Extra Credits Doesn't Understand Mulan (A Response Video)

Okay, so short disclaimer: Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies. It's not my favorite (that title belongs to Beauty and the Beast) but it's really one I always loved. I know it has flaws, and there are parts I don't particularly care for, but it is still one I hold close to my heart. I read the Ballad of Mulan when I was in college and it was rather short, simple, sweet, and enjoyable.
When I saw Extra Credits was tackling it...well I was interested. After watching it, I will say that, to their credit, they got the basics down...but they added A LOT to try and sell a narrative. Normally this wouldn't be enough for me to make a response video, but they also decide to pick on Disney for adding stuff........I'm sorry but if you're gonna start throwing rocks in glass houses, don't be surprised when something shatters. So...here we go.
For reference, I want ya'll to know that I looked at TWO different translations of the original ballad and the Tang Dynasty translations too when making this. I will link all three below:
The Columbia University translation: afe.easia.colum...
The Wikipedia translation: en.wikisource....
And the Tang Dynasty Translation: mulanbook.com/...
Please consider subscribing to support the channel and joining the Discord, link here: / discord
Leave a comment to let me know what you think, please like the video if you enjoyed it, and I'll see ya'll later!

[@thomas777803]

I think where I started noticing a major difference in their videos was when they changed narrators. I know that seems like I'm nitpicking, but the old James had a way of speaking that was just enjoyable to listen to even through the voice synthesizer, the new one has this kind of know-it-all attitude that really grates after a while.

[@disdainful-777]

I agree, I miss the old narration overall. I even go back to the old videos and don't watch the new ones due to them being less enjoyable, alongside seeming a bit bleh for the overall content

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

The old narrator left prior due to issues with James the writer and such, thus why they changed to start with. You can kinda see why though, as prior to him leaving was some of those defense of lootbox videos that got them early flak. That Dan's now at Extra Frames and clearly is doing much better with his own team and style.

[@blakeking1125]

@@gratuitouslurking8610 I'm glad to hear Dan is doing well, it's just unfortunate that extra credits kinda feel apart as the original team was gradually replaced. Couldn't really get into his new content, but I wish him the best

[@blakeking1125]

"If a story doesn't fit neatly into the historical record it's likely untrue" THANK YOU! The opening is so pretentious, and they don't feel the need to start any of their other series with something like that.

[@Nobody32990]

It's not pretentious nor untrue, "Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence". Our scope of understanding and perceiving the distant past is very limited. Take Troy for example, it was considered a legend up until relatively recently. He also completely ignored second part of the phrase which imo is the more important one, those myths and stories are bases on which cultures were, are and will be build.

[@adekaiwamisou]

Funny thing is, if extra credits hadn't gone for such petty jabs at the original animated movie, then they could have avoided a lot of this.

[@RavenKnightYT]

Exactly!

[@robbiewalker2831]

@@RavenKnightYT I mean, the general idea of the Mulan story is that she's a woman who was ahead of her time; joining the army to come up with a better strategy to defeat the enemy, because she loves her country, that alone could give a message that, no matter what gender, we all feel the same way about wanting to protect what we love... and the fact she uses her brain, rather than brawn, makes for not only a great character, but also make us sympathize with her. I'm not saying that to cover Extra Credits' ass, I'm just saying about what I know of the story in general.

[@xenosayain1506]

Love extra credits. They told me I'm a racist genetically deficient human because I'm an orc who plays ww2 games

[@RavenKnightYT]

Right!?

[@xenosayain1506]

@@RavenKnightYT heck yeah. Love your vids. Your extra credit responses helped me find your channel. Now I'm bingeing your history blurbs. Awesome stuff

[@hariman7727]

Extra credits used to be commentary on aspects of game development, design, experience, and more. Now it's an angsty teenager's poetry session.

[@IronWarrior_69]

ahhhhhhh my favorite channel tearing down one of my least favorite channels. RELAXING.

[@Dragonspirit223]

Shall I prep the soothing fire of Earthshaker Artillery?

[@brunnokamei9623]

Do you guys remember when Mulan 2 was the worst thing that happened to Mulan? Yeah. We were happy and we didn't know.

