Nash Equilibrium and Mulan
Mulan Gets Down to Business in Disney’s First Teaser for Live-Action Remake
Disney’s beloved childhood classic Mulan (1998) is currently being remade into a live-action film, coming to theaters in 2020. What better way to celebrate than to analyze the use of Nash equilibrium in the animation? The story follows protagonist Mulan who takes her father’s place in the army and ends up saving China. Mulan taking on her father’s position is a prime example of Nash equilibrium. Mulan’s two options would be to take her father’s place, or not take her father’s place, whereas Mulan’s father would have the options of serving in the army, or not serving in the army.
w represents a win, and l represents a loss. The dominant strategy for Mulan is clearly to take her father’s place, because otherwise she would not have been able to save China, nor would she have been able to protect her father from possibly being injured from the war.