History Awesome / Mulan

* Fa Zhou putting aside his cane, which at all other times he uses and seems to truly need, and walking stoically up to recieve his draft papers. Whilst he limps slightly, he does it all without a single change of expression, or sign of effort or pain. His only response?

* The eponymous heroine single-handedly buries the Hun army by [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt igniting an avalanche with a rocket]].

*** Especially when paired with his ''epic'' OhCrap expression. The sheer horror of his realisation that she just single-handedly murdered his entire army, even if it might kill her as well, with his face just screaming "[[HorrifyingTheHorror What have you done, you maniac!?]]"
*** Mulan is neither the daughter of royalty nor is her love interest royalty, so why is she a Disney Princess? Many Fans figure that [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White]] realized that it was probably best not to fight a woman who has a 4-digit body count over such minutia as "legitimacy to a throne".

* Chien Po pulling EVERYONE up, including the horse!
** To go into greater detail--there are about seven soldiers holding onto the rope that Mulan, Shang, and Khan (the horse) are dangling from, and they're all barely managing to keep them from falling. Each of them is wearing full metal armor and carrying equipment. Then, Chien Po, [[BadassPacifist hands folded in prayer]], silently walks over, bends down, and picks ''the whole group up.'' At the most conservative estimate, he is hoisting ''over a'' '''''ton''''' ''of dead weight'' in that moment (figuring 200 pounds per person given the armor they're all wearing, then ''at minimum'' 400 pounds for Khan--and that's an incredibly low number for a fully grown horse), and he ''doesn't break a sweat'' as he walks backward ''against gravity'' and saves them all. Chien Po does not have StoutStrength. Chien Po has ''superhuman'' strength.
* When Shan Yu and the Hun Generals pop right out of the snow! Like daisies! Granted, we are talking about a handful of survivors out of thousands, but the mere fact there ''are'' survivors is awesome. They were buried under it at least for minutes (since Mulan was healed, kicked out of the army and everything else), but most likely for ''[[CartoonlandTime hours]]''. And some of them are ''shirtless''. And, as if it wasn't enough, they don't even need to take their time to rest or anything, they set off their next goal and start walking toward it shrugging off ''being buried under an avalanche'' as if nothing happened. MadeOfIron is an understatement.

* Shang fighting Shan Yu head on. Sure, Shan Yu defeats him in the end, but Shang held his own against one of the most powerful villainous characters in Disney and even got the upper hand at one point.

-->'''Guard:''' Who're you?
-->'''Mushu:''' Your worst ''nightmare''!

* The sequence in which Mulan cuts her hair, and the accompanying music.

-->'''Shan Yu:''' ''[lightly]'' Nice work, gentlemen. You've found the Hun army. ''[dark chuckles from the Hun soldiers]''\\

'''Hun Archer''': ''[draws bow]'' ''[[PreMortemOneLiner One.]]''

*** There's a bit more to it as well. In this particular day and age, honour was the most important part about living, moreso than life itself to the average person. Though Mulan would've left after saving her father's life and would avoid war, she'd still be walking back home with disgrace, bringing shame on the family's name. But she stayed her ground and continued to work hard to prove herself, and in the end it all came to bringing the greatest honour to her family.

** Better yet, who's the first to Kowtow? Resident StrawMisogynist Chi-Fu. One moment he's dismissive of Mulan and ready to enjoy whatever punishment the Emperor decrees, but as soon as the Emperor bows he goes to his knees in a panic.

* All of Mulan's victories are coming from her high intelligence, as shown throughout the film that Mulan is someone of high intellect in her country; while it's hinted with how she does her chores, she does things in rather intelligent ways throughout the film;

*** Ling, who broke his face on a block, breaks the block at the end.

** At the end, after Mulan proves herself, and inspired the dudesquad to be better soldiers, the chorus takes on a new tone: The music and Shang's voice cuts out, leaving only a male choir to sing the final chorus.

* When Shan Yu and the Hun Generals pop right out of the snow! Like daisies! Granted, we are talking about a handful of survivors out of thousands, but the mere fact there ''are'' survivors is awesome. They were buried under it at least for minutes (since Mulan was healed, kicked out of the army and everything else), but most likely for ''[[CartoonlandTime hours]]''. And some of them are ''shirtless''. And, as if it wasn't enough, they don't even need to take their time to rest or anything, they set off their next goal and start walking toward it shrugging off ''being buried under an avalanche'' as if nothing happened. MadeOfIron is an understatement.

** To go into greater detail--there are about seven soldiers holding onto the rope that Mulan, Shang, and Khan (the horse) are dangling from, and they're all barely managing to keep them from falling. Each of them is wearing full metal armor and carrying equipment. Then, Chien Po, [[BadassPacifist hands folded in prayer]], silently walks over, bends down, and picks ''the whole group up.'' At the most conservative estimate, he is hoisting ''over a'' '''''ton''''' ''of dead weight'' in that moment (figuring 200 pounds per person given the armor they're all wearing, then ''at minimum'' 400 pounds for Khan--and that's an incredibly low number for a fully grown horse), and he ''doesn't break a sweat'' as he walks backward ''against gravity'' and saves them all. Chien Po does not have StoutStrength. Chien Po has ''superhuman'' strength.