[@aweshetdima2157]

I remember a story of a chinese girl wanting to be a buddhist monk, but her father said no and that she must marry in the interest of fillial piety instead. A fellow monk approached the father and told him that she can fulfill her duty to the ancestors as a nun/monk, of which the father agreed and the daughter became one of the first female monks/nuns.

[@marvalice3455]

Personally, im totally ok with editorializing myth, but the issue is when you criticize others for it and act as if your version is somehow "pure" all the while doing just as much editing. It almost like they have some kind of hidden motive

[@RavenKnightYT]

Agreed on all counts.

[@mkdemigodzillawarrior]

Yeah, I noticed those details they added in as well. Glad I’m not the only one who notice! Although, I’m rather iffy with how much they used “Honor” within the video. Also, I notice how the poem never explicitly stated that over time, she became a general of the army, which is odd since in many of the Chinese adaptations, she became the general at some point.

[@Set2Wumbo]

17:19 P. Sure hugging is considered something only to be done in the privacy of a bedroom by classical Chinese standards (Yet another strike)

[@marvalice3455]

Mulan wasn't Chinese. She was niether Qing, the ethicity which gave china its international name, nor was she Han, the ethicity we think of as "Chinese".

[@Oera-B]

​@@marvalice3455 Then what was Mulan?

[@samuraifury9823]

First act man destroyed extra credit and now Raven Knight…man EC really did hit rock bottom now

[@tropetrinitytrilogy8533]

The ballad of Mulan is so short they could've easily just had him read it and add cute animations, but no they wanted to add stuff and misinterpret it. I don't think retellings have to be accurate. They can be accurate presentations of a story in a modern medium. However, retelling can merely be inspired by the original, but still be telling it's own story. I mean I love Disney's Hercules and it is definitely inspired by the mythology, not retelling it. However, when a channel goes out of it's way to criticize a retelling that clearly wasn't trying to be 100% accurate, while claiming they're telling the true story while also adding things, and unlike the story they criticized they misinterpret the message, they come across as uneducated. I never heard the original ballad before, I enjoyed hearing it for the first time.

[@Dragonspirit223]

Now, to be fair, some things they added makes sense. The ballad obviously doesn't go in detail on things we in the modern era would like (social interactions), so certain interactions that are added makes sense (such as the training). However, them claimimg to 'reveal' Disney in such an arrogant way... Yeah rip and tear. Oh EC, how low you have fallen.

[@RavenKnightYT]

Yeah and that was my issue. They’re free to add any details they like. I have no issue with that. It’s them then claiming Disney was wrong for adding stuff that was the problem. Add what you want, just don’t harass Disney or other folks for doing it too.

[@chrisprizzle278]

Once you debunked the Medusa episode I knew not to watch this one glad I decided to wait and watch you debunk it.

[@ianrocco8453]

Extra Credits: Should we read the source material before we make a video? Critical Drinker: Naw it'll be fine...

[@marvalice3455]

These changes have to be on purpose.

[@bubonic524]

Genuine question: What does this have to do with Critical Drinker?

[@ianrocco8453]

Genuine answer: Just a saying he says when people like EC decide to twist lazily or deliberatly misreprepresent lessons from stories for clicks and twitter likes.

[@bubonic524]

@@ianrocco8453 okay thanks for answering my question!

[@VengefulJay]

The way the ballad is told it sounds like she just shows up and nobody cared

[@Thederanged1]

I noticed they used cherry blossoms and a curved sword in their drawings. Those are Japanese not Chinese.

[@banditmc12]

There are curved swords in Chinese weaponry called dao.

[@skycr7059]

There are cherry trees in china too, they were used to make bows

[@anggakarapreviandana2877]

I mistaken heard the The Rourans as The Hwoarangs (Named after a Fighting game character) back when I the name was mentioned in a Mulan film (The bad live action Mulan remake) review, I kinda feel bad about myself back then.

[@Baldwin-iv445]

Extra credits definitely liked the new version. I can tell.

[@axios4702]

I´m starting to believe extra credits are compulsive liars, they make shit up even when they dont need to.

