Line #37 WMG/Mulan


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7
8	[[WMG: Shang was angry at Mulan after TheReveal not because of honor, but because he is gay.]]
9	"Ping" just saved his life. There had to be something going on besides "honor" that would make him so pissy about Ping turning out to be a girl. They had a few good moments before then, and it's not unreasonable to speculate that he began to respect Ping for "his" accomplishments during training (not to mention [[AttractiveBentGender Ping's supposedly good looks]]). So Ping turning out to be a girl [[IncompatibleOrientation broke his heart]]. He was [[LoveMakesYouDumb unable to think rationally]] for some time after that, explaining his [[LawfulStupid strange behavior]] [[CassandraTruth afterwards]]. At the end he finally got over his heartbreak over "Ping" and accepted Mulan's true identity.
10	* Think about the fact that this is one of the few Disney animated films in which The Heroine does not share a kiss with The Guy/Hero, not to mention that Shang is the only major protagonist that doesn't sing any lines in "A Girl Worth Fighting For".
11	* He could be bisexual or something similar. Old China was generally more tolerant of bi/homosexual behavior than Christian dominated Europe (at least of the men - provided they fulfilled their social commitments to family), so it's not too much of stretch to hypothesize Shang might have been treading along the more ambiguous tiers of the Kinsey scale. It's Mulan/Ping's actions and personal qualities that forged a bond between them, not her gender. It could certainly make some interesting fiction if properly explored.
12
13	[[WMG: Mulan is [=FtM=] transgender.]]
14	She's kind of excited/jittery with anticipation about going before the Matchmaker, but she doesn't seem at all happy dressed that way. Throughout the whole song "Honor To Us All", she doesn't seem to be really enjoying the make-over or dress-up she's being put through. Only until her family seems so proud of her does she finally seem to not mind it. When she goes into the army as a man, and with being a man in ancient China she finally has this sort of freedom to express who she really is. , It doesn't even drastically change her song "Reflection." It just fits even more so.
15
16	Thus, Mulan is a exploration of gender essentialism - i.e. that certain characteristics must be indicative of a male or female persona, rather than being fundamentally neutral. Mulan's internal conflict does not seem significantly centered on her female identity so much as how to express the individual aspects of that identity in harmony with the expectations of her culture. She lacks agency within the confines of her life, which is the root of a lot of her esteem and self-worth issues. The Mulan we see after the war is far more mature and self-assured, without having completely rejected her feminine identity. We're speaking of a time period where the entire concept of transgender would've been ill-defined, if acknowledged at all in old China's sharply defined gender paradigms.
17
18	Listen to the lyrics in "Reflection". She sings of rejecting her gentle lamb self and how she feels she isn't meant to "play the part" of the bride. Keep in mind all this was before the conscription notices were passed out.
19
20	[[WMG: Mulan is not trans at all, just quirky and awkward.]]
21
22	Mulan was struggling to fit in with the guys, which wouldn't have happened if she was trans; her abnormal brain structure would have fit in like a puzzle piece, but she's a fish-out-of-water for a fair bit longer. There's nothing suggesting she feels any sort of kinship beyond friendship and commendatory with her fellow soldiers.
23
24	As for the first two songs, a girl not liking dresses and makeup does not make her trans, and it seemed more about the roughness (the cold bath, tight clothes, hair being pulled; not even the girly girls like that) that irked her in "Honor To Us All'; when all was said and done, she seemed mildly excited at best, resigned at worst, but not all-together unhappy. This and "Reflection" are along the same line; Mulan is a quirky (not necessarily unfeminine) girl, and in Ancient China's restrictive society, Mulan couldn't even imagine being anything but a "perfect porcelain doll" like the others, because there was no frame of reference for a girl to be anything else. In "Reflection", she can barely articulate what she wants, only that the girl she sees in the water is like a stranger to her. She's not necessarily uncomfortable with her body, she just generally feels like an outsider.
25
26	The real moment of truth is actually during the [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic incredibly underrated score]] of "Short Hair". Mulan, who was previously going only by what others said, is making a choice for herself and running off to the war. In the camp, Mulan is every bit as awkward as she was with the matchmaker, only on a different plane. The difference is that she couldn't just go home after all the worry she's probably caused her family, she had to stick it out as long as she could. It's got nothing to do with "who she really is", it's more to do with her basically being forced to stick with something until she finally found her niche.
27
28	[[WMG: One of Mulan's ancestors was a traveler from Europe]]
29	One of Mulan's ancestors notably doesn't look remotely Asian. It's possible they have European blood and thus European features. There are Romans who got captured at Carrhae (53 BC) and force-marched east--some say until they reached the outskirts of the Chinese empire. Then there's the Tocharians, a "white" European people, who settled in what is now Xinjiang in ancient times, and even today the Uyghurs of Xinjiang often have European features.
