Mulan/Characters

Fa Mulan / "Ping"

 * Action Girl: Not initially. But eventually, Shang successfully trains her to be a warrior. She actually ends up surpassing him.
 * Anti-Hero: The Emperor is well-aware of Mulan's more questionable actions. For example, she stole her father's armor, destroyed half of his palace, and deceived her commanding officer. But if she didn't do all those things, she could have never saved China from Shan Yu.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: When the Emperor gifts her with his dragon pendant and Shan-Yu's sword.
 * Badass
 * Badass Princess: Not really, but since she is part of the Disney Princess line-up...
 * Bifauxnen
 * Cool Sword
 * Daddy's Girl: What leads to her deciding to go to war in her place...by disguising herself as a man.
 * Determinator
 * Fire-Forged Friends: She doesn't start off as friends with Yao and Ling (Chien Po is willing to befriend her but they don't interact much before they become capable warriors), but Yao and Ling both come to respect her.
 * Foil: To Shang, though the two of them actually aren't so different. Both of them are loyal to China for a fault, for instance.
 * Friend to All Children: Proven during "Lesson Number One".
 * Guile Heroine
 * Important Haircut: She gives herself a haircut to make disguising herself easier.
 * Journey to Find Oneself: Happens along the way, but she initially leaves to save her father.
 * Lady of War: She kills Shan Yu of all people.
 * Pink Means Feminine: Her matchmaker dress, although she doesn't wear it voluntarily.
 * Plucky Girl
 * Sarashi: And yes, it's relevant.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: Looks really nice in her matchmaker ceremony dress.
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Everyone's surprised to find out she's a girl.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to the princesses' Girly Girls in the sequel.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Courtesy of Shang.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Tried to be one in the beginning. It didn't suit her.
 * Actually, she has more traits than you see at first sight. While she's not super ladylike and demure, she fits the "core of steel" and "devotion to her family" parts almost perfectly - after all, the reason why she went to war as a Bifauxnen was not to get glory or escape her family situation, but to save her aging father from sure death.

Mushu

 * Badass Mustache
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Forgotten Aesop: In the first movie, Mushu laments that he took on the mission for his own sake. What does he do in the second? Try to sabotage Mulan's engagement for his own sake. Though in his defense, it had taken him 500 years to become a guardian again in the first place, and the ancestors weren't treating him too well.
 * Immorality Immaturity: He might be immortal...but Mulan is the more mature one of the two.
 * Large Ham: "Who am I? WHO AM I? I am the guardian of lost souls, the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Mushu!"
 * Incoming Ham: "I LIIIIIIIVE!"
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority
 * Motor Mouth
 * Non-Human Sidekick
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Playing with Fire
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Cri-Kee.
 * Shield Surf
 * Shipper on Deck: Inverted. In the sequel, he really doesn't want Mulan and Shang to marry.
 * Ship Sinking
 * Talking Animal: Unlike Cri-Kee and Khan.

Cri-Kee
"Cri-Kee: (chirping noises) Mushu: What do you mean, a loser?"
 * Amplified Animal Aptitude
 * Four-Legged Insect
 * Intelligible Unintelligible


 * Non-Human Sidekick: Serves as one to Mushu, and does stuff for him like forging the letter to Shang and giving him the idea of making Mulan a warrior.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Mushu.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter

Khan

 * Cool Horse
 * Intelligible Unintelligible
 * Non-Human Sidekick
 * Silent Snarker
 * Undying Loyalty: To Mulan. Seriously, he was prepared to go into the middle of a raging avalanche to go save her!!

Li-Shang

 * Adorkable: His interaction with Mulan after defeating Shan-Yu has him stammering and not knowing what to say her to her.
 * Badass: Not as much as Mulan though.
 * Badass Cape: Surprisingly, it never gets snagged, as opposed to Shan Yu who does.
 * Badass in Distress: A few times...
 * Badass Long Hair: In the sequel.
 * The Captain: His father put him in charge, presumably.
 * Cool Horse: He has a White Stallion, but unlike Mulan's it doesn't have a name.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: This is justified, as the Huns have no intention of taking prisoners of war...or plan to torture their prisoners.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Though he at least gives Mulan the generous offer of leaving the military, because apparently he can't make a man out of her. Mulan would have accepted but she then realized that none of the soldiers had managed to reach the arrow yet.
 * Love Makes You Dumb: He is usually The Stoic but when he tries to talk to Mulan after Shan Yu's defeat, he doesn't have a clue what to say.
 * Military Brat
 * Mr. Fanservice: Mulan certainly thinks so.
 * Official Couple: With Mulan by the sequel.
 * Parental Abandonment: His mom wasn't shown or mentioned, but we all know what happened to his Disappeared Dad.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Yao lampshades it, claiming that he'll retrieve the arrow and keep his shirt on.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Yao lampshades it, claiming that he'll retrieve the arrow and keep his shirt on.