*** Mulan is neither the daughter of royalty nor is her love interest royalty, so why is she a Disney Princess? Many Fans figure that [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White]] realized that it was probably best not to fight a woman who has a 4-digit body count over such minutia as "legitimacy to a throne".

** SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/JerryGoldsmith, duh (scoring his only real animated feature other than ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNimh''). "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilR3Z1sASY Short Hair]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlcheT4Q8M4 The Huns Attack]]" are hands down the fandoms' favorites.

* Mushu helps himself to some fireworks.

* The emperor [[KneelBeforeFrodo bows to Mulan]]. Subsequently, all of China does the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowtow Kowtow]] to her, a sign of submission and deep respect.

** Especially the implications that she either woke the great stone dragon with her decision to go to war and took its spirit with her, or she was the guardian dragon! That could explain why Mushu couldn’t awaken it!

*** Plus from what we see of Fa Zhou's brief attempt to practice his swordplay (before his poor health and injury make it clear it's impossible) show he's retained his sword skill and makes it seem that his injury and sickness, not his actual age are the problem and had he remained in good health for his age, probably could have served in the army again with minimal trouble.

** Then there's the ComicRelief trio's improvement.

--->"It looks like you're out of ideas."

--->"Not quite."
** Then, to his shock, Shan-Yu realizes that he's been flanked. He was not chasing Mulan, he followed her into a trap!

** And finally, her victory over Shan Yu was an improvised plan involving the fireworks across the way. While Mushu was getting it, she had to make sure everything was calculated correctly and was measuring out the calculations before Shan Yu could get to her.
*** In the end, all of Mulan's victories was her intelligence working out in her favor, instead of just relying on brute force.

!!![[AC:Meta]]
* [[http://mydollyaviana.tumblr.com/post/93466770776/visual-development-by-hans-bacher-for-mulan-1998 Visual development]] by Hans Bacher for this film
* Some of the [[http://mickeyandcompany.tumblr.com/post/115269885796/posters-for-mulan-art-for-an-outdoor-ad various posters]] of the movie, including the one used as the page image.
* [[http://mauricioabril.tumblr.com/post/115866280244/mulan-says-we-can-do-it-my-illustrative Mulan as Rosie the Riveter.]] One strong fictional woman imitating another.

*** Especially when paired with his ''epic'' OhCrap expression. The sheer horror of his realisation that she just single-handedly murdered his entire army, even if it might kill her as well, with his face just screaming "What have you done, you maniac!?"

** Particularly, after Shang tells Mulan to leave, she refuses to give up and passes the HiddenPurposeTest that had previously beaten everyone else in the camp.

** Related to the above, keep in mind that this is the same guy that struck Mulan with his sword hard enough to cut through her armor and draw blood. And he was in the same enraged state of mind, as it happened just after Mulan caused the avalange that destroyed his whole army.

** He very well might have. Look at his eyes when he delivers his mountain line – he looks off to the side, as though he's noticing something while he's speaking. True, this means he might have heard help coming and ''that's'' why he said what he did, but it also means '''''he wasn't even paying attention to the guy holding a sword at his throat.''''' Holy balls of steel, Batman! Well, he ''is'' the Freaking Emperor of China. He's probably had many an assassination attempt before; he's probably bored of them by now...
*** He's the Emperor of China, not of Rome, he didn't get assassination attempts. But when he was a prince and one of many potential heirs for the previous Emperor he'd have gotten years of attempts at disgracing him - [[AFateWorseThanDeath something that would have likely pushed him into suicide]] - or at least reduce his reputation enough get him out of the race for succession. He survived years of ''that'' and came out on top, a brute trying to "just" kill him wouldn't even rate.

** Better yet, who's the first to Kowtow? Resident StrawMisoginist Chi-Fu. One moment he's dismissive of Mulan and ready to enjoy whatever punishment the Emperor decrees, but as soon as the Emperor bows he goes to his knees.

*** He's the Emperor of China, not of Rome. He didn't get assassination attempts, only attempts at disgracing him and force him into suicide, or at least get him out of the way, while he was still one of the children and potential successors of the previous Emperor. He survived years of ''that'' and came out on top, a brute trying to "just" kill him wouldn't even rate.

*** Plus from what we see of Fa Zhou's brief attempt to practice his swordplay before his poor health and injury make it clear it's impossible show he's retained his sword skill and makes it seem that his injury and sickness, not his actual age are the problem and had he remained in good health for his age probably could have served in the army again with minimal trouble.