30
31	[[WMG: The Great Stone Dragon was helping Mulan all along.]]
32	Right before she decides to go to the army, Mulan is seen sitting right at the foot of the statue of the Great Stone Dragon in the rain. It noticed her plight and plan, and being the greatest and most powerful of the guardians, decided to help her without anyone needing to awaken it first. So, the Great Stone Dragon followed Mulan in spirit form (or more fantastically, [[SuperEmpowering it somehow imbued her with its essence]]), which is why Mulan never died or was discovered before she had earned enough good favor with Shang to dodge execution, and why she was able to escape Shan Yu twice. This also explains why the statue of it crumbled so easily--with the guardian itself gone, that statue was just a useless hunk of rock waiting to fall.
33
34	[[WMG: Mushu and the Great Stone Dragon are really the same guardian.]]
35	Mushu was once the mighty Great Stone Dragon, but as penance for screwing up, the ancestors not only stripped him of his guardian status, but drained his spirit of its powers, rendering him a small dragon with almost no combat prowess, and erasing his memories as well. They intended to send him after Mulan from the beginning, as a chance at redemption for him, but they didn't want to remind him of his past before he earned his place again by proving he could be a good guardian without all the powers of the Great Stone Dragon. To this end, they sent him out to "awaken" a fake statue of himself, knowing that it wouldn't work and Mushu would take after Mulan himself. However, some of them were secretly hoping that he would fail or get himself killed, and were still hesitant to allow him to be a guardian again, hence the grudging expression on the ancestor's face when he restores Mushu to his position as a guardian. This also explains why nobody seemed to give the fact that Mushu destroyed the statue of the Great Stone Dragon any importance.
36	* This would also explain why the ancestor didn't act suspicious about Mushu's PaperThinDisguise when he was holding up the statue's head and pretending he was the Great Stone Dragon.
37
38	[[WMG: Mushu is actually a lizard.]]
39	He said he doesn’t do the tongue thing, but he actually does do the tongue thing.
40
41	[[WMG: The message Mushu gave the emperor's adviser was not a fabrication.]]
42	Given the initial strategies of General Li and that they ended up near the pass to Beijing, and that Cri-Kee's initial draft for Mushu, it's possible the letter was true, just not sent by the general. The letter might have even gone like this: "My son, we're guarding the pass, but our scouts report that the Hun army is vastly more powerful than us. We need you to bring whatever men you can to the pass with cannons, so that we will have the capacity to defeat them, and come immediately." So though the letter was false, the words were in a sense true, and through the lie, Mushu helped save China.
43	* Also, the rocket launch was intentional. Even if Shang's small platoon had made it through the pass undiscovered, sooner or later the Hun army would have come down, meeting them at a place other than a choke point where the army could be destroyed by a single rocket. There would have been one small skirmish, not even worth mentioning in the history books, then on to the capital.
44
45	[[WMG: If things with the Matchmaker had gone well at the beginning of the film, Mulan would have ended up married to Shang anyway]]
46	Although granted, Shang would probably have been dead due to the Huns, but we'll ignore that for a moment. Mulan's father is obviously a war hero, and probably one of pretty great renown considering General Li and Chi-Fu both knew who he was. ("''The'' Fa Zhou?" "I didn't know Fa Zhou had a son!") For such a great hero, who only has a single daughter, the matchmaker could only consider a family of somewhat equal standing. Who better than the son of a current general?
47	* In early drafts of the film, Mulan and Shang were to be engaged. They wouldn't have known who they were engaged to, all they would have known was that they were engaged. They were going to be given a set of necklaces that were two halves of a whole. Mulan was going to be very upset about marrying a man that she didn't know, especially after developing feelings for Shang. Part of her reason for running away was also to have been her fear of an arranged marriage. The two would not know that they were the other's betrothed until the wedding.
48
49	[[WMG: If Mulan hadn't been discovered as a man, she would have ended up married to Shang anyway]]
50	She might've gone home, passed her matchmaker test fairly this time with her newly earned discipline and got betrothed to Shang. Shang begins to think his new bride looks awfully familiar...
51
52	[[WMG: Mulan and Shang will name their first child "Ping".]]
53	* Regardless of the sex; it ''is'' a fairly androgynous name, depending on the characters used.
54
55	[[WMG: Shan Yu is the Emperor's Bastard.]]
56	Think about it. When he is first mentioned, what's the situation? Chi-Fu exclaimed, "No one can get past the Great Wall!", and when his name is mentioned, it's as if that alone explains how. Add to that the emperor suddenly deciding shit just got real, and you have the seeds of the theory. Now, add in Shan Yu's obsession with proving himself, not to the Chinese people, not to the Huns... he wants the Emperor to acknowledge him. He calls him "old man". Regular Chinese soldiers recognize him on sight. Clearly the Emperor's bastard wanted to be acknowledged, and when he was denied, he threw a hissy fit in the form of blatant treason and joined the Huns to help them wage war on his father, a la Mordred.
