They are not in Kansas anymore...note
We run through The Wizard of Oz. We stay with the original movie as long as we ever have, before going off the rails farther than we ever had.
Episodes 12-15 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1939 musical.
When Dorothy Gale, a young farmgirl from Kansas, ended up in the magical land of Oz, all she wanted was to see the Wizard and return home to her own world. Instead, she and her new friends get caught up in the wars and political power plays between its various rulers. To survive this dark fairytale, our heroes must fight many witches, master the arts of magic and dragon riding, as well as solve the mysteries behind the creation of Oz and the disappearance of its rightful ruler, Ozma.
During its initial release, this was the longest campaign in the show, clocking in at a whopping four episodes. However, it has since been surpassed, with Memento and Halloween 3 now sharing the title. It's also notable for incorporating aspects from the books which were Adapted Out in the original 1939 movie.
It has a rather Ambiguous Ending, where the players and the Dungeon Master are a bit at odds as to what actually happened. This may or may not be resolved in a hypothetical sequel campaign, but - again - the cast haven't all been enthusiastic about returning to the Land of Oz.
It was voted the #1 campaign of the show in a poll on the series' official Reddit page.
On a poll conducted by Film Reroll's official twitter, it was voted one of the top two campaigns that fans wanted to see a sequel to.
Starring Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer as Dorothy Gale, Jon Miller as the Tin Woodsman, Kara Straitnote as the Scarecrow, Andy Hoover as the Cowardly Lion, and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.
Followed by Halloween.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass:
- In this version of the story, Dorothy learns to use the ruby slippers to their full potential, giving her the powers of Flight and Telepathy, which in turn helps her control dragons.
- The Tin Woodsman gains Shapeshifting abilities after stealing a magic necklace from the witch Tattypoo.
- The Wizard has an army large enough to conquer all of Oz. In the original books, his army initially consisted of a single man who wasn't even that competent.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Glinda the Good Witch of the South and Tattypoo the Good Witch of the North are much more sinister figures than in the books (and — in Glinda's case — the movie), with it being strongly implied or outright stated that the "Good" thing is self-proclaimed. This version of Tattypoo is an outright Wicked Witch in the mold of Baba Yaga, and possibly the most devious character the players encounter.
- The Wizard was hardly a saint to begin with, but here he is a war-mongering imperialist who wants to Take Over the World. It helps that we see the effects his war has on Oz, with cities being overrun by his soldiers and refugees trying to flee.
- By extension, this also happens to Professor Marvel. The reason why Dorothy doesn't simply join him in his shelter during the storm is because he has a restraining order forbidding him from going near young girls. At the very end of the campaign, he shows up to tell Dorothy's family that he "just bought half the county," mirroring his Oz counterpart's desire to conquer Oz.
- We also find out that Dorothy — being a turn of the century farmgirl living in isolation — has a rather low opinion of the Chinese. Though this has no real effect on the plot, since she never meets any Chinese characters.
- And You Were There: They follow the movie in this regard, but they also add an Oz counterpart for Dorothy herself: The Great Sleeping Dragon. It apparently created the land of Oz, and if it ever awakens, it will destroy it to make room for a new one. Dorothy feels a strange connection to it, and when she tries to possess it and wake it up, she starts to regain consciousness in the real world. This seems to represent Dorothy herself, who will cause a Dream Apocalypse by waking up, but eventually fall asleep again to dream more dreams.
- Or — if you want to be even more meta — perhaps it represents the players who are ending this campaign — which lasted longer than any of their previous ones — so they can move on to others.
- Ascended Extra: Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North, was Adapted Out in the movie and had her scenes given to Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. In this campaign, Tattypoo has an even larger role than Glinda does.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: As a testament to how much Darker and Edgier this campaign became compared to the film, Andy's Cowardly Lion winds up remarking the following:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretty much every magic user our heroes come across (except the Witch of the West — who doesn't bother to hide her true nature — and the Witch of the East — who gets crushed by Dorothy's house before she gets the chance to say or do anything.) Tattypoo stands out, however. At first she seems to be a nice old woman who teaches Dorothy how to perform magic, but then it's revealed that she always takes a small part of her guests' bodies before they leave — even vital organs like hearts and brains — which she uses to make potions and/or to feed her cat.
- Clingy Costume: The Ruby Slippers. You can't remove them without killing their wearer, at which point they will attach themselves to you...
- Didn't Think This Through: One of the major justifications Jon has for attacking Glinda was that she seemed to not have much, if any, damage resistance. What he didn't account for, however, is that she would have a ton of HP.
- Dressing as the Enemy: At various moments, the Tin Woodsman uses his newfound Shapeshifting abilities to disguise himself as both Elphaba and Tattypoo. (The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body is thankfully not in effect, despite the players' fears.)
- Early-Bird Cameo: Princess Ozma and the evil witch Mombi both appear (the latter being mauled to death by the Cowardly Lion) despite only debuting in the sequels to both the book and the movie.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: At one point, there are three groups running around, all with different goals. Dorothy is exploring the land of the dragons, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion are trying to stop the war in Oz, and the Tin Woodsman is just trying to get away from the chaos. The latter two plots eventually converge, but Dorothy never meets her Oz-friends again.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: An accident with the Wicked Witch of the West's seeing stone causes The Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow to switch bodies. By the end of the campaign, they still haven't managed to switch back.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you have yet to listen to their Raiders of the Lost Ark campaign and want to remain unspoiled about it, don't listen to their post-game discussion at the end of the last episode.
- Left Hanging: We never find out how the situation in Oz resolves itself, since Dorothy returns home before it can happen.
