Halfamoon '22 recommendation #1: War and Peace (OUaT, Mulan)

[brightknightie]

I've decided to approach halfamoon '22 as a recommendations challenge...

For Day 1's theme, "War and Peace," I recommend this Once Upon a Time story in which Mulan was there in Storybrooke, believing herself a US veteran of the wars with Afghanistan and Iraq and carrying battle PTSD that maps onto her experiences in the land of folktales in the life she doesn't remember.

More, this is a meticulously crafted AU. This time, Maleficent, not Regina, casts the curse. So it targets Aurora, not Snow. Nothing -- and everything -- is the same.

"a story, a tale" by maleficently
27K words
G

Comments

[senmut]

Neat premise!

[brightknightie]

Perhaps interestingly, both of those elements -- that if Mulan is a Storybrooke resident, she must be a recent veteran, and that Maleficient could have cast the curse in a parallel universe -- appear in a noteworthy percentage of OUaT Mulan-centric stories.

Whomever in fandom first imagined those scenarios, they caught on and hung around!

[lightbird]

Thanks for the rec!

I remember you talking about this when I got my Mulan/Quantum Leap intoabar assignment.

[brightknightie]

You're welcome!

Yes, the idea that if Mulan is in Storybrooke under the curse, she must know herself as a recent veteran of US wars is widespread fanon in OUaT. The concept rings so true to both the character and the canon ... its spread through the fandom must have blazed!