Webcomic / Yellow Brick Ramble

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Yellow Brick Ramble is a webcomic by Daisy McGuire of PepsiaPhobia fame, as a reimagining of The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. It follows the adventures of Ozma Tryfle (formerly Tippetarius "Tip" Tryfle), a young teenager who runs away from home after her guardian, Mombi, threatens to cut her hair.

As described in the about page, Daisy was inspired by the Trans Audience Interpretation of Ozma in the original book, and wrote the webcomic with her gender dysphoria in mind.

Yellow Brick Ramble provides examples of:

• Abled in the Adaptation:
  • In the original book, Jack often rode on the Sawhorse so he didn't have to walk long distances and wear out his flimsy joints. Here, he is constructed of sturdier materials and has no problems walking.
  • In the original book, Jack also had a fixed, grinning facial expression. Here, he has no trouble expressing an array of emotions.
  • Logan the sawhorse has a flexible neck that the original incarnation lacked.
• Abusive Parents: Because of how the comic diverges from the source material, it's not yet known for sure how or even if Ozma is related to her parental figures. However, she still considers them her parents so they qualify for this trope.
  • Ozma believes that the Wizard of Oz is her dad (see Adaptation Relationship Overhaul below). And he was such an absent and neglectful father that Ozma only met him three times and he could not even remember her name or age. Ozma still bears a grudge against him for this even though, as she put it, "he's gone now."
  • Ozma's mom, Mombi, has emotionally abused her for being transgender, dismissing her desire to be a girl and trying to force her to accept her assigned gender. She's gone as far as actually burning Ozma's clothes and "girl toys", trained Ozma to suppress and dismiss her own feelings (see Men Don't Cry below), and also tried to force Ozma to have a haircut to look more boyish. That last was the final straw that convinced Ozma to run away.
• Adaptational Context Change:
  • The entire premise of the webcomic is changing an aspect of The Marvelous Land of Oz, namely that Tip's transformation back into Ozma was Glinda's idea. Here, it's made clear from the very first chapter that Ozma wants to be a girl and her gender transition is both voluntary and more naturally gradual.
  • In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma tries to use Jack Pumpkinhead to scare Mombi, who then decides to turn Ozma into a marble statue in the morning, so she runs away to avoid this fate. In Yellow Brick Ramble, Ozma instead creates Jack as a potential farmhand, hoping that Mombi would use her powder of life on him so Ozma could become an apprentice witch instead of working the farm, and runs away because Mombi decides to cut her long hair in the morning. Also, instead of Mombi using the powder of life on Jack to test it out, Ozma uses the stolen powder on Jack so she'd have a traveling companion when running away.
  • Wogglebugs, who are only mentioned in the original Oz novels when we meet one particular Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated specimen, have been turned into one of Oz's main food animals in Yellow Brick Ramble. For example, Mombi made a wogglebug chowder in the first chapter, while Jinjur had a picnic basket full of wogglebug sandwiches in the fifth chapter.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • The dragons from Chapter 3 and the Loons from Chapter 4 are adapted from The Tin Woodman of Oz, which is the twelfth novel in the series.
  • When Ozma is separated from Jack and Logan, the story follows her first instead of the others, so as a result General Jinjur appears a chapter before the Scarecrow does. Quite a few members of Jinjur's Army of Revolt are also based on characters who appear in later books.
  • Jellia Jamb appears at the Emerald City gates and guides Jack and Logan through the city, a slightly earlier appearance than in the books, where she's introduced in the throne room.
  • Juni Jump is from Bunnybury, which in the books wasn't introduced until The Emerald City of Oz.
  • Niccolo's Tin Palace was first introduced in The Road to Oz, but here it's already been built. The Rant reasons that he had plenty of time to build it in the four years since Dorothy left, especially since Daisy thought his reasons for moving out of the Wicked Witch of the West's castle (it was "too damp") didn't make sense, and thus introduced it as having been remodeled from the Wicked Witch's castle instead of being built from the ground up.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • In the original book, it’s not stated why exactly Mombi decided to go along with the wizard’s plan other than For the Evulz. Here, it’s explained in The Rant of this page that Mombi agreed because she had a crush on the humbug himself and Love Makes You Stupid.
  • The Cowardly Lion's absence from the events of the book is explained here as him having just gotten married and away on his honeymoon.
• Adaptational Gender Identity:
  • The About page states that Ozma is meant to be depicted as a teenager with gender dysphoria. From the start, she openly fantasizes about becoming a girl and wonders if she was born as a boy with a girl's brain, and she starts identifying as a girl for real in Chapter 6.
  • Logan, being a genderless sawhorse, has been experimenting to determine if any particular gender identity actually fits. In chapter 2, Logan decided to be a boy "on a trial basis" to see if he liked it. Later, in chapter 10, he visited an equine clothes shop and tried on feminine clothes, and later admitted to Dashemoff that he isn't exactly one or the other and is still figuring it out. Then, at the end of Chapter 11, Logan decided to use both masculine and feminine pronouns. This is in stark contrast to the original novel, where the Sawhorse never even brought up its gender identity let alone experimented with it.
