I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how Hazel is a boring protagonist(or I guess more like... people complaining about how other people are saying that? Idk I'm not on Twitter), and at first I kind of agreed with those takes because all I had seen were random clips. BUT, now that I've watched the show, I disagree. I don't think Hazel is a boring character, at least not conceptually. I think the issue is that the majority of her RELATIONSHIPS are really boring.
Hazel on her own has a lot of potential. She's caring, she's funny, she has a tendancy to overthink, her design is really good, she has realistic problems most people can relate to... she's just all around a really well built character. The problem is that almost none of the characters she interacts with consistently have any depth, and that causes her relationships with them to fall flat, which causes HER to fall flat because at the end of the day, a character is only as strong as their relationships with other characters. We're TOLD what her relationships with others are like, we're TOLD what the other characters' personality traits are, but we're never SHOWN those things. I think the episode where they deal with Jasmine's fears is probably the biggest offender. Jasmine herself acts as more of a plot device then anything else, with her fears being used as a stepping stone to teach HAZEL a lesson, rather then allowing the episode to focus on Jasmine overcoming those fears. The scene where Jasmine actually FACES those fears ends up being just thrown in at the end as a way to solve the conflict, which tbh wasn't that engaging in the first place because Hazel had no personal attatchment to any of Jasmine's fears... that's just kind of a bad episode overall tbh it's where all of the shows flaws are the most prominent but I DIGRESS-
Another really good example of the poor relationship building is her relationship with her brother, Antony, who we literally don't even get to SEE until well into the second half of the season. I haven't actually gotten to that episode yet, so I can't really judge Antony as a character, but I CAN judge how they've been setting him up so far! Which hasn't been very good! Instead of SHOWING US Hazel's relationship with him through flashbacks or something, the writers just have Hazel TELL US how she feels about her brother and things they used to do together. It just doesn't have the same impact as actually seeing their relationship play out would, y'know? They've been telling us about Hazel's relationships with other characters instead of showing us those relationships, and it's been hurting Hazel as a character.
The only relationships she has that we actually get to watch her BUILD are her relationship with Cosmo & Wanda and her relationship with Dev, which, while the ladder is genuinely really well done and interesting(aside from a couple pacing issues but honestly the show is chock full of those so whatever), the former ALSO falls really flat because Cosmo & Wanda aren't really... characters. They're iconic, sure, and they're really funny, but they're also mostly just plot devices. They're here to grant Hazel's wishes(aka cause the plot of the episode) and be funny. That's it. Which is fine, those kinds of characters obviously have their place, but when they're the only ones your main character consistently interacts with? That causes some problems. It's like if, in the movie Aladdin, instead of focusing mostly on the relationship between Aladdin and Jasmine, they focused entirely on his relationship with the Genie. The Genie is mostly just here to move the plot along and say funny things, so having him be the character Aladdin interacts with the MOST kind of breaks the movie. Having a story where almost all the interactions are between the main character and the comic relief just doesn't work.
Honestly I think the issues with Hazel's relationships are probably why people are more drawn to Dev as a character then they are to Hazel, because while Hazel almost exclusively interacts with characters who could be replaced by cardboard cutouts and nobody would tell the difference, Dev doesn't. Dev's relationships are a lot more engaging because all of the characters he interacts with are SIGNIFICANTLY more fleshed out then the ones Hazel interacts with. His relationship with Hazel is engaging because it's an emotional rollercoaster for both of them. His relationship with Peri is interesting because Peri is much newer to being a fairy godparent then Cosmo & Wanda are, meaning he's more likely to make mistakes. His relationship with his dad is interesting because it's literally the main motivation for his character, and we actually get to SEE WHY THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS THE WAY IT IS. His relationship with Irep is more interesting because Irep is a weird little shit who's mostly just using Dev to take over fairyworld, and he also has an interesting dynamic with Peri! Dev's relationships are all WAY better executed then Hazel's, and honestly I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Dev is an antagonist who mostly interacts with other antagonists. He's at the center of almost every single ongoing conflict in the show, which is often times what makes a character and their relationships interesting: conflict. I also think he benefits from getting expanded on LATER in the show, since by that point all of the writers would've had a much better feel for all of the characters, making it easier for them to actually show what his relationships are like instead of outright telling us skgnvkdmfkekfndn
Now, was the point of all this to say that I think Dev would be a better protagonist then Hazel? No. Absolutely not no- he has a more interesting, better executed story then Hazel does so far, sure, but he just. Wouldn't be able to carry an episodic show like FOP on his own I'm sorry- we've seen the kind of wishes he makes, they're not particularly interesting. Because he's a rich kid who can do basically whatever he wants. Plus, his conflict with Peri just isn't really built to be stretched out over an entire season, which it would HAVE to be if Dev was the protagonist of a Fairly Oddparents, because the entire premise of the show is "this kid gets a Fairy Godparent, what kind of wacky hijinks will they get up to now?" Plus there's the fact that the narrative has been treating his parental neglect with a lot more gravity then Timmy's ever was, meaning if the show was from his perspective they'd have to tone down the things that make him interesting to keep the show from getting outright miserable- Dev is not a good character to make carry that kind of show. Dev should not be the main character. HOWEVER! Do I think the show would be more interesting if we got more episodes featuring him and Hazel hanging out together? Yes absolutely. They bounce off of eachother incredibly well, and once Peri is introduced we also get to see Peri's relationship with his parents and how THEY interact, and it's just. So much more interesting then seeing just Hazel and CosWan. Or Hazel's cardboard cutout friends. Honestly I'd go as far as to say he should've been Hazel's dueteragonist instead of just a recurring character, kinda like a(hopefully) better executed Chloe. It'd give Hazel a more interesting character to bounce off of then Cosmo & Wanda. Either that or I think Peri should've been Hazel's fairy godparent instead of Cosmo & Wanda, because he has more room to grow and develope as a character then they do, making his potential dynamic with Hazel a lot more interesting. Idk just in general I think having Hazel interact almost exclusively with Cosmo & Wanda was a mistake-
Also should be noted; I am saying this as someone who has never seen the original Fairly Oddparents. I don't know if the original show had these issues aswell or not, everything I know about the original comes from random YouTube videos I watched out of curiousity/boredom. Either way if the original DID have issues with Timmy's relationships being really boring then uh. That's not an excuse for A New Wish to do the same, I guess. Idk where I'm going with this... also sorry if this essay is incoherent! I have a lot of thoughts about how Hazel's relationships are really poorly executed and I just needed to get them out skfnvdkdjfndn- if you want me to elaborate on anything feel free to leave a comment or send me an ask :)
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