Shan Yu

### Animators

Pres Romanillos, Trey Finney, Travis Blaise, Anthony Ho Wong, James A. Harris, Dan Tanaka, Tracy M. Lee and Chad Thompson

### Pets

Hayabusa the Falcon

2020 Live-action Film

**Shan Yu** is the main antagonist of the 1998 film Mulan.

## Background

### Personality

Shan Yu is in great contrast with his predecessors and successors. While he shows the same arrogant and megalomaniacal 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, heavily implying that the archer killed the other. He is also shown to be merciless even to defenceless individuals, as evidenced by his murderous smirk when he suggests that he "return" a lost doll to its owner; later he is 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. A deleted scene showing his massacre of the village onscreen, however, makes clear that he is not above slaying even members of his own army should they show any degree of weakness in battle, in particular showing mercy towards any living thing (though he does acknowledge all life deserves to be free, he also makes clear that freedom has its price after subtly ordering Hayabusa to attack the freed bird). He is also shown to never ill-treat or abuse Hayabusa his pet falcon, meaning he may care and have attachment to him (the same deleted scene actually showed him calling Hayabusa his friend which seems to back this up). This also likely means he is not completely incapable of caring about others but only about those who he considers very close to him.

Shan Yu is also supremely confident in both his and his army's strength and superiority, sometimes allowing his enemies to have an advantage in order for him to defeat them anyway and 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 was also a true leader as he never sends henchmen to do his work but fights alongside them and even takes the lead; when he and his army were about to attack Li Shang's squad, he charged first.

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 when it is actually Shan Yu who is rather arrogant.

### Physical Appearance

Shan Yu is gigantic and muscular. He is moustachioed in a thin horseshoe style. He possesses yellow eyes with black sclera, pale grey skin, sharp nose, and a prominent forehead. His fingernails are long and jagged. He also has dark and abundant hair, but he's also half bald. He wears a stocky tunic consisting of black on the right and cream on the left with both an eggplant animal pelt brim and cuffs, an eggplant pelt sash, and a fluffy grey pelt scarf with timber wolf stripes. Shan Yu only dons a black glove on his left hand, presumably for his falcon. He also sports grey trousers and a pair of black boots with grey linings. On occasion, he wears a black hood with a fluffy grey trimming.

### Abilities

* Expert combatant
* Superhuman strength
* Superhuman endurance
* Expert tracker and survivalist
* Master strategist
* Honed senses
* Pathological indomitable will
* Stealth

## Film Appearances

### Mulan

The film's opening scene depicts Shan Yu leading the Huns in an invasion of China by using grappling hooks to scale the Great Wall of China, setting the tone of the film. When one of the Chinese guards of the Great Wall reveals that he has lit the torches and that the Emperor will soon know of Shan Yu's presence in an attempt to intimidate him, Shan Yu's only response is to burn one of the Imperial flags before giving a satisfied "perfect," revealing that the Emperor receiving the message of the Huns' invasion is precisely what Shan Yu has intended to accomplish.

Later on, Shan Yu and his men have destroyed yet another village and proceed to expose two spies sent by the Emperor. One of them insists the Emperor will stop Shan Yu, only for him to rebuff the scout before telling them to pass a message to the Emperor to send his strongest armies. As the two men leave, he has one of his archers’ murders one.

While heading to the Imperial city, his falcon brings him a doll from a village. On the doll are pine dust from the high mountains, white horsehair from Imperial stallions, and the smell of sulphur from cannons, clues that the Imperial army is waiting for them at a mountain pass. Instead of avoiding the army, he and his men head in that direction, since the quickest way to the Emperor is through the pass. Upon arrival, he and his troops not only crush General Li's army at the mountain pass but also, in an act of fierce barbarity, raze the surrounding village to the ground, leaving no survivors.

Ironically, the army's winning streak is lost when they encounter Li Shang's meagre force. Soon after the destruction of the main Chinese army, the group uses cannons to hold their own against Hun archers after Mushu has accidentally ignited a cannon, giving away their position to the enemy (however it's possible the archers had already spotted them without Mushu's blunder). Eventually, Shan Yu leads the Hun cavalry down to the army to attack. Though the Huns vastly outnumber Shang's troops, Mulan manages to bury them in an avalanche by aiming a rocket at a nearby mountain. Upon noticing the intention, Shan Yu then slashes her, which eventually causes her identity to be revealed. Shan Yu nearly escapes but, like his men, he is buried by the avalanche. Despite this, he survives (but loses his hood and scabbard), and upon unearthing himself from the snow pile, Shan Yu learns that his army has been destroyed and lets out a cry of rage. Just then, five other Huns break out from the snow as well, and Shan Yu quickly decides that his five remaining Huns will be enough to capture the Emperor as long as they use stealth. His earlier cry also ended up exposing his survival to Mulan, which ultimately resulted in his downfall.

