deffoo{textcolor{blue}{x}}
edefbar{protecttoks{foo}}

edefbar{bar}
% more calls here ...
edefbar{bar}
bar

protecteddefifsafe#1#2{#2}
defelseifunsafe#1{noexpandelseifunsafe{unexpanded{#1}}}

protecteddefifsafe#1#2{#2}
defelseifunsafe#1{noexpandelseifunsafe{unexpanded{#1}}}

defprotecting{ifsafeelseifunsafe}

deftmpa{protecting{something undefined}}showtmpa
edeftmpa{tmpa 1}showtmpa
edeftmpa{tmpa 2}showtmpa
edeftmpa{tmpa 3}showtmpa

tt
detokenizeexpandafter{tmpa}par
detokenizeexpandafterexpandafterexpandafter{tmpa}
bye