- Long List: At one point during Part 3, Dorothy and the Scarecrow get separated from the others. As a result, the Cowardly Lion starts listing off every possible bad thing that could've happened to them. Although there was a minor time skip in the scene, he manages to get into the triple digits.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Dungeon Master Paulo basically says that the land of Oz is All Just a Dream, and if Dorothy wakes up, a Dream Apocalypse will occur. Understandably, the rest of the team — who are playing as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion — are unhappy about their characters just dying and insist that while Oz is a Dream Land, it's still real, and their characters still exist there. Paulo does add a moment of Or Was It a Dream? at the end, when Dorothy for a moment thinks that she saw Toto's eyes glow like fire, just like those of the dragon she'd befriended and invited to come home with her.
- There is also a moment earlier when Dorothy rides her dragon home to the farm, scaring the crap out of her entire family — especially since her unconscious body is still lying on the bed inside the house. It's not clear if this actually happens or if it's just part of Dorothy's dream, since it's never mentioned again.
- Monochrome to Color: Played With. Kansas actually is in sepia, meaning that Dorothy has never seen colour before she gets to Oz. Later, when she returns home riding a dragon, they are still in technicolour, even though the world around them is monochromatic.
- Musical World Hypotheses: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead is Diegetic, as the munchkins are said to have been rehearsing the number for a long time. (It is pointed out that they never mention just how the witch died.) Most of the other songs are of the Alternate Universe type (Oz is a Magical Land after all) with the twist that the players are forced to actually make them up on the spot. This goes about as well as you would expect.
- Narrative Shapeshifting: The Tin Woodsman does this by accident when telling his friends what happened to him since the last time they met. This is due to him still wearing Tattypoo's necklace, which transforms its wearer into whichever person's name they say out loud.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jon decides to have the Tin Woodsman attack Glinda with his ax because of the fact "she attacked [him] in the goddamn face". He causes 15 points of injury... and only manages to piss her off.Kara: (to Jon) You dumb, fucking idiot. I might not have tackled you, but I have placed myself on the right side of history.
- Not so Dire: Among the Cowardly Lion's list of possible explanations for why Dorothy and the Scarecrow hadn't come back yet in Part 3 is that they're just gone for a while, with "the real frightfulness" being the possibility that they just don't care about their friends.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Apparently, Agnes is not Tattypoo's dragon's real name, since the Tin Woodsman is unable to transform into her using his necklace. (Out of universe, this was probably Paulo's way of keeping it from becoming a Story-Breaker Power.)
- Red Herring: After hearing that Tattypoo didn't kill Mombi, but rather subdued her, the players come to the conclusion that she was trapped as Tattypoo's two-tailed, talking house cat Lydia. They turn out to be wrong, as Mombi was actually transformed into an elderly woman.
- Red Herring Twist:
- The campaign deals with the power struggles between the Wizard and the Witches, who are said to have taken power after the mysterious disappearance of the blonde child princess Ozma. Later, the heroes meet Tip, a young blonde teenage boy who is said to be more important than either of them. Even if you haven't read the Oz books, it's not that hard to figure out that this "boy" is actually Ozma, having been Raised as the Opposite Gender. Then, you might expect the story to end with this being revealed and Tip/Ozma ending the conflict by taking back his/her place as the rightful ruler of Oz. However, this doesn't happen, and Tip's true identity never actually becomes a plot point. (Though all of this could still conceivably happen after the RPG, assuming that Oz was Real After All.)
- Lydia's behavior just screams Faux Affably Evil, and it seems obvious that she will betray our heroes at some point. But this never happens, and Lydia remains as the party's Token Evil Teammate for the rest of their campaign.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The second Jon managed to piss off Glinda by hitting her in the chest with the Tin Woodsman's ax, Kara decides that the Scarecrow is going to run away into Wilky Country.
- Senseless Sacrifice: At the end, Dorothy sacrifices her dream and wakes up, hoping that a Dream Apocalypse will be less painful than a fiery one. However, if Oz was actually a real Dream Land — as the other players insist — then Dorothy's sacrifice may not have had any positive effect for anyone but her and her closest friends and family.
- Shout-Out:
- While Paulo states repeatedly that he does not consider Wicked to be canon for the campaign, he still uses "Elphaba" as the name for the Wicked Witch of the West.
- Elphaba's Crystal Ball works just like a palantír, and has basically the same origin too. Eventually, the players just start calling it that. At one point, they accidentally call it a "Palpatine."
- Paulo also compares "Ellen's" house to a a hobbit hole.
- When Dorothy starts controlling dragons, the players starts to call her "Daenerys" and "Mother of Dragons."
- All of the Gillikins sound just like Jimmy Stewart. The players also joke about the fact that their name sounds very much like "Gilligan."
- Tattypoo's training of Dorothy is compared to a Rocky style Training Montage. (It helps that her house was already established to have a long flight of stairs.)
- When Dorothy returns to the Deliberately Monochrome Kansas while she herself remains in technicolour, references to Pleasantville are made.
- Take That!: Several tongue-in-cheek ones are given to Kansas. Notably, the players seem to agree with Elphaba when she calls it a "demon realm."
- Teens Are Monsters: Averted. Tip and Dorothy (who is closer in age to Judy Garland in the movie than her book counterpart) are mostly benevolent, while adult magic users are pretty much Always Chaotic Evil. (The rest of Dorothy's gang don't really count, since they never quite learn to use magic properly.)
- There's No Place Like Home: Played Straight with Dorothy of course, but Averted by the Scarecrow, who feels that he has seen too much to go back to his simple farm life.
