WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai Episode 7, "MAAM'S TURMOIL," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
The best thing to come out of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai's last episode was Maam, a capable and steadfast adventurer who uses a spell-shooting pistol. Now, Episode 7 reveals more information about Maam, her origin and what led to learning magic in the first place.
The previous episode ended with Dai in a rough spot. He fell to Crocodine due to paralysis, but Maam managed to unload a magic bullet onto Dai. Now, the power of the magic bullet is revealed. Maam used a spell infused into the bullet to cure stunning and paralysis. Returning to the fight, the hero boy lunges at Crocodine with his knife, managing to scar the Beast King across his eye. Outnumbered and dearly wounded, Crocodine makes a tactful retreat for now.
Maam manages to heal Dai of his wounds and this is where she reveals she was a student of Avan, just like Dai and Popp. This story gets expanded upon when Maam takes the duo to her village where they meet her mother. Maam's mother was actually a priest back in the day and her husband was a warrior, and in fact, both were part of Avan's party to defeat the Dark Lord.
As a close family friend, Avan personally taught Maam in both magic and martial arts making her a warrior priest, despite having difficulties with attack magic. Avan rectified this, gifting her with a magic pistol, allowing her to cast attack magic that any mage casts into the bullets. However, when asked about how Avan is doing, Dai doesn't tell the villagers that Avan's dead. With the Dark Lord resurrected, the last thing they need to hear is the great hero has met his end.
Later, Dai goes to the village elder, asking the retired mage if he could train him in magic. This comes as a shock to the elder, as he expected Avan to have taught him magic since Dai studied under him, but Dai comes clean about his master's death. But to his dismay, Maam overheard Dai speak about Avan's death, leaving closed off and in mourning.
As Maam starts avoiding the boys as she processes the death of her master, Dai and Popp begin their impromptu training. For the first time, Dai manages to pull off a Frizz spell, at least partially. The flame seems to only fall to the ground, but Dai kick at targets like a soccer ball. Similar to how Naruto at first needed to use his shadow clones to use the Rasengan, Dai is finding workarounds to advance his magic.
During all of this, Maam is struggling with what her next course of action should be. The girl wants to go with Popp and Dai to stop the Dark Lord, but she can't in good conscience abandon her village and leave it unprotected. In the end, though, Maam's mother and the village elder give the warrior priest their blessings to go with Dai and Popp. Maam's grateful to have the chance to make good use of her powers as she now joins Dai as his second ally.