  • Dashemoff Daily was unambiguously a boy in The Wizard of Oz (1902) stageplay, but here his gender is stated to be a secret.
• Adaptational Hair Style Change: In the book, Toto is described as a "little black dog with long silky hair." In his brief appearance in the comic, his fur is illustrated as very short.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Omby Amby is notably more snappish and confrontational here than in the original novel, though he still manages to be even less efficient than his book counterpart.
  • In Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard was retconned to not have orchestrated Mombi's kidnapping of Ozma to make him a more sympathetic figure. McGuire has stated that her version of the Wizard follows the original interpretation from The Marvelous Land Of Oz that he was a shifty schemer and power grabber. In his onscreen appearance in Mombi's flashback, he espouses on the merits of deceit and hires Mombi as his assistant specifically because she's the only one who lied on her application.
• Adaptational Job Change: Bal Loon was referred to as the King of Loonville in The Tin Woodman of Oz, but here he's the mayor instead, although he wears an outfit based on royalty.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Played With for Mombi. In the original story, she decides to feed Ozma a soup that would turn him into a marble statue after creating Jack Pumpkinhead. In this retelling, Mombi simply wants to give Ozma a haircut for questioning her assigned gender, but Ozma considers the forced haircut to be even worse than being turned to stone.
  • The Loons in general are much more amicable towards Ozma, Jack and Logan than they were towards Woot, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman in The Tin Woodman of Oz, letting them go with a warning and never tying them up. Panta is also much less vitriolic towards Mayor Bal than he was in the original work, where he insults King Bal to his face.
  • Subverted with General Jinjur. At first she seems a much better person in the comic than she was in the original novel, mainly because she legitimately likes Ozma and is unfailingly nice to her. But she still heads a coup to take over Oz simply because she wants to, throws both the Scarecrow and Logan into the dungeon, candidly talks about her decision to murder the Scarecrow by setting him on fire, and is quite happy to lie and twist the truth in the service of propaganda. So really, she's just as bad as she was in the original novel but she's much more slick and savvy about it.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In the original books, General Jinjur eventually marries and settles down on a farm with a husband. Here, she doesn't care for relationships with boys at all, quickly dismissing Ozma's sob story because it's about a boy, and The Rant confirms that she's "super gay".
• Adaptational Skill: Since he was constructed to be more flexible, Jack is able to swim across a river. In the original books, he had to hold onto the Sawhorse's tail and float along as it swam across.
• Adaptation Deviation: Most of the character designs follow the traditional appearance of said characters, except the Tin Woodman, who is much shorter than usual and bearded. The Rant mentions that Nick Chopper used to be a Munchkin before he ended up having his entire body replaced with tin parts, so it made sense that he would be quite short.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Ozma's hair is much darker than it was described in the book.
• Adaptation Expansion: The comic still follows the overarching plot of the original novel, but has massively expanded the story with loads of extra characterization and world building. All the OG characters have had their personalities, motives, and interpersonal relationships fleshed out; new characters from other Land of Oz works have been introduced to make Oz feel larger and more lived in; laws, social mores, and even politics have been brought up and explored; and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Even entire chapters of other Oz novels have been added in. For example, chapter 3 of the comic is based on "The Quarrelsome Dragons" from The Tin Woodman of Oz. It was included partly to make Oz feel more dangerous, but also to give Ozma, Logan and Jack more time to get to know each other before they arrive at Emerald City.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Jack Pumpkinhead's last name is changed to Tryfle to match Ozma's last name (see Named by the Adaptation below), since he considers her to be his mom.
  • In The Marvelous Land of Oz, General Jinjur's name is just Jinjur. In Yellow Brick Ramble, Jinjur is her first name and she has been given the hyphenated last name Amee-Riskitt. Her new last name comes from General Riskitt, a character in The Wizard of Oz (1902) stageplay; and Nimmie Amee, the Munchkin woman the Tin Woodman fell in love with before losing his heart.
• Adaptation Personality Change: This Nick is a whole lot more snippy and grumpy than the original version.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Rather than Mombi acting as Ozma's guardian as in the original book, Ozma and Mombi seem to treat each other as mother and child. That said, considering that The Reveal in The Marvelous Land of Oz was that Ozma is the missing princess of Oz, having been kidnapped by Mombi as an infant, it remains to be seen whether they are Related in the Adaptation or it's just a change in how she was raised.
  • The Wizard of Oz was mentioned only a couple times in the original novel and certainly had no relation to Ozma. In this comic, the Wizard is mentioned far more often because Ozma believes he is her father, and she absolutely hates him. For example, midway through Chapter 9 she shouts at the Scarecrow about how his "friend" hadn't wanted her and that she's glad he left Oz. She has also declared that "Old Oscar" was a humbug and a scoundrel. Ozma has said that her dad visited her three times while she was growing up, and early in chapter 11 The Rant mentions that he taught her card tricks on one of his visits. But it clearly was not enough to stop her from hating him for being such an absent and neglectful father. With all that said, why Ozma believes the Wizard is her father and how she's actually related to him, if at all, has yet to be explained.
