The book is basically an elaborate setup for "nostalgia and trivia save the world", so I'm pretty sure this is an example of an author deliberately flaunting a

The book is basically an elaborate setup for "nostalgia and trivia save the world", so I'm pretty sure this is an example of an author deliberately flaunting a rule and trying to make it work rather than stumbling into it accidentally. As someone that loves nerding out about various media, I liked reading a book for once about characters that did too. (I'd like to see that more, but hopefully as less of a center-stage beating-the-reader-over-the-head-with-it sort of way in the future.)