Matchmaker Disaster (Dramatic Irony)
Mulan's visit to the matchmaker is a complete disaster from start to finish. Throughout, things keep going wrong, often in ways that the matchmaker is completely unaware of. For instance, the matchmaker has no idea that Mulan has a cricket on her person, or that she has written notes on her arm. In the course of the meeting, the matchmaker manages to get the ink from Mulan's notes on her hand, and unwittingly wipes the ink on her face in an unflattering pattern. In this moment, the viewer knows something that the matchmaker does not.
The Stone Dragon (Dramatic Irony)
The ancestors send Mushu to awaken the stone dragon to become Mulan's guardian, but in the process of trying to do so, Mushu destroys the statue. In order to cover for his mistake, Mushu holds the head of the Stone Dragon up when the ancestors call to him, and convince them that he has successfully awakened the guardian. In this moment, the viewer knows that Mushu is lying, while the ancestors do not.
Mulan is a woman (Dramatic Irony)
A great deal of the plot revolves around a piece of dramatic irony: the fact that we the viewer know that Mulan is a woman, while the men in her military unit do not. She pretends to be a man in order to fight in her father's place, and must keep her disguise a secret from the people with whom she is developing a bond.
The Huns are still Alive (Dramatic Irony)
The Imperial Army believes that the Huns are dead in the avalanche, but Mulan, after Shang banishes her, sees that some of them are still alive, and that they are headed towards the city. When Mulan goes to tell her fellow soldiers, they are participating in a parade celebrating the conquering of the Huns. While the viewer knows that the Huns are in fact still alive, the people of China do not, which creates a rather suspenseful instance of dramatic irony.
