I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism for the Mulan movie and what I’m getting is that the only good thing about this movie is that we get a perfect comparison of the Strong Female character trend vs the Strong character that happens to be Female
(Please note I have yet to see the live action movie, I am going off reviews I have found here on tumblr so if anyone who has seen it would like to judge my accuracy please do so)
The strong character that is female:
The original animated series had Mulan grow and become a strong character. Her being a female gave her some advantages over the men but she also has some disadvantages. She had actual character beyond being a girl trying to prove she is better than men, in fact she doesn’t have a trace of that trait, she proves herself as an individual rather than prove herself as a gender. She proved women were capable soldiers by being a capable soldier.
The Strong Female Character:
The live action remake took that and threw it out the window. Mulan was a strong warrior from the start we saw no growth. She only had advantages over the men her only disadvantage was that they would not accept women. Which is weird because if she is already as capable as any soldier even without formal military training, they’d have no reason to turn her away. The movie is all about proving the gender rather than the individual. They didn’t even keep to that because there was no realization moment for the military men between the reveal scene and two scenes later when they put her in charge of a mission.
They lessen her impact of being a female in the army by making it look like it was the betrayal of her identity that made them kick her out, rather than her gender, rendering the whole point of disguising herself pointless
