#tollydiggle

[yellowbrickramble]

I thought it'd be fun to make each of Jinjur's soldiers a character from Oz canon!

It'll be a while before you see all of their names used in the comic, so I'm including a helpful identification guide to the Army of Revolt below the cut so that you may get to know them right away:

A) Miss. Cuttenclip A Quadlish delinquent who likes arts & crafts. From Emerald City of Oz.

B) Captain Elfie Bah A Winkielander delinquent who hates both witches and the daughters of witches. Named after Elphaba from Wicked, but is clearly a legally distinct character. Please don't sue me.

C) Salye Soforth A Winkielander delinquent who is the younger sister of Queen Ann Soforth in Tik-Tok of Oz.

D) Dyna Nikidik A Gillikinese delinquent who is related to the Crooked Sorcerer. From Road to Oz, but her last name comes from Marvelous Land of Oz.

E) Tollydiggle A Gillikinese delinquent from whom you cannot escape. Only has one name, like Cher. From Patchwork Girl of Oz.

F) Blinkie <3 A sweet and kind foreign exchange student who fell in with the wrong crowd by accident! She's Juni Jump's best friend! Don't bother looking up who "Blinkie" is in Oz canon. I'm sure you'll only find lies.

G) Jessiva Pipt A Munchkin delinquent who is the daughter of Dr. Pipt, aka the Crooked Sorcerer. Dyna is her cousin. From the 1914 film adaptation of Patchwork Girl of Oz.

H) Juniberry "Juni" Jump A Quadlish delinquent who is in love with Jinjur and is Blinkie's best friend. Named in homage to John R. Neill's Jenny Jump, but is actually a composite character of the rabbit who lives near Nimmie Amee in Tin Woodman of Oz and the bunnies of Bunnybury in Emerald City of Oz.

If you read all this, I'd appreciate it if you supported me on Patreon. (link in bio)

[the-blue-fairie]

About the characters ask

Princess Ozma

2, 4, and 14

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

I've mentioned this before, but the prison in Patchwork Girl of Oz had a profound influence on me when I was a little girl. You take a girl who only knew of the rhetoric of punishment towards dehumanized prisoners from conservative family members on holidays and you show her lines like these from Tollydiggle: "We consider a prisoner unfortunate. He is unfortunate in two ways—because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong"? That, intermixed with my own mixed feelings about that punishment rhetoric (because, even as a child, I had misgivings, even if I could not articulate them because I was small and did not meditate on the prison system lmao) really humanized the people those conservative relatives in my family deemed "the criminal other."

That emphasis on compassion and rehabilitation over punishment - which stems directly from Ozma's reign - that has never left me. So I think that is my favorite thing about her in canon - that perspective on the world which she imbues upon Oz.

Of course, as @poppies-from-oz has talked about before, it's complicated by the draconian nature of some of those Laws that she establishes, but that's just another thing I love about Ozma. She's complicated. She's NOT just a boring plaster saint the way some critics treat her and she's NOT a grimdark dictator the way some edgy reinterpretations of Oz treat her. She's complicated - because of the contradictions in the text, of course - but always ultimately kind, compassionate, understanding.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

A MOVIE. ABSOLUTELY a movie - and not just any movie, a lavish, big-budget movie with no expenses spared. We've been starving for years with creaky plays, shoddily low-budget "movies" like the Barry Mahon... thing... and I want her to be center-stage in a big budget movie. I realize she was in Return to Oz, but I want a movie where she is a central character and where she and Dorothy are able to interact throughout. I love Return to Oz with all my heart, but it still saddens me that Ozma had to be written out of the journey to and confrontation with the Nome King. I want Ozma's and Dorothy's friendship to be known on a wider scale than it is now.

Seriously, they made a movie about the Wizard with fucking James Franco but no one knows who Ozma is?

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

I have a soft spot for a flapper aesthetic for both Ozma and Dorothy.

[unwelcome-ozian]

What characters may be used as persecutors in Wizard of Oz programming?

Here are a few:

The Guardian of the Gates Winged Monkeys (aka Flying Monkeys) The Rak Ugu Nome King Queen Coo-ee-oh Tollydiggle Hungry Tiger

Oz

[quotes-from-oz]

We consider a prisoner unfortunate. He is unfortunate in two ways—because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong. Ozma thinks that one who has committed a fault did so because he was not strong and brave; therefore she puts him in prison to make him strong and brave. When that is accomplished he is no longer a prisoner, but a good and loyal citizen and everyone is glad that he is now strong enough to resist doing wrong. You see, it is kindness that makes one strong and brave; and so we are kind to our prisoners.

Tollydiggle in The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum

[quotes-from-oz]

Ojo thought this over very carefully. "I had an idea," said he, "that prisoners were always treated harshly, to punish them." "That would be dreadful!" cried Tollydiggle.

Ojo and Tollydiggle in The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum