Mulan

"You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty."

- The Emperor to Li Shang about Fa Mulan

Fa Mulan is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1998 animated feature film of the same name. She is the strong-willed and tenacious daughter of a war veteran, who strives to uphold her family's honor. When her father is called back into battle to defend China from Shan Yu, Mulan opts to protect him by taking his place under the guise of a man who is a soldier named Ping.

Mulan is inspired by the legendary. She is the eighth official Disney Princess and the only one not to be of royal lineage either by birth or marriage.

Background
Mulan resides in a small Chinese village with her father, her mother, and her wisecracking grandmother (whom Mulan takes after). She also has a dog named Little Brother. As the standard of the period, Mulan is urged to uphold her family honor by adhering to the status quo set for women of the time. Mulan, however, is presented as an outcast. She was clumsy and sought to finish her household chores by inventing contraptions to do the work in her place (much to the chagrin of her father).

As a member of the Fa family, Mulan is under the protection of the Fa Family ancestors and the family guardians (which are represented by animals of the Chinese zodiac). By the end of the original Mulan, Mulan's personal guardian was that of Mushu, a diminutive dragon.

Personality
At the start of the film, Mulan is introduced as a free-spirited outcast; a clumsy girl who is unable to follow rules, regulations, or traditions. Despite this, she has a warm heart and wants nothing more than to uphold her family honor while keeping true to herself. Because of her society, however, this is difficult to accomplish and often brings chaos and embarrassment into her life.

The driving force of Mulan's journey is the love she has for her father. When her father is drafted to serve in the Emperor's army, Mulan steals his orders and reports to the camp in his place to protect him as well as to satisfy her desire to prove her own self-worth. She was seen having difficulties with self-confidence, due to society's mistreatment towards her, as well as the pressures of the society she was born into - particularly in the lives of women. Early in the film, whenever she went against sexism and injustice, or simply handled a situation in her own, unique way (such as shouting "Present!" when the matchmaker called her name), Mulan was greeted with anger or some form of annoyance from those around her, thus furthering her socially-awkward attitude.

During her time in camp, Mulan's personality takes a shift. She proves to be fierce, both physically and mentally, as well as self-reliant, impressionable, and persistent. As she learns the ways of strength and agility, she rises to the top of her class, setting an example for the men surrounding her and soon earns their respect and friendship. Over time, Mulan gains more confidence, symbolizing her growth, as she becomes more of a mature woman by the third act of the film. She has the ability to perform successful tactics through quick-thinking and mental observation, as opposed to mere brute strength (something that is idealized in her camp) which would eventually result in saving her fellow soldiers, as well as China, on notable occasions. Nevertheless, she retained her humble nature, not once becoming overconfident and boastful, even after becoming a beloved heroine and receiving countless amounts of praise and respect from the very society that continuously opposed her. It wasn't until Mulan returned home and received a loving welcome from her father that she truly emoted her satisfaction over her previous successes, proving her goal, overall, was to uphold her family honor, while being true to herself; this being visually and thematically represented by her relationship with her father.

By the sequel, it is shown that Mulan's personality, seen during the latter half of the first film, has remained. Mulan is a responsible young woman, seen as a fearless warrior, leader, and beloved role model among her people, both men and women. Nevertheless, she is also fun-loving and jovial, especially when seen with Shang, whom she had developed a strong, romantic relationship with by the start second film. The sequel also shows her to be rather laid-back, open-minded, and philosophical, believing in the practice of following one's heart.

Physical appearance
Mulan is a young tomboy of Chinese origin. She is a natural beauty, with dark brown eyes and straight, black hair that used to be long and waist-length. Later in the film when she leaves to join the army in disguise, she cuts her hair with her father's sword into shoulder-length and ties it up in a bun. This helps her blend into the army so that the other soldiers don't know that she's really a woman. In the second film, her hair was grown. Not to its original waist-length, but it's noticeably longer a few inches longer towards her back. In promotional works, her hair is always shown as its original length, down to the waist.

