All The Tropes:Renamed Tropes/A to E

A

 * Abandon Shipping was "Abandon Ship", and was moved to make room for a trope better reflecting common use of the term.
 * Abstract Apotheosis is a character becoming an abstract concept, such as hate or love. As such, the old name of Becoming Hope was too specific.
 * Accidental Nightmare Fuel was just called "Nightmare Fuel" for a long time, and Nightmare Fuel was "High Octane Nightmare Fuel" (and even before that, "Nightmare Fuel Unleaded"). The former was renamed since people often kept using it as things intentionally made scary, which was High Octane Nightmare Fuel at the time, or things which they personally found scary, which really doesn't belong on a general-purpose Nightmare Fuel page. "High Octane" then assumed the old name "Nightmare Fuel" after suffering major Trope Decay.
 * Acting in The Dark used to be "Karim the Assassin", a nickname of Karim Zreik, co-executive producer of Harpers Island. Readers who did not know the story behind his nickname could not link the title to actors being unaware of their character's future.
 * Actor Allusion was formerly "The Alkazar" after a Futurama gag. It was renamed because of obscurity even with fans of the show. Also, the Futurama character was called Alcazar. To understand the gag, you had to remember that the actor playing Leela was also the mom on Married With Children, and was being paired opposite her character's husband.
 * Actor Role Confusion once was "Your Secret's Safe with Me, Superman". Renamed because the old name referred to an example where the fan even gets the role wrong.
 * Adaptive Ability was previously "Viva la Evolution", but was misnamed because the previous title was non-indicative and misleading.
 * Addressing the Player used to be "Anyone You Know", after the example of the trope from Metal Gear Solid.
 * Adjacent to This Complete Breakfast (named after a gag by Dave Barry) once was "Part of a Balanced Breakfast Stone Soup", which is less intuitive. However, it is still used as the name for a Trope Co product.
 * The Adjectival Superhero used to be named "The Egregious Trope-Man", but was renamed because it sounded more like a troper in-joke than a trope and used the word "trope" as a placeholder.
 * Adorably Precocious Child was once "Cute Shotaro Boy", but because of rampant misuse for "cute little boy", it was changed.
 * Adventure Duo was launched as "Adventure Couple", which led even mods to think that the trope was about actual romantic couples adventuring together, rather than describing a particular set of personalities common to Hero/Lancer pairs.
 * Advertising Only Continuity used to be "Plot Sold Separately".
 * Afterlife Express was formerly "Soul Train", but was renamed since it shared its name with the work Soul Train.
 * Age Lift was renamed from "Playing Hamlet" in order to clarify that the trope is about a character's age changing in an adaptation in order to better suit an older actor.
 * Air Vent Passageway was originally "Air Vent Escape". Renamed because it isn't always used as a way to escape.
 * Alice Allusion was renamed from "Go Ask Alice" because the original name is also the name of a work. Go Ask Alice now applies to the Beatrice Sparks novel.
 * Alien Non Interference Clause was renamed from "Prime Directive", because it was one Prime Directive in particular. The trope Prime Directive was renamed to Obstructive Code of Conduct, with the page Prime Directive now redirecting to Alien Non Interference Clause.
 * All the Little Germanies was renamed from "Prussia and All That Lot", as the original name was a bit historically misleading.
 * Alpha Bitch was originally named "The Libby" after a character in Sabrina the Teenage Witch. This, obviously, was problematic, since she was only around for a few seasons, not to mention it was a character-named trope, which isn't really in this wiki's best's interests. The former Trope Namer also failed the One Mario Limit for sharing her name with characters from various other works.
 * Ambition Is Evil was named "Slytherin House", after the Harry Potter group and its typical portrayal. However, the trope itself was not about groups.
 * Amicable Exes was originally "Amicably Divorced".
 * Anatomically Impossible Sex was "Artistic License - Sex Ed", and before that You Fail Sex Ed Forever. It got caught up in the mass rename of the "You Fail X Forever" tropes to "Artistic License - X", even though it didn't fit into the new naming scheme.
 * Anatomy of the Soul was once "Dream Mirror". It is not about mirrors or about dreams per se. The old title required familiarity with Sailor Moon, using the name of a piece of Soul Anatomy unique to the work.
 * Answers to The Name of God was renamed from "Smith Will Suffice", which was a misleading Stock Phrase.
