With the Ten Rings forged from the same multiversal material as the ore used to seal a portal containing ravenous monsters from the multiverse, Wenwu receives messages from the monsters trying to escape. These messages come in the form of Jiang Li's voice, with Wenwu convinced his wife is behind the sealed portal in Ta Lo, defended by Jiang Li's old community, including her sister, Jiang Nan. Wenwu implores his children to join him in breaching the portal, unwilling to hear them when they tell him it's all an illusion perpetuated by the soul-sucking monsters on the other side.
This inability to move past his grief and realize that he is being manipulated not only kickstarts Shang-Chi's climactic battle against the monsters but ultimately costs Wenwu his life, with his soul sucked from his body before his son's eyes. With a blood-soaked background of authorizing assassinations and other violent crimes to stay in power, Wenwu is definitely no saint but embarks on his invasion of Ta Lo out of love. And compared to many of the MCU's villains simply reveling in their quest for power and destruction for mayhem's sake, this puts him on a far sympathetic character arc than many of his fellow antagonists.
To see Wenwu's tragic journey, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.