57
58	[[WMG: Mushu will be tight with Shang's ancestors.]]
59	Mostly because Mulan's ancestors tend to be {{jerkass}}es towards Mushu. As the ending of ''Mulan II'' would indicate, they won't like Shang's ancestors and they'll likely be annoyed by Mushu's friendship with them.
60
61	[[WMG: Shang will have one ancestor in common with Mulan]]
62	This will make things weird between Mulan's ancestors and Shang's ancestor, knowing that because of a fling that happened waaaaay back when, the two new lovers are related. But by only a speck of blood from millenia ago, so it's not realy incest. It's like that "my great great great great grandad was your great great great great grandad's brother" sort of thing.
63
64	[[WMG: The hawk is a [[Franchise/HarryPotter Horcrux]].]]
65	How else would it have survived? It's also how Shan Yu was able to pop out of the snow, "like a daisy!"
66
67	[[WMG: The falcon is [[BigBad Shan Yu's]] guardian.]]
68	In a deleted scene from the movie, it is shown that Shan Yu has the power to look through his falcon's eyes. It could mean that the falcon is meant to watch over him.
69
70	[[WMG: Mushu is actually an African-American time traveler who was turned into a Dragon]]
71	Mushu sometimes uses modern talk and slang, plus he's voiced by a [[Creator/EddieMurphy black actor]], as opposed to the rest of the voice cast who are of Asian descent. Mushu was actually a human from modern times and he was transformed into a small dragon in ancient China.
72
73	* Mushu calling Mulan "Girl" or Sleeping Beauty at one point.
74	* Mushu mentioning America of all things. Even though the movie takes place when America doesn't exist.
75	* Mushu calling male characters "Man" instead of their own names.
76
77	I think what really happened was that a man named Eddie in the year 1998 was suddenly transported to ancient China and was somehow transformed into a small dragon and was brainwashed into thinking he is a spirit guardian called the Great Stone Dragon. Thus he helps a young Chinese woman named Mulan with his memory half gone, only to mostly remember his human self of saying humorous slang lines. Thus Mulan, a Chinese woman, all this time had a talking dragon who was acually an African-American man learning her how to blend in like a man.
78
79	[[WMG: There was more than one Guardian involved. Khan (the horse) was also a Guardian]]
80	Definitely smarter and braver than your average horse, and likely Mulan's father's old warhorse. The Guardians seem to be based on the creatures of the Chinese zodiac (monkey and boar are shown). When Fa Zhou came home from the war with a bad limp, the Guardian that was supposed to have kept him safe from harm was punished by the ancestors and paid penance by staying in his mortal form. This explains why the horse was super intelligent, as well as awfully sprightly for an ancient warhorse. It also explains why Mushu was a bit rude to him throughout the movie. There's more than one redemption story going on here.
81	* Additionally, warhorses required a great deal of time and effort to train so they wouldn't panic under the conditions on a battlefield, and could be very expensive as a result. Considering how badly Fa Zhou was injured in the last war, they would probably not buy a new warhorse to replace the old one when it died, as there would be no real need. Then when you compare how long horses live on average and when the last war took place, this idea makes the most sense.
82
83	[[WMG: Mulan and the little girl who lost her doll are the same person.]]
84	* And that makes sense how...?
85
86	[[WMG: Chi-Fu is a eunuch.]]
87	It would explain why he's so effeminate, and why he's always so angry. Given how the vast majority of the emperor's male servants would have been eunuchs (if we're actually [[AnachronismStew going for historical accuracy]], anyway)... Not only does this theory explain a lot about Chi-Fu, it has basis in fact, too!
88	** As posited [[http://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/25704435369/the-price-of-power-ba-sing-se-and-eunuchs-in-the here]].
89	** Related, this might mean that the "girl back home who loves (him) like no other" actually ''is'' his mother.
90
91	[[WMG: Chi-Fu is gay.]]
92	Of course the above makes more sense, but he does have some very ''interesting'' mannerisms, and even if his dislike of women mostly stems from sexism he just seems to have this pure "girls are ''gross''!" attitude, not a "Girls are gross but kind of pretty". Even if he sings a line in "A girl worth fighting for", he's the only singer who doesn't say what about girls he finds ''attractive'', because he ''doesn't'' find girls attractive, period. He joins in the song purely to socialize (and to one up the soldiers, which, of course, backfires)
93
94	[[WMG: Chi Fu is intersex]]
95	The idea of bathing with other men seems to make him uncomfortable, and he gets very defensive when his masculinity is challenged. He also acts especially hostile towards women because he doesn't want to be compared to one. He may not even identify as male, but choose to present as one as opposed to being seen as a second-class citizen... much someone seen as "defective".
