History YMMV / LandOfOz

* FranchiseZombie: Baum had only meant to write one or two ''Oz'' sequels (if any) and then move on to other projects[[note]]He even wrote a definitive ending with the sixth book[[/note]], but the popularity of the books, coupled with his own financial issues and the fact that all of his non-Oz books (apart from ''Father Goose'', which he wrote before the first Oz novel and which was his first success) were flops, forced him to keep writing Oz books for the rest of his life, long after he had lost interest in them. And after he died, publisher Reily & Lee weren't about to let that stop the series, and was continued by different writers until the 1960's. From there, once the books began to fall into the public domain, anyone could write their own Oz book (and just like with any fan fiction, the results [[SturgeonsLaw have varied widely]]).

* FanNickname: Publisher Reilly and Lee came up with “The Famous Forty” to describe the 40 official books published by their company. However there are further books that could be considered as canon, including Baum’s Trot and Cap’n Bill series and other fantasies he wrote (which crossover with Oz), a book of short Oz stories also by Baum, and Oz books by later authors in the series that did not get published by Reilly and Lee for various reasons, some of which would eventually be published by Books of Wonder (who rereleased the Oz books in the 1980s and '90s) and the International Wizard of Oz Club. With the addition of these arguably canon works, Oz publisher Joe Bongiorno coined two terms for this complete Oz series on his website, "The Soverign Sixty" or "The Supreme Seventy-Five".

* DorkAge: While Ruth Plumly Thompson has her defenders, a lot of Baum purists would consider her tenure in the series this. Almost every fan would consider Neill’s tenure as even worse though (a much better artist than a writer by most accounts, although to be fair Reilly & Lee’s editors did not help matters). The authors after Neill tried to emulate Baum’s style more.

* MarySuetopia: Creator/LFrankBaum envisioned Oz to be this. Even with Wicked Witches around, Dorothy never had to pay for anything. It gets more explicit in his later books when Ozma assumes the throne and everyone in Oz is granted functional {{Immortality}}. For the record, the Oz books don't have any bent toward then-contemporary politics or try to insist on proper way in which to run a county (Ozma's reign could be best described as a benevolent dictatorship), but exist primarily as whimsical escapism.

** 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.

** Dorothy Gale was a real life person, 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 (see ''Literature/{{Was}}'' for example, where it is not), but if it is real it may be a DystopianOz that Baum toned down for children. This may be rooted in Baum’s use of DirectLineToTheAuthor, where he claimed to be Oz’s “Royal Historian”. It can be combined with many other stock fan plots.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: One unfortunate thing about the Oz series is that rather than use and further develop existing characters, newly introduced characters in each book will often be cast aside in the next installment and relegated to mere cameos if they're lucky to make way for even more new characters, who themselves will be cast aside in future installments, with few exceptions. This is the cause for the series having many characters, with Thompson really being not much worse than Baum about doing this (although she did attempt to rescue Ojo, the Hungry Tiger and Jack Pumpkinhead from obscurity by giving them [[ADayInTheLimelight their own books]]).

*** In fact, quite a few of the things Thompson's ''Oz'' books are often criticized for; LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, filler WackyWaysideTribe chapters, excessive pun-based humor and the like, are all things present in Baum's ''Oz'' books to varying degrees, especially the earlier ones. To what degree she is either being judged more harshly than Baum over many of the same things just because she replaced Baum, or she actually does over-accentuate the weaknesses already inherent in the series, may vary from book to book, and the reader's opinion.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: One unfortunate thing about the Oz series is that rather than use and further develop existing characters, newly introduced characters in each book will often be cast aside in the next installment and relegated to mere cameos if they're lucky to make way for even more new characters, who themselves will be cast aside in future installments, with few exceptions. This is the cause for the series having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, with Thompson really being not much worse than Baum about doing this (although she did attempt to rescue Ojo, the Hungry Tiger and Jack Pumpkinhead from obscurity by giving them [[ADayInTheLimelight their own books]]).

** Ozma's personality is completely different from Tips. To explain this, a common interpretation is that she's [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask hiding her personality]] because that's what others expect from her. Alternatives are that either ''Tip'''s personality was [[BeneathTheMask the fake persona]] because she felt the need to act like a boy "should" be or that the spell Mombi put on Ozma changed her personality. Some adaptations even make Tip a separate person, who may have ceased to exist when the spell was broken.

** Dorothy Gale was a real life person, 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 (see ''Literature/{{Was}}'' for example), but if it is real it may be a DystopianOz that Baum toned down for children. This may be rooted in Baum’s use of DirectLineToTheAuthor, where he claimed to be Oz’s “Royal Historian”. It can be combined with many other stock fan plots.

