History Characters / Mulan

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Mulan is quite unconventional and struggles to fit into the strict gender roles in Imperial China. However she does like the makeover she gets to prepare for the Matchmaker, had actually struggled with fitting in amongst the other soldiers (and even complained that she didn't want to smell like a man), and she finds comfort in a simpler (but no less lovely) blue dress in the finale. Her girly streak grows longer in the sequel, as while Mulan is as badass as ever and [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl pretty tomboyish when compared to the princesses]], she's revealed to have a romantic side, which is best shown by how happy she was with marrying Shang and [[ShipperOnDeck how ecstatic she was]] when the princesses [[RelationshipUpgrade get together]] with [[spoler:Yao, Ling and Chien Po]].

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Mulan is quite unconventional and struggles to fit into the strict gender roles in Imperial China. However she does like the makeover she gets to prepare for the Matchmaker, had actually struggled with fitting in amongst the other soldiers (and even complained that she didn't want to smell like a man), and she finds comfort in a simpler (but no less lovely) blue dress in the finale.

* DeadpanSnarker: "It would had been warm if you were here on time" towards Mulan when she freezes in the bath tub.

* DeadpanSnarker: The line, "Who spit in her bean curd?" is a good example.

* DeadpanSnarker: "It would had been warm if you were here on time" towards Mulan when she freezes in the bath tub.

* TheDitz: Possibly; he doesn’t bow to Mulan until after the rest of the crowd has.

* HighClassFan: The princesses are often seen with a fan in their hands, to show off that they're [[ProperLady Proper Ladies]]. Ting-Ting seems to especially hold on to hers, as she is the oldest and most mature of them, and during their IWantSong, "I Wanna Be Like Other Girls", her younger sisters rip the fan out of her hands when trying to convince her to live a little.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: See IWantSong; it's about being like commoner girls.
* IWantSong: "I Wanna Be Like Other Girls".

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/EddieMurphy; Mark Moseley (''WesternAnimation/MulanII''); Creator/EugenioDerbez (Latin American Spanish dub); José Garcia (European French dub); Mario Jorge Andrade (Brazilian Portuguese dub); Creator/KoichiYamadera (Japanese dub); Tomer Sharon (Hebrew dub), Chen Peisi (Mandarin Chinese), Jacky Wu (Taiwanese Mandarin), Eric Kot (Cantonese)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PatMorita (original); Jesús Colin (Latin American Spanish dub); Bernard Dhéran (European French dub); Yitzchak Seidof (Hebrew dub), Zhou Zhiqiang (Mandarin Chinese dub), Tong Shaozong (Taiwanese Mandarin dub), Kwan Hoi Shan (Cantonese dub)

* MythologyGag: His name. In the original version of the legend, Mulan's monarach was the Khan of the Northern Wei and the invading force came from the Rouran Khaganate while in the Sui Tang Romance version, Mulan was a subject of Heshana Khan, Ruler of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: He might have been inspired by notorius nomadic conquerors like Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan. Or he is based on one of the Chanyus (the leader of the Xiongnu in real life). One in particular matches Shan Yu's ruthlessness, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modu_Chanyu Modu Chanyu]].

* BaldOfEvil: Three of the five (Sheshou, Bai & Bao) have no hair on the top of their heads. All of them (as well as the two that have hair (Zhencha and Lieren)) are ruthless killers.

* GutturalGrowler: He has a deep, throaty, hoarse voice befitting the "tough guy" image he presents.

* NearVillainVictory: Even the General Li and his army were no match for him and the new soldiers were inexperienced even including Li Shang. The only reason he fails to conquer China is Mulan's creativity.

* BigOlEyebrows: The biggest eyebrows the movie add to his unusual and beast-like appearance.

* SeveredHeadSports: When celebrating at the end, the headless one gets his head thrown around like a beach ball.