96
97	[[WMG: Mushu suffers from some form of agnosia]]
98	Mushu is not trying to insult anybody when he calls Khan a cow; he truly does see Khan as a cow. He also rides a panda of all things when delivering his forged message. It was not because he couldn't find a better ride, given that there were other horses on the camp that he could blackmail into helping him; it was because he saw the panda as an actual horse. He manages to identify the cricket correctly because the cricket told him he was a "lucky cricket" from the start. He might also see himself as a dragon because, for him, it is his InformedSpecies. Given that he was released from his duties as a guardian, it's possible that the agnosia is part of his punishment.
99	** His joke about not being a lizard and "not doing that tongue thing ''[[HypocriticalHumor does that tongue thing]]''" makes a lot of sense in this context; his only cue that he is a dragon and not a lizard is that lizards do "the tongue thing"; he might ACTUALLY be a lizard (except that he breathes fire) for all he knows.
100
101	[[WMG: Mushu is the spirit of a smith's cooling stream.]]
102	He belongs to the stream of one of those blacksmiths who use running water instead of a still trough in their forging. This caused him to breathe steam when he gained a corporeal form, and eventually fire, and made him hot-tempered like a tiger. This is why the ancestors don't accept him as a dragon--because to them, he isn't one, he's just a fire-breathing lizard-spirit who happened to come from a stream like a dragon.
103
104	[[WMG: Fa Li has suffered miscarriages.]]
105	It seems odd that Mulan is an only child, plus an only daughter, in a society where women are pressured to bear sons. Also, both her parents look considerably older than her, say 50-something while she's in her early 20's if that old. Possibly, Li had a lot of miscarriages or kids that got sick and died before she had Mulan. It's also quite likely that a young Mulan asked for a little brother (possibly too young to know how babies were made at the time) and her parents, rather than go through the heartbreak of another miscarriage, decided to get her a puppy instead. That would be the dog called Little Brother.
106
107	[[WMG: Mulan was born in the spring, late winter at least.]]
108	In Chinese tradition, a baby isn't officially named until they are 100 days old. (If Fa Li did have miscarriages, she may have called her daughter "Not This One" in the meantime.) This gives parents plenty of time to think of a name. Mulan's parents may have looked at the blossoming magnolia tree in their yard and thought "Mulan" was a pretty name for a girl. (They call it the "mu lan tree" in the sequel. "Mu lan" means "wood orchid" in Chinese and is used for the magnolia.) When the movie begins, the tree is in blossom. Likely, Mulan's birthday was recent and her parents considered her just old enough to start thinking about marriage.
109
110	[[WMG: Mulan is the guardian Dragon- or at least carrying his spirit.]]
111	When Mulan makes her decision to join the army, she is standing at the foot of the great stone dragon. When she was born the spirit of the guardian was reborn within her. Which is why Mushu couldn't wake him up--the spirit within the stone dragon was already gone.
112
113	[[WMG: The "girl back home who's not like any other"? [[DotingParent Chi-Fu's daughter]].]]
114	Chi-Fu seems a bit old to have a "girl" back home, and not a wife or a "woman". He might just be lying, but it seems plausible (and a liiiittle bit heartwarming) for him to respect exactly one female on the planet, the one who has him wrapped around her little finger: his three- or four-year-old daughter. The sideways glares weren't because Yao had seen through [[GirlfriendInCanada his lie]], it's because they were boorish brats who wouldn't understand a man's love for his progeny (especially when said offspring is a female, in third-or-whateverth-century China).
115
116	[[WMG: Chi-Fu is the most badass character in the movie.]]
117	Recall the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" sequence, where Shang brings in the weights that are so heavy they more or less immobilize everyone who puts them on. Notice that Chi-Fu is carrying the box containing them, and it only mildly troubles him. Chi-Fu could have won the war by himself had he actually given a shit, and he only acts the way he does in the movie because he wants to know what this strange feeling called "cowardice" feels like.
118
119	[[WMG: George Lucas is a fan.]]
120	Take a good look at Shan Yu... where else could Lucas possibly have gotten the idea for Darth Maul's/Sidious'/Vader's Sith eyes?
121	* Not to mention the emperor! Palpatine explicitly faked his own kidnapping, the emperor likewise seems barely ruffled and at most is only merely irritated and utterly unfazed by the hub-bub going on with his rescue.
122	[[WMG: The Cricket really is lucky.]]
123	If the meeting with the matchmaker had gone well chances are Mulan would have been too busy, by hook or crook, with her wedding arrangements. Only through the cricket's interventions she was in the right place and time to overhear the military call, to decide to go in her father's place, and thus set the movie proper in action. Her momentary bad luck led to future fortune.
124
125	[[WMG: Alternately, the Cricket is ''personally'' lucky, which makes it ''un''lucky to be around.]]
