The Alignments of Oz

For you nerds (including myself) who have ever played Dungeons and Dragons, you may be familiar with the Alignment System. This is a system that determines a character's identity as good, evil, or neutral based on their attitudes and sense of morality. It also makes a fun tool to describe characters in fandoms and has been used (typically as a joke or gag) to describe the personalities of characters. Being chaotic good myself, I decided to take it upon myself to do this for a handful of the Oz characters. Check it!

Lawful Good: I classified the love of my life as lawful good based on his consistent attitude towards others. He often talks about how all living things need to be loved and treated with kindness and he practices what he preaches. Even though he is adept at using his ax as a tool and a weapon, he rarely uses it in a fight and when he does, it's to defend others. He values kindness and compassion as well as being honest with everyone, which makes him a perfect fit in this category. Those are also some of the qualities that I love most about him. Those and his ability to treat a lady well.😉

Neutral Good: What makes Glinda the Good neutral good is the fact that while she is powerful enough to run the show herself, she prefers to stand back and act as an advisor and mentor to Princess Ozma. She is rarely seen in the books, despite how much her freakin' powers would come in handy in a multitude of situations. She chooses to do good without bias and while she is officially a subject under Princess Ozma, she is still very independent and kinda does her own thing.

Chaotic Good: I'm sure I'm gonna get grief over this, but hear me out. I decided that the Scarecrow is chaotic good because while he sides with the good guys, he kinda does whatever the hell he wants. Like those of his alignment, he doesn't like bullies and tries to stand against up against them. He is a philosopher in his own right so he knows what his values are and how to uphold them.

Lawful Neutral: As the queen of Oz, Ozma must uphold the laws and traditions of the land. She firmly enforces the "No Magic" law and has acted as the judge for more than one trial. She recognizes right and wrong easily and often makes decisions based on what is best for the land of Oz (when politics are involved) or her friends (when politics aren't involved).

True Neutral: Scraps the Patchwork Girl is the perfect example of a true neutral character. Like most true neutral characters, she leans towards being a good guy, but overall, she does whatever the fuck she wants. She doesn't really pay much attention to rules, manners, or conventions, and generally just goes with the flow. This also means that she doesn't act upon with conviction, which is also true, since she typically just does whatever looks like it's the most fun.

Chaotic Neutral: This alignment values independence and freedom, which is why I identified the Shaggy Man as chaotic neutral. As observed in both The Road to Oz and Tik-Tok of Oz, he typically tries to avoid listening to authority figures and often questions traditions. Whenever he does come across these situations, it's never on purpose. Since when we first meet him, he's a hobo, it's immediately established that the Shaggy Man isn't restricted by societal restrictions and is generally happy with doing whatever feels right.

Lawful Evil: The Wicked Witch of the West struck me as lawful evil, because while she had her goals in mind and wasn't afraid to hurt others to reach them, she still acknowledged the rules that had to be followed. She would threaten to beat Dorothy, but never did because of the protection mark on Dorothy's forehead; but that didn't stop her from making her do chores to make her miserable.

Neutral Evil: Mrs. Yoop is the perfect example of someone who gives zero fucks. She has her nice, cozy life and if she needs something, she transforms it, whether the thing she's transforming likes it or not. She has no qualms about hurting others or how her actions affect their lives; her own content is the only thing that is important. Plus, she thinks some of the transformations are funny and that it's fun to watch others suffer because of them.

Chaotic Evil: Ruggedo the Nome King aligns with chaotic evil because of his bad temper, destructive habits, and poorly organized plots. When he throws a temper tantrum (face it, that's what they are), he often throws things, often at the expense of long-suffering Kaliko (I'm glad he was made Nome King; he really deserved a promotion), and break things to let off steam. Even when he manages to work with someone or come up with a plan, it all falls apart quite quickly because he's not as smart as he thinks he is. He is so selfish and disorganized that he makes quite the comical villain as well as a failure of one.

These are my interpretations of the characters and their D&D alignments. If you disagree with any or all of them and have ideas of your own, please comment on this post! If you want to try aligning other Oz characters yourself, comment with your ideas, too! I'll include the link I used to help with the Alignment definitions so you can do your own research if you wish.

Catch ya later, you beautiful bastards!

The Alignment System
http://easydamus.com/alignment.html