  • Speaking of the wizard, it’s revealed in chapter 14 that Mombi actually had a crush on the old wizard himself. Whether or not that plays into the reason why Ozma thinks he’s her father (or if he actually is her father) or if he reciprocated her feelings is unclear as of this writing.
  • Ozma is much more willing to treat Jack as her son than in the book. In the comic, her issue with being called "father" is a result of being uncomfortable with masculine gendered terms moreso than being acknowledged as Jack's parent, and she immediately allows Jack to call her "mom" once the latter suggests it.
  • Logan is Promoted to Love Interest for Ozma, rather than simply being a companion for her.
  • In the original novel, Mombi and Jinjur formed a Big Bad Duumvirate. Here, Mombi's transphobia causes Jinjur to banish her.
  • The Scarecrow and Tin Man passionately kiss upon meeting, though how far their relationship actually goes hasn't been discussed.
• Adaptation Species Change: Dashemoff Daily, Poet Laureate of Oz, is originally from The Wizard of Oz (1902) stageplay. In that play he was a human, but Yellow Brick Ramble has changed him into a donkey. According to The Rant under the comic where Dashemoff was introduced, this was to make it simpler for him be a love interest for Logan.
• Adaptation Title Change: The title of the original novel is The Marvelous Land of Oz. The title of this comic adaptation is Yellow Brick Ramble.
• Adapted Out: Mr. H.M. Woggle-Bug, T.E., a minor comic-relief character in the original novel, does not appear in the comic. The comic's Cast Page lampshades this by wryly noting the potential implications of Oz's main food animal having human-level sapience:
  "Catering Provided By Wogglebugs! Thank Lurline they can't talk, or else we'd have to feel guilty about eating them!"
• All Girls Like Ponies: Ozma becomes giddy upon finding the sawhorse and explains what horses are to Jack by listing all of their good qualities and calling them man's best friend, as a way to hint at her inner transfeminine gender identity.
  The Rant: Trans girls like horses exhibit A.
• Alt Text: Every episode of the comic has a Title Text pop-up, usually used for another The Rant style punchline or silly observation that doesn't appear in the actual rant.
• Amazon Brigade: Jinjur's Army of Revolt is all-female, as in the book.
• Ambiguously Brown: Played With. Most native-born Ozites in Yellow Brick Ramble are noticeably darker skinned than how Oz adaptations tend to portray them. However, they clearly aren't meant to be any particular real world race, given that some of them have unnatural skin colors (such as green or lavender) and most of them have fantasy-elf-style Pointy Ears.
• April Fools' Day: April 1, 2025's strip replaces the usual comic with "Alice in Rambleland", which reimagines Alice in Wonderland in the style of Problem Sleuth; the original book by Lewis Carroll is treated like a fan-made Strategy Guide to the "game" that was unaware of a second, hidden exit out of the first room.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Near the end of chapter 10, when Juni Jump is berating Logan for being receptive to Dashemoff's flirting rather than reconciling with Ozma, Logan retorts that he isn't her pawn and to leave him alone if she doesn't really want to be his friend. Juni Jump is literally struck speechless by that, and tones down on her behavior.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: A more G-rated version: Jinjur and all the initial members of her Amazon Brigade are all fugitives from a reformatory school for delinquent girls.
• Ascended Extra: In the novel, the Sawhorse was very much a supporting character to Tip and Jack. Here, Logan plays a much larger part, so much so that you could argue he's a co-protagonist along with Ozma.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Ozma helps Jinjur overthrow Emerald City because she comforted her, affirmed her skills as a witch, and (unknowingly) helped her discover her gender identity. Logan is understandably shocked to hear Ozma excuse Jinjur's actions because "she gave me a nice sandwich when I was sad". Even after she abandons her plans to capture Scarecrow (because he comforted her and treated her to food after she realized she's acting like a wicked witch), her opinion of Jinjur remains positive until she calls her and Jinjur starts talking about setting Scarecrow on fire and justifying it as non-wicked because he's "not supposed to be alive"; this causes Ozma to declare they aren't "ideologically compatible" and hang up.
• Call-Forward:
  • General Jinjur mentions that her army could use a witch when she finds out that Ozma had brought Jack to life with magic, referencing how later in the original novel she would recruit Mombi to her cause. Although at their first meeting at least, the comic versions of Mombi and Jinjur do not team up.
  • When Ozma tries on a dress for the first time, The Rant mentions that her monologue is meant to mirror a quote near the end of the original novel when Tip is transformed back into Ozma. She also mentions that she looks like a princess, referencing how in the books she really was the long-lost princess.
  • In this page, Jinjur says she can make Ozma a princess if she comes back to the revolt. This is references how in the books, again, Ozma really was the long-lost princess.
