Favorite Characters: Katy (Shang-Chi)

*A few Katy-related spoilers.*

It might feel like strong words to go for a Favorite Characters post over a Character Highlight, considering she’s a supporting character who’s only been in one movie so far, but honestly? I kind of love Katy. I’ve talked before about her relationship with Shang-Chi, and I think she deserves some space for herself too.

Relationships factor big into pretty much any MCU property, and I really appreciate that, amid the familial connections and the romances, the friendships never get the short shrift. Over the years, I’ve sung the praises of many a non-powered best friend of the hero. Katy fits into that group well, joining the likes of pre-Winter Soldier Bucky, Foggy, Malcolm, Maria, and others.

I like that, for all that she’s an underachiever who’s well aware that she’s disappointing her mother, we also see qualities in Katy that will come in handy in a superhero movie. Her penchant for fast cars and claim of being “the Asian Jeff Gordon” is instrumental to their survival more than once. When Ten Rings members attack Shang-Chi on the bus and the driver gets knocked out, when they make their escape from Wenwu’s compound, and when they travel through the moving bamboo forest to Ta Lo, they wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for Katy’s adrenaline-fueled driving skills. And in Ta Lo, she turns out to be a quick study in the bow and arrow, making a crucial shot at a critical moment.

(By the way, I’ve decided that Katy shooting the Dweller in Darkness isn’t all that unreasonable. You could argue that a novice archer might have trouble shooting that far, but in terms of aiming for it and hitting it? The Dweller in Darkness is huge. In this case, the target basically is the broad side of a barn. Honestly, it probably would’ve been harder for her to hit all the mini-soul suckers flying around than the ginormous dragon demon that, at the moment, was mostly stationary.)

Those skills and that ability to perform under pressure doesn’t mean she instantly rolls with all the punches, though. She’s thrown for a loop, hard, when she realizes that her best friend was raised by an immortal war lord who trained him to be an assassin, and there are plenty of, “Wait, say what??” moments for her. Similarly, she doesn’t become an immediate badass who can handle herself in every situation. When they’re attacked in Macau and need to climb across the scaffolding to escape, she has to dig deep to find the bravery to just keep inching forward, and the only weapon in her arsenal at that point is to start shouting the lyrics to “Hotel California” in the hopes of distracting the martial arts assassins who are after them.

She doesn’t have it all figured out—far from it—and she seems to move between a nervy bravado and criticizing herself with her mother’s voice. But she’s there. From the moment the Ten Rings come back into Shang-Chi’s life, she’s at his side and won’t be dissuaded. Throughout, she offers Shang-Chi what help she can, whether that’s her wild driving or just her willingness to let him open up without fear of judgement, and she takes the time to recognize and affirm Xialing too. Katy isn’t someone who was “meant” to get tangled up in any of this, and she doesn’t have the same tools/training as anyone around her, but by the end of the film, she’s more than proven her place.

I’m so happy that, when Wong comes for Shang-Chi in the last scene, he comes for Katy as well. It can be hard to say when the threads are really going to start coming together in these next phases of the MCU, but I’m excited to know that Shang-Chi and Katy both will have a place in things going forward.

Relationship Spotlight: Katy & Shang-Chi (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)

*Spoilers.*

First names only, since as far as I can remember, Katy doesn’t have a last name – she’s not credited with one on IMDb, and I don’t recall Shang-Chi calling her mom “Mrs. Such-and-Such” or anything. Anyway, as much as I love superheroes, I also love the non-superheroes who care about and support them. Katy isn’t a Marvel comics character, but I really enjoy her relationship with Shang-Chi in the film – with everything he has going on, he could use a ride-or-die friend who has his back.

Initially, it might seem like Shang-Chi and Katy aren’t the best influences on one another. The pair spend their days overqualified and underemployed as parking valets, a low-pressure job that leaves plenty of room for fun after hours. Their friends and Katy’s family pressure them about their seeming directionlessness in life, wondering when they’re going to make something of themselves, get married, and/or just grow up. Katy and Shang-Chi, though? Aren’t bothered. They like their lives just fine the way they are, thank you very much, and they express little interest in adulting.

