Both Trot and Button-Bright apparently have two living parents back in America, yet at the end of this story they remain in the Emerald City and never return to their presumably worried families. Ozma says something about it being impossible for them to return. This presumably refers to the existence of the Barrier of Invisibility around Oz, which was created at the end of "Emerald City" to keep intruders out of Oz. The fact that Glinda and Ozma seem to feel in that book that it is all right to erect the Barrier because Dorothy and her aunt and uncle are now in Oz permanently suggests that the Barrier is even supposed to be impervious to the Magic Belt's powers. Yet in "Tik-Tok of Oz," the book prior to "Scarecrow," Ozma uses the Belt to transport the Shaggy Man and his friends from a wasteland near the Nome Kingdom, a place outside the Barrier, to the Emerald City. Why, then, cannot Ozma send the children home with the Belt? Also, Trot and her friends had entered Oz by flying through the Barrier on the Orks. Is it not possible to fly through the Barrier from the Oz side? If it were, then Ozma could give the children, preferably accompanied by an adult such as Cap'n Bill, some kind of flying device with which to leave Oz and find some magician in a nearby country outside the Barrier who might be able to send them home.
Of course, such an endeavor would mean they would be setting off on another dangerous adventure, and presumably Ozma would only do this if the children were highly eager to go home. However, the strangest thing about the end of "Scarecrow" is that Trot and Button-Bright seem to be not at all upset that they will never see their parents again. Rather, they seem perfectly delighted to be living in Oz. Of course, Trot has Cap'n Bill with her and perhaps he has been closer to her than her parents actually were, but Button-Bright, while he is surrounded with friends and acquaintances such as Dorothy and Trot, will have no adult parent-figure whom he has known all his life living with him in Oz. The attitude of these two children is simply not believable. I once read an article about a child (I forget whether it was a boy or a girl) who had a near-death experience. The child met Jesus, who said the child could either stay with Him or return to his or her parents. The child chose to go back to the parents, and was resucitated. If a child would want his parents enough to leave Heaven in order to be with them, what child would be happy living in an mere earthly paradise like Oz if forever separated from his or her parents?

We are informed later in the book that Ozma, Dorothy, and Betsy are watching through the Magic Picture as King Krewel is about to burn the Scarecrow to ash; they "shiver a little" when he is tied to the stake and the faggots are lit and "all clap their hands with joy" when the Orks come flying in to save the day. Shiver a little???? SHIVER A LITTLE?!?!?! One of their best friends is about to be burned to a crisp and all they're doing is shivering?!?! Why isn't someone making a dash for the Magic Belt to get him out of there in case a crowd of unknowns don't suddenly appear to rescue him?!?!?

I am oh-so-glad that all the way down through the whirlpool and into the sea-caverns there was air for Trot and Cap'n Bill to breathe.

It seems to me that whoever carried Trot and Cap'n Bill down to the cave (some of the mermainds they met in Baum's non-Oz book "The Sea Fairies"?) must have done so quickly enough that Trot and Cap'n Bill were able to hold their breaths the whole way. Of course, it does seem strange that whoever helped them did not return to the cave to assist them further. Then again, if help had arrived Trot and Cap'n Bill might not have met the Ork, and they wouldn't have set out with him through the tunnels and reached Pessim's island and, eventually, Oz, and Jinxland would have remained under a tyrannical regime forever, and so on.