During the two films, Mulan wore a range of outfits, from beautiful Hanfus (Chinese dresses) to her soldier's getup, though her most notable outfits come from the original film; in which her promotional dress comes from, which is a simple Hanfu, which consisted of either a creamy green-yellow dress, with blue over shirt, which has green sleeves, and a red band around her waist. She also sports a kung fu styled soldier's outfit, as well as her pink matchmaker's Hanfu and her father's armor.

Except when she goes to the matchmaker, Mulan does not wear any makeup or anything to beautify her appearance. Mulan is naturally beautiful nonetheless.

When she sleeps, she wears a light blue tank top, short blue shorts, and is barefoot. She wears a dress consisting of a green long-sleeved shirt with olive brims and both yellow skirt and inside shirt with a low cut neckline, blue wrap, red waistband, and black ballet flats, but also has been seen barefoot as well. To impress the matchmaker, she had her face painted in white, red lips, black hair tied in a loose bun with a red hair ribbon, narrow crimson and pale pink Chinese skirt, pink jacket with long, flowing sleeves, aqua and plum collar, blue wrap with a red ribbon to fasten it, light purple scarf, same color shoes, jade bead necklace, gold dangling earrings, and a special lotus flower hair pick. When she was disguised as "Ping," she has black hair tied in a bun with a teal ribbon to look like a man (when she cuts her long, beautiful hair with her father's sword into a shoulder-length), and dark green soldier armor. In the Martial Arts sequence, she had a cream suit. In the Shan Yu battle, she wore a teal dress consisting of a poet-sleeved blouse, long olive vest with a crimson collar, crimson belt, light pink sash, and same color shoes.

Abilities
Although Mulan possesses no magical or superhuman powers, she has military training courtesy of Shang.


 * Martial Arts: As part of her training, Mulan learned kung fu, eventually becoming proficient in hand-to-hand fighting.
 * Swordsmanship: Mulan honed her skill with her father's sword and became an expert swordswoman, easily holding her own against even the battle-hardened Shan Yu.
 * Marksmanship: Under Shang's tutelage, Mulan developed skill with ranged weaponry, from the bow and arrow to gunpowder cannons.
 * Horseback riding: Even before her time in the army, Mulan is an excellent equestrian, further enhanced by her bond with loyal steed Khan.
 * Strategist: Mulan is also intelligent, cunning, and resourceful, as shown on several occasions, such as when she was first to climb the pole and retrieve an arrow embedded in the top successfully during training. Knowing her unit was vastly outnumbered, she was able to quickly think of using the last cannon to cause an avalanche on the entire Hun army, quite literally stopping them cold, and later lure Shan Yu into Mushu's firing range. When she pulled out her fan, she acted as though she was in shock from having nothing left to fight with, when all along she planned to disarm him with it.

Mulan
At the start of the film, Mulan is seen rehearsing her answers for the Matchmaker's examination (she noted the answers on her arm). Despite running late, Mulan makes it to the Matchmaker, but her time there ends in humiliating failure. Shortly after, the Emperor's counselor, Chi-Fu, arrives in her village to announce that the deadly Huns, led by Shan Yu, have invaded China, and that one man in every family must serve in the war, being conscripted into the Imperial Army to reinforce the Emperor's troops. Despite her protests, her father agrees to go in spite of his old age and disabilities. Knowing her father would die, Mulan secretly goes in his place by posing as a man, cutting her long hair with her father's sword, stealing her father's armor and riding away on her horse, Khan. That night, her journey to honor has begun. On her way to the army camp, Mulan meets Mushu, a small dragon who claims to be a guardian sent to her by her ancestors. He agrees to help her pass as a soldier.

