I haven’t commented on Mulan’s big reveal from two weekends ago yet because I’ve been thinking about Mulan’s big reveal for two weekends now. For those who haven’t heard, Mulan revealed she is in love with Aurora/Sleeping Beauty on “Once Upon a Time.” Which means Mulan has come out as bisexual which means a Disney princess is gay which means someone is getting a shiny new toaster oven in the mail. Also it’s another LGBT woman of color on television. Hooray. A round of unicorns and rainbows on me.
But then, there’s the other shoe. Because the coming out party got rained on in a major way when the love was unreciprocated (well, also unrealized). And now perhaps we’ve also seen the end of Mulan as she joins the Merry Man and Aurora goes off to have Prince Phillip’s baby. Another sad coming out story. Send Kleenex with that toaster over.
I’ve been a Sleeping Warrior fan from way back. And you have to give the show props for giving us our most obvious lesbian sex metaphor since Tara spread beneath Willow’s tree in Mulan thrusting her fist into Aurora’s chest to remove her heart. So while I applaud, like crazy, the creation of another female LGBT character on television and especially one with such history as Mulan, I am sad that this may be the last we see of her. And if true it would add another character to the Lesbian Upon Leaving (LUL, not to be confused with LUG) pantheon of LGBT character. (Noted alumni include departing “Law & Order” DA Serena Southerlyn and her “Is this because I’m a lesbian?”-firing.)
In short, welcome to the fold, Mulan. I sure hope you stick around.
According to the writers, apparently that scene isn't the end for the Mulan & Aurora storyline. So there's still hope!
ReplyDeleteI can't be the end as the merry men will be in it again. after all Robin is Regina's second chance - I can't articulate enough how much that saddens me :( I am a big SwanQueen shipper
ReplyDeleteAs a potential spoiler, and as Anonymous stated, there will be more of the characters, apparently at least until episode 11 of this season. Who knows how things will proceed (my opinion is it'll be unrequited love thing), but the actresses are still going to be around.
ReplyDeleteI hope that storyline doesn't die Just when I put this show on the DVR list.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mulan fisting Aurora's heart? Hot!
"Mulan has come out as bisexual which means a Disney princess is gay"
ReplyDeleteI thought that it meant that she is a Lesbian . then again I don't even watch this show. Is Mulan also doing men?
sighs, sleeping warrior is perfect (except for that ship name...ugh, why are all the ouat ships named so awfully? save snowing, bc adorbs). a few things, though -
ReplyDeleteone: mulan put aurora's heart BACK in, after cora (by way of hook) removed it for handy controlling/ventriloquism purposes. so, even sexier.
two: i'm pretty sure you're referring to the fact that mulan is lumped into the "princess" category by the disney marketing department (although how would you know because she's never on any merchandise), but just for clarification purposes, she is not actually a princess. she is of fairly high birth, and a soldier by trade and marriage (both of those from the movie), but not royal. though, if she married aurora, i guess that would finally make her a princess? hooray!
three: to the anon - mulan purportedly loved phillip, back when we first met her last season. if you ask me, her love for "phillip" was really her love for aurora manifesting itself in a super awkward, gay-panicky type way, but she said it so it's ~canon. did you know that some people who don't ship sleeping warrior think that mulan was coming to tell PHILLIP she loved him i mean srsly come on
i really hope they're not going to try and shove mulan with a merry man just to prove her bi-ness or whatever. i mean, amicable/enjoyable one-night stands, i'm all for, but it seems to me that she really loves aurora and wouldn't be satisfied with second-best (at least, not until she was certain that it would never work out for them).
Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies, and stories. I love that they made her gay, which means that I might actually decided to get caught up, and watch the show again.
ReplyDeleteBut MULAN IS NOT A PRINCESS! She was not a princess in the Disney movies or in the original story.
"Mulan has come out as bisexual which means a Disney princess is gay."
ReplyDeleteNo, not really. Let's not keep muddling the term gay til it doesn't mean anything at all.
Thank you for the clarifications, Sophie. Could you expand a bit on this one:
ReplyDeletemulan purportedly loved phillip, back when we first met her last season. if you ask me, her love for "phillip" was really her love for aurora manifesting itself in a super awkward, gay-panicky type way, but she said it so it's ~canon.
I don't recall Mulan saying that she loved Phillip in anything more than a fellow warrior kind of way. Can you give me maybe the episode or scene so I can go watch? I've seen this a lot over the past week and really want to judge it for myself.
I'm torn on this because I'm like yay!- we have a gay character on OUAT! But then I'm like ugh because Once has an opportunity to be extremely creative, and they go with the whole unsurprising, uninspired, over-used: girl that dresses manly & falls for a straight girl storyline! So while I am happy to have a gay character, I'm also disappointed in OUAT's approach. Could they just do SwanQueen and be done!?
ReplyDeleteI just started re-watching season 2 and Mulan denied loving Philip - twice. She said it was more of a "we fought together" thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure this will be a continuing story. At the Comic Con panel the creators said they were going to gay up the show in a loving not checklisty way. Really hoping they were talking about Mulan - she's my 2nd favorite Disney princess/or whatever after Tiana.
FYI - Mulan is a Disney princess. Cinderella and Belle are also Disney princesses. there's a difference between their animated character and the Disney marketing department. I actually have a friend who works for the princess department (that's what I call it) and the parents were outraged and the coronation ceremony (yes, they actually have these) for princess from Brave because they changed her image from a tomboy to the typical Disney princess. Anyways...I don't want OUAT, but have thought about it. Depending how this storyline goes, it may inspire me to watch sooner rather than later.
ReplyDelete