* PerilousOldFool: Subverted. Zhou is an aged war-hero who needs a cane and has implicit heart troubles, but unlike the average perilous old fool he ''knows'' he's not in the best shape and isn't the warrior he once was, and he doesn't disagreed with Mulan that he's going to his death. However, China calls for his draft service as a man and he will answer it as he has no sons to take the duty because it's the right thing to do.

* DecompositeCharacter: The first case of Mulan's commanding officer having name had it be "Xin Ping". While the surname goes unused, the given name is given to Mulan as an alias.

** Shang held some sexist beliefs in the first film, especially noted in some of his lyrics in "I'll Make A Man Out of You" and was initially dismissive of Mulan's claim that Shan-Yu because of it (although it was also mainly due to her lies). But, by the end, he lets go of sexism and was ready to attack Chi Fu when he made sexist insults at Mulan despite saving all of China.

* BadassOnPaper: He is promoted to captain based on his success as a student (and the fact that his father is the general). He has no actual combat experience, which is a sore spot Ch -Fu likes to poke.

* PoliticallyCorrectVillain: It's subtle, but it's suggested he's not exactly sexist. Whereas Chi-Fu did everything he could to bemoan that Mulan was a woman in the army, when she ties back her hair into a top knot to show, Shan Yu instantly recognizes her as "the soldier from the mountains," and fights her with as much ferocity as he would any male soldier. Sufficed to say, he rightfully focused less on her being female, and more on her being a mighty warrior. Justified by the fact that he is actually Xiongnu, and female Xiongnu could be soldiers.[[note]]To be fair, any sexism would have also taken a backseat to how ''pissed'' he was at recognizing the soldier who wiped out his entire army.[[/note]]

* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}. He never saw the Huns as a real threat and believed that China's victory was already good as sealed from the get-go. Despite Chi-Fu's brown-nosing, General Li's excuse of a "strategy plan" to combat the Hun advance was actually very basic, poorly thought-out, and completely dependent on the likelihood that his own troops have the higher numbers + firepower. [[spoiler:It didn't matter, as the Huns were able to deduce his plan, and the general and his forces suffered the ultimate price for his arrogance by being [[CurbstompBattle completely wiped out]].]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: As brash and overly serious as he can be, Shang makes a few good points.
** He becomes a DrillSergeantNasty in "I'll Make a Man Out of You" not only to ready his men for battle, but to also make the ones most likely to get themselves and others killed leave.
** His initial anger and distrust at Mulan after TheReveal is laced with sexist views, but it's also understandable since she ''did'' lie to him.
** In the sequel, Shang makes a good point on how Mulan interfering with the princesses' arranged marriage could lead to trouble for China.

* JerkassHasAPoint: A misogynistic prick and total suck-up to the Emperor notwithstanding, Chi Fu makes some sensible arguments regarding Li Shang and his trainees.
** His concern over General Li's decision to promote Li Shang to captain and subsequent contempt for the latter stems from the fact that for all his high marks as an academy student and knowledge of combat strategies, Shang is still a recent graduate with no prior military experience who was (mostly) given captaincy due to his father having pride in their family's military background. Even if Chi Fu was harsh and belittling, he had every reason to lack confidence in a captain who was promoted out of nepotism and was placed in charge of training a group who would be expected to face off against [[TheDreaded the Huns]].
** While his low opinion for the troops themselves could be due in part to their insubordination towards him, Chi Fu's harsh report of their performance during basic training is a result of their initial incompetence (in one instance firing a rocket that destroyed Chi Fu's tent that would've gotten him seriously injured or killed) and inability to work together as a unit (based on Yao and Ling's frequent antagonizing of "Ping"), qualities highly unbefitting of a group expected to face battle together. Even if they pulled themselves together and completed their training, Chi Fu was well in his rights not to have confidence in a group who didn't learn fast enough or take their training seriously.
** When Mulan is exposed as a woman he all but demands her execution... Because she ''had'' committed a capital crime, even stating "You know the law" as a matter of fact when Yao, Ling, and Chien Po try to oppose the decision.
** He's ''incensed'' when the Emperor decides to reward Mulan's heroic deeds by making her a member of his counsel for her heroic deeds... That have ''nothing'' to do with the years of hard work as a ''bureaucrat'' one should do to earn it, as ''he'' did. His motivation may have been misogyny, but he was indeed correct.