Yao, Ling and Chien-Po

 * Acrofatic: Chien-Po to some extent; despite his size, he's seen doing cartwheels in the later half of Be A Man.
 * Big Eater: Chien-Po.
 * Big, Thin, Short Trio.
 * Casanova Wannabe: Ling is a milder example, if a couple lines of A Girl Worth Fighting For are any indication.
 * Character Development: Ling and Yao.
 * Comic Trio.
 * Eye Scream: Less violent than some other examples we could list, but Yao has one of his eyes permanently blacked out.
 * Gentle Giant: Chien-Po.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Yao.
 * Large Ham: "And I am Yao! King of the Rock!"
 * Lean and Mean: Ling before his Character Development.
 * The Napoleon: Yao.
 * Plucky Comic Relief
 * Teeth Flying: Ling during the camp brawl scene.
 * Three Amigos
 * True Companions
 * True Companions

Fa Zhou

 * Cool Old Guy
 * Generation Xerox: It's indicated that Mulan inherited traits from him. It takes some time for her to become a capable soldier, unsurprisingly...but she learns faster than everyone else, and actually manages to surpass Shang.
 * Handicapped Badass: He was injured during a previous war, though he was lucky enough to come back alive. Mulan decides that he won't be going to a second one and goes in her stead for this reason.
 * Honor Before Reason: "I will die doing what's right!"
 * Retired Badass: Until the next war.

Fa Li

 * Cool Old Lady
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: She's not too bad-looking, considering her age.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko

Grandmother Fa

 * Cool Old Lady
 * Deadpan Snarker: Less so than Mushu, but still a little bit. "Who spit in her bean curd?"
 * Miniature Senior Citizens: She is much shorter than Mulan as seen during the "Honor To Us All" sequence when she gives her the jade necklace.

The Ancestors
"First Ancestor: (speaking to Mushu) You had your chance to protect the Fa family! Female Ancestor: Your misguidance led Fa Deng to disaster! Fa Deng: (carrying his head under his arm) Yeah. Thanks a lot."
 * All of the Other Reindeer: They like picking on Mushu.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
 * Badass Beard: Two of them -- the First Ancestor, and the guy that goes, "Don't look at me! She gets it from your side of the family!"
 * Fog Feet
 * Jewish Mother: "My children never caused such trouble, they all became acupuncturists!"
 * One-Scene Wonder: Fa Deng.


 * Only Sane Woman: "She's just trying to help her father -- "
 * Our Ghosts Are Different
 * Posthumous Character
 * Shout-Out: Two of them imitate the pose from the American Gothic painting.
 * Staff of Authority: The First Ancestor.

Chi Fu

 * Ambiguously Gay
 * Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: Chi-Fu is a Non-Action Guy known for his Girly Scream, yet when told that Mulan is a hero he simply says "'tis a woman, she'll never be worth anything." Granted, there is some room for interpreting this as something he doesn't quite mean, and more so says out of contempt for Mulan as an individual, but still...
 * Hate Sink: None of the conscripted soldiers really seem to like him, though they get along with Shang.
 * Jerkass
 * Lawful Stupid
 * Nice Hat
 * Non-Action Guy: Justified. He's the Emperor's aide, not a soldier.
 * Noodle Incident: "You men owe me a new pair of slippers!"
 * Squeals Like a Little Girl
 * Would Hit A Girl: When Mulan is ousted as a girl, he's the only one who wants her dead.

The Emperor

 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Badass Mustache
 * Badass Pacifist: He stands up to Shan Yu of all people.
 * The Emperor: Well, duh..
 * Establishing Character Moment: Instead of having his army protect himself, he decides to have his army protect his people. The general is sent to intercept Shan Yu when he approaches a village for this reason.
 * Kneel Before Zod: Defied AWESOMELY. "No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it."
 * Nice Guy
 * Nice Hat
 * Reasonable Authority Figure

