Fa Mulan

<p>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.</p><p>Fa Mulan: </p><p>- Background: <em>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.</em></p><p>- Appearances:</p><p>° Mulan:<em> 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