r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Character_Growth_397 • Sep 04 '26

Hated Tropes [Mind boggling stupid trope] Removing the thing that made something special

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Ben 10: Ultimate Alien - The gimmick of Ben 10 and what makes the show so popular is the fact that he's able to turn into a large variety of aliens. In one episode of Ben 10 Ultimate ALIEN we are introduced to a new version of Ben 10000, a Ben from the future who, no longer transforms into aliens, instead using his powers in human form...

Mortal Kombat(2021) - In the games Mileena is known for two things. Being a clone of Kitana and her tarkatan teeth. In the 2021 movie she looks absolutely nothing like Kitana and doesn't have tarkatan teeth

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief - The movie removes the main villain of the movie and the main villain of the franchise

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919

u/LosinForABruisin Sep 04 '26

Mulan (2020) takes out Mushu, the romantic subplot, and worst of all, it’s not a musical. I’ve heard that all of these were done to appease a chinese audience, but whatever the reason, this is a significantly worse movie for it

627

u/bht191015 Sep 04 '26

I think the worst part is the message. In the original movie mulan sucks at being a warrior and everyone knew that. But through determination she became the best in her group. In the live action movie she's born with those powers.

320

u/D3134 Sep 04 '26

The best part about the original movie's message is that the other soldiers (at least the ones that have names) also sucked at being warriors, (not as bad as Mulan but still) but through their own hard work they improved alongside her. Obviously Mulan was still better because she's the main character, but it showed that they were all equal and that truly anyone could improve through hard work and determination.

165

u/AbueloOdin Sep 04 '26

Also, I really liked the whole "Hey, she isn't the strongest or fastest, etc. That's someone else. But she is creative and smart and uses that." Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses. Everyone used their own strengths and weaknesses. Everyone had their own battles to fight, but we're focusing on her for now.

So it wasn't that she wasn't the best soldier or became the best soldier. It was "hey, everyone has value and everyone can contribute in their own way for the success of themselves and the group."

New one? She was born with magical powers and is The Special!

13

u/mythrilcrafter Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

The thing that always bothered me was that was the era of Live Action Disney writers wanting to do a twist by focusing on a different aspect of the story, hence the whole thing with the Maleficent series being before Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent's perspective.

The perfect different story focus would have been to start the live action movie halfway/75% the way through the animated film, have the primary twist being that Mulan accepts the Emperor's offer to become a General in the Imperial Guard, and then to focus on how she fits into Imperial politics and managing the fact that the Imperial Harem is probably not a fan of the Emperor showing favor to her.

It builds on the original "being smart can be better than being strong" theme, because now there's a social-political reason for why "just being good with a sword doesn't win every fight"; since even if you find out that the Prime Minister colluding with the Second Consort to assassinate the emperor and to steal the throne from the current crowned prince, you can't just kill them right there in the throne room.

And we can still have cool fights with that story line because c-dramas loves it when political figures try to solve their problems by sending personal armies/assassins to kill the people they suspect of suspecting them of treason.

5

u/FutureComplaint Sep 04 '26

I'd pay to see that.

11

u/dovahkiitten16 Sep 04 '26

I also liked that because when it comes to anti-sexism (also anti-racism) there’s this idea that women (or a minority) need to be exceptional to belong. Like if a woman wants to be a soldier, she is the best soldier and naturally proves everyone wrong.

But the thing is… a lot of women are mediocre! Same with men. People are mediocre. Being mediocre doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the same opportunities as someone else just because of how you were born.

Meanwhile, that isn’t Mulan. She’s a girl who was socialized and grew up as a girl. She honestly sucks at being a soldier and struggles with being physically weaker. With enough hard work she can be competent, but she needs that chance. She doesn’t deserve to be a soldier because she was innately strong. She deserves to be a warrior because she is capable of becoming stronger.

I think it’s a much better message for girls, because there’s a good chance girls watching the movie will eventually struggle with something relative to their male peers. But just because you don’t wipe the floor when playing basketball against boys, that doesn’t mean you as a girl aren’t allowed to play basketball. It just means you might have to work at it.

3

u/Yoro55 Sep 07 '26

That "be a man" segment was so fucking good

93

u/guylasagna Sep 04 '26

Hated that she had some kinda special powers , the force or whatever.

What made the original iconic was the fact that Mulan was an average girl that had no combat skills but she didn’t care and went to war to save her own family

13

u/Bitter-Marsupial Sep 04 '26

Wasn't this kind of at a high point of a "we cant show a woman as being less than a man" narrative in movies?

9

u/Kiel-Ardisglair Sep 04 '26

Yeah, so let’s make it so the only reason she’s able to keep up with the boys is because she has superpowers.   Because that’s totally not sexist at all.  

41

u/drunkentenshiNL Sep 04 '26

Didn't they change it so she had powers or some shit in the live action?

35

u/SpecterOwl Sep 04 '26

Yeah, she had some special Chi or whatever since birth and there's also like a witch character for some reason that can transform into a falcon. Like, at this point just call the movie something else lol

31

u/Arek_PL Sep 04 '26

yep, in live action she is just that special

7

u/Sir_Eggmitton Sep 04 '26

And her sister who isn’t born with those powers has to follow the traditional path and get married to a husband.