• Canon Foreigner: Dub Loon, a minor but important character in comic chapter 4, The Loons of Loonville, is a fully original character who never appeared in the Oz novels. Two members of Jinjur's Army of Revolt, Captain Elfie Bah and Juni Jump, are also original, but were broadly inspired by actual Oz characters rather than being wholly original like Dub Loon. The field mouse Hickory Quickory also never appeared in any of the Oz novels, though he was a character in Mother Goose in Prose (1897), another children's book written by L. Frank Baum.
• Card-Carrying Villain: General Jinjur is very open about how she wants to rule Oz as a dictatorship and plans to usurp the Scarecrow's "dictatorship" to put hers in power. And after conquering the Emerald City, she talks quite candidly about murdering the Scarecrow by setting him on fire.
• Cast Full of Gay: Ozma is a trans girl and is actively crushing on both Logan and Dorothy. Logan, who is actively crushing right back at Ozma, is either non-binary or gender-fluid, and Dashemoff Daily claims to be the same (though that may have been just a ploy to get Logan to agree to go on a date with him). General Jinjur is a lesbian and has fallen hard for Ozma. The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman appear to be in a romantic relationship, and the Cowardly Lion likewise has a husband in the Hungry Tiger from Ozma of Oz. And Dorothy is going to end up in a "Boston marriage" with Ozma, according to the comic artist.
• City of Gold: Subverted just like in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Emerald City looks like it's made of emeralds from afar, but walking through the city streets reveals that it's just regular buildings made of bricks and stones, with the so-called emerald jewels being fake. However, the Scarecrow no longer tries to hide it, unlike his predecessor, the Wizard of Oz. This is actually a change from the original Marvelous Land novel in which, thanks to author L. Frank Baum's rather casual approach to continuity, the Emerald City was no longer fake. Instead, it was bedecked with real emeralds.
• Color-Coded Eyes: all Ozites' eye colors indicate which part of the country they were born (or otherwise made). Anyone from outside the country has their eyes turn gray as soon as they enter. This is used as subtle foreshadowing — Logan has gray eyes, despite supposedly being from Gillikin Country.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Ozma grew up with Mombi on an isolated farm, and implicitly had little-to-no contact with other kids her age or their families during that period. According to her, Mombi even took her out of school so she wouldn't be "tainted by good witch propaganda." Because of this social isolation, Ozma came to accept Mombi's treatment of her, like burning her "costumes" and toys for being too girly, as just things that well-meaning parents normally do, and reacts with confusion whenever her friends show concern at how she was treated. Even outside of that, Ozma sees nothing wrong with dropping a boulder on the escaped Scarecrow, thinking that it's "girl stuff" instead of being wicked. Only when Jack and Logan call her out for it does she actually think it through logically. And later, actually talking with the Scarecrow reveals that she wasn't completely unaware of the issues, but was suppressing her concerns.
• Delusions of Parental Love: From the very start of the comic, Mombi's treatment of Ozma has been clearly abusive, especially in regards to her gender identity, and each new revelation about things she has done to Ozma makes her look even worse than before. Despite this, Ozma and Mombi both insist that she is a good mother who cares about Ozma and wants what is best for her. In fact, Ozma is so used to the abuse that she considers it normal motherly behavior and reacts with genuine confusion when her friends express concern over it. She's not completely in denial, but it still takes a while for her to start admitting it.
• Disappeared Dad: Ozma has only met her dad (possibly anyway) three times in her entire life, and one time he sent a birthday card with the wrong age and a misspelled name.
• Does Not Like Men: General Jinjur invokes this trope in two different ways.
  • Jinjur shows quite a disdain for boys and men in ways that highlight her history and motivations. At the start of both chapter 6 and chapter 8, she sneers about the "useless men" who have been ruling Oz, saying that they've all made a huge mess of things and that a young girl like her would be a better ruler. Also, at the start of chapter 8 she has some very harsh words about the students at the boys' school who mocked her for trying to raise an army at the girls' school.
  • In addition to having disdain for men in general, Jinjur also Does Not Like Men romantically. The comic artist has confirmed that Jinjur is "super gay", and the various smouldering looks she has given Ozma in chapters 6 and 8 show that Jinjur is strongly attracted to her. Also, there is some foreshadowing at the end of chapter 5 when she finds Ozma crying over Logan's apparent rejection; Jinjur's reaction is to try to comfort Ozma by insisting that boys are never worth crying over.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Subverted. Scarecrow expects the very old "women are scared of mice" trope to drive Junjur's army out of the Emerald City by having a mouse dive out of his hay-filled chest cavity as a Jump Scare. To say the least, it doesn't work whatsoever. This is in stark contrast to the original novel, in which the strategy works very well.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While no less an Abusive Parent, it’s hinted that Mombi might genuinely love Ozma as a daughter (although since she Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child, she wants her to be a son). She claims she’s just trying to protect her and calls her “a sweet boy” here.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Jinjur may rule Emerald City with an iron fist, but she refuses to misgender Ozma when Mombi arrives looking for her "son", respecting her identity even though the two had just recently cut ties.
  Jinjur: I've never seen this beautiful girl in my life. Get Out!.
