Shan Yu

Shan Yu is in great contrast with his predecessors and successors. While he shows the same arrogant and megalomaniacal traits, he is not above killing his enemies in cold blood to prove his strength, and he has been shown to make jokes about it: after capturing two Imperial scouts and sending them to deliver his challenge to the Emperor, he asks his lead archer how many men it takes to deliver a message. The archer then draws his bow and replies, "One." Ultimately, only one scout delivers the message, heavily implying that the archer killed the other. He is also shown to be merciless even to defenseless individuals, as evidenced by his murderous smirk when he suggests that he "return" a lost doll to its owner; later he is implied to have killed the owner of the doll as well as her entire village. His penchant for brutality was such that the Emperor of China immediately took the matter seriously as soon as he learned that Shan Yu was leading the invasion, and one of the captured scouts fearfully recognized him when they were brought before him. Despite his brutality, or probably because of it, he is a respected leader, as his Hun army seems to be kept together out of loyalty to him, rather than out of fear of him. This is exemplified by his Elite Huns, who are able to speak to him on equal terms. A deleted scene showing his massacre of the village onscreen, however, makes clear that he is not above slaying even members of his own army should they show any degree of weakness in battle, in particular showing mercy towards any living thing (though he does acknowledge all life deserves to be free, he also makes clear that freedom has its price after subtly ordering Hayabusa to attack the freed bird).

He is also shown to never ill-treat or abuse Hayabusa his pet falcon, meaning he may care and have attachment to him (the same deleted scene actually showed him calling Hayabusa his friend which seems to back this up). This also likely means he is not completely incapable of caring about others but only about those who he considers very close to him. Shan Yu is also supremely confident in both his and his army's strength and superiority, sometimes allowing his enemies to have an advantage in order for him to defeat them anyway and prove his might. Such examples include his attack on the Great Wall, where he allowed a lone sentry to light the signal fire, sending word to the Emperor and giving him time to mobilize the Imperial Army. Later, he allows one of the Chinese spies to return to the Forbidden City, boldly telling the spy to inform the Emperor to send his best troops to face the Huns. In this instance, he even claims that the Emperor "invited" him, viewing the construction of the Great Wall as a challenge to his army's might. He also decides to head straight for the mountain pass that would lead his forces directly to the Forbidden City, knowing full well that the entire Imperial Vanguard is guarding the pass and completely rejecting the option to simply go around the mountains and avoid the enemy entirely. As he and his men were later revealed to have managed to completely wipe out the entire Vanguard presumably without any significant casualties at his end, this confidence may have been perfectly justified. Even after being buried under an avalanche, he took it in stride (outside of letting out a loud yell) and simply improvised, using his "deceased" status and decreased army to infiltrate the palace. Shan Yu was also a true leader as he never sends henchmen to do his work, but fights alongside them and even takes the lead; when he and his army were about to attack Li Shang's squad, he charged first.

Shan Yu is also notable for being one of the extreme few characters in the movie who does not underestimate women. As soon as he recognizes that Mulan is "the soldier from the mountains", he forgets about Li Shang, considering him to be insignificant in comparison, and tries to kill Mulan instead. He is somewhat of a hypocrite, as he told the emperor he tires of his arrogance when it is actually Shan Yu who is rather arrogant.

Shan Yu is gigantic and muscular. He is mustachioed in a thin horseshoe style. He possesses yellow eyes with black sclera, pale gray skin, sharp nose, and a prominent forehead. His fingernails are long and jagged. He also has dark and abundant hair, but he's also half bald. He wears a stocky tunic consisting of black on the right and cream on the left with both an eggplant animal pelt brim and cuffs, an eggplant pelt sash, and a fluffy gray pelt scarf with timber wolf stripes. Shan Yu only dons a black glove on his left hand, presumably for his falcon. He also sports gray trousers and a pair of black boots with gray linings. On occasion, he wears a black hood with a fluffy gray trimming.

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Shan Yu is a hardened fighter and a lethal combatant, armed or not. This is shown where he overpowers Li Shang in a fight, though far from easy.

He possesses massive, possibly even super-human strength. He can break down a barricaded door with minimal effort, climb and smash through a rooftop with ease, and simply slice three massive pillars to shreds with his sword.

Besides his strength, he also possessed a superhuman amount of endurance, having survived being buried in an avalanche for what is implied to have been hours with no apparent ill effects, something that only 5 other Huns managed to survive.

He is a skilled tracker and survivalist, being able to deduce a doll delivered to him by his falcon came from a village in a nearby mountain pass where imperial armies awaited him using only a few subtle clues found on the doll (white horse hair from imperial stallions, black pine which grows in the mountains, and the smell of sulfur from a cannon).

His leadership is matched by his cunning intellect. In addition to having the idea to scale the seemingly-impenetrable Great Wall with grappling hooks, he was able to infiltrate the Imperial Palace and kidnap the Emperor of China with only five remaining Huns. However, he is not without equal, as his strategic skills and cunning are rivaled by Mulan's.

When he was riding with his army, he was able to detect the presence of nearby Imperial Scouts and stopped immediately, ordering his men to root them out.

Shan Yu possesses an obliviousness to danger that makes him invulnerable to fear and intimidation, with nothing capable of controlling him. Hence, Shan Yu does not fear death and will even threaten his own life to achieve his goal or make a point. He allowed someone to light the forges and let China know he was there, razed a city, battled the entire Chinese army and possibly murdered General Li, sent his entire army after Li Shang, and infiltrated the Palace, all without any fear of failing or dying in his attempts. Even when disarmed of his sword by Mulan and learning that Mushu not only has a massive rocket aimed at him, but had just lit it, he nonetheless makes a final attempt at killing Mulan bare-handed without any trace of fear holding him back, even yelling a warlord yell just before rushing at her. Madam Mim and possibly Maleficent are the only Disney Villains to potentially out-rival his pathological indomitable will.

Although he prefers to directly confront the enemy head-on, he is nevertheless perfectly capable of utilizing stealth if necessary. This was implied by his infiltrating the Imperial City and presumably avoiding contact with anyone until revealing himself on the palace rooftop via Hayabusa retrieving his sword, and eventually confirmed when he burst through the roof behind Mulan and catching her slightly off-guard.