Dragon Quest: The Great Transformation of Popp
Popp is the real focal point of the series. Everything else is secondary.
While the series has the title “The Adventure of Dai” and starts and ends with Dai, Pop is the one who takes center stage of the series. The whole series is about his transformation from a cowardly magician-in-training to a sage (class change included!) who is able to face the final boss with his bare hands.
Dai and Popp
Dai is the face of the series. He gets the most page / screen time, having the series names after him and all. But to me, he is also dull.
He has superpowers that are born with him. He delivers the final hit to big bosses and does everything right for the most part. Bad things happen to him at no fault of his own. He has one love interest who returns his feelings.
Popp, on the other hand, is the opposite of Dai in terms of innate ability and experiences in the story. He has to learn and practice spells. He makes mistakes throughout the series. His love interest has her eyes on someone else.
Popp the human
Popp comes from no special background and grows in a very human way. His explosion in popularity is due to how relatable he is, especially when compared to his buddy Dai. He even says so himself:
Throughout the series, Popp makes very human mistakes in the series, such as:
- Mistaking a villain for Maam, almost getting himself killed in the process.
- He is later rescued by Matoriv and Dai.
- Chasing Kill-Vearn after they left the city in shambles and almost got Dai killed as a result.
- Popp himself goes after and rescues Dai.
- Running away from the Minakatoru spell circle, killing Merle in the process.
- Popp ends up reviving her.
In contrast, instead of making mistakes, Dai has bad things happen to him - such as having his sword broken by Vearn. The tragic loss of Baran is also not the result of any actions by Dai, but a plot line.
The one who ditched his friends
In the beginning of the series, readers see Popp literally run away from his companions who got in trouble with monsters. He later reluctantly returns, but at that point readers were so fed up with him that many wrote to the publisher to ask for Popp to disappear from the series. Ouch, but understandable.
Slowly but surely, Popp grows up, with Maam being a big driving factor. At the same time, Maam’s opinion of Popp changes as he grows, and eventually Popp earns her respect.
Facing the final boss with bare hands
Towards the end of the series, Popp plays a big role in the final fight with Vearn. In one memorable scene, Vearn throws his Kaiser Phoenix to Popp and Dai. Popp, standing half naked in front of Vearn, points his bare hands into the Phoenix’s mouth and tears it apart.
The one who participated in all battles
In the official guidebook, there is an image1 showing all the battles in the series and who participated in each:
The highlighted column is Popp. He is in all of them! Dai missed some fights when he lost his memory. He is just as important as Dai, if not more.
How these all relate to his relationship with Maam
Popp’s relationship with Maam is an important element in his tremendous growth. If they were in high school, Maam is like the popular girl that many boys want, with Popp being one of them (and Hyunckel being the cool athletic guy that many girls go after).
If Popp had confessed to Maam in the beginning, she would have shot him down immediately. Good of him to chicken out that first time. After fighting with Sigma, he properly confesses to her. At this point, he’s changed into a completely different person, and Maam’s perspective of him changed a lot as well.
However, love doesn’t come to anyone easily, including Popp. Just because he morphed into a mature Sage and helped save the world doesn’t necessarily grant him a free pass to mutual love. As a result of Popp’s confession, Maam returns an ambiguous response, basically indicating that she can’t choose between Popp and Hyunckel at the moment. She’s clearly not ready. And we basically bring that ambiguity all the way into the end.
Next we look at Popp and Hyunckel.
Notes
1 Imgur - from this thread on PTT