I concur with your analysis and wholeheartedly sympathise with your loss. In the UK, we have a similar love for a good old-fashioned plucky underdog (probably because of the Empire) overturning the odds and cming out on top. To us, it feels like something that should happen.

So when it doesn't... yeah.

Sorry, Mr. Trickle. You deserved better than your end.

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"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends