Reflection

Overall, this read like mediocre fanfiction, but it had its moments.

Basically, Li Shang gets injured by Shang Yu on the mountain. As a result, he almost dies from his injuries. Shang's father appears as a ghost and Mulan promises to bring Shang's soul back from Diyu, the Underworld. He sends ShiShi, the Li family guardian, a lion, to help her. Together, they travel to Diyu and rescue Shang. Mulan strikes a deal with King Yama to save Shang's soul before sunrise, otherwise she's stuck there forever.

The beginning is boring. Mushu and Crickey are basically backdrops. Their plot potential is completely wasted in this story as they are left behind. When they are there, they don't do much. It's pretty lousy honestly.

We are introduced to Shishi, who is an arrogant lion and prideful. He's ok. There is a part in the story where Mulan mourns him when he stays behind to fight demons so she and Shang could get away, but the scene fell flat with me as I knew he wouldn't die. He's a guardian! Plus, he's not a character you come to love, he's quite forgettable unfortunately. More wasted potential.

Where this story shines is the interaction between Mulan and Shang. Shang was very much in character. He was stubborn, and his reaction to finding out that Mulan was a woman was perfect. Once he accepts the truth, the relationship really blossoms. One scene in particular, which was my favorite, was when he asked Mulan if his guardian was a man, and if he slept in her tent, to which she replied, yes, he's a dragon, and he sleeps in my tent, lol. (Ch22)

I really like Shang's father too. He made the story interesting in the beginning. He also accepts Mulan fairly quickly.

In terms of what I would change, I wish we could have seen more interesting obstacles in Diyu. They were kind of boring. It also would have been nice to see Mushu and Shishi interacting in Diyu. Speaking of interactions, I would have liked for Shang and his guardian to have hit it off. Honestly, Shang‘s reaction when he met Shishi was lukewarm at best, which is surprising since this is his father‘s guardian, and Shang worships the ground his father walks on. When Shishi “died“, mulan was more upset about it than Shang! It was sad because Shishi was very excited to meet Shang.

The ending was cute though. The author also incorporated lines from the movie in cute ways. One was at the end between Mulan and Shang. When Shang asked Mulan if Her parents would mind him passing by the house, she replies “would they mind? They won't let you leave!“ This was a clever use of incorporating her grandmother‘s reaction in the movie when she tells Shang “would you like to stay forever?“

So yeah, a lot of wasted potential, but the story was interesting enough for me to finish as it had some gems sprinkled here and there. Honestly, though, someone on AO3 could have done a better job writing this story.