• Evil Plan: Subverted. At the end of chapter 8, General Jinjur succeeds in her goal of conquering the Emerald City. So clearly, her plan is going great, right? Well, actually...in chapter 13, after arriving in Tin Town, Ozma calls General Jinjur and asks her what exactly her plan is. Jinjur replies quite bluntly that she doesn't have a plan, is just making it all up as she goes along, and is actually surprised that she got as far as she did.
• Exact Words: Ozma isn't lying when she tells Jessiva Pipt that she no longer has the Powder of Life... because her current outfit has no pockets and so Logan is carrying it for her.
• Fantastic Racism: After the characters arrive at Emerald City in chapter 7, we start seeing signs that this version of Oz is not the egalitarian utopia L. Frank Baum originally conceived.
  • While in the city, Logan had three encounters that strongly imply that this version of Oz has the same type of anti-Animal prejudice that was a big plot point in The Wicked Years series of novels. When Logan and Jack first arrived and were on their way to meet the Scarecrow, the palace maid Jellia offered Logan some clothes, only to disappoint him by giving him a saddle rather than more human-style clothes. Later, when leaving the palace to go buy a new outfit, Logan encountered Dyna and Jessiva, two members of Jinjur's army, who tried to bully Logan by calling him useless and ugly and using the pronoun "it". And when Logan finally arrived at the city's shopping district, it turned out to have segregated areas for Human-oriented stores and Animal-oriented stores.
  • Jinjur and some of the other members of the army show some prejudice against the Scarecrow and other beings like him. Jinjur even says that burning the Scarecrow alive isn't wicked because scarecrows aren't "supposed" to be alive, and is completely baffled when Ozma hangs up her crystal ball on her because she says that she wouldn't say the same about Jack (Ozma's son) and Logan (Ozma's friend), simply because they aren't in Jinjur's way.
  • The captain of Jinjur's army holds a sharp disdain for witches, belittling both Ozma and Mombi upon meeting each of them because they are witches. Ironically, her name and skin tone are based off of Elphaba Thropp.
• Fun with Homophones: Ozma calls Mombi "Mom-bi" because she's her mom, but it's pronounced the same. The Rant lampshades this.
  It's a private little ritual only he knows about since the two names sound identical.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Boys can't learn witchcraft, so Ozma asks Mombi to turn her into a girl to make her eligible. The Rant clarifies that this isn't a case of Magic Is Feminine, since men can learn wizardry or sorcery instead; Ozma just wants an excuse to be turned into a girl.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Dorothy is widely celebrated as the "Hero of Oz" who defeated the two evil witches that terrorized the land. However, she's currently (presumably) in Kansas and only in appears in the comic during flashbacks or newspaper clippings.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Logan doesn't take kindly to anyone showing romantic affection to Ozma, or Ozma showing romantic affection to someone else. The biggest love rival for Logan is Dorothy Gale herself due to Ozma's rather obvious crush on the Hero of Oz, even though Dorothy hasn't shown up in the story just yet.
• He's Got a Weapon!: Jinjur utters this when Omby Amby pulls his pistol on the Army of Revolt. Pity he forgot to load it, though.
  Jinjur: Lurline's band!! He's got a gun!
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: It's easy to forget, but most of the major characters (e.g. Ozma, Logan, Jinjur) and many of the minor ones (e.g. Jinjur's entire Army of Revolt) are inexperienced teenagers. This is the main reason why they continually do dumb things and make bad judgement calls.
• Idea Bulb: Played Straight on Page 3 of Chapter 2, complete with the standard Idea *Ding!* as a Written Sound Effect, when Jack has the idea of calling Ozma mom instead of dad. Though the trope is played straight in the comic, it's still Played With slightly in The Rant under the comic. The artist jokingly humble-brags that she did a Google image search to make sure Jack's lightbulb was period appropriate for 1904, the year when the original novel was first published.
• Idea *Ding!*: See Idea Bulb above.
• Ignored Epiphany: While magically spying on Ozma and her companions, Mombi sees how happy Ozma is being female, and almost repents. Eventually she does at least start using Ozma's new name.
• Interspecies Romance: Ozma, an Ozite, and Logan, a sawhorse brought to life with magic, quickly develop feelings for each other.
• Ironic Name: Captain Elfie Bah is named after the name given to the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked, and her skin is green to match, but she holds Fantastic Racism over witches.
• I Was Quite a Looker:
  • Mombi, of all people, used to look rather cute.
  • The young Oscar/the Wizard, in the same flashback, was no slouch in the looks department either, being Tall, Dark, and Handsome, with a beauty spot, and wearing a very snazzy suit.
• LGBT Awakening: Ozma is completely caught up in gender euphoria once she puts on the Army of Revolt's witch uniform, and soon after decides to fully embrace her identity as a girl.
• Like Father, Like Son: Gender Inverted. While it’s unclear if they are actually Related in the Adaptation, Ozma thinks the wizard is her father and she lies by claiming to be a witch (she used Mombi’s powder of life and doesn’t know any magic beyond that) to get closer to Jinjur, much like how the wizard lied and said he had great magical powers to take over and rule Emerald City.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: The main cast consists of Ozma (a girl), Jack (a boy), and Logan (who realizes he's non-binary about halfway through).
