Fa Mulan

Fa Mulan is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1998 animated feature film Mulan. 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 disguise of a male soldier named Ping. Mulan is inspired by the legendary Hua Mulan. She is the eighth official Disney Princess, the only one not to be of royal lineage either by birth or marriage. She is the last Disney Princess to be developed during the Disney Renaissance.* Fa Mulan INFORMATION:

• OTHER NAMES: ° Ping. ° Treacherous Snake. ° The Soldier from the Mountains.
• OCCUPATION: ° Farmer. ° Soldier of the Imperial army. ° Imperial agent to the Emperor.
• AFFILIATIONS: Disney Princesses.
• HOME: China.
• LIKES: Rice, martial arts, her family, the outdoors, horse riding, animals, inventing, daydreaming, planning last minute ("winging it"), hiking, fishing, the color jade, spicy foods, strategy games, the taste of burnt chicken.
• DISLIKES: Disappointing her family, sexism, chores, violence, oppression, messing up, wearing tight clothes and accessories, arguing, Mushu's antics ( https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mushu ), rudeness.
• POWERS AND ABILITIES: ° Various martial arts skills. ° Bojutsu and tessenjutsu mastery. ° Expert swordsmanship. ° Archery skills.
• PARAPHERNALIA: ° Hair accessory (temporarily): https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mulan%27s_Hair_Accessory ° Engagement necklace: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mulan_and_Shang%27s_Necklaces ° Jian (named "Sword of the Ancestor" in Kingdom Hearts II): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian
• STATUS: Active.
• FAMILY INFORMATION: ° PARENTS: Fa Zhou (father); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fa_Zhou ', Fa Li (mother); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fa_Li '. ° OTHER RELATIVES: Grandmother Fa (grandmother); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Grandmother_Fa ', General Li † (father-in-law); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/General_Li ', Fa Family Ancestors †; ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fa_Family_Ancestors '. ° PARTNER(S): Li Shang (husband); https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Li_Shang ° PETS: Khan (horse); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Khan ', Little Brother (dog); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Little_Brother ', Cri-Kee (cricket); ' https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Cri-Kee '. ° "You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty." Fa Mulan is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1998 animated feature film Mulan. 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 disguise of a male soldier named Ping. Mulan is inspired by the legendary Hua Mulan. She is the eighth official Disney Princess, the only one not to be of royal lineage either by birth or marriage. She is the last Disney Princess to be developed during the Disney Renaissance.
• Background: Mulan resides in a small Chinese village with her father, her mother, and her wisecracking grandmother (after whom Mulan takes). 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. However, she is presented as an outcast. She is clumsy and seeks 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 is that of Mushu, a diminutive dragon.
• Personality: At the start of the film, Mulan is introduced as a free-spirited outcast. She is a clumsy girl who cannot follow rules, regulations, or traditions. Despite this, she has a warm heart and wants nothing more than to uphold her family's 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 to defend China, 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 and the pressures of the society into which she was born - 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 shifts. 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 film's third act. She can perform successful tactics through quick-thinking and mental observation instead of mere brute strength (something idealized in her camp), eventually saving her fellow soldiers and 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. The sequel shows 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 optimistic, especially when seen with Shang, with whom she had developed a strong, romantic relationship by the start of the 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 a 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 overshirt, 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. She wears a light blue tank top, short blue shorts, and is barefoot when she sleeps. She wears a dress consisting of a green long-sleeved shirt with olive brims and both a 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 lipstick, hair tied in a loose bun with a red hair ribbon, a narrow crimson and pale pink Chinese skirt, a pink jacket with long, flowing sleeves, an aqua and plum collar, a blue wrap with a red ribbon to fasten it, a light purple scarf, same color shoes, a jade bead necklace, gold dangling earrings, and a special lotus flower hair pick. When she was disguised as "Ping," she has her 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, a long olive vest with a crimson collar, a crimson belt, light pink sash, and black 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 bows and arrows 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.