* DisabledLoveInterest: Yao's left eye is permanently blacked out and he becomes a love interest for Mei in the sequel.

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/EddieMurphy; Mark Moseley (''WesternAnimation/MulanII''); Creator/EugenioDerbez (Latin American Spanish dub); José Garcia (European French dub); Mario Jorge Andrade (Brazilian Portuguese dub); Creator/KoichiYamadera (Japanese dub); Tomer Sharon (Hebrew dub)

->'''Yao voiced by:''' Creator/HarveyFierstein (original); Creator/MiguelAngelGhigliazza (Latin American Spanish dub); Creator/ChristianPelissier (speaking) and Michel Vigné (singing) (European French dub); Chaim Tsinovitsh (Hebrew dub)
->'''Ling voiced by''': Gedde Watanabe (speaking), Matthew Wilder (singing) (original); Raúl Aldana (Latin American Spanish dub); Pierre-François Pistorio (European French dub); Creator/RyuseiNakao (Japanese dub); Yossi Toledo (speaking), Momi Levy (singing) (Hebrew dub)
->'''Chien Po voiced by''': Jerry Tondo (original); Creator/JesusBarrero (Latin American Spanish dub); Thierry Ragueneau (European French dub); Yehoiachin Friedlander (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Soon-Tek Oh; Tito Reséndiz (Latin American Spanish dub); Michel Ruhl (European French dub); Yehuda Efroni (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Freda Foh Shen; Nancy [=McKenzie=] (speaking) and Vicky Córdova (singing) (Latin American Spanish dub); Rosine Cadoret (European French dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JuneForay (speaking), Marni Nixon (singing); Creator/RocioGarcel (Latin American Spanish dub); Lily Baron (speaking) and Marie Thérèse Orain (singing) (European French dub); Nechama Handel (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PatMorita (original); Jesús Colin (Latin American Spanish dub); Bernard Dhéran (European French dub); Yitzchak Seidof (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JamesHong (original); Creator/MarioFilio (Latin American Spanish dub); Michel Prudhomme (European French dub); Creator/YoshitoYasuhara (Japanese dub); Lior Zohar (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MiguelFerrer (original); Creator/RubenMoya (Latin American Spanish dub); Creator/RichardDarbois (European French dub); Mikael Persbrandt (Swedish dub); Creator/HiroshiFujioka (Japanese dub); Ohad Shachar (Hebrew dub), Massimo Corvo (Italian dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MiriamMargolyes (original), Creator/AprilWinchell (sequel); Mayra Rojas (Latin American Spanish dub); Liliane Gaudet; Perrette Pradier (''WesternAnimation/MulanII'') (European French dub); Nurit Kohen (Hebrew dub)

-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JamesShigeta (original); Arturo Casanova (Latin American Spanish dub); David Savignat (European French dub)

* DrillSergeantNasty: "You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot and you haven't got a clue, but somehow I'll make a man out of you." He's not kidding: one of the exercises consists of him shooting ''ArrowsOnFire'' at the recruits, and he's shooting to ''hit'' (as Yao finds out when an arrow gets him on the butt). It works, and by the end of the TrainingMontage they are capable soldiers (and Yao evades all the flaming arrows when Shang gives them a repeat). It's also clear that [[KnowWhenToFoldEm Shang knows when to quit,]] since he failed the teenaged and underperforming Ping and told him [[BrutalHonesty he wasn't cut out for war.]]

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Implied. He was able to carry more weights than the other solderies and take on the much Shan-Yu, despite losing in the end.