• Meaningful Rename: At the end of Chapter 6, Jinjur realizes she never asked for Ozma's name, so Ozma uses this opportunity to rename herself and introduce herself as Ozma to fully embrace her newly-discovered identity.
• Men Don't Cry: Mombi raised Ozma to believe that it is shameful to cry or otherwise show strong emotions. According to Ozma, Mombi always told her to "man up" whenever she "lost control" of her emotions. The programming is so ingrained into her that she has gone so far as to call herself "garbage" for not being able to hold it all in, even though Logan and the Scarecrow tell her that it's fine to cry.
• The Musical: Midway through Chapter 12, during a moment of high tension and drama, Logan simply bursts into a song-and-dance routine worthy of Broadway. Ozma, Jack, and the Scarecrow quickly join in with a jazzy instrumental piece, and then they all come together in a massive song-and-dance finale.
  • In The Rant on the cover of chapter 12, the comic artist warned readers that this musical number was coming because, as she put it, "where would Oz be without musical numbers?"
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Newspaper Backstory on the first page consists of clippings from a newspaper called "The Ozmapolitan," which is a reference to a 1904 ad campaign involving a mock Oz newspaper, to promote the new Oz book.
  • The surname "Tryfle" is a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1902) and the character Trixie Tryfle. The character is also referenced when Jinjur mentions that the last king of Oz is thought to have eloped with a diner waitress as the reason why he mysteriously disappeared.
  • Logan has a very strong mid-western accent, which the Scarecrow admits sounds familiar. As explained by Daisy, this is meant to be an Easter Egg to Dorothy's accent from the third book onwards, and not some Foreshadowing hint that Logan and Dorothy have secret connection yet to be revealed.
  • One of the members of the Army of Revolt is a green-skinned woman named Elfie Bah, a play on Elphaba Thropp from The Wicked Years and Wicked.
  • While traveling with Jack and Logan, Ozma starts wearing a large flower on either side of her head, similar to the poppies she wears post-coronation in John R. Neill's illustrations of the Oz novels. Lampshaded in The Rant.
• Named by the Adaptation: Ozma and Mombi's last name is Tryfle, as a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1902), and the Saw-Horse is named Logan as a pun on how they are made of logs. The Queen of the Field Mice has been given the Punny Name Eekitza M'ows, and the Cowardly Lion has been named Coydalin Rowl, which is an anagram of "Cowardly Lion".
• Never Given a Name: When Ozma introduces herself to the Sawhorse, he realizes he doesn't have a name to introduce himself with, so he decides to name himself Logan because he's made of logs.
• Newspaper Backstory: The first page of the comic is essentially a Broad Strokes recap of Dorothy's adventures in Oz, told through newspaper cuttings in Ozma's scrapbook (with her written commentary, mostly gushing about how cool Dorothy is).
• One-Man Army: Subverted. Omby Amby is Emerald City's only soldier, so the city quite literally has a one-man army. When General Jinjur and her Army of Revolt try to invade the city, it seems at first that Omby might actually be able to hold them off all by himself. Unfortunately for both Omby and Emerald City, he swiftly proves to be incompetent at his job.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons here are depicted to having a bird-like head with sharp teeth, a turtle-like body, and six legs. They can eat everything, including abstract thoughts, but would only eat once every 100 years. Oh, and all of these details are from The Tin Woodman of Oz.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The cover of chapter 9 shows Ozma and Logan being followed by a Bedsheet Ghost that resembles those from Pac-Man. This is just a nifty bit of art to set the scene for chapter 9 and not part of the actual story as, near the end of chapter 11, The Rant confirms that ghosts do not exist in this version of Oz.
• Play-Along Prisoner: After Jinjur conquers Emerald City at the end of chapter 8, she throws the Scarecrow into the dungeon. But he's not particularly worried about it because, as he tells Logan, he could escape at any time. He actually makes his escape in chapter 11, apparently having simply slipped through the bars with his flexible hay body.
• Promoted to Love Interest:
  • Downplayed with Dorothy. In the original Land of Oz book series, Dorothy and Ozma are simply close friends. The very first page of the webcomic features Ozma displaying a childhood crush on Dorothy. And it's implied at the end of the third chapter, she still has feelings for Dorothy as she compared Logan to her.
  • More relevantly, Logan the sawhorse falls in love with Ozma at the end of Chapter 2 after hearing Jack call her "mom" makes him realize Ozma's inner gender identity is feminine, and a scene halfway through Chapter 3 shows that the feelings are mutual.
  • Jinjur also develops a crush on Ozma soon after they meet in Chapter 6.
  • In the books, Scarecrow and Niccolo the Tin Woodman are Heterosexual Life-Partners, but in the webcomic they are quickly established as being in a relationship when Ozma and friends reach the Tin Palace and the two share a Reunion Kiss.
  • The Cowardly Lion marries his best friend from the books, the Hungry Tiger, and is on his honeymoon during the events of the comic to explain his absence from the book.
