Nondescriptive BigBudgetBeefUp sounds like something else

When I see the trope Big Budget Beef-Up I think straight away "That's when a series (TV or movie) gets a big increase in its budget!" The cheap independent film becomes wildly popular and the sequel gets picked up by a big studio. The TV show's a hit and the network invests in much better effects, bigger battles, whatever they had to do off-screen before because they couldn't afford it.

But no, currently the trope is basically Conservation of Ninjutsu in reverse order, as the heroes get stronger then foes that were a big deal to fight singly early on start showing up in greater numbers and are easier to defeat. Seems like either "nerf" or "proliferation" or both should be in the title, but the budget is only indirectly involved and the opponents are if anything doing the opposite of beefing up. Definitely a trope, but badly named!

Looking at current examples, there are quite a number that already are using the "budget increase" interpretation. Seven TV show examples, and three of them refer to a budget increase for shows that don't even have fights. Almost all of the Film examples are about budget increases, bigger sets, new costumes - heck, the '''Barney''' movie has an entry!

I'm relatively new to this side of Troping. Is there any formal way to request a trope be renamed and the old name get reassigned to something that it fits much better, that it's already being used for anyway? Or would this have to be two separate steps, first renaming the old trope and then proposing a whole new trope using either the old name or something similar?

That's not how the description reads to me. The trope just seems to be "when the budget increases, the heroes can kick more ass against stronger foes, or larger amounts of them".

The main description doesn't even mention the budget! It doesn't come in until partway through the second paragraph.

"To fit a typical episode formula, the heroes may have to spend a certain amount of time fighting a single opponent. However, dramatic episodes may have the heroes fighting hordes of similar minions or critters. Characters with special abilities will suddenly seem much much stronger than before, and how this came to be is almost never explained. They'll be cutting through them like harvesters through hay, making you wonder why it wasn't so easy before."

Most of the current examples, as I said, don't mention fights at all, describing bigger sets, better costumes, etc.

Edited by CritterKeeper on Nov 28th 2023 at 1:44:52 PM

My interpretation is somewhere between the two of you: that important episodes see the heroes' abilities increase without explanation, implicitly because those episodes get bigger budgets to show off larger groups of foes and more imposing ones.

Note that, on the oldest copy in the Internet Archive, the current first paragraph of the description is the second paragraph there, making the intent of the page a bit clearer.

Edited by MorganWick on Nov 29th 2023 at 1:47:10 AM

Whatever the intent, the fact that more current examples are of simple budget increases rather than big fights, tells me that the trope name should probably be officially reassigned to that definition, and the intended topic should get a new name that reflects it better.

It would be great to add this to the TRS Queue, but it is highly recommended to do a wick check first.

The focus of the trope has just always been on the wrong thing. Of all the things to talk about when it comes to a No Budget work given a blockbuster money, why would you make it about "They kick more ass"?

I actually proposed a "Evolving Budget" trope which is about earlier material having a restrained budget before proving itself and gaining a lot more funding. Didn't go anywhere though.

I'm new to this end of things, is there a handy dandy how-to page for doing a wick check? Or any rules for TRS suggestions I should know?

See How to Do a Wick Check. It may seem complicated, but once you get the ball rolling it's actually rather easy.