History YMMV / LandOfOz

* FandomVIP: Almost any well-regarded Oz work in modern times will have illustrator Eric Shanower involved; Shanower has for example edited and published a leftover manuscript of an Oz novel by John R. Neill from the 1940's (''The Runaway in Oz''), has lent his artistic talents to the Marvel Oz comic adaptation, as well as illustrated a lot of the higher profile modern Oz books. Then you have of course the upper echelon of the International Wizard of Oz Club.

** The Wicked Witch of the West returning. She was popularized by the 1939 film, but never reappears in any of the book sequels and is actually a very minor villain in the overall series compared to the Nome King or even Mombi. These are sometimes paired with “Dorothy never returned to Oz” [=AUs=] as a catalyst for her friends to try to get her to come back (see ''Literature/InSearchOfDorothy'' for this exact plot, although it is far from the only non-canon work that has used it).

* ShowyInvincibleHero: Glinda and Ozma. Not only are they shown to be smarter than most people, they are also the greatest magicians in the land. Most famously, they easily stopped the Nome King's attempt to invade Oz before he or his allies could set foot within its borders. Although Ozma does get kidnapped in ''Literature/TheLostPrincessOfOz'' and has to be rescued from a submerged city in ''Literature/GlindaOfOz''.

** Ozma dealing with gender identity issues stemming growing up as a young boy but being changed into a girl. This of course wasn’t ever dwelled upon when the books were written more than a century ago, but it’s a popular topic for modern fan fiction writers with a TransAudienceInterpretation.

** Dorothy Gale was a real person in our world, who L. Frank Baum met and interviewed, using her stories about Oz as the basis for his books. Whether or not Oz actually is real in stories with this plot element may vary, but if it is real it may be a DystopianOz that Baum toned down for children. It can be combined with many other stock fan plots.

** Dorothy Gale was a real person in our world, who L. Frank Baum met and interviewed, using her true stories about Oz as the basis for his books. Whether or not Oz actually is real in stories with this plot element may vary, but if it is real it may be a DystopianOz that Baum toned down fir children. It can be combined with many other stock fan plots.

** The Wicked Witch of the West returning. She was popularized by the 1939 film, but never reappears in any of the book sequels and is actually a very minor villain in the overall series compared to the Nome King or even Mombi. These are sometimes paired with “Dorothy never returned to Oz” [=AUs=] as a catalyst for her friends to try to get her to come back (see ''Literature/In Search of Dorothy'' for this exact plot, although it is far from the only non-canon work that has used it).

** The Wicked Witch of the West returning. She was popularized by the 1939 film, but never reappears in any of the book sequels and is actually a very minor villain in the overall series compared to the Nome King or even Mombi. These are sometimes paired with “Dorothy never returned to Oz” [=AUs=] as a catalyst for her friends to try to get her to come back.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The ''Oz'' books are more popular overseas than in America.

*** Related to this, these stories will often have Oz facing some kind of crisis, and Dorothy's former friends bring her back to Oz from Kansas because they think she’s the only one who can help them, for whatever reason. While a common plot in Oz adaptations this never happened in any of the books. These will usually disregard the sequels, or at the very least incorporate a few elements from them. (See for example ''Dorothy of Oz'' by Roger S. Baum, among many others; in fact ''Film/ReturnToOz'' managed to use something like this despite being based on the books.)

*** Related to this, these stories will often have Oz facing some kind of crisis, and Dorothy's former friends bring her back to Oz from Kansas because they think she’s the only one who can help them, for whatever reason. While a common plot in Oz adaptations this never happened in any of the books. These will usually disregard the sequels, or at the very least incorporate a few elements from them. (See for example ''Dorothy of Oz'' by Roger S. Baum, among many others.)

* LGBTFanbase: "Friends of Dorothy" originated with the gay male fanbase for Judy Garland, and {{Literature/Wicked}} added another surge, so the original books imported a hefty dose of it. It helps that there's a fair amount of HoYay and LesYay in the main cast, and that Ozma spent her first nine to twelve years or so as the incorrect gender.

** While it’s easy to forget this due to being a main character in the first book and popularized by the MGM film, the Cowardly Lion becomes a very minor, almost forgotten character in the book sequels. Ruth Plumly Thompson gave him ADayInTheLimelight with his own book, but other than that he was never a main character again. These days he is a fan favorite and seen as just as important of a character as Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman by fans, but this is mostly thanks to the MGM film and the comparative obscurity of the book sequels.