126	* If you'll notice, the Cricket itself seems to make it through the series remarkably unharmed, it's everyone around it that gets in trouble. For example, in the crossing-the-street scene there is a pile-up and multiple people get hurt, but the cricket is unharmed. So perhaps the Cricket is "lucky" in the sense that it attracts good luck to itself, thus cursing everyone around it with bad luck because the Cricket has stolen all their good luck.
127
128	[[WMG: [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} A foreign prince and princess]] were spotted at the roof of the palace right after Shan Yu was killed.]]
129	How they got there was a mystery, considering all they carried was a rug.
130
131	[[WMG: Had he gone instead of Mulan, Fa Zhou would not have been sent to the war.]]
132	He's a distinguished veteran with an injury that prevents him from being able to fight. He's practically tailor-made to train new recruits, either alongside Shang or simply taking over his role entirely.
133
134	[[WMG: If Mulan was executed]]
135	* Khan would have been either sold into slavery or worse, slaughtered. Mushu would have left in disgrace, too ashamed to return to the Fa family, or discovered and captured by Chi-Fu and the Chinese Army. Cri-Kee would have had a HeroicBSOD and would have frozen to death in the mountain snow, or Squished by Chi-Fu.
136	* The rest of the Chinese army would have been killed attempting to rescue the Emperor. Chi-Fu Would halved served Shan Yu, and help him and the Huns Kill the Fa Family for Mulan's so called treason.
137	* Shan Yu and the Huns would have killed the Emperor, proclaimed Shan Yu the new emperor and thus would have conquered all of China.
138
139	[[WMG: If there were Europeans in the film]]
140	If there were Europeans in the film, one of them would have been shocked after Mulan was exposed, and would tell his comrades about this. They would try to rescue Mulan, and the song "Savages", from Pocahontas, would have been used.
141	[[WMG: Chi-Fu wasn't in the Emperor's good graces even before his actions in the imperial city]]
142	Some people have pointed out that it's unlikely the emperor's advisor would be sent to deliver conscriptions and oversee a small troop of a fledgeling commander. It's possible that the emperor wasn't oblivious to his brown nosing and unpleasant attitude and this was a sort of "last chance" thing or some sort of punishment. His treatment of the Emperor's savior was just the last straw.
143
144	[[WMG: Mulan is a [[TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful Princess]].]]
145	* Clearly a Champion calling, and probably Court of Hearts going by her emphasis on her duties to her family and especially her father. It would help explain how she managed to improve so quickly in the "I'll make a man out of you" montage, she was picking up useful Charms on top of developing mundane skill. And Holy Shield helps explain how she survived some of the stunts she pulled.
146
147	[[WMG: Mushu isn't real.]]
148	He is the physical manifestation of Mulan's "dark side". Mushu is all of the things that Mulan does that she regrets (wolf whistling girls on the march to fit in with the guys, cheating at the archery exercise) or stuff that she wants to do but stops herself from doing. Everything Mushu did was Mulan (with the help of some matches) and everything Mushu said or thought were just Mulan's idle musings. Mushu's introduction has many parallels to Mulan's decision: There's a task to be done, but something happens (Mulan's father is sick and lame; the stone dragon breaks) that causes them to go themselves. (Mulan thinks her father shouldn't have to, Mushu fears the ancestors' anger) However, while Mulan's departure is treated as a dramatic, beautiful, and heroic moment of a young heroine in the making, Mushu's is shown as a childish attempt to cover up for his own failing. It's later revealed that a large part of Mulan's decision to leave was to prove her self worth and "find herself". (While she was concerned about her father, before getting to the idea of going herself in his place, her Plan A) was running up to the conscriptions guy and begging him to just let her father off the hook and her plan B) begging her father just to not show up. Neither one worked very well. Mushu's "advice" to her is just her own terrible ideas, (note that she never gets angry at Mushu for getting Yao and Shang upset with her, that would be just getting angry with herself) Mushu biting Ling's butt really was some creature in the pond and instead of fleeing to the rock with her new friends, Mulan just swam to the shore. As for the letter, that was just Mulan herself. She was so guilt ridden by it that she repressed the memory.
149	** In the sequel, Mulan is worried that once she gets married, she'll lose her status as a hero and just be "Shang's wife". Her feelings for Shang and the blow to her self worth and identity come into violent conflict with eachother, and she rapidly alternates between trying to sabotage her own relationship and then quickly fixing her own actions. (She is sixteen and after all the highs and lows she's been through in such a short amount of time, she would be on a hormonal rollercoaster) The ending could be interpreted as Mulan coming clean to Shang about her (mis)deeds as Mushu, and Shang forgiving her.
150
151	[[WMG: Yao is a clinical sociopath.]]
152	A low functioning one, to be exact. He displays several traits of one, including being impulsive [[note]] Some random guy is showing you his tattoo, that he thinks will protect him from injury? Sock him in the gut as hard as you can, ''just'' to prove a point!]]