 * And Then John Was a Zombie was changed from "You Are the Demons", since that was being misused to match the meme that uses it as Tomato in The Mirror.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced used to be "Cue Cullen" after the return of Peter Cullen, a.k.a. Optimus Prime, to the role of the Autobot leader, with the aim of mirroring the name of Irish folk hero Cu Chulainn as a pun. Considering the emergence of another Cullen (and the presence of a much older one), and not being very well-known outside the Transformers fandom, confusion was easy.
 * Anger Born of Worry was renamed from "Fear Leads to Anger" because the trope was fairly unrelated to the phrase from Star Wars that served as its former name.
 * Animal Athlete Loophole used to be "Ain't No Rule", an overly general title that caused it to be routinely mistaken for its supertrope, Loophole Abuse, rather than twisting the rules to get an animal into a sporting competition. The old name is now an alt-title for Loophole Abuse.
 * Animal Nemesis was renamed from "Pick on Someone Your Own Species" for clarity and in order to discourage misuse of the trope for examples that did not feature a human trying to take revenge on an animal.
 * Animation Tropes used to be "Animated Trope". The index got renamed to what people would naturally call its contents in English.
 * Arbitrary Maximum Range was once known as Space-Based Weapon Has Cutoff Range. Renamed because someone complained it was way too long. The funny thing is that the old one was launched for nearly a year before someone started complaining, even though the launcher asked for a better name in the YKTTW.
 * Arc Fatigue was "Are They Still on Namek", which is meaningless for people who didn't see the show.
 * The Archer was "Straight Arrow", until it was determined that Straight Arrow was better used metaphorically.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking was formerly known as "Bus Full of Nuns", after an incident on The Simpsons. Renamed because it was too obscure, even within The Simpsons fandom.
 * Artistic License - X articles were once "You Fail X Forever" or "X Does Not Work That Way". Renamed to be more neutral.
 * Artistic License Ships was previously "Failed to Pay Shipping Charges", and was renamed to make it clearer what the trope was actually about.
 * Artistic License Military was originally "You Fail Basic Training Forever" before it got custom titled into "Artistic License - Basic Training". However, because the trope covered more than just Basic Training and the term "Basic Training" failed to specify what type of training, it was changed to the current name.
 * The Art of Bra Removal used to be "Caught on the Hooks", was renamed for being a bit too inscrutable.
 * Asbestos-Free Cereal used to be "Made with 100% Pure Grade-A Crap". The title was renamed for being too negative.
 * Ascended Extra was formerly known as "Super Grape". Renamed mostly because Super Grape barely made sense even when explained.
 * Ascended Fanon was renamed from "Sure, Why Not?" because it sounded too similar to Sure Let's Go With That and/or otherwise sounded like a stock phrase. The new title has the bonus of fitting in nicely with the other "ascended" tropes.
 * Ashes to Crashes was initially termed "Chekhov's Ashes". As well as being a rather overused snowclone, Chekhov's Gun style tropes need to be a side detail that becomes important later: too many examples have the ashes front and center. The new name gets the idea across directly.
 * Asian Gal With White Guy was originally know as "Me Love You Long Time". It was renamed due to the racist connotations of the phrase "Me Love You Long Time" and the trope namer not being an example.
 * Assimilation Plot was originally known as "Instrumentality", named after a concept in Neon Genesis Evangelion, but renamed due to it being affiliated with spoilers for the series.
 * Assumed Win was once "And the Winner Is...", which was unclear and led to the rename.
 * Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption was renamed from "Appropriate Conversation Interruption" to clarify the trope's meaning.
 * Attack Its Weak Point used to be known by the second part of the Memetic Mutation, "For Massive Damage". The former was deemed more appropriate and less misleading. For Massive Damage is now a supertrope for all the ways to deal extra damage in video games.
 * Authority in Name Only was formerly "The King of Town", after a character from Homestar Runner. The trope was renamed for clarity.
 * Awful Wedded Life was formerly "No Exit" after Sartre's play of the same name, which wasn't even an example.

B

 * Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch used to be "Knifing the Libby in the Back". It was renamed for the same reasons as Alpha Bitch: a snowclone of a work-reliant character named trope.
 * Bacon Addiction was originally called "Everything's Better with Bacon" according to the discredited and completely unrelated Everything's Better With Indexes snowclone family.
 * Badass Decay was formerly known as "Spikeification", after Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was changed because