Locasta Tattypoo ((top)) — Premium & Validated

And that is precisely why later Oz authors marginalized her. The post-Baum Oz canon (especially the Thompson and Neill books) favored glamour and spectacle. A elderly, pragmatic sorceress who does paperwork? Give us Glinda, with her chariot of rubies and army of maidens. Locasta faded into footnotes, appearing only in adaptations that respect Baum’s original text, like the 1985 film Return to Oz (where she appears briefly in the background of Mombi’s hall) or the 2007 comic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young. Locasta’s most revealing scene occurs not in the first book, but in Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz (the second novel). When the young boy Tip flees the wicked witch Mombi, he seeks refuge in the North. Locasta receives him not as a supplicant, but as a queen receiving a political refugee. She listens to his story, then delivers a chilling line:

That is the quiet heroism of Locasta. She empowers others. She sets boundaries. She admits her limits. And then she waits, trusting that her small act of protection—a charm, a kiss, a piece of advice—will be enough to change the course of a kingdom. locasta tattypoo

“I knew Mombi long ago. She was the nurse of the royal family of the North, before the Nome King’s magic overthrew the old dynasty. She was never trustworthy. You did well to flee.” And that is precisely why later Oz authors marginalized her

This conflation has persisted for nearly a century. Ask a random person: “Who is the Good Witch of the North?” They will answer, “Glinda.” But Baum’s first book is explicit. After Dorothy’s house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East, a small, elderly woman in a white gown approaches. She is not Glinda. She is Locasta Tattypoo , the ruler of the northern quadrant of Oz: the Gillikin Country. Give us Glinda, with her chariot of rubies

In that single sentence, Baum reveals a secret history. Locasta was not always queen. She inherited a broken throne after a war with the Nome King. Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North (yes, there was once a Wicked Witch of the North, before Locasta deposed her), was the usurper’s ally. Locasta won her crown through a silent coup, using her protective magic to shield the surviving Gillikin nobles. The “Good Witch” is not good because she is nice. She is good because she chose the side of mercy in a brutal civil war. In an age of antiheroes and morally complex fantasy, Locasta Tattypoo deserves a renaissance. She is not a deus ex machina like Glinda. She is not a villain with a tragic backstory. She is something rarer: a good ruler who knows she is not all-powerful. She cannot send Dorothy home. She cannot defeat the Wicked Witch of the West alone. She cannot restore the dead to life. What she can do is kiss a frightened girl’s forehead and say, “I have done all I can. Now you must walk the road.”