Shan Yu

**Shan Yu** is the main antagonist of *Mulan*. He is the evil leader of the Hun Army, responsible for mass genocide across China. When the emperor commissions the Great Wall to deter invaders, Shan Yu views this as a challenge and declares war on his majesty, with intent of taking over the country.

## Background

### Personality

Shan Yu is in great contrast with his predecessors and successors. While he shows the same arrogant and narcisistic traits, he is not above killing his enemies in cold blood to prove his strength and he has been shown to make jokes about it: after capturing two imperial scouts and sending them to deliver his challenge to the Emperor, he asks his lead archer how many men it takes to deliver a message. The archer then draws his bow and replies, "One." Ultimately, only one scout delivers the message, implying that the archer killed the other. He is also shown to be merciless even to defenseless individuals, as evidenced by his murderous smirk when he suggests that he "return" a lost doll to its owner, as well as being implied to have killed the owner of the doll as well as her entire village. His penchant for brutality was such that the Emperor of China immediately took the matter seriously as soon as he learned that Shan Yu was leading the invasion, and one of the captured scouts fearfully recognized him when they were brought before him. Despite his brutality, or probably because of it, he is a respected leader, as his Hun army seems to be kept together out of loyalty to him, rather than out of fear of him. This is exemplified by his Elite Huns, who are able to speak to him on equal terms.

Shan Yu is also supremely confident in both his and his army's strength and superiority, sometimes allowing his enemies the advantage in order to prove his might. Such examples include his attack on the Great Wall, where he allowed a lone sentry to light the signal fire, sending word to the Emperor and giving him time to mobilize the Imperial Army. Later, he allows one of the Chinese spies to return to the Forbidden City, boldly telling the spy to inform the Emperor to send his best troops to face the Huns. In this instance, he even claims that the Emperor "invited" him, viewing the construction of the Great Wall as a challenge to his army's might. He also decides to head straight for the mountain pass that would lead his forces directly to the Forbidden City, knowing full well that the entire Imperial Vanguard is guarding the pass and completely rejecting the option to simply go around the mountains and avoid the enemy entirely. As he and his men were later revealed to have managed to completely wipe out the entire Vanguard presumably without any significant casualties at his end, this confidence may have been perfectly justified. Even after being buried under an avalanche, he took it in stride (outside of letting out a loud yell) and simply improvised, using his "deceased" status and decreased army to infiltrate the palace.

Shan Yu is also notable for being one of the extreme few characters in the movie who does not underestimate women. As soon as he recognizes that Mulan is "the soldier from the mountains", he forgets about Li Shang, considering him to be insignificant in comparison, and tries to kill Mulan instead.

He is somewhat of a hypocrite, as he told the emperor he tires of his arrogance.

## Trivia

* According to the writers, the reason why they decided to kill Shan-Yu in the manner they did was that they wanted to avoid the typical "fall to the death" cliche that befell most Disney villains.
* Unlike most characters in the film, Shan Yu does not underestimate women. He also, unlike Chi-Fu, does not silence and belittle Mulan when they converse with each other before his death. When Mulan reveals that she caused the avalanche and came up with the idea to save the Emperor, Shan Yu instantly acknowledges that she is both responsible and a far greater threat to him than Li Shang as he abandons him in favor of killing Mulan.
	+ This is likely because it's believed that the Huns allowed women to serve in their military, many of the worst war crimes being caused by such women.
	+ It could also be because he lost many of his men because of Mulan and she ruined his plans to conquer China.
* Shan Yu is the only human character in the first film, apart from Mulan, to be aware of Mushu's existence, even though he did not live to tell about it.
* Shan Yu probably has the largest kill count of any other Disney Villains, and one of the few to commit infanticide, albeit off-screen.
* He is one of the few Disney Villains who does not sing or have his own musical number. However, he has a recurring instrumental theme that is heard throughout his appearances in the film.
* Although Shan Yu is the main villain, he has only around six minutes of screen time.
* Shan Yu was originally intended to return in *Mulan II* in an earlier story treatment written by Barry Cook, where he and his deceased army, all ghosts now, would have started to haunt Northern China, prompting the Emperor to send Mulan and Shang there. The finale would have involved Shan Yu's ghost army fighting against Mulan and her allies, including the Fa Family Ancestors.
* Shan Yu became Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Mulan.*
* Shan Yu, along with his pet falcon, Hayabusa returns in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Series to get revenge on Thomas, Twilight and their friends for foiling his plans to take over China after being resurrected by The Black Cauldron to join the Legion of Doom.
* Shan Yu is considered one of the darkest, merciless, ruthless, and most evil villains ever in Disney movies.