Toto is a wolf in this version, and he has a history in Oz before Dorothy ever meets him. He was the companion of the wizard Faedhlan. With Lynessa and the Skarabs closing in, F…

Toto is a wolf in this version, and he has a history in Oz before Dorothy ever meets him. He was the companion of the wizard Faedhlan. With Lynessa and the Skarabs closing in, Faedhlan entrusted him with the scepter and sent him away. Toto escaped through a portal to Kansas, which is where Dorothy found him. That makes him important to the plot from the beginning. He is carrying something that could change the balance of power in Oz. Dorothy is taking in an animal she wants to protect, without realizing what has followed him or why that strange woman is so determined to get him back. The bond between Dorothy and Toto forms immediately, and it gives the opening a very straightforward personal reason for everything that happens. Dorothy isn't looking for a war. She is standing up for him. Lynessa turns that into something much bigger. He also belongs in the conversation about the group itself. His connection to Dorothy isn't dependent on a prophecy or on what she might eventually become. He is with her through the danger, and his presence connects the life she had in Kansas with the world she has been pulled into. It would be easy to treat Toto as the familiar pet who has to be included in an Oz adaptation. Here, his escape is one of the events that gets the whole story moving.