Shan-Yu

 * Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the most deadly out of all the Huns.
 * Big Bad: There wouldn't be any conflict in the movie if he wasn't trying to seize China.
 * Badass: You'd have to be to be the leader of the Huns.
 * Badass Boast: Is fond of making these. In fact, he makes one in all of his (speaking) appearances.
 * Badass Long Hair
 * Badass Mustache
 * The Berserker: While normally cold and collected, he really loses it . YMMV as to whether this counts as a Villainous Breakdown, since he does actually recover from it, and due to his fairly bestial appearance the before/after difference is less pronounced than in most villainous breakdowns.
 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: Has one for a pet.
 * Big Entrance: And how!
 * Black Eyes of Crazy: His irises are yellow, but his pupils and the "whites" of his eyes are black. Unusual example in that this is actually his eye colour, and consequently they stay this way all the time, even when he is totally calm, rather than turning this colour when he loses it.
 * Blood Knight: His first two scenes suggest him to be this (see Establishing Character Moment below), and he later confirms it when he rejects a suggestion to avoid the Imperial army rather than meet them in combat. Shortly before the  he personally leads the charge against the heroes, and is so far in front of his horde when he does so that it is very clear he wants to fight them himself.
 * Cool Sword
 * The Dreaded: Though the Emperor is too dignified to have a true Oh Crap moment, his expression and actions when General Li says the Huns are being led by Shan Yu shows that he is aware that China could be in a lot of trouble.
 * Establishing Character Moment: In the very first scene of the film he leads an attack on the Great Wall of China, and does not stop a sentry who lights the signal fire. When the sentry defiantly says "Now all of China knows you're here", Shan Yu says
 * His next appearance marks another one, where he claims the reason he's invading China in the first place is because "By building his Wall (the Emperor) challenged my strength. Well, I'm here to play his game. Go! Tell your Emperor to send his strongest armies. I'm ready". He then.
 * Evil Laugh: He does one after he successfully captures the Emperor.
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Famous Last Words: "It looks like you're out of ideas."
 * Four-Star Badass: He is the supreme leader of his army, and he personally leads the attacks. When we finally see him in action it is clear that he is extremely Badass
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Guttural Growler
 * Implacable Man: He really wants the Emperor to acknowledge his superiority, and minor inconveniences like  only make him angry, and cause him to re-evaluate his strategy.
 * Killed Off for Real: He was thought to be dead after being buried in an avalanche, but he turns out to be alive. Mulan, however, finishes him for good by blowing him up with fireworks. Though it has been established that spirits exist in this universe, so it's plausible that he could return as one.:
 * Large and In Charge: He towers over much of the cast.
 * Le Parkour
 * Lightning Bruiser: Shan Yu may look like a Big Guy Mighty Glacier, (and he shows himself to be just as strong as he looks,) but he's as agile as a monkey.
 * Made of Iron:
 * No Song for the Wicked: Notably the only villain in a Disney Princess (even a retroactive Disney Princess) movie other than Maleficent (whose poem might count) not to have a Villain Song.
 * Obviously Evil: It'd be surprising if he weren't.
 * Oh Crap: Has a glorious one when
 * And an even better one when
 * There's also a good one when
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Averted/Inverted; he's one of the few male characters in the film who never outright says anything sexist towards Mulan.
 * Skyward Scream: When he believes that his army has been wiped out by an avalanche that Mulan caused, he lets out a scream. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of his surviving men, and they march off towards the Imperial city together.
 * Unstoppable Rage: When he gets angry, little obstacles like a massive barred door, thick columns and a tiled roof don't slow him down all that much.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Arguable, see the "Berserker" entry above.
 * Would Hit a Girl: The poor little girl and Mulan are examples. Though in Mulan's case, she had wiped out the vast majority of his army.
 * Would Hurt a Child: The little girl will be missing her doll. We should return it to her.

The Huns
"Shan-Yu: (throws one of them the Tung Shao Pass doll) What do you see? Hun #1: Black pine. From the high mountains! Hun #2: White horsehair. Imperial stallions. Hun #3: Sulfur. From cannons."
 * The Archer
 * Awesomeness By Analysis


 * Genius Bruiser: See above.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Mooks
 * Muscles Are Meaningless: The archers are pretty thin, but a pair of them still managed to muscle their way through the avalanche snow. Holy Batman.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: One of the archers.
 * Shirtless Scene: Two of the Huns that joined Shan-Yu for the final showdown at the Emperor's palace.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Concubine: At least the aforementioned two.
 * Zerg Rush
 * Zerg Rush

Mei, Ting-Ting and Su

 * Birds of a Feather: They turn out to have many things in common with Yao, Chien Po, and Ling respectively.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Mei is pink, Ting-Ting is purple and Su is yellow.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses
 * Genki Girl: Mei and Su.
 * "I Want" Song: "I Wanna Be Like Other Girls".
 * Ms Exposition: Ting-Ting.
 * The Stoic: Ting-Ting for about three-quarters of Mulan II. "Just get your pomegranates in the carriage."
 * Not So Stoic: When Ling gets her to laugh.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Ting-Ting.
 * The Three Faces of Eve: with Ting-Ting as the Wife, Mei as the Seductress, and Su as the Child.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Ting-Ting, for a long time.