With the advantage of being believed to be dead and defeated, Shan Yu is able to infiltrate the Emperor's palace and hide on the rooftops where he receives his sword from Hayabusa, who has quickly snatched it back from Shang. On the ground, his Elite Huns capture the Emperor during the victory ceremony by disguising themselves as dragon dancers.

After ordering his Elite Huns to guard the door, Shan Yu tries but fails to convince the Emperor to kneel before him. Just as Shan Yu moves to strike the Emperor down, Shang stops him, and Chien-Po carries the Emperor to safety. Shan Yu then overpowers Shang and is about to take his anger out on the defenceless captain, only to be distracted by Mulan, who reveals to him that she is the soldier who caused the avalanche. Abandoning Shang in favour of disposing of a more dangerous target, Shan Yu attempts to kill Mulan while pursuing her throughout the palace until they arrive at the palace rooftop, where Shan Yu believes he has finally cornered Mulan. But to his surprise, Mulan disarms him using only a fan, which he had stabbed with the sword, stating she may be out of ideas. But not quite, as she grabs back the stabbed fan and the sword, and Shan Yu then spots Mushu with a rocket aimed at him before he attacks Mulan once more, only for her to knock him over. Mulan then pins him to the roof with his own sword as Mushu launches the rocket (lit by Cri-Kee) that slams into Shan Yu and propels him into a tower full of fireworks, killing him in the explosion.

### Mulan II

Despite Shan Yu not making a full appearance in the second film (due to having been killed), Mushu alludes to his demise at least once.

### Mulan (2020)

In the Niki Caro remake, he is replaced by a similar, but nonetheless different character named Böri Khan. While he is similarly ruthless and barbaric, here, he is the warrior leader of the Rourans who intent on is avenging his father's death. Conversely, however, he is more misogynistic than Shan Yu, as evidenced by his lack of acknowledging Mulan as a warrior simply calling her a girl and his mistreatment of Xianniang, a witch he recruited into his army, and who is the primary reason his forces have an advantage for a while (she also replaces the role of his falcon, Hayabusa, from the original movie). Ultimately, he was killed by his own arrow when Mulan redirected it back at him after he tried to shoot the Emperor with it.

## Other Appearances

In House of Mouse, Shan Yu makes several minor cameo appearances. His most notable is in "Gone Goofy" where he, Jafar, and Hades are seen talking with Mortimer Mouse and making bets. When Mickey announced that he was quitting, Mortimer told the other villains that he knew that Mickey wouldn't last and to pay up. In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", Shan Yu was among the villains that Daisy Duck told to leave their table because it was reserved for "someone very important".

## Disney Parks

### Disneyland Resort

During the release of the original film, Shan Yu was featured on a parade float in the Mulan-themed parade in Disneyland. He was shown being blasted on a firework, referencing his demise.

### Walt Disney World Resort

Shan Yu participated in the Martial Arts Festival at Disney's Wide World of Sports on the resort property.

In the former castle show, Cinderella's Surprise Celebration at the Magic Kingdom, the Evil Queen plans on taking control of the magic kingdom and she sends Shan Yu, Jafar, and Captain Hook to do away with Mickey Mouse & Friends. He sneaks up behind Donald and scares him by saying "Boo" in his face causing Donald to faint. Mickey calls forth Mulan, Genie, and Peter Pan to defeat the villains. Shan Yu is trapped in a large birthday box with a firework by Mulan and dies in the explosion. He is the only villain to be killed in the show. This is also the only Disney Park show/event so far where he has a speaking role.

In the current fireworks show, Happily Ever After, Shan Yu was the first villain to appear after the Emperor said his quote about the flower that blooms in adversity from the first film (which he told Shang to encourage him to follow after Mulan), which starts the Adversity sequence where the Disney villains invade Cinderella Castle and fight the heroes.

In 2013 and 2014, Shan Yu was joined with other Disney Villains for the Unleash the Villains night time stage event hosted by Hades at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

### Disneyland Paris

In France, Shan Yu joined the Halloween get-together with other villains in The Disney Villains Halloween Party. At one point in the show, he briefly battles Governor Ratcliffe in a sword duel.

### Hong Kong Disneyland

Shan Yu briefly appears during the final scene of The Nightmare Experiment, as well as Villains Night Out!

**Music:** Mulan (Soundtrack) | Mulan II (Soundtrack) | Mulan (2020 Soundtrack)
**Video Games:** Disney's Mulan | Animated StoryBook: Mulan
**Books:** The Art of Mulan | Reflection (A Twisted Tale)