I’ve been reading Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken manga since I was in elementary school. But for some reason, Maam’s change into a martial artist just slipped through the crack for me.

It’s not that her transition into a martial artist caught me by surprise. To me, I was more surprised by the fact that I didn’t notice the underlying lesson that we can learn from Maam’s transition into a martial artist.

Sure, we can all learn a lot more from someone like Popp since he has the most drastic change compared to the other characters.

But for some reason, I find that the lesson that we can get from Maam’s transition is just as profound as Popp.

While Popp’s change requires him to have more courage in himself, Maam’s change requires her to look inward instead.

The tipping point that got Maam to transition into a martial artist in Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken

Despite having been training under Master Avan at a young age, Maam was only good at using a healing spell but not good on the offensive spells.

While the healing spell comes in handy during the crucial time, it won’t help her at all if she can’t use the offensive spells to defend herself.

It was because of this reason that Avan created a magical gun for her so then she could use it to shoot the enemy with the loaded offensive spells.

The magical gun served its final purpose when Maam asked Popp to load his strongest spell into the bullet case during their fight with Flazzard.

While they did manage to defeat Flazzard and saved Princess Leona, Maam seemed to realize that she wasn’t much of a help during the fight. In fact, she felt like she would end up becoming a burden to everyone especially since she no longer had the magical gun with her.

It was only when Matoriv told her that her brute strength was like her father that made her realize that there was something that only she could do.

And the best part was she only had to make full use of what she already had, which was her brute strength.

Thus, her decision to learn martial art under the God of Martial Arts, Brokeena, and temporarily left Dai and the rest.

Everyone around her is using magic spells to fight the enemy

While we don’t get much of a glimpse of Maam’s life when she was still training under Master Avan, we do know that her mother was a mage. And we also know that her parents used to fight alongside Master Avan to defeat Hadlar.

So, it’s not hard for Maam to instill such belief that the only way to fight the enemy was to use magic.

And the fact that her mother was a mage sealed her belief even more that it was the only way to fight.

Of course, she should already realize that wasn’t the case at all when she met Dai. After all, Dai could barely cast a simple magic spell. And he was only able to do it after a grueling training with Popp.

Just like Maam, Dai doesn’t have a knack for magic. But rather than focusing on something that he knows that he can’t do no matter how hard he tries, he’s focusing on mastering Master Avan’s sword techniques instead.

If it’s not because her magical gun got destroyed during the fight with Flazzard, she would still have this belief that she could only fight the enemy with magic despite knowing well enough that she didn’t have a knack for it.

We all fall into the same perception as Maam

While we may not have the same problem as Maam, I’m sure that some of you may be in the same predicament where you have this belief that this is the only way to do something.

And before you know it, you feel frustrated that you can’t seem to nail it no matter how hard you try. Despite knowing that you don’t have the knack for it, you don’t have any choice but to keep going. After all, that’s what your parents always tell you – this is the only way to do it.

Maybe you’re coming from a family who tells you that being a lawyer, engineer or doctor is the only way to have a guaranteed success.

Heck, you may have this belief that going to college is the only surefire way to success. I bet that your teachers in school would tell you the same thing, not just your parents.

The lesser-known career path? You can just forget about it. Anything that seems risky and filled with so many uncertainties is never considered the best path to success.

It’s no surprise here that we hold this belief close to us since this is what everybody around us has been telling us this is the only way to do it.

But the problem is, these people fail to realize that there’s never one way to do things.

As long as you’re able to achieve your goal, it doesn’t matter which path you take. And the path you take can be different even if you and the person next to you wanting to achieve the same thing.

Look inward for the answers

The one thing that Maam does but people would rarely do is to look within herself to find the answer.

While it’s true that Matoriv was the one who pointed out her brute strength, it would still take time for her to process what Matoriv was telling her.

Remember that this isn’t something that seems obvious to her at first.

It was only when she looked within her herself that made her realize that Matoriv was right, after all. She can use her brute strength to fight the enemies alongside Dai and the rest.

Thanks to the realization, she no longer sees herself as a deadweight since now she can support everyone during the fight with her brute strength.

For the most part, finding the best answer for you is just as simple as getting to know yourself.

Sure, it won’t be easy especially when you’re already losing touch with yourself for such a long time.

But at least you know that the answer is a lot closer than you thought – it’s within you.

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