Ok but how many people in the OZ actually caught on that the Tin Man is Boq? Does he even tell anyone outside his friends? And if he did did Ozians actually listen or are there a bunch of wild rumours circulating about him?
Imagine Munchkins having murder ballads and legends and all kinds of folklore about the Wicked Witch of the East and her lover/captive and meanwhile Boq is right there and everyone's "Oh yeah that's ol' Nick Chopper* his axe got cursed by the Wicked Witch because he wanted to marry her maid so sad". And Boq is like.Wtf none of that happened.Where did that story even come from.
Anyway, as a lover of folk songs I just wanted to say that Nessarose and Boq are such great murder ballad material.
400 years,a few Munchkin immigrations, and a lot of dropped/changed details later the story becomes something like this:
(just as an example)
Maybe with a little side of Allison Gross.
(* Nick being a misremembered version of "Biq" which in turn is a misremembered version of "Boq")