In "Ozma of Oz," when Ozma and her party return to Oz by crossing the Deadly Desert from Ev, which in that book is adjacent to the most important part of the Nome King's dominions, they arrive in Oz in the Munchkin Country, the eastern part of Oz. Yet in this book when the Nome King and his allies tunnel under the Desert to reach Oz they pass underneath the Winkie Country, Oz's western sector, before reaching the Emerald City. Some fans have suggested that this is possible because the Nome King has underground realms everywhere in the world, but "Ozma," "Emerald City" and many later Oz books seem to imply that there is one region of the Nome King's domain which is its most important part and is the Nomes' main base of operations. It seems clear that the portions of both "Ozma" and "Emerald City" set in the Nome Kingdom are set in that important region, so it would seem that the tunneling in "Emerald City" started from there. The fact is that the Nomes' tunneling under the Winkie Country in "Emerald City" is probably the first symptom of a long series of mistakes and contradictions concerning the east-west orientation of regions on the Ozian continent, betraying a deep-seated confusion in the minds of Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson on this subject. 29 years after "Emerald City"'s publication, the situation was destined to reach its nadir in Chapter 1 of Thompson's "Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz," in which the characters merrily reminisce about how Dorothy's house once fell on the Wicked Witch of the "West."

In the annotated Wizard of Oz, there's a map of Oz where the Munchkins are in the west and the Winkies are in the east. The book says the reason for this was that the first map was on a slide and when it was copied onto paper the slide was in the projector backwards. At least, that what that book says.

The map of Oz drawn by Neill, which, I believe, first appeared in "Tik-Tok of Oz," shows the Winkie Country on the right and the Munchkin Country on the left (perhaps indicating it was based on the slide mentioned in "The Annotated Wizard of Oz"), but it has a compass with the points reversed so that the Winkie Country is still in the west and the Munchkin Country in the east, as established in "The Wizard of Oz." (This has led some fans to feel that the compass directions in Oz are actually reversed--this is the case, for example, in the chapter set in Oz in Robert Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast.") Unfortunately, it seems that Thompson may not have noticed the reversal of the compass points on the map, thus leading to her books' references to the Munchkins being in the west and the Winkies in the east, which contradict the facts clearly established in "Wizard" that the Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkins and that the Wicked Witch of the West ruled the Winkies.

The magic belt really creates more problems than it solves. It obviously can be used long-distance (Ozma transports Dorothy and her friends from the Dragonette cave in book 4), so why doesn't Ozma just turn all the machinating armies into butterflies in their home countries and not bother with the stress and destruction of an actual invasion?

I also think it is really mean of the girls to bring Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to Oz without warning them. Aside from the matter of court dress, there are also probably some possessions, mementoes, and sentimental trinkets they would have liked to bring with them to a new life!

If Uncle Henry is bored by his life as a court favorite, why doesn't somebody give the old couple a bit of land of their own so they can farm again? Might also make up for the disappointment of losing their old place?

How does the cat (Eureka) get to Oz? Is there any mention of her being saved? (Or did she have to scrounge around the empty house mewing to be fed for a couple of days before someone remembered to bring her over?)

OK.

Is it just me, or do the Ozites come off as really, really self-satisfied (not to say arrogant) in this story?

First Ozma - as cited above - unilaterally insists on bringing Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to Oz in the most uncomfortable, humiliating way possible, rejecting Dorothy's compassionate suggestions in favour of showing herself off.

Then there's the episode in Bunbury (where everything is edible) when the inhabitants show Dorothy every kindness, giving up their own possessions for her to eat. But when Toto and Billina are caught snacking on several of the inhabitants, and the poor Buns quite rightly protest, Dorothy tells them they're trying her patience!

And...while I understood more where Dorothy was coming from here...I've always had a sneaking sympathy for the King of Bunnybury, who just wanted to go back to his wild life in the forest.
There's a streak of 'if you don't like it, then what's wrong with you'? running through the Oz universe that has always made me a little uncomfortable.

Really, Ozma comes off here as seriously ditzy in general. Vastly powerful evil magic is on it's way to raze her country, but she hasn't been worrying about it at all! In fact, she seems genuinely surprised that the others are concerned. This is the Ruler of Oz? Certainly she later makes a speech about not deserting her people...but she obviously hasn't been giving their welfare much thought up to then.

Speaking of that evil magic - Baum goes to great lengths to establish the Phanfasms as supremely powerful, only to wimp out later. Why couldn't they have just magicked the dust out of the tunnel, for heaven's sake? For that matter, why do they need to be in the tunnel at all? Couldn't they just zap Oz - and the other bad guys - long-distance?
(That said, those other bad guys are wonderfully imagined. I like the Whimsies especially.)

It's a cute story, and I like the notion of the simple farm folks adjusting to the wonderful world of Oz (Aunt Em's comments on 'skeeters' are real hoot) but Baum's fantasyland really doesn't hold up to much serious nitpicking. Not, I suppose it could be argued, that he ever really meant it to!