• Appearances: ° Mulan: At the start of the film, Mulan is seen rehearsing her answers for the Matchmaker's examination (she has 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 after breaching the Great Wall, and that one man in every family must serve in the war, being conscripted into the Imperial Army to reinforce the Emperor's troops and defend the Imperial City and other communities from the Huns. Despite her protests, her father agrees to go despite his old age and disabilities. When she tries to argue with him that night for putting his life on the line for honor, Fa Zhou reprimands her and hurts her feelings, causing her to run out and weep on the Stone Dragon statue in the middle of a storm. Knowing her father would die, and knowing what she must do now to prevent it, 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 been 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 decides that she has failed the training regiment and is 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 the reins of her horse and telling her to go home, especially after she has been on Chi-Fu's bad side when a misfired rocket launched by her destroyed his tent, only reinforcing his belief Shang's troops would be unfit in his eyes to head to the war front. While Mulan could have done that, seeing as she has 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 has been the one who solved his puzzle. With that, he's convinced to give her another chance and allows her back into the regiment. Afterward, she rapidly progresses to become one of the best soldiers in the unit, while also giving the encouragement to the other recruits to improve as well, turning them into respectable soldiers that Shang felt were ready to see combat. 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. Meanwhile, 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 avalanche. 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 after it passed and are heading towards the Imperial City. Mulan arrives first and attempts to warn Shang. However, as a woman, she is ignored by him and everyone else (after what happened previously), 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 take out the Hun guards, allowing Shang to reach Shan Yu and the Emperor. Yao, Ling, and Chien Po escape with the Emperor just in time, 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 has taken 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 plans to kill him using 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 own sword to pin him to the roof, allowing Mushu to launch a fireworks 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 she is unworthy of being called a hero or being worth anything as a woman. 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 film's end shows Mulan inviting Shang, who has been following her under the guise of returning her helmet, to dinner for he happily accepts. She is last seen thanking Mushu for his guardianship. ° Mulan II: One month later, Li Shang, now promoted from Captain to General, proposes to Mulan, and they begin preparing for their wedding. However, the Emperor tasks them both with escorting his three daughters to the neighboring Chinese kingdom of Qui Gong in an attempt to form an alliance. Should the alliance fail, the Mongols would invade China just like the Huns did. Mulan and Shang ask Yao, Ling, and Chien Po to accompany them. Shang and Mulan's relationship becomes somewhat strained during the trip, as the couple has differing views on various issues, particularly on the subject of the arranged marriages the princesses are being forced into. One month later, Li Shang, now promoted from Captain to General, proposes to Mulan, and they begin preparing for their wedding. However, the Emperor tasks them both with escorting his three daughters to the neighboring Chinese kingdom of Qui Gong in an attempt to form an alliance. Should the alliance fail, the Mongols would invade China just like the Huns did. Mulan and Shang ask Yao, Ling, and Chien Po to accompany them. Shang and Mulan's relationship becomes somewhat strained during the trip, as the couple has differing views on various issues, particularly on the subject of the arranged marriages the princesses are being forced into. Meanwhile, Mushu is informed that if Mulan marries Shang, he will cease to be a guardian, instead returning to his former job of Gong Ringer. Mushu takes advantage of Mulan and Shang's differences and tries to break them up. However, Mulan soon discovers Mushu's plans when he confesses out of guilt and tries to reconcile with Shang after voicing her disappointment with Mushu and how she'll never forgive him for his actions. Before she can talk to Shang, bandits attack the group. Shang and Mulan are able to save the princesses, but are left hanging from a broken bridge. Shang chooses to sacrifice himself, as the bridge can only support one. Mulan tearfully mourns his "death" and refuses to move from the spot she is in until sunrise. Mulan and the princesses continue towards Qui Gong. Seeing that the princesses have fallen in love with Yao, Ling, and Chien Po and believing that Shang is dead, Mulan prepares to offer herself as a bride in their places. However, Shang is revealed to have survived his fall and travels to stop her. Mushu is able to fix things by masquerading as the Golden Dragon of Unity and forces the King to stop the wedding. The joyful princesses are released from their vows, and Shang and Mulan are informally married. They later hold an actual wedding at the Fa family home, although it is unknown how much time has passed since they returned from Qui Gong to the Imperial City. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Mulan had reconciled with Mushu and has told Shang about Mushu (whom he calls the Golden Dragon of Unity), and that prompts Shang to combine the family temples, allowing Mushu to remain a family guardian, much to the disappointment of Mulan's ancestors.
• Disney Princess: Despite not being a princess by birth or marriage, Mulan is an official member of the highly popular Disney Princess franchise, though not marketed as prominently as other princesses like Cinderella or Ariel. Even so, she remains one of the most acclaimed members of the franchise, often referred to when giving examples of strong Disney heroines. ° Redesign: Mulan's face was elongated very slightly and is no longer as rounded as it used to be. The epicanthic folds by her eyes have also been sharpened a bit to give them a more narrow appearance. Her body type was also changed to a more hourglass shape from her original androgynous figure in the film. Mulan wears an elaborate, bejeweled gold hair clip, and her now waist-length hair is long and flowing. The material used in her Hanfu dress is metallic-looking in appearance and texture and still sports the same color as her old appearance. In early redesigns, her dress is more reddish with sparkles. Much of her black hair is loose and down instead of having the hair clip. Her face and the other visible parts of her skin appear to be whitened with powder, with her cheeks touched with rouge and her lips painted red, somewhat resembling a more traditional Chinese bride. Other early redesigns included her dress being bright gold and dark red instead of green, blue, and yellow. ° Palace Pets: Mulan's Palace Pets are Blossom, Lychee, Plumdrop, Alora, Snowpaws, and Chai.