[@simpslayer9284]

Honestly, does Extra Credits understand anything?

[@simpslayer9284]

@FOX'S Apprentice they rly went to shit

[@lloydlandrum3040]

the channel once had till the creator was kicked or whatever then things got worse and worse

[@ianrocco8453]

Trump changed everything , they then went woke and all intelligent life left their atmosphere.

[@brunnokamei9623]

Becoming the very thing they swore to destroy. That's one thing they know.

[@hariman7727]

@FOX'S Apprentice you beat me to saying it.

[@blankadams3120]

Ah, yes, the general who didn't notice Mulan was female... which Disney at least touched on, "I didn't know Fa Zhou had a son?"

[@eatsnowanddie]

Idc who says whatever about Milan I still love this movie because it mix’s funny with a good message, and when they took away the comedy in the live action it killed the film, I wouldn’t have cared if mushu was animated in the live action, having him there made the film such an enjoyable ride.

[@bluedragonstudios9004]

I wrote a book called tales in scales. It’s not perfect but it is definitely better then modern EC

[@matityaloran9157]

22:54, the disguise assumption seems the more logical of the two

[@vlover15OO]

Extra credits is complaing about historical accuracy from an adaptation with an actual dragon with the voice of a black man..........in ASIA!!!!!

[@RavenKnightYT]

Kind of silly, isn't it?

[@vlover15OO]

@@RavenKnightYT nah it sounds super objective when you say it out loud lol

[@hariman7727]

People call the Bible false, yet they forget that it is a record of the history of the Jewish people, and one of the few actual historical documents past a certain point. That opening quote comes from the far-left idea that nothing is real Beyond a certain point. Edit: how did extra credits managed to turn a tale of a daughter's love for her father into a gender affirmation drum-beating session?!

[@SuperSwordman1]

Agenda pushing. All they seem to do.

[@sirpotatousheadislimberg6346]

Great video, love how you destroyed the original video lol, shows how downhill their channel has gone

[@mig9941]

That’s what extra credits does now. They put stupid fillers to the story that make now sense yet to people watching they’d just assume “yeah sure makes sense I guess” and move on Goddamn they’re so lazy

[@powerist209]

At least they did bash the awful live action movie though. Also ignoring various contexts, namely the Xianbei during Sui-Tang Dynasty (namely nomadic mercenaries usurped the Sima Clan and carved out their kingdoms along with Sinacized). One of the policies being each Xianbei family giving soldier for the army, females being uncommon but had to cross dress since the army also hire convicts. Also even then Mulan's dad can request deferment or even transfer to "less-dangerous" works (like sheriff), which a Sinologist brought up that system.

[@shaquilloatmeal7546]

The dislike was extra credits

[@harveysidhu7030]

If you choose to do a video on medieval women or warrior women could you please do a video on Joan of Arc and also The Order of the Hatchet. Can you Especially talk about the Order of the Hatchet, very few people know of its existence. Love your videos. Thanks.

[@Hardy3000]

I really wish extra credits would comment on one of these videos, that would be funny.

[@Demolitiondude]

I'm calling a turnover for the blatant Disney references with the art.

[@Grasshopper567]

I think extra credits is taking some liberty in sending the point across that the ballad is about filial piety

[@Nobody32990]

5:05 - You are completely wrong on this entire segment. Saying those tales exist only as explanations of natural phenomenon is reductionist at best and ignorant at worst. "Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence". Our scope of understanding and perceiving the distant past is very limited (particularly in terms of philosophical understanding of the world in the eyes of our ancestors). Take Troy for example, it was considered a legend up until relatively recently. You also completely ignored second part of the phrase which imo is the more important one, those myths and stories are bases on which cultures were, are and will be build.

[@anggakarapreviandana2877]

Nice poem. Is the Mulan films are based on that poem? I want to know, sorry.

[@Recoil1808]

Loosely for the first movie, and not really for the live-action reboot. The original had a relativley pro-woman message. The reboot had a distinctly pro-China message, even filming at and thanking a government agency for letting them film at a modern-day concentration camp. Which is why you've no doubt seen all of the memes about it. My favorite of said memes, so far, is one saying that the next Star Wars movie will have Uygars sergically-altered to serve as alien extras to save money.

