Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45907
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A good Setting vs. Plot conflict I always like to use to demonstrate this is the Disney Film "Mulan". The Setting is Ancient China and the Plot is "Mulan must defeat the leader of the Huns, Shan Yu." Seems simple, hell, I'm old enough to remember the original trailer for the film, which basically gives away the ending:

> **The Emperor of China** : I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan. (Voice becomes progressively angrier) You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated a soldier, deceived your commanding officer, dishonored the Chinese Army, destroyed my palace, and... (calmly) you have saved us all.

Aside from the still hand drawn animation (not colored at all) and her fathers end line of dialog, saying that Mulan had brought him great honor (also from the end of the film), that's all audiences got.

Disney's marketing was simple: Here is what she does, beginning, middle, and end... and as awesome as we told it to you, we're underselling... you gotta check this chick out.

Again, the plot is pretty much summed up by the Emperor's dialog. Mulan will break all the rules, and save China. That's the plot. So with that in mind, what is the antagonistic force that threatens her in these goals?

While most people would say Shan Yu... or the boring villain whose name I can't remember..., I submit that it is not the the agency of the plot that is Mulan's antagonist (the villain written for her to fight in the story) but the agency of the setting, specifically the sexist society norms of Ancient China that existed as the did in the story's setting. Shan Yu and Mulan have no plot connections other than she is a lowly soldier in a war of aggression he caused. In fact, the first time they meet is halfway through the film. Rather, thing that opposes Mulan is that her own society values her less than a man (As described in "Please Bring Honor to Us" and "Be a Man", which propose the gender ideals of each sex in the setting's society.). Mulan pleading for her father to be spared conscription is seen by her father as a great dishonor, which he admonishes her for and then reclaims by walking up to take his notice without need for his crutch and returning to his house without taking it back from his wife.

Every struggle Mulan faces in the film are societal norms, not efforts by Shan Yu specifically targeting her. In fact, he payed her no mind, in favor of killing the unit officer who denied him his victory by obliterating his army. It's only when he is corrected that he pushes aside the officer to face the real threat, the lowly ranked "Soldier from the Mountain." It's pretty clear from this scene, Mulan is a threat because she has at the very least a four digit body count to her name... gender has nothing to do with that... and is the only character in the film who gives her the deserved respect of her actions without any hesitation. He may be her enemy, but her society is her antagonist in stopping her from resolving the plot cleanly. And a society is an element of setting, not of plot.

Original score: 1