A Writers View

When the live-action remake of Mulan came out, they added a new song titled “Loyal, Brave & True” by Christina Aguilera. The tune is nice, the song is fine – the lyrics are all wrong!

Whoever wrote this song did not understand the character of Mulan at all!

So – I re-wrote the lyrics. I took what they had, and I moved around and fixed the lyrics so that now they fit for Mulan – they’re “True” to her character.

I’m only going to put down the lyrics as I’ve re-written them, so if you want to hear the original lyrics then you’ll have to go and look them up.

Here we go:

“War is now calling,

Over my shoulder,

I hear the soldiers cry.

All for my family,

Reason I’m breathing,

I’ll take my sword and try.

Should I ask myself in the water

What a warrior would do?

I just know beneath my armor

That I’m loyal, brave, and true.

That I’m loyal, brave, and true!

Losing is easy,

Winning is harder.

I don’t know what to do!

Out in the open,

No one to save me,

Will you turn and leave me too?

Should I ask myself in the water

What a warrior would do?

Can’t you see beneath my armor

That I’m loyal, brave, and true?

That I’m loyal, brave, and true!

Cold is the morning,

Warm is the dream,

Chasing the answer

That I can’t see.

Will I be stronger?

Will I be weak?

Will you stay with me?

Here I am without my armor,

Standing in my father’s shoes.

Even though it now is harder,

I’ll stay loyal, brave, and true!”

So, yeah! That’s my re-write.

I feel like this way more captures the heart of who Mulan is as a character. She IS loyal, brave, and true. She never questioned that. She questioned almost everything else in her life, but NEVER that she was loyal, brave, and true.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that she felt like that was ALL that she had to offer. She wasn’t a perfect, beautiful, feminine daughter, she didn’t know how to be the perfect soldier – but she knew that she was always loyal, brave, and true.

THESE lyrics show that! (Maybe one day I’ll record a cover with these lyrics!)

For your pleasure, I’ve attached an orchestral cover of the song – that way you can sing the song with these new lyrics without the distraction of the bad lyrics. (Yes, I said what I said, the original lyrics were straight up bad! But the tune, and the idea for the song and this cover, is beautiful!)