Well he definitely did not found it, that was my point in what you replied to before. I personally like to think that after IM crippled them they regrouped and decided to work underground rather then having been completely eradicated and thus is why I figure there could be more to be explored.
Okay.
I would have liked a scene that acknowledged Tony's prior experience with the 10 Rings, as it was presented in the movie it was like he was discovering them for the first time whereas he should have been freaked that the catalyst to his becoming Iron Man was back.
I kind of agree. I did think it was a little weird that Tony never mentioned his past run-in with them. Didn't hurt the movie in of itself, but it seemed like he would have brought it up. Since the movie works wether he brings it up or not, that dialogue may have come up in a deleted scene or an earlier draft of the script that was cut for time. Or not, I don't know.
What need was there for him to use Ellen Brandt, Jack Taggert and Eric Savin?
There wasn't one. But I guess he figured that he might as well use characters from the comics instead of creating new ones because he was adapting a comic book.
And, like, I can't speak for Taggert because that was basically just an easter egg, but Brandt and Savin seemed pretty faithfully adapted to me. I mean, yeah, their origin story was different, but their personalities were pretty much intact.
And I feel that everyone treating the 10 Rings as a new entity, or seemingly so, did mess with the established continuity that the 10 Rings was basically what help bring about the Iron Man persona.
They didn't so much treat them as new, they just forgot to mention Tony's personal run ins with them. The movie establishes them as having been a thing for a while since before the film started.
Exactly, AHTK is canon and helps clears things up on that level.
I was saying that if AHTK didn't exist we would have to presume that Killian was involved since the beginning which wouldn't have made much sense because why wouldn't he have know it was Stark he was capturing, and why wouldn't he have killed him then and there?
1: If AHTK didn't exist, we would't have to presume that Killian was involved since the beginning. There was a pretty clear theme in the film of misdirection and appropriation of ideas and imagery. Based on Iron Man 3 alone, one could easily interpret Killian's relationship with the Ten Rings to be that he came along after they were decimated and cherry picked the stuff he liked for his own evil scheme. You don't need AHTK to interpret it that way.
2: If Killian
did found the Ten Rings, there's nothing about that which didn't make sense. He wouldn't have killed Stark way back in Iron Man 1 because killing Tony Stark was never one of his goals until it became a practical concern. Killian flat out tells Tony that nothing about his plan was ever about getting revenge, and he only tried to kill Tony because Tony got in the way of his plans.
Way back in Iron Man 1, that particular Ten Rings cell was hired by Stane to kidnap and kill Tony, and then Raza realized that it was Tony Stark and he would be more useful to them if they kept him alive and forced him to design weapons for them. If Killian was behind the Ten Rings right from the beginning, then either he was unaware of Raza's initiative there, or Raza ran it past him (likely through an intermediary what with Killian's secret identity and all), and Killian said "Oh yeah, he's way more useful to us alive. Keep him around, totally."
Makes perfect sense to me.
Wouldn't have to be as early as IM4, Marvel Studios plants seeds years, decades in advance, just look at Thanos. Totally can respect your opinion and I'm not at all a hater of IM3, I loved it.
I am just not opposed to an exploration of a traditional Mandarin if it can be done in an intelligence manner.
I think a convoluted retcon is an inherently unintelligent manner.
Also, I really don't see what a "traditional" Mandarin brings to the table. A traditional Mandarin is exactly like Killian, except also an offensive Chines stereotype. That's hardly Thanos calibre villainy.
Hey now, how can you forget King Blastaar

t:!
Plus they have a good deal more cosmic folk like Annihilus et cetera.
1: Who do they have besides Annihilus?
2: Eh, Annihilus kind of sucks. Like, Annihilation Wave was a good storyline, but Annihilus is kind of a boring and crappy villain. Basically any genocidal nutjob could fill that role, and there are a ton of "cosmic" villains who aren't associated with the Fantastic Four.