| Ojo the Unlucky | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Ojo |
|
First Appearance |
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913) |
|
Original Publisher |
Reilly & Britton |
|
Created by |
L. Frank Baum |
Origin[]
Ojo lived for a long time with his uncle, Unc Nunkie, in the Blue Forest, a remote location in the south of the Munchkin Country. When the bread tree behind their house stopped producing, they traveled to visit his uncle's friend Dr. Pipt and his wife, Margolotte.
Ojo is largely responsible for the mixture of brains given to the Patchwork Girl. When she was brought to life, an accident spilled the Liquid of Petrifaction on Unc Nunkie. Ojo set out with the Patchwork Girl and the Glass Cat to find the ingredients for the antidote. They encountered the Woozy, whose tail held the hairs needed as ingredients in the antidote. The Shaggy Man rescued them from Man-Eating Plants and escorted them to the Emerald City.
Another of the ingredients needed for the antidote was a Six-leaved Clover. Although he had been warned that picking them is against the law, he found one and picked it and was promptly arrested at the gate of the Emerald City by the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. He was the first lawbreaker that anyone could remember, and he spent the night in the elegant prison with Tollydiggle the jailer. The next morning he was brought before Princess Ozma of Oz who forgave him.
He set out to continue his quest with Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, and the Patchwork Girl. In the Quadling Country, they resolved a war between the Hoppers and the Horners and got another ingredient, water from a dark well.
They next traveled to the Winkie Country where the Tin Woodman provided Ojo with his fourth ingredient, a drop of oil from a live man's body. However, he refused to let him have the final ingredient, the left wing of a yellow butterfly. Having failed at his mission, Ojo returned to the Emerald City where the Wizard of Oz was able to reverse the effects of the Liquid of Petrifaction and bring Unc Nunkie and Margolotte back to life.
Ojo and his uncle were given a nice house just outside the walls of the Emerald City.
Ojo was among the guests attending Ozma's birthday party in the Emerald City.
Appearance[]
Ojo is a typical Munchkin boy. He wears blue knee pants with gold buckles and blue silk stockings, a blue ruffled waist and a jacket of bright blue braided with gold. His blue leather shoes turn up at the pointed toes, and his hat has a peaked crown and a flat brim with a row of tiny bells.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Book & Film)
- The Lost Princess of Oz
- The Magic of Oz
- Glinda of Oz
Notes[]
- Ojo was known as "Ojo the Unlucky" in part because he had lived with his silent uncle and seen none of the world, and also because he was born on Friday the 13th, is left-handed, and has a wart under his arm. The Tin Woodman officially deemed him Ojo the Lucky because he believed Ojo's bad luck was due to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- While the original character who appeared in Oz works published before 1923 is in public domain, any versions published post-1923 are NOT.