• Pronoun Trouble: Before Ozma realized that she's Transgender, The Rant used he/him pronouns when referring to Ozma, implying those were the pronouns she used for herself. However, Logan realizes Ozma is "a girl" because of her insisting Jack call her "mom", so Logan's internal thoughts used she/her when referring to Ozma. Lampshaded by The Rant near the start of Chapter 3:
  The Rant: Reminder: Logan figured out that Tip is a girl, but Tip somehow hasn't figured out he's a girl yet, and Logan doesn't know that Tip doesn't know that he's a girl. It's very simple and straightforward and nobody should be confused.
• Pumpkin Person: Jack was mostly constructed from an articulated wooden frame, but has a jack-o-lantern for a head. (As noted above, the reason for his creation varies between the original novel and the comic.) In 2024, the comic's creator even carved a real pumpkin to look like him for a Halloween special.
• Punny Name:
  • Logan the Sawhorse, who is made of logs.
  • In Loonville, there's Bal Loon, Panta Loon, and Canon Foreigner Dub Loon.
  • According to the cast page, the "clothes horse" (who keeps changing colours) is named Huey.
  • The Queen of the Field Mice has been named Eekitza M'ows ("Eek! It's a mouse!") and she helps Ozma's party by giving them a mouse-guide named Hickory Quickory ("Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock...")
• Queer Colors: Ozma's LGBT Awakening begins with a Splash Panel whose background is filled with faded shades of white, blue and pink, featuring Ozma surrounded by white, blue and pink hearts, two fairies each with a blue-and-pink color combination, and blue flowers with pink centers, all referencing the Trans Pride Flag.
• Related in the Adaptation: General Jinjur's new last name (see Adaptation Name Change above) implies strongly that she is the child of General Riskitt, a character in The Wizard of Oz (1902) stageplay; and Nimmie Amee, the Munchkin woman the Tin Woodman fell in love with before losing his heart. Nimmie being Jinjur's mother has been all-but-confirmed by The Rant under the comic where Jinjur introduces herself, but General Riskitt being her father has still only been implied.
• Relationship Sabotage:
  • At the end of Chapter 4, when Dub Loon realizes that Logan has feelings for Ozma, she tells him that Ozma will never feel the same about him and will only ever see him as just a cute animal. Even though she is wrong, she still manages to sow doubts in Logan's mind. Chapter 4's epilogue scene shows that Dub Loon honestly believed the things she told Logan about Ozma and thought she was helping him.
  • During Chapter 10, when Logan and Ozma are going through a rough patch, Juni Jump tries to help Logan reconcile with Ozma. She ends up admitting to Logan that she is helping because Jinjur has a crush on Ozma and she wants Logan to stop them from getting together. That way, she could have Jinjur instead. Her plot swiftly backfires, however, when her efforts cause Dashemoff Daily to notice Logan and immediately fall in love.
• Reluctant Ruler: Near the end of chapter 8, when General Jinjur announces to the Scarecrow that she has conquered Emerald City, the Scarecrow's first reaction is relief that he finally has a reason to remove his "awful" crown, giving the impression that she could have just asked for the throne and he would have given it to her. The comic's Alt Text adds a bit of extra context:
  "Scarecrow had to stuff his head with extra stiff straw to keep it from collapsing from the weight of that ridiculous crown."
• Retcon: Daisy originally drew Toto as a Boston terrier as part of a joke that Dorothy would be in a "Boston marriage" with Ozma when she was older. But she got frustrated with drawing him in that design consistently, so she decided to change it, editing his scant few appearances in flashbacks to match.
• Road Runner vs. Coyote: Literally. The comic artist has made part of Winkieland into a desert very much resembling Arizona, USA, and Ozma tries to push a boulder off a cliff onto the Scarecrow midway through chapter 11. The artist even named that comic page "Beep Beep!" to make the reference even more obvious.
• Saying Too Much: At the end of chapter 14, Blinkie confides with Mombi about Juni's romance problems with Jinjur, in the process unknowingly telling Mombi all she needs to know about Ozma's doings.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Upon first meeting Logan, Dashemoff Daily refers to his "deciduous beauty" and calls him a "ligneous princess."
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Not that Jinjur's Bling of War was bad-looking, but when we see her in civilian clothes in Chapter 13, she is wearing a Pimped-Out Dress with a lot of frills and embroidery (green, of course, since she has claimed the throne of Oz), styled curls, and a fancy emerald hair pin.
• Shipper with an Agenda: Juni Jump is invested in helping Logan reconcile with Ozma because she's in love with Jinjur, but Jinjur is head over heels for Ozma; she's hoping that helping Logan keeps Ozma and Jinjur apart and she'll have a chance with the latter.
• Shout-Out: The "clothes horse" who gives Logan the dresses keeps changing color, a reference to the "horse of a different color" that appears in the movie.
• Shown Their Work:
  • When Jack has an Idea Bulb in Chapter 2, the author mentions in The Rant that she did a Google image search to make sure Jack's lightbulb was period appropriate for 1904, the year when the original novel was first published.