*** Related to this, these stories will often have Oz facing some kind of crisis, and Dorothy's 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, ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryBackToOz'', among many others; in fact ''Film/ReturnToOz'' managed to use something like this despite being based on the books.)

** [[ServileSnarker Jellia Jamb]] from the second book, who provides a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} by [[{{Troll}} mistranslating]] Jack and the Scarecrow's dialogue since they're both too dimwitted to figure out they're speaking the same language, milking the situation for all its worth.

* BrieferThanTheyThink: Baum’s run only lasted 14 books, but considering how influential his writing is along with the rarity of seeing a LongRunner book series switch authors midway, the uninformed may assume that he wrote the ''entirety'' of the Famous 40, rather then a small fraction of it.

** Nowadays Jack Pumpkinhead has been gaining quite a bit of popularity, thanks to appearing in the CultClassic ''Film/ReturnToOz''. This was the case when the books were first being written too; Baum strongly hinted in the second book that Jack died when his pumpkin finally spoiled, but because the fans loved him this was retconned to him simply replacing his heads when they spoil.

* LGBTFanbase: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_of_Dorothy "Friend 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. The plot of many of the books focus on someone strange or unusual finding acceptance in Oz, which may have attracted many LGBT youth to the series. One of several theories on the origin of the Pride Flag cites "Over the Rainbow" as inspiration. Add Gregory Maguire's ''Literature/TheWickedYears'' novels, which have explicit same-sex and polyamorous relationships as well as Elphaba herself being possibly intersex.

** [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Scraps]], The Patchwork Girl (who's insane even by the series' standards) was very popular when she debuted, but nowadays Jack Pumpkinhead has been gaining quite a bit of popularity.

** Glinda is often interpreted as less benevolent (or at minimum, more creepy) than she initially seems. Though there is a Good Witch of the North, Glinda takes all the spotlight and is treated as the second ruler of Oz after Ozma. Glinda herself is an IncorruptiblePurePureness but she has shades of a TricksterMentor. Some have even called into question whether or not she knew about Dorothy’s arrival in Oz or even had a hand in causing it, and refrained from telling Dorothy how the silver slippers worked sooner in order for her to first assassinate Glinda’s political rivals; but this would depend on whether or not she had the Book of Records yet, which was never mentioned until book 6. This, combined with her [[TheWatcher ability to see anything in Oz]], makes her an [[AmbiguousInnocence Ambiguously Innocent]] figure. It doesn't help that [[TheFairFolk fairies are known for being ambiguous]].

** 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 (see ''Literature/{{Was}}'' for example), 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.

** Ozma and Dorothy aging into adults. Often includes shipping.

** Dorothy and Ozma's relationship is ambiguous to modern readers. They're very close and [[PlatonicKissing kiss]] often. What was intended as a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship can be easily reinterpreted as PuppyLove.

** Dorothy/Ozma is by far the most supported ship. They get along well, have a lot of [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship sweet interactions]], and outside of the classic characters from the first book, Dorothy's known her the longest. Some authors have tried to avert the romantic implications by giving them male love interests, but it never stuck.

*** 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, ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryBackToOz'', among many others; in fact ''Film/ReturnToOz'' managed to use something like this despite being based on the books.)

* FanPreferredCouple: Dorothy/Ozma is by far the most supported ship. They get along well, have a lot of [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship sweet interactions]], and outside of the classic characters from the first book, Dorothy's known her the longest. Some authors have tried to avert the romantic implications by giving them male love interests, but it never stuck.

* ItWasHisSled: The Wizard of Oz is a man behind a curtain.

* TheWoobie:
** Ojo the Unlucky. He gets better, finally becoming "Ojo the Lucky".

* AcceptableTargets: Several.

* AccidentalInnuendo: ''Handy Mandy in Oz'' has quite a few, such as when she accidentally "jerks off" Nox the Ox's horn.
** ''Ojo in Oz'' introduces us to Dicksyland, populated by the “queer” Dicks. Some Dicks are described as short and fat, others thin and handsome. Their leader, the Dicktator of Dicksyland, has a “Right Hand Man”. It goes on; the fact that “dick” and “queer” already had their current slang meaning in the 1930s makes one wonder if Thompson knew.

* ArchivePanic: Fans who only know about the famous movie and might only be vaguely aware that it was a book first will often drop their jaws when told the original series consists of 40 books.

*** 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.