* FairForItsDay: The Oz series was very progressive and ahead of its time with regards to feminism, however racism still cropped up on occasion, more often in Ruth Plumly Thompson’s books, but not completely absent in Baum’s.

*** Related to this, these stories will often have Oz facing some kind of crisis, and Dorothy’s former friends bring her back to Oz from Kansas because they think she’s the only one who can help them, for whatever reason. While a common plot in Oz adaptations this never happened in any of the books. These will usually disregard the sequels, or at the very least incorporate a few elements from them. (See for example ''Dorothy of Oz'' by Roger S. Baum, among many others.)
*** Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her [[SpinOffspring daughter or granddaughter]] does return to Oz many decades later, where she will be mistaken for Dorothy (it’s nearly always a female; one notable aversion was in Philip Farmer’s ''A Barnstormer in Oz'', where the main character is Dorothy’s son). They may or may not know they’re related to the ''real'' Dorothy Gale. If they know about the events of the first book they might think it was just a fictional story, and be amazed to learn it really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no sequels; due both to the general public’s unfamiliarity with them, and the fact that in canon, Dorothy moves to Oz permanently in the 6th book, which stops her aging and makes it impossible for her to even have offspring.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: A more modern audience spoiled by high and low fantasy (or even Tolkien's works) might find these books to be rather shallowly-written and the WorldBuilding to be rather clunky or sound like it was flat out made-up to suit the plot. Except, it's sometimes easy to forget that Baum's books were written within 19''00'' and 19''20'' - these predate [[TropeCodifier Codifiers]] and [[TropeMaker Makers]] by as little as either two years or as much as ''decades''. ([[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]], [[Literature/TheHobbit The Hobbit]], The Zimiamvian Trilogy, and The Prydain Chronicles weren't even written yet, and wouldn't be for at least another decade at the earliest).

*** Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her [[SpinOffspring daughter or granddaughter]] does return to Oz many decades later, where she (it’s nearly always a female; one notable aversion was in Philip Farmer’s ''A Barnstormer in Oz'', where the main character is Dorothy’s son) will be mistaken for Dorothy. They may or may not know they’re related to the ''real'' Dorothy Gale. If they know about the events of the first book they might think it was just a fictional story, and be amazed to learn it really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no sequels; due both to the general public’s unfamiliarity with them, and the fact that in canon, Dorothy moves to Oz permanently in the 6th book, which stops her aging and makes it impossible for her to even have offspring.

*** Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her [[SpinOffspring daughter or granddaughter]] does return to Oz many decades later, where she (it’s always a female) will be mistaken for Dorothy. They may or may not know they’re related to the ''real'' Dorothy Gale. If they know about the events of the first book they might think it was just a fictional story, and be amazed to learn it really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no sequels; due both to the general public’s unfamiliarity with them, and the fact that in canon, Dorothy moves to Oz permanently in the 6th book, which stops her aging and makes it impossible for her to even have offspring.

* ValuesDissonance: Baum's books are actually pretty good about avoiding this (the CannibalTribe in ''Literature/TheRoadToOz'' notwithstanding), but Ruth Plumly Thompson...not so much. Her first book, ''The Royal Book of Oz'', contains a kingdom of offensive Asian stereotypes; ''Ojo in Oz'' involves the title character being kidnapped by gypsies, and perhaps worst of all ''The Silver Princess in Oz'' has the main characters put down a slave rebellion, turning several of the slaves to stone with Princess Planetty's magical powers, which the slave owner, DesignatedHero the Red Jinn, elects to display in his throne room in order to discourage any future rebellions. This coupled with some very uncomfortable racist illustrations of the slaves by John R. Neill, make it a book not a lot of Oz fans like to talk about.

* The Wizard returning to Oz and having his previous misdeeds revealed in the second book retconned was entirely because of his status as an Ensemble Darkhorse when the books were being written.

*** Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her [[SpinOffspring daughter or granddaughter]] does return to Oz many decades later, where she (it’s always a female) will be mistaken for Dorothy. They may or may not know they’re related to the ''real'' Dorothy Gale. If they know about the events of the first book they might think it was just a fictional story, and be amazed to learn it really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no sequels.

*** Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her daughter or granddaughter does return to Oz many decades later, where she (it’s always a female) will be mistaken for Dorothy. They may or may not know they’re related to the ''real'' Dorothy Gale. If they know about the events of the first book they might think it was just a fictional story, and be amazed to learn it really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no sequels.