[@mkdemigodzillawarrior]

@@Recoil1808 Yeah it’s rather odd Disney did that for their Milan remake. My only guess is that they really need to make sure China likes the film, which then backfired due to the vast amount of controversy.

[@Oera-B]

Falsity alone does not explain Myth. If "not fitting neatly into the historical records" was a likely sign of a myth's falsehood, then nothing that is said about pre-history is likely true, though, of course, *something* has to be.

[@landenblake4070]

Your video's are great

[@Agaporis12]

A myth is a likely story. It does suggest a lack of knowledge bust for instance whenever someone speculates on the evolutionary advantage of legs, that is a myth.

[@Haos51]

So funny they made so many mistakes while bashing Disney..

[@Recoil1808]

I mean they're still better than Disney, but that's less a compliment and more like saying "a better place to live than Dante's Inferno." Way I see it, Disney should be bashed for every single mistake they make, have ever made, or will ever make, until they die and stop devouring more and more of the entertainment industry. I don't just mean noting the mistakes and shaking your finger at them, I mean adding them to Disney's obituary and not shutting up about them until Disney goes out-of-business. Like you know those dogs on the Air Buddies movies? Yeah a lot of those they led to the death of. Directly.

[@Haos51]

@@Recoil1808 I think you took what I said I bit too seriously and in the wrong way. Like I hate Disney as well but nothing was really that wrong about their version of Mulan from the perspective of making a movie. The original story didn't give that much in the way of details. Extra credit was trying to talk about the original myth but added on details that weren't there in either verison.

[@Recoil1808]

@@Haos51 I understood what you're saying. But then I have a problem with the *newer* Disney Mulan on basically every level, and it's part of why I am absolutely determined never to shut up about Disney's calcium-encrusted closet for as long as both I and the rat live, though I actually quite liked the animated one.

[@Haos51]

@@Recoil1808 You can say that again man. Lets hope the Rat's empire comes to a end.

[@Recoil1808]

@@Haos51 Hear, hear!

[@thrall6647]

Greetings! Preiss algorithm gods! Well time yo watch video. I feel like extra credit made some stuff for drama.

[@Nova-rd3hi]

I'd kind of figure Mulan would be your favorite movie considering your history fascination. It's a movie based on a historical Chinese poem that probably has something to do with a historical event.

[@vortiger7375]

*tiandi sound*

[@lilcreepy4257]

*fem tiandi sound

[@Liggliluff]

(2:00) "ten thousand miles" 🤔

[@snuggyxiii7642]

I love the story of Mulan.

[@nseven1117]

for a woke channel like Extra Credits, they completely missed the female empowerment message in Mulan. I don't know if that's amazing, stupid, or amazingly stupid

[@theamericanempire4679]

So I've been reading the comments and I don't understand what people mean by old and new James, I've watched and still watch extra credits for years only for the history obviously but never watched them every day, so I never learned the people's names. If someone could link a video of comparison, I would be thankful.

[@RavenKnightYT]

They are referring to the host. The narrator doing the reading. Compare the guy doing this video to the one who did say…the Sengoku Jidai series or the Bismarck series.

[@theamericanempire4679]

@@RavenKnightYT oh ok thank you for repling and you dont need to mention yourself in third person

[@theamericanempire4679]

@@RavenKnightYT hunting the bismarck or otto von bismarck

[@theamericanempire4679]

@@RavenKnightYT I think I came in too late for videos including you but im glad ive seen your channel to hear you now

[@dreliq981]

maybe they got their info from the new movie

[@thelastoferrathen613]

Love how he quotes the Bible in these videos.

[@lucascoval828]

Another one bites the dust.

[@Toasty3D]

Sounds like there's an issue with the audio

[@tfordham13]

Not all myths are real nor fake there normally in the middle

[@chese_knight]

Strike 30

[@benos0_056]

I bet you were sad when the Disney live action remake came out, god that remake was shit