Renamed and Split Tropes

Belly of the Whale is now Can't Refuse the Call Anymore per this TRS thread.

Jar Of Tang Twist is so old that it doesn't have a history, and searching google on this thread for "Jar of Tang Twist" comes up with nothing, so I think it was just a free redirect. I can probably be cut for having less than 1% of its target's inbounds and also being nonsensical. In fact, I'll add that right now...

I think the reason the redirect exists (whether it was the old name or not) is that "jar of Tang" is a preexisting term from the Turkey City Lexicon.

Not entirely sure whether Tomato Surprise is the trope it's most analogous to, but that's not really a discussion for here anyway.

I guess I'll post this here since it seems like the best place for it but can someone explain why certain tropes are getting renamed. In some cases I can understand it (the vague ones could be more specific) but in some cases, the renaming just seems off. One I came across just now was "Lost Forever" being renamed to "Permanantly Missable Content" and it's like, what was misleading about "Lost Forever"? There was one other but I can't remember the name for it now but I do remember thinking that the original wasn't confusing or vague so why was it changed.

A smaller one I noticed is tropes that are named after references or quotes from something that directly explains what the trope is about. Like an example would be "Anyone you know" getting replaced with "Addressing the player" and I don't know, I guess trope names that acted as references to the most famous example of that trope kind of make the tropes a little unique and made this site unique in that it felt like a wiki for nerds in a sense. Now you just see trope names get watered down to their basic meanings and make them very easy to understand just by looking at the name and I feel the excuse of "It makes it easier for people who might get tropes confused" is a shitty one because for one, until the renames, people had to remember which tropes were which so it clearly wasn't too difficult and secondly, if you're confused on what it means, go look it up and all will be explained.

I guess I just never liked the idea of dumbing things down so even the most basic idiot can understand them and like I said, while some renames make sense, due to something changing over time or ones that might be misleading, others seem to change for the sake of change or the sake of automatic understanding.

Lost Forever was renamed to Permanently Missable Content because people kept confusing the trope for Missing Episode and Keep Circulating the Tapes and it was constantly misused to describe any item that was lost. The original title didn't make it clear that it was about content in a video game you can no longer obtain if you didn't obtain it before a certain point in the game, so it was renamed to make the meaning clearer, since "Lost Forever" is a vague name that was interpreted to mean a bunch of different things and led to widespread misuse.

edited 14th Sep '17 4:44:04 PM by ADrago

It is more important that trope names be understandable than that they be clever. Naming a trope after the work it's in or a famous example of it only works as long as that example is in the popular consciousness, and doesn't work at all for people who aren't in the work's market or don't care about its genre. Such titles do not age well and often attract misuse and misunderstanding.

edited 14th Sep '17 7:02:16 PM by Fighteer

People also used Lost Forever for Final Death, things that you never access gameplay-wise but could be lost plot-wise, and... well, literally anything that could be described as "lost forever", whether it had anything to do with the trope or not.

When names cause widespread misuse, you can't handwave it away as "well anyone misusing it is an idiot". The misuse is still there.

To figure out why a particular trope was renamed, do a Topic search for that trope in Google, looking either in Trope Repair Shop, or the Repair Shop Morgue, where the rename was decided, and you can see the explanation and discussion as to why.

Somehow I didn't notice this since it happened in April 2014, but Deadly Decadent Court got renamed to just Decadent Court. I can't find a TRS morgue thread; as far as I can tell it just got renamed by fiat of Fast Eddie. Does anyone recall a reason being mentioned anywhere?

Yes, I remember that rename. It was his decision, presumably to shorten it.

The Kingdom has been renamed to The Good Kingdom per TRS thread.

Window Pain is now Broken-Window Warning per this TRS thread.

Writer Bashing is now Creator Bashing (rule/trope swapped with redirect).

edited 15th Apr '18 5:07:25 PM by crazysamaritan

Love It or Hate It has Marmite Effect as a redirect which has no wicks, few inbounds, and is so old it doesn't have a history. Did Love It or Hate It used to be called that?

I don't think I've ever seen that before now.

Should I cutlist it?

Yes, with only 3 inbounds I'd say it's not worth keeping around.

Cynicism Catalyst has Dead Little Sister as a redirect, but isn't on the list. That strikes me way more as a "former name" redirect than a "free" redirect, but does anyone actually remember?

Theres No B In Movie became Unabashed B-Movie Fan per this TRS thread.

Ghost Lights renamed to Supernatural Light, as per TRS.

Never mind. Posted to the wrong place!

Edited by DancouMaryuu on Sep 26th 2019 at 4:21:57 AM

We Have Been Researching Phlebotinum For Years is now Expositing the Masquerade, per this TRS thread.

Black Best Friend is now Token Black Friend per this TRS thread.

Man In White is now Villain in a White Suit (and has a narrower definition), see this TRS thread.

Reminder that you can also look at Renamed Tropes to see what's going on with trope names.

Lull Destruction is now Filling the Silence per this TRS thread.

Edited by ccorb on Aug 7th 2020 at 11:55:20 AM

Olive Garden is now Spaghetti and Gondolas per this TRS discussion.