153	[[/note]] easy to anger[[note]]His default reaction to being insulted/wronged is to beat the ever loving daylights out of them, no matter how minor or inconsequential the insults are, and nursing a very potent grudge against such people long after the insults/wrongs have passed[[/note]] violent, [[note]] See above notes [[/note]] Trouble with authority [[note]]He sasses both Chi Fu and Shang onscreen at least twice each, more then once and bullies recruits behind their backs, and in the sequel takes part in instigating a bar brawl, a comment from Shang implies that this is normal behavior for all of the gang of three[[/note]] However, the main trait that distinguishes sociopaths from other human beings is their distinct lack of remorse-and indeed, Yao is never shown demonstrating the slightest bit of regret for his unnervingly violent deeds. Case in point: When, consumed with fury over being called a "limp noodle", he immediately brutally assaults Mulan, (who he thought was the one who called him that)but somehow, Ling gets the brunt of his attack. For most people giving someone who is supposedly their close friend acouple whacks hard enough to give them a black eye and knock a few teeth out would be quite distressing, Yao, however, merely smiles awkwardly at his mistake, mutters an apology, and goes back to bringing down his main target. And, unlike Ling, who ''did'' make a (small) apology to Mulan for their awful behavior, or Chien Po, who never really bullied her and seemed conflicted about seeing his friends doing such, Yao never apologizes and is arguably the most physically brutal in the bullying. Another piece of evidence is that Yao doesn't seem to have many friends other then Chien Po, Ling, and Mulan-possibly because everyone is simply too afraid of him to try to form a bond. As for the friends he ''does'' have, well, Chien Po would probably befriend a great white shark if given the chance, Ling seems very similar to Yao (albeit ''slightly'' less bad-at the very least, he has better self control) and Mulan is young, naïve, and eager to fit in. As for his change in attitude towards Mulan, that is more him seeing her as a personal asset rather then a human being-he begins treating her better only after she becomes popular in camp, and she gives another person who will act as his audience, laugh at his jokes, etc. He mostly shows stronger feelings over Mulan after she's become a hero, and thereby increasing her value (being friends with a famous person, ya know-another thing about sociopaths is that they live a parasitic life style)
154	In the sequel, the romance between him and the young princess is fairly typical of a sociopath's modus operandi: Put on a superficial mask of charm for a few days and keep it up until she decides to get serious. The movie cuts off after that, which is probably a good thing, since the next part in that story would probably be a ''lot'' [[DomesticAbuse less]] [[AllTakeAndNoGive family friendly.]]
155
156	[[WMG: There were plenty of other girls who felt the exact same way Mulan did.]]
157	[[StepfordSmiler They're just much, much better at hiding it.]] Being a tomboy doesn't mean you're physically incapable of wearing make up or walking in fancy shoes, after all, it would just be more uncomfortable; The problem with Mulan might be that she has ADHD that makes it hard for her to focus on "lady training".
158
159	[[WMG: Mulan has ADHD]]
160	See above.
161
162	[[WMG: Mulan's parents are perfectly capable of hiring servants to do the household chores.]]
163	They seem pretty wealthy and well-to-do. But they made Mulan do it instead because [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes because they were hoping it would help her build character.]]
164
165	[[WMG: Mulan's heroics were all a result of a bet she made with Yao.]]
166	So basically, one night while on the march, Yao stole some booze and smuggled it into camp. Chien Po, who doesn't do alcohol, tried to talk them out of it, but couldn't, resorted to physically restraining them from the liquor, but was only able to physically restrain Ling. "Ping" didn't really want to get drunk, but then Yao called "him" a wimp, so that pretty much settled it. The two got completely wasted and while Chien Po forcibly held Ling down on the other side of camp, "Ping" and Yao got super silly, and they began to talk about all the awesome stuff they wanted to do when they got to battle the Huns, and then they got into an argument about which one was awesomer, Yao or "Ping".
167	They decided, again, while ''highly'' inebriated, to make a bet: If Ping saved China, then Yao would be "his" slave. If Yao saved China, then "Ping" would be his slave. And if ''neither'' of them saved China, then they would ''both'' be Ling's personal slave. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) they both remembered this detail from the night before, and Yao's ego kept him from letting "Ping" or himself back out of it. When the Huns first attacked, Shang arbitrarily chose Yao. Mulan, who despised the idea of being the slave of a hairy, pintsized, egotistical ladykiller, stole the cannon and was planning on shooting Shan Yu the way Yao was intended to until she couldn't get the flint working, when she changed her plans at the last possible second. Yao, seeing that "Ping" was struggling with the cannon, saw his chance to steal it back and win the bet, and thus called Ling and Chien Po to rush down to "him" with him under the paper-thin pretense of "helping". But Mulan ultimately won the bet with her avalanche. Yao didn't want to look a coward infront of the other guys, so he did his best to be a good slave for the next few hours-calling her "King of the Mountain", trying to stop her execution, but ultimately failed. Then China was endangered again, and Yao and Mulan both realized, that since Shan Yu had survived and had kidnapped the emperor, that the bet was still on. So Mulan, desperate to win, thought up the first idea that came to her head, and Yao followed along with Ling and Chien Po because he didn't have anything better to do. He still tried to wrest control of the operation by refusing to cut his side burns and keeping a banana instead of an orange, as well as stalling by asking if his dress made him look fat. But it was all for naught, and Mulan saved the day again. Yao tried one last time to salvage his status as non-slave, by "innocently" questioning whether or not it was legal for Mulan to hug the emperor. But it failed, and thus he spent the entirety of Mulan II as Mulan's slave. Nobody actually brought it up because Yao threatened to beat them into a pulp if they did.
