Happy New Year! Plus three Mulan recs

[sunlit_stone]

Happy New Year, everyone! May you continue to grow in whatever directions you choose, and find rest and comfort when you need it.

Secondly, I somehow managed to forget to put my gifts in my Yuletide recs post! Like a very silly person--not to mention a tired one, and one working off a list of links that didn't include my gifts since "it's not like I'm going to lose track of them"--oops. :/

But they should certainly be recced, so here we go.



I received /three gifts/ this year, a ridiculous bounty!!! I love all of them, and am very thoroughly delighted. Apparently the Mulan section of my letter was inspiring :)

Hesitation, 1.5K, Mulan/Shang (by whitedandelions). Mulan and Shang are sent on a mission to take down a corrupt governor by the Emperor. And this will be routine, only they're meant to go as husband and wife, and Shang has already spent months trying to gather up the courage to ask Mulan for permission to court her. This is Shang's pov--specifically, the pov of a Shang who's been rather desperately in love with Mulan for a while now, but hasn't been able to find a quiet moment with her to confess! I love the way Shang is completely gone on Mulan, and also the way Shang loves every part of her--he admires her beauty, yes, but also her cleverness and strength <3 And Shang has a continuing relationship with Mulan's family, which I think is great, since Mulan's family is very important to her. Finally, I really love the Mulan voice in this one--everything she does, you can just hear her saying it. It's great :)

Maybe we're in love, 2.4K, Mulan/Shang (also by whitedandelions!!! Before this morning I had no idea my treats were both from the same person :) It's awesome). The matchmaker finds Mulan a general to marry named Li Shang. He’s handsome, but they’re not in love. But Mulan will never dishonor her family by declining the match and resigns herself to a life of waiting for her husband to come back from battle. Until the war happens, and she realizes, she’s not very good at waiting and she is not going to let her father die. This one is in Mulan's point-of-view. I love the sense of restraint you have throughout--the prose really makes you feel the way Mulan is holding back, all the time, trying to be a perfect wife/daughter. I also love the way she gets a chance to be Ping, and then--after the end of the fic--sticks to her strengths, instead of fading back into that restrained person: And because Shang doesn’t want her to get hurt – not again – but it isn’t as if he has a choice in the matter. Mulan won’t be the docile wife she pretended to be before, not after this, not after being Ping and loving it. She made a promise to herself out there to not let herself be pigeon holed into a role that does not belong to her, and she intends to keep it. Lastly, I really love the way the relationship (the /partnership/) is built up out of these quiet, tender moments; they don't necessarily do a lot of talking but so much is conveyed by these small actions, it's lovely.

Jasmine and Marching Feet (Magpies and Quails), 4.3K, Mulan/Shang (by Opalsong).

"Vigorously faithful in their pairings are magpies;
Boldly so are quails.
This woman is all vicious,
And I regard her as marchioness."

Or: Mulan gets found out earlier, though in fairly similar circumstances. Shang proposes a different future for them.epistolary fic with poetry. As I told the author in the comments, that is not so much everything I wanted as everything I would have wanted if I thought there was the slightest chance I'd get it. Epistolary fic! With poetry!!! Plus Outsider POV, and the way they've done the epistolary it's got a drop of found historical objects, so that a lot of information is conveyed by details about the note, or by where it was found/how it was delivered, which 1) is another trope I love and 2) combined with the variety of people writing, and the different kinds of letters they write, makes the reader into kind of their own Outsider POV, left in to fill the missing pieces from the pieces they do have--gah, I love it. And mutual pining, where everyone except the main couple knows their in love :D

Okay, some actual details about the content of the fic, and not just its (wonderful!) tropes and formal tropes. I love the characters, here! Shang is in love with both aspects of Mulan, Mulan/Ping, and you can really feel his respect for her intelligence and bravery. Mulan's characterization is perfect, with the canonesque feel of her desire to be a "good" daughter/wife/woman crashing straight into her actual skills, interests, and capabilities, and the way she doesn't let her uncertainty of the "right" way to proceed (socially speaking) get in the way of her desire to help. I really like that you've got Mulan appearing as both 'Mulan' and as 'Ping,' and the way the characters respond to that! I love the diversity of letter-writers--you've got Mulan and Shang, of course, but also various bits from a matchmaker, a Fa neighbour, a complaint from Chi-Fu, letters home from Ling, little notes from Yao/Chien-Po/Ling... It really is great. I love the way the author works in the canon plot to this universe, how it'd play out if Mulan was publically recognized as the great hero Shang's fiancee. (--also Shang dresses up as a woman in this one too, which, :D )

And there's a podfic. Seriously, I think I am the luckiest Yuletide recipient, this is ridiculous. The podfic is also great--hearing Ling's letters home to his wife really brings them alive, and I really enjoy the way Mulan's reader brings a different aspect of her character to the fore. (And then there's Yao's reader, who actually does Yao's voice, and it is great and hilarious :D)


Anyway--obviously, I love this, as I love all three of my gifts, and all of them made for very wonderful presents :) And contributed to the supply of Mulan/Shang in the world, which is obviously a great utilitarian good :P If they sound like something you'd like, check them out!