(Side note: as I’ve said before, part of this on Shang-Chi’s end is totally a “Hakuna Matata-era Simba running away from his trauma” coping mechanism, but I also feel like the five years of the Blip don’t get enough credit here. The rhythm of the story suggests that neither Shang-Chi nor Katy were Snapped, and one of their high-achieving friends name-drops the Blip as a reason to seize the day and do something important with their lives. But just as some people would react to that universal upheaval by being more motivated, I can also very easily see it causing others to regard their lives with apathy. If some genocidal alien can show up at any moment and just erase all life on Earth/in the universe, what’s the point of steady jobs or 401Ks?)

But when Shang-Chi’s past comes calling and shit hits the fan, Katy is there to roll with the punches. As flabbergasted as she is to see Shang-Chi attacked by an apparent team of kung fu assassins on the bus (including “a guy with a freaking machete for an arm!”), she also has enough presence of mind to step in when the driver gets knocked out, putting her extreme valet skills to vital use as the bus barrels down the streets of San Francisco with no brakes. And once the immediate danger has passed, she doesn’t give Shang-Chi a pass on the explanations. She hears what he says when he argues that there’s no time, that he has to get to Macau because the Ten Rings will go after his sister next, but she simply pivots to, “You can explain on the plane.”

Her laidback buddy of the last ten years has just unleashed heretofore-unrevealed martial arts badassery in response to an out-of-nowhere deadly attack, and Katy’s response is to follow said buddy halfway around the world. She doesn’t know what’s going on, but she’s not about to let Shang-Chi face it alone. And thank goodness – even apart from all the literal life-and-death stuff, wading back into the intense pain of his traumatic upbringing does a real number on Shang-Chi, and it’s a little less disorienting to see his dad again when Katy is there beside him.

This is true for a few reasons. First of all, Shang-Chi cares about Katy just as much as she cares about him, and watching out for her safety in the midst of all the wild goings-on gives him something to hold onto. After he throws his first punch on the bus, I love that his immediate reaction is to ask Katy if she’s okay, and the fight on the scaffolding in Macau is charged with his determination to keep her safe. Even when they get back to Wenwu’s compound and their lives are in somewhat less-imminent peril, he’s not hit with quite the full force of the head trip that is being back in Wenwu’s presence when part of his energy is devoting to shielding Katy from his dad.

What’s more, Katy proves to be a supportive, nonjudgmental sounding board. Over the years of their friendship, Shang-Chi has never told her about his past, and she hasn’t pushed, but now that the past has come calling, she listens to what he has to say, asking questions but also giving him space to get it all out. In the middle of all the unbelievable things he’s telling her about his dad, I like that she takes time to express sympathy for his mom’s death, and when he amends his earlier claim and admits that he did go through with the first hit Wenwu sent him on, she recognizes the toxic, manipulative situation he’d been in and doesn’t recoil in horror to discover her best friend had been a 14-year-old assassin, even if it was only once.

One scene I really like, one that I think exemplifies their friendship, comes when Shang-Chi tells Katy his real name (in San Francisco, she’s only known him under his assumed name, Shaun.) Once she wraps her head around it, she’s off to the races. “You changed your name from Shang to Shaun?” she asks, giving Shang-Chi crap for not exactly making it difficult for Wenwu to find him in hiding. Having just heard this mindbending revelation, that Shang-Chi ran away to America to escape his immortal war-lord father who trained him to be an assassin, she’s able to joke about it and make it into something ordinary, almost. After her first reaction on the bus, asking, “Who are you?” in an amazed voice, she’s come to terms with it. He’s her best friend, no matter what his name is, no matter how violent/traumatic his past is, no matter what mystical roots his family has. He’s the same guy she goes to late-night karaoke with, and she’s here for him, come hell or high water. I really like that.