so when i was in middle school i read all 14 or so wizard of oz books in a row and here's a list of all the wild stuff i vaguely remember from them:
the tin woodsman actually used to be a human man named nick chopper, who was in love with a woman who worked as a servant for a local witch (not the witch of the west or east, there are so many other witches). The witch was afraid that nick and the woman would get married and she wouldn't have her free labor anymore, so she cursed his axe. The next time he went out to cut wood, the axe slipped and cut off his leg. He made the best of the situation and had the local tinsmith make him a prosthetic leg. Then the axe slipped again and cut off his other leg, his arms, etc until he was all tin.
oz is actually only one weird country on a continent of weird countries, including a coastal city called Ev and this underground gnome kingdom. oz is separated from these countries by a giant desert that will literally burn you to death if you even touch the sand
one of these weird countries was ruled by the woman who kept like 50 severed heads in her closet and switched out her head with whichever one was more beautiful at the moment
so you know how the wizard was just Some Guy who showed up on a hot air balloon and ruled oz because his initials happened to be o.z.? well. it turns out that before that there was a royal family with all oz- names. when the wizard arrived there was no ruler, except for the infant princess ozma. to make sure she wouldn't grow up and usurp is rule, the wizard sold her to a witch
the witch had to hide ozma so she,, magically turned her into a boy and raised her as her servant. and by the end of the second book glinda turns her back into a girl. is this an allegory for being trans? probably not
despite the whole kidnapping thing, ozma and the wizard are actually pretty good friends and he does shady shit like lockpicking to help dorothy and friends on various adventures
also the wizard's full initials were o.z.p.i.n.h.e.a.d. so thats funny
one reoccurring character was this girl named Polychrome, daughter of the rainbow. i loved her and looking back how did i not know i was a wlw when i literally had a crush on the embodiment of a rainbow
my other favorite was this patchwork girl who was originally sewn together to be a magician's wife's assistant and brought to life with magic powders like "sweetness" and "obedience" but she was given to much confidence powder and became a loudmouth nuisance who caused problems on purpose
there's a mechanical man named tik tok