168
169	PS: This is complete crack don't take it seriously.
170	[[WMG: Chi Fu wasn't passing out at the end]]
171	If you look closely, you will notice that he falls ''backwards.'' When a human faints-truly involuntarily loses consciousness, they fall ''forwards.'' Ergo, he was throwing himself backwards on purpose. Why? Well, losing one job was major dishonor, and in the ancient days of the lands that Mulan takes place in, being dishonored in such a way required [[DrivenToSuicide one to take one's own life.]] He was probably hoping he would break his neck on the hard stone steps. Given he cameos in the sequel, this was unsuccessful.
172	[[WMG: Chi Fu was operating under the assumption that Mulan was evil, not less capable.]]
173	Obviously it’s a terrible thing to think, but Chi Fu would have seen her during the training montage. It could be argued that his prejudices are so deeply ingrained into his psyche that his memories rewrote themselves to fit with his beliefs the instant he found out the truth about Mulan, but it if that were the case, it seems rather unlikely that he would instantly assume nearly getting stabbed by a falling sword was an elaborate murder attempt on Mulan’s part. While the audience knows that it wasn’t Mulan, but for his own theory to make sense to him, he would need to acknowledge that Mulan had the fighting skills required to throw a sword at him and only miss by a few inches. It's easy to see someone being strong. But it's hard to be able to figure out what someone's intentions are, and Mulan's more destructive acts, (being attributed with randomly firing a rocket while trying to ambush the huns)-stealing the last cannon in a chancy gambit so out there not even Mushu understood what she was doing, and it's pretty clear that everyone was ''pretty'' horrified as their supposedly loyal fellow soldier randomly grabbed the last cannon as it was being prepared to nuke the Hun leader and started running towards the enemy army with it)
174
175	[[WMG: Mushu has illusory powers]]
176	Several times he says something out loud that everyone assumes to be Mulan,(that sounds nothing like her, even in her man disguise) or he says something out loud that nobody but Mulan seems to hear. And then there was his rather suspect looking 'imperial messenger' disguise that passed muster, as well as pretending to be Mulan trash talking Shang in the sequel (Shang was completely fooled despite "Mulan's" head falling off, as well as "Mulan"'s voice suddenly sounding exactly Mushu's (Mushu's voice does not resemble Mulan's by any stretch of imagination) And let's not forget the impressive show he puts on for Mulan before revealing himself. His powers clearly have limits-he can do nothing to alter his physical body, though his shadow and his voice are free real estate. If he creates a disguise Animals also see right through them, though he is ''very'' good at getting them to do what he wants, as seen with Cri-Kee, Hayabusa, and a random panda bear...
177
178	[[WMG: The Great Stone Dragon refused to awaken because...]]
179	He sensed Mulan was a child of destiny. They had a deep spiritual connection as she always sat under him when troubled. The Great Stone Dragon sensed not only the fate of the Fa family, but countless families, and all of China depended on her. Only he knew that from the start. The ancestors believed otherwise and that Mulan would bring dishonor if allowed to pursue her path. Thus, The Great Stone Dragon ''refused to be summoned'' since he would be duty-bound to retrieve her, and he would not fail, and his success would '''doom''' the land and its people.
180	** The great stone dragon is strongly implied to immediately alert Mulan's parents and grandmother right after she leaves, so I doubt it's ''that'' on her side.
181	[[WMG: The Emperor of China is actually Palpatine]]
182	In a world where Palpatine [[spoiler: didn't get killed by Rey and every Jedi (ever) and/or]] used time travel to travel through time into a primitive world known as earth. He easily convinced everyone to adore him despite the fact that he oppressed the women badly.
183	General Li was his first sith apprentice, a greedy, LazyBum who took too much pride in his well-muscled but unintelligent offspring.
184	Chi-Fu was cynical and desperate for validation so it was easy to manipulate him.
185	Shan Yu is actually not a Hun or even human, he's an artificial life form who, along with the Hun army, was made specifically to attack China.