Though Mulan fails the army training at first, no thanks to having gotten on the bad side of the other recruits, including Yao, Ling, and Chien Po, and Mushu trying to help through trickery, which only serves to anger her superior officer in Captain Li Shang, she uses her intelligence and determination and becomes the first soldier to solve a puzzle set by Shang. This happens just after Shang decided that she had failed the training regiment and was not fit to serve in the Imperial Army since her lack of strength and discipline would be putting her own life and that of her fellow troops in great danger, handing her Khan's reigns and telling her to go home. While Mulan could have done that, seeing as she had already ensured her father would not be killed in battle due to his body and old war wounds catching up to him, she attempts the first test with recovering the arrow at the top of a tall pillar again. Upon figuring out how to solve it, she is nearly to the top when the other recruits begin to wake up as dawn breaks. Seeing her efforts, they cheer her on, putting aside their earlier teasing of her, and when Shang comes out to see what is going on, he is shocked and surprised when his arrow lands at his feet, and sees that Mulan was the one who solved his puzzle. With that, he gives her another chance and allows her back into the regiment. Afterward, she rapidly progresses to become one of the best soldiers in the unit. She also befriends Yao, Ling, and Chien Po, three fellow soldiers, though she is forced to hide her gender. Through the machinations of Mushu, the soldiers are called to the war front. After finding that the main Imperial Chinese Army, led by Shang's father General Li, has been completely destroyed by the Huns, with no survivors left standing from either the General's army or the village they had been protecting from Shan Yu and the Huns, Shang leads Mulan and the other soldiers to stop them since their unit was the only defense left standing between Shan Yu and the Imperial City. Despite the unit being outnumbered after Mushu blows their cover and alerts the Huns to their position, Mulan is able to defeat the Huns by starting an avalanche and burying them by way of the last rocket in the army's munitions. She sustains an injury from Shan Yu, which results in her true gender being revealed. She is spared death, the punishment for a woman joining the army, as Shang's way of repaying the debt from Mulan rescuing him during the previous battle. Mulan is left behind by the army and prepares to return home to face humiliation. However, she discovers that Shan Yu and his five generals have survived the avalanche and are heading towards the Imperial City.

Mulan arrives first and attempts to warn Shang. As a woman, however, she is ignored by him and everyone else except for Yao, Ling, and Chien Po, and orders them to keep an eye out for Shan Yu and the surviving Huns. However, when Shan Yu reveals himself and captures the Emperor, Shang, Yao, Ling, and Chien Po join her in a rescue attempt. Mulan disguises herself, Yao, Ling, and Chien Po as concubines and takes out the Hun guards, allowing Shang to reach Shan Yu and the Emperor. Yao, Ling, and Chein Po escape with the Emperor, but Mulan remains behind after Shang is knocked unconscious by Shan Yu. She reveals herself to the ruthless leader of the Huns as the soldier who took out most of his army, which angers Shan Yu. Shan Yu draws his sword and angrily slashes at her, tearing down portions of the palace in the process. While running from Shan Yu, she comes up with a plan to kill him by means of fireworks. While Mushu and Cri-Kee fetch the fireworks, Mulan faces Shan Yu on the roof of the Emperor's palace. She disarms him with a paper fan and uses his sword to pin him to the roof, allowing Mushu to launch a firework rocket at Shan Yu, killing him on impact with a nearby fireworks tower.

Mulan is oppressed by Chi Fu for the final time when he arrogantly says that as a woman, she is unworthy of being called a hero or being worth anything. Mulan is then confronted by the Emperor with her various crimes, having heard about them from Chi Fu. At the same time, he acknowledges that she saved all of China and bows to her out of respect. His gesture results in all the gathered people bowing as well. The Emperor first offers Mulan a council position, then a job as consul, both of which Mulan respectfully declines, explaining that she'd much rather go back home to her family. The Emperor accepts this, and gifts her with his personal crest and Shan Yu's sword. Having changed from a once gawky misfit into an honorable heroine, Mulan returns home and is able to reconcile with her father. The end of the film shows Mulan inviting Shang, who had followed Mulan under the guise of returning her helmet, to dinner. She is last seen thanking Mushu for his guardianship.

Mulan (2020)


"Loyal, brave, and true. It is my duty to protect my family."

- Mulan risking her life to protect her family

Liu Yifei portrays Mulan in a live-action adaptation of the Disney animated film. In this version of the film, which is closer to the original legend, the character is known as Hua Mulan. Much like the original film, Mulan is a young woman who runs away from her home in order to serve the Chinese army.

In this version, Mulan has a younger sister named Hua Xiu. She also has the ability to control Chi Magic