Dev is most often seen wearing sunglasses at school, especially in the beginning of Fairly OddParents: A New Wish. He’s seen here as simply the flashy, rich bully. He always acts cooler than everybody else in this persona, like he’s above it all. He’s always followed by two drones as well, who at this point seem like they’re Dev’s servants at the time and not babysitters as they truly are. Dev seems the most sure of who he is when he’s in this glasses persona. He’s very sure of his future and brags a lot, especially about his future. Dev is heir to his family’s fortune and he makes sure to tell everybody he knows when he grows up he’ll take over the family business. I have a theory about this persona, but we’ll get to that later.
The next stage is when you can see Dev is taken off guard by something, interestingly usually a kind act. You see, while I may love him, Dev is a little turd, especially in the persona he wears almost every day. He deals out hatred and when the people in his life don’t repay it with anger he becomes shocked. Examples of this are when Hazel orders him a lactose-free pizza after he threatened to take away pizza from her forever, when he mistakenly thought his dad took the day off work with him, etc. It shocks Dev whenever people go out of their way to be kind to him, especially since most of the time he REALLY does not deserve him.
This is most likely why his sole confidant became friends with the protagonist, Hazel. She’s naturally kind and accepting to everybody around her and makes a good effort to understand them no matter what. Because of this, she keeps Dev guessing and the two of them just click. Hazel acts as a moral compass for him simply by existing and every act of sacrifice Dev has ever done has been for her.
It’s really no secret Hazel means the world to Dev. She is the first friend he’s ever made, after all. Hazel is the only person Dev ever went behind his dad, the person whose approval matters the most to him, 's back for. In the episode where he does so, Lost and Founder’s Day, it’s very clear that he didn’t even have to question it for a second. In that moment he sees a clear divide between his dad's approval and Hazel's safety and doesn't even have to think for one second before deciding Hazel's safety matters more to him. And at the end of the same episode, we see Dev on the iPad that he constantly uses throughout the series, and we see his wallpaper is a picture of him and Hazel.
This is where the last stage of the sunglasses comes into play, which is when he’s wearing none!! After becoming Hazel’s friend, Dev wore them less and less, at first just around her. However, as the series goes on, you can see him wearing them less and less until he no longer dons them at all. During this stage, even just in group shots in episodes where he has nothing to do with the plot, there are no sunglasses on Dev's face. When Dev’s sunglasses are off, Dev is showing who he truly is. Now, this Dev may have left the ‘better than you’ persona that comes with the sunglasses at home, but he’s still far from perfect. This Dev is a snobby lil brat who obviously needs buckets worth of therapy. However, whenever you can see Dev's big, sky-blue eyes, you can tell it’s really him there. You can tell that Dev is genuinely being himself and because of that he’s always a joy to watch in this stage.
I’d also like to point out that most if not all of Dev’s low points: his tantrums, meltdowns, are shown with no sunglasses on. This is the creators telling the audience that the persona Dev adopts when he dons the shades is not capable of these feelings. A persona cannot have a trauma-fueled breakdown or even just cry because, well, it’s just a persona. A persona can’t do any of that. Only a real person can.
Dev is without glasses for all of his friendship with Hazel, up until the episode Operaton: Birthday Takeback comes along. In this episode, Dev’s father Dale uses an algorithm to tell him what kids like and uses it to plan Dev's birthday party, hiring what turns out to be an evil party princess who's super into child labor. Dale also refuses to show up to his son's party, saying he’s too busy with “Project H” to attend. During the princess's reign, Dev and Hazel's fairies keep refusing to show up for the kids as they themselves are far too busy researching what Project H is. This all culminates in a mess of events where the kids find the fairies by accident and Dev is shown what Project H truly is: Project Hazel. Dale has been trying to figure out why she never needs to buy anything from the family business that runs the entire city, and Dev does not take it well.
Dale has been refusing to spend any time with him for months because of Project H and Dev, as his father can do no wrong in his eyes, blames Hazel for taking his attention. He adopts the false idea that Hazel, the kindest, most important person in his life, wished for the two of them to be friends and she’s simply been playing him to get what she wants. During this argument he tells Hazel that ‘Dimmadomes don’t just make friends’ and that her making said wish is the only possible solution he can see working. After she’s gone, his fairy godparent, Peri, asks if there’s any wish he could grant to make him feel better and Dev says he "wishes he'd go away".