  • There is also the sheer density of references to various Oz media: not only the canonical novels by L. Frank Baum (many of which already suffer from Mainstream Obscurity), but also to The Wizard of Oz (1902), as well as to other works by Baum.
• Significant Anagram: Coydalin Rowl's name is an anagram of Cowardly Lion, which is what he is known as in the books.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Ozma changes outfits twice at important points in her life — firstly to the witch uniform when she embraces her identity as a girl, and then to a yellow "non-military" dress when she cuts ties with Jinjur's army.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Downplayed at Loonville, where none of the Loons are popped at all, unlike in the source material where Woot pops most of them in order to escape.
• Speech Bubbles: Yellow Brick Ramble uses very standard speech bubbles, with the usual shapes and colors to indicate things like normal speech, shouting, whispering, and so forth.
  • Played With only once, on Page 9 of Chapter 2, when Logan notices Jack calling Ozma "mom". Rather than looking at Jack, Logan looks up at Jack's speech bubble.
• Subordinate Excuse: Juni Jump has a crush on Jinjur, and admits to Logan that she joined the Revolt mainly to get closer to her.
• Supernaturally Validated Trans Person: At the start of Chapter 7, Mombi attempts to find Ozma by using a spell that shows the location of the person whose name you ask for. The spell fails because Mombi uses Ozma's dead-name, rather than the new name Ozma chose for herself after her LGBT Awakening.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: In Logan's dream at the start of Chapter 12, Logan wears a large bow on their tail to signify that she was a girl at the time.
• That Thing Is Not My Child!: Subverted. At first, Ozma only acknowledges that having made Jack mean's he's technically her son, but dislikes the idea that she'd be Jack's father. Once Jack suggests that she can be his mom instead, Ozma immediately accepts the appellation and starts treating Jack like her child.
• Through His Stomach: Ozma admits quite forthrightly that she thinks highly of General Jinjur and joined her Army of Revolt because she gave Ozma a sandwich. And later, she began following the Scarecrow because he gave her a really tasty burger.
• Title Drop: The name of Chapter 12 is "The Yellow Brick Ramble" (making this a Title Drop Chapter). Since the comic is 22 chapters long, the cover page of chapter 12 where the title dropped is the half-way point between the start and finish of the comic.
• Trans Relationship Troubles: Inverted. In chapter 5, Logan tries flirting with Ozma. Rather than someone else or society at large having a problem with it, Ozma is the one with the problem due to not yet realizing her inner gender identity. At first, Ozma doesn't even know which "girl" Logan is talking about. Then, after letting Logan flirt, she tries to explain to a nonplussed Logan that she's really a boy, but gives up on it before actually saying it. Despite these issues, however, Ozma clearly enjoys Logan's flirting quite a bit.
• Transparent Closet: Of the five major characters who knew Ozma when she was still presenting as a boy, the only one who didn't immediately realize that Ozma is a trans girl was Ozma herself.
  • At the very start of the comic, Mombi clearly knows about Ozma's preference to be a girl and has been trying to force her to change it for quite some time (see Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child below).
  • After Ozma's repeated refusal to be called "Dad" or any variations of the title, Jack quickly figures out that she might prefer feminine terms of address, so he suggests "Mom" and she immediately approves.
  • Logan figures out Ozma's gender identity at the end of Chapter 2 when he witnesses Jack calling Ozma "Mom".
  • When Jinjur meets Ozma at the end of Chapter 5, she assumes Ozma is a girl due to the flowers in her hair and invites her to join the all-girl Army of Revolt, and even develops a crush on her while being, as The Rant puts it, "super gay."
  • This is Lampshaded in a non-canon advertisement for characters standees. In the ad, Ozma expresses surprise that Logan didn't know that she was presenting as male when they met, and Logan notes that she's real bad at pretending to be a guy.
• Traumatic Haircut: Discussed. Mombi threatening to cut Ozma's long hair short is the final straw that causes Ozma to run away from home.
• Uncertain Doom: "Doom" might be overselling it, but when Dorothy set off on her return trip to Kansas four years ago, Nick says she promised to come back and visit. That certainly hasn't happened yet; the Scarecrow speculates that maybe the Silver Shoes don't work in Kansas.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Mombi strongly disapproves of Ozma's "fantasies", as she puts it, and has destroyed Ozma's "costumes" and "girly" toys in the past. She also thinks that Ozma's long hair is giving her "silly ideas" about gender and is convinced that a haircut would solve those problems. The latter is what finally makes Ozma decide to run away.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Mayor Bal lets Ozma, Jack and Logan leave Loonville without further incident explicitly because they're all minors.
• Written Sound Effect: Yellow Brick Ramble uses very few of these compared to most comics, but there are still some. For example, Chapter 4 Page 3 has four separate cases of it, making that the most sound-effect-dense page of the comic so far.
• You Mean "Xmas": Although they don't come up during the story proper, the comic has pages depicting Ozian counterparts to Thanksgiving (Friendsgiving) and Christmas (Lurlinalia) on days when Daisy is away celebrating the real-life equivalents.