186	The Emperor wasn't asking Li to protect his people to seem nice, he just decided that rushing out against an unknown opponent would net more casualties then concentrating the defense around a single place. He sent out both Li and Chi Fu fully expecting both to die so that he could rope in new recruits (because let's be honest, that's just what he does)
187	Somehow, Chi-Fu survived (because that scrawny, crotchety old man has to be made of iron to somehow stay alive throughout the film's events)but not immune to pain, which is why he's so cynical and prickly, and thus has a lot of negative emotions for the emperor to manipulate. Palpatine sensed what had happened. He realized that there had to be something special about Mulan for her to be so darn ''lucky'' and to attract so much attention...and so he caused her to pass out and have her secret revealed. Shang sparing her, Chi Fu getting incredibly vindictive were also Palpatine's machinations, a twisted form of 'good cop' 'bad cop' since he'll trust her more if he "saves" her from mean, nasty, ol' Chi Fu who surely is acting on his own agenda, ''right''?
188	So then, just like in ''Revenge of the Sith'', Palpatine arranges his own kidnapping so that Mulan can kill Shan Yu to help further her fall to the dark side, and then he tries to make Chi Fu go insane by screwing with his head, which ''almost'' fails...
189	But then, to Palpatine's actual horror, he realizes that not only is Mulan more force-sensitive then she is, but she also ain't bad ''or'' good. She just literally does not ''give a darn''. About ''anything''.
190	Palpatine lets her go but easily manipulates Shang to go after her by "convincing" him he's in love with her (Really, he'd barely met the two. Who is he to snoop around in their love lives. And how many dynasties have this creep lived through anyway? Like I said. Palpatine. Fortunately for Palpatine (and unfortunately for everyone else), Mulan can easily be goaded into doing just about anything as long as she can be presented as a Disney Heroine while doing so, and thus manipulates her into further ruining people's lives by taking advantage of that (as seen in Mulan II) All while tricking everyone (including the viewers!) into thinking he was a sweet old man.
191	** Just think! Palpatine's Modus Operandi is finding people with potential, corrupting them, and then having them be killed by his next candidate when they outlive their usefulness. Luke was tempted by becoming angry after [[spoiler: Darth Vader brought up turning Leia to the dark side, Shang got angry after Chi Fu stated that Mulan would never amount to anything. [[note]]"From my point of view the women are evil"[[/note]] The emperor stepped in, convinced Mulan that he was her friend, and then continued to goad Chi Fu into giving Mulan more and more ridiculously inappropriate awards (a sixteen-year-old ''soldier'', even an expert one, for ''advising''?) until Chi Fu finally slipped up and resisted, to which the emperor promptly struck him down. But in this case, the emperor won]]
192	[[WMG: Mulan has failed with the matchmaker multiple times.]]
193	It's not so far-fetched if you think about it. During Honor to us All, Grandma says "And even you can't blow it." Possibly referencing the past fails with the matchmaker. Near the end of the matchmaking disaster, she then says "I think it's going well. Don't you?" Referencing that worse things have happened with matchmaker and Mulan... somehow.
194	[[WMG: The doctor who treated Mulan was Mushu in disguise]]
195	The viewer has never seen him before. The viewer never sees him again. He appears and disappears just as quickly.
196	The viewer knows Mushu is good at disguises. The viewer also knows that Mushu is unorthodox. Perhaps he believed that Mulan's avalanche would be a perfect place to come clean. Thus he caused Mulan to white out with his suggestive powers ([[DiabolusExMachina really, the injury doesn't hinder her at all before this very second, and there's no actual tear in her clothes!]]) Mushu's horror could be from his plan not going as he expected.
197	[[WMG: General Li is corrupt]]
198	This might not make sense at first, especially with the tragic nature of his death and that Shang clearly adores him, but for one, there were ''many'' deaths contributing to the overall tragedy of the village, and for two, Shang's perspective is going to be naturally distorted by the fact that General Li is his father. He clearly thinks that his troops can handle the Huns by themselves (a sentiment that is brutally proven wrong and that everyone else disagrees with beforehand), showing a bizarre lack of competence for a supposedly high ranking general, his plan is simplistic and even if Chi Fu or Shang did raise concerns, it's clear from General Li's next action that he has all the power in the scenario and way too much stubbornness to listen to either's advice. As it stands, it's DamnedByFaintPraise by Chi Fu and blindly seconded by Shang. General Li then puts Shang in command, and any worthy traits Shang has is undermined by General Li stating that Shang has "impressive military lineage" as part of his response to the serious question of whether or not Shang's positive traits outweigh his lack of experience. Given General Li's limited screentime before he dies defending an unarmed village from invaders, it's likely if he were ever found out after death, [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead nobody would want to bring it up lest they upset a grieving Shang.]]
199	[[WMG: The Emperor is not a good person.]]

Context WMG / Mulan