At this point, Dev spirals out of control. He convinces himself Hazel is the root of his problem and fairies are no better, as Peri has done nothing good for him. Dev simply cannot face the fact that his father never wanted him, that he is the sole reason his dad will never love him, so he deflects. He blames them both for everything instead and retreats back to his sunglasses persona to go with them to hide his hurt. The next episode we see him in, Best of Luck, is not only the first episode in a long time he’s worn sunglasses the entire episode, but the only episode where his ‘better than you’ bully persona is back. In this episode Dev is trying to beat Hazel at a meaningless rock, paper, scissors competition and goes to extreme lengths to try and prove to her she made a mistake by ever trusting him.
One last note I’d like to touch on is an episode that greatly shows Dev's sunglasses persona is my current favorite episode: A New Dev-elopment. The very start of his friendship with Hazel. In this episode, Hazel and Dev are paired together by their teacher, Mr. Guzman, to complete a treasure hunt for school to get tickets to a local waterpark. Dev’s guard is broken down very easily by Hazel’s kindness as, again, he's not expecting her to act that way, and they both obviously enjoy each other’s company during the treasure hunt. All is well in the world of Dev and Hazel until the two run into Dale Dimmadome.
Dev is automatically terrified when he sees his dad walk into the room. He meekly introduces Hazel to Dale, who gets her name wrong out of sheer disinterest. He asks why on earth they’d be doing a treasure hunt, and when Hazel tells him about the waterpark, Dale laughs. He says it’s “silly” to want free tickets to a place he could just buy. And immediately, something dies inside Dev. He gives up and immediately goes to sulk in his room. Hazel asks what he’s doing and he says he’s bailing on the treasure hunt because it “seems silly”. When Hazel says he thought he was having fun, Dev tells her he wasn’t and gets his name wrong just like Dale did, except on purpose.
He’s very obviously very sad in this scene and does not wish for anyone to see him. Dev’s method of coping has always been pushing people away, presumably so they can’t hurt him, but probably also because he believes people in his family just can’t make friends (another reason he’s probably so happy to have Hazel around). He sends Hazel away but comes back only a few minutes later, and if I had to guess I’d say it’s because he needed to cry and didn’t want her to see even a shred of weakness. Dev apologizes to Hazel and even admits he didn’t want to do it simply because he thought he didn’t want to do something Dale thought was silly.
Now, about the persona itself. I believe the sunglasses persona is either Dev trying to act just like his father to impress him, as Dale exhibits many of the same traits Dev does when in this persona, or it’s simply what he believes a Dimmadome is meant to act like. Dev’s family founded the town of Dimmadelphia and Dev has therefore been taught a lot about his lineage. It’s insanely clear he views himself as a Dimmadome first and a person second. In Hazel’s first episode at school, he introduces her to everybody in school and mentions the main “thing” about everybody. Jasmine loves singing but can’t sing, Whispers Fred somehow runs a podcast, etc. When he introduces himself, however, he simply tells her “I’m the son of Dale Dimmadome and the grandson of Doug Dimmadome.”
Dev turning away from kindness and being a real human and his descent back into darkness is a sad thing to see indeed. In Lost and Founder’s Day, we see he now officially qualifies for a fairy godparent, as only miserable kids are meant to have them, but even that doesn’t make him happy. His fairy simply doesn’t understand Dev at all and constantly gets mad at him for being too demanding and needy. According to Peri’s line in Operation: Birthday Takeover, “this job does have its perks, come on, let me show you to the cereal bar”, the perks seem to mainly be that Dev is rich. This makes Peri and fairies as a whole nothing more than just more frustration to Dev and makes it even easier to see why he blamed them for his dad not loving him.
Dev is very clearly becoming the antagonist, and with the season finale of A New Wish coming up, I can only hope Hazel can get through to him, as Dev is very clearly just a scared kid who’s really in over his head.
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