It may seem strange that Ozma is usually called a princess and rarely a queen; until you remember that the Fairy Queen Lurline is the queen of the fairies, and Ozma, being her descendant, is a fairy princess. So her title as princess relates to her status among the fairies, not to her position in Oz. She is princess of the fairies and queen of Oz. And it could be that being a Fairy Princess is actually a higher rank than just being Queen of Oz.
With what we learn later about the Scarecrow's origin story, little wonder he's not keen to rule in the Wizard's place. Given that the last time he was on a throne ended with his assassination by a crooked courtier. He may not remember it consciously, but he might still subconsciously remember enough of being an Emperor to know a throne has drawbacks.
In The Tin Woodman of Oz, the Tin Woodman meets his former head in a cupboard. Was that the real Nick Chopper, who was systematically dismembered by the Wicked Witch of the East? And then placed in a cupboard for the next couple of decades? This would make the Tin Woodman a different person from Nick Chopper, but with Chopper's memories.
This is discussed in the book. The Tin Woodman sees himself as Nick Chopper, and considers himself and the head to be the same being, and the head doesn't. The head thinks of Nick Chopper as something it used to be a part of, but no longer is. So the Tin Man is canonically the contiguous being.
The worries for Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, inherent in Dorothy's disappearance in apparently deadly circumstances, is barely mentioned. In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, they explicitly think Dorothy is dead and go into mourning after the ground swallows her up during an earthquake, and in the previous book, Ozma of Oz, Uncle Henry is left to think she drowned after she falls overboard in storm at sea. They presumably must have also thought she was dead after the cyclone carried her away in the first book.
In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead worries all the time about his head spoiling, presumably leading to his death. In a later book, we find that Jack Pumpkinhead has become a pumpkin farmer (living in a pumpkin house, of course). When his head begins to spoil, he carves himself out a new fresh pumpkin for his head. Query: does he commit suicide every time he does that, while creating a new person?
The Fountain of Oblivion, and what it entails.
In The Tin Woodman of Oz, it's mentioned that the Fairy Queen Lurline cast a spell on Oz to ensure that no one in it would ever die or age—babies and children don't grow up, mature adults don't become elderly, the elderly don't die of natural causes. They're effectively all in a state of biological stasis. Every person who does perish somehow is never going to be replaced, because no children can reach maturity; it's possible that no one can even get pregnant, for that matter. Also, if you had a baby before Lurline blew through the neighborhood, hope you enjoy changing diapers forever...
Yes, everyone in 'Oz' has Immortality, and many have Complete Immortality. They are quick to remind themselves that being cut up into pieces and those pieces individually buried is more or less permanent. So don't get cocky.
At the end of Ojo in Oz, Ozma sends the Gypsies who have inexplicably found themselves in Oz back to Europe. The book was published in 1933, a few short years before the Romani would be one of the main ethnic groups victimized in the Holocaust. Nice one, Ozma.
Isn't the Fountain of Oblivion a villainous tool, a huge evil?
If Ruggedo keeps getting his memory back afterwards, why keep using it?
Does the Pond of Truth require that someone always tell the truth, or merely make it impossible to lie? In requiring the truth, does it require the genuine truth? Or are blatant falsehoods allowed as long as every statement is literally true?note Omitting critical information makes an account false, even if every statement is true. What happens when someone is persistently interrupted when telling the truth requires explanation?note "When you're explaining, you're losing." What happens when the truth sounds like gobbledygook?note "Sorry, I'm afraid there aren't any layman's terms." We've not even touched the cases where one's beliefs are false.
Instead of being so fixated on getting home from Oz, why doesn't Dorothy just focus on trying to get her aunt and uncle teleported there? Oz is way better than the real world; no aging, no death, everything's free, etc. She eventually does this by book 6, but she could have done it in the first book (and really should have considered it after her second trip). This goes for every Oz sequel afterwards that involves a kid from the real world trying to get home from Oz.
She just thought it was too big of a request to grant and didn't want to take her Aunt and Uncle from the world and home they knew. It was only after the farm had been foreclosed on, leaving her Aunt and Uncle with nowhere else to go, that Dorothy asked.
