PLOT POINT 2:

Proactive Protagonist

Mulan's Want is to honor and protect her family. This motivation causes her to try hard at the Matchmaker. She is not dragged there against her will. She is proactively studying and showing up. The problem is (and this is the beginning of her Character Arc) that she is doing this to honor her family despite the fact that it goes against who she is.

Her true proactive role doesn't fully show up until the First Plot Point. After that, Mulan is an extremely proactive protagonist throughout the movie. But this event is when we first get a sense of her pluck and willingness.

This Inciting Incident is also a good display of the difference between Plot, Theme, and Character (the 3 storytelling pillars). Mulan's Character Arc is strong here (more on this in Brush with Antagonist below), as is the Theme (some of which are staying true to yourself and breaking stereotypes). But the Plot is missing relevance to the larger conflict.

Story Goal

Mulan's Story Goal (to protect her father by taking his place in the army) is not yet solidifed.

However, the Matchmaker scene is important because it shows Mulan's desire to please and protect her family and sets us up to believe her motivations in taking her father's place at the First Plot Point. In that sense, we are shown her Story Goal, though it has not yet been explicitly introduced.

Brush with Antagonist

We are given the first brush with the antagonist - Shan-Yu and his army of Huns - in the opening scene of the movie. Unfortunately, there is none of that antagonist present in this event.

BUT, we do see Mulan's insecurities, which play an important role in her Character Arc. So while structurally we are missing the presence of the story's main antagonist (which may arguably weaken the plot), in terms of Character Arc, we have Mulan's personal antagonist in the form of her insecurities and willingness to muffle her true self in order to please other people.

Question for the Climactic Moment

The question posed here is, Can Mulan honor her family while still being true to herself?

This is answered in the Climactic Moment as the Emperor faces Mulan and tells her, "You have saved us all," which she was only able to do by being herself. Mulan was able to protect and honor her family while being true to her beliefs, strengths, skills, and femininity.