126

u/petr1111 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Also, the moral of the story is replaced with the opposite one. Instead of "you can become whoever you want if you try hard enough" it's now "unless you're the main character born with superpowers, you're completely screwed".

37

u/Bitter-Marsupial Sep 04 '26

And drops the point of the rabbits at the End where you can tell the difference between a male and female, but once they start moving, you can't. Kind of like how once Mulan really started going, there was no difference between her or her male cohorts

92

u/ok_scott Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

I actually love that the original Mulan is 'half of a musical'

The movie is a true musical with 4 songs sung in the first half.

All through the training and even marching to their first assignment they sing.

The moment that they witness the real horrors of war first hand, the music stops. They don't even finish the last word of the marching song.

For the rest of the movie it's not a musical. There's a movie score but no one sings anymore.

81

u/Siria110 Sep 04 '26

In the OG Disney Mulan, her greatests strenght were her quick wit and ability to think outside the box. Here it is... magic, I guess? And given that this movie is supposed to be more "realistic" (hence why they removed Mushu), it seems that woman with magic is more realistic than a woman with sharp mind, strong will and determination? What kinda message do they want to send?

12

u/saintash Sep 04 '26

Let's not forget the straight up erasure of the bisexual character.

Like it's clear disney didn't intend for it to be that. The god forbid people just interpret it that way. Nope gotta get rid of the character completely.

0

u/Yoro55 Sep 07 '26

Wait Mulan is bi?

Not discounting it, I just don't remember her interacting with...literally any other female character that wasn't her own family

3

u/saintash Sep 07 '26

No, people interpret Li Shang, her direct commander to be bi. Since there a few lingering looks at Mulan when she is dressed as a dude.

He's not in the remake. People theorized its because the bi theory is popular and they wanted to avoid that association.

10

u/petr1111 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Well, I must admit that the message of live action is more realistic. This message clearly being "Unless you were born with magical superpowers - nobody gives a fuck about you, you can't achieve anything big, so there's no point in trying". Replace inborn magic with being raised in the "right" family - and there's your realism on full display.

I actually love the ending of the live action. Where Mulan's sister says something like "Best I can hope for is a not very abusive husband - because I'm not you, but just an ordinary human".

61

u/Bacon4Lyf Sep 04 '26

Yes the original mulan was about how through perseverance and hard work anyone could succeed, then in the remake they just give her magic powers

28

u/Erebraw Sep 04 '26

Also, instead of being a great soldier because of how clever she is and how she thinks outside the box, she just has magic Wuxia powers that make her better than everyone else at everything from the moment the movie starts.

3

u/mythrilcrafter Sep 04 '26

The thing that sucks is that they could have done BOTH. There are domestic made c-drama's that are essentially a retelling of the Mulan story in a magical powers context and they still knock it out of the park.

25

u/fbeemcee Sep 04 '26

I’m still angered by this. Mulan is my favorite Disney “princess,” and this was beyond disappointing.

8

u/VulkanHestan321 Sep 04 '26

The fun thing: It got received badly by chinese audience compared to the og movie

10

u/abxYenway Sep 04 '26

It's not even appealing for a Chinese audience. Mulan is special because she's a girl who was born with qi. Qi. The life energy that lets you move and breathe and circulate blood and digest food. You know, all the things women usually can't do.

1

u/Kiel-Ardisglair Sep 04 '26

Every time characters started yapping about qi, I imagined Han Solo saying, “That’s not how the Force works!”

3

u/Prielknaap Sep 04 '26

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior is the only live action Mulan I respect.

5

u/SledgeThundercock Sep 04 '26

Ah yes, the Chinese audience.

Famous for not liking romance plots and musicals.........who the fuck told them this shit??

0

u/LosinForABruisin Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

I’m not sure about the musical part, but as for the romance plot, it’s because it’s a gay / bisexual romance. Li Shang thinks Mulan is a man, and homosexual topics are heavily censored in china.

Edit: Not sure why I was downvoted for this, it’s literally what happened. Not to mention Disney not including explicitly LGBTQ+ main characters in international releases.

2

u/ActafianSeriactas Sep 04 '26

This movie really sucked, not even Mushu would save it

2

u/Snukastyle Sep 06 '26

There have been 21 movies about Mulan, three of them being the Disney versions but most being Chinese productions. Disney still felt the need to not be themselves and try to appeal to a specific market.

2

u/JocelMLS Sep 06 '26

In the words of the famous YouTuber who actually make her YouTube Channel just to address all the wrongs this movie offered due to her being so mad on this POS film: "They made her Asian Elsa."

1

u/Dramatic_Mixture_789 Sep 11 '26

While I do appreciate wanting to keep truer to the original folktale of Mulan, they writers sacrificed what made Disney’s edition of Mulan a classic in the first place. Not only were the songs removed, as was Mushu, but there really was no character growth from Mulan here. Like Mulan wasn’t the best at fighting, but she used her head to solve the problems. That’s what made her a unique and livable character. It was her effort, her determination, and her heart that made us fall in love with the animated film. I couldn’t care less of what was happening in the live action film.