Ambiguous Name (alt-title crowner): Welcome To The Liberator

Hey guys, first time time posting on the forum, though I've been active in YKTTW for years. I usually avoid web forums like the plague. But it occurs to me that the trope name "Welcome to the Liberator" is confusing because the name is 1) dialog-y, and not in a good way; 2) does not actually describe the trope, which is:

Phenomenon on TV shows where when character A leaves, they are soon thereafter replaced by character B, usually of similar age and same gender, who also usually fill or are supposed to fill a similar role.

Thoughts?

Oh, dear lord, that name is horrible. It's not only completely non-indicative, it's actively misleading. I assumed that it was about scenes like the one (intercut with the Heroes finding and laoding the gold, here) at the end of Kellys Heroes, where the liberating army is marching into a town amid fanfare and rejoicing by the residents.

edited 24th Feb '12 9:05:12 PM by Madrugada

Well lets see it is pretty much a non-ymmv instant Replacement Scrappy.... Instant Replacement Party Member? Or just Instant Replacement.

edited 24th Feb '12 9:06:43 PM by Raso

I definitely agree that the current name is pretty non-indicative. Aside from the names Raso mentioned, I wonder if something like Convenient Replacement or Convenient Replacement Character might work.

How is this trope different from Suspiciously Similar Substitute?

Is it just The Same But Less Specific?

edited 24th Feb '12 10:33:09 PM by abk0100

Suspiciously Similar Substitutes are the people who might be welcomed to the Liberator. >_>

And I gotta say, how the hell did this trope get launched with that name? Convenient Character Replacement is a much better name for this trope.

edited 25th Feb '12 1:41:49 AM by Ryusui

Thanks for the responses, Folks. I assume it must be a very old trope, from before we got stricter about naming policies.

Now I have nothing against Blake's 7, in fact, I recently watched the entire series and now consider it one of my all time favorite shows, but Welcome to the Liberator is an example of Bad Trope Namer Syndrome.

I think this is basically indistinguishable from Suspiciously Similar Substitute, for my money.

Well, the thing here is that the replacing character doesn't have to be a Suspiciously Similar Substitute - they just have to be brought on as a previous character leaves.

Or a few episodes before the person left. (like say Star Trek Voyager Seven joins the cast and Kes leaves the very next episode and Seven replaced her but was nowhere near an expy, Final Fantasy IV any party member leaves expect a character to replace them ASAP, all are unique.)

Instant Character Replacement?

Rapid Replacement?

Supporting Cast Cycling?

I like Instant Character Replacement.

There is now a single proposition rename crowner for this trope here.

Calling crowner in favor of renaming.

There is now an alternative titles crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add names as you see fit.

SWAP

Bumping for votes.

Bump for more votes.

Calling crowner.

Done, with wicks, FAQ thread and Renamed Tropes. I also turned the runners-up in the crowner into redirects.