Protecting One's Self

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Obviously, I overcame the hesitancy about joining the 'Downs and I'll even say that the PJ movies didn't end up ruining anything and might even not be bad movies, but that core impulse beneath of fearing to expose Middle-earth to too much scrutiny because it would be exposing me to scrutiny hasn't necessarily gone away. Arguably, I've just become better at deflecting it.

This is interesting and thinking about it, I would say I'm the complete opposite, because of an experience I actually had today!

So I don't coach quiz teams anymore but sometimes when I have a Saturday free I will help read for tournaments and matches. When the season starts winding down I always try to help at the TRASH tournament, because it's fun and shenanigans and all pop culture questions. Also, guaranteed to be a few Tolkien-related or movie questions in there.

During academic events, the players have to use their school name and real names, but during TRASH events, they make up whatever aliases and team names they want. Team "A Terrible Crossover" had

Player 1: Spongebob
Player 2: George Costanza
Player 3: Rimuru (have no idea what that's from)
Player 4: Dernhelm

And here I am on Google meet, eyes lit up, grinning like a nutcase, because I hear "Who is this person? He's odd and like smiling from ear to ear" Then a "shhh, we're not on mute."

I jump in explaining: "No, it's quite alright. I am odd and I don't care because I'm just super happy. Whoever has the alias Dernhelm has made my day. I don't care what else happens the rest of the day, that is a wonderful Lord of the Rings shout out. You have made me a happy camper, because I don't think Eowyn is ever called Dernhelm in the movies, which means people are still reading the books. I'm grinning like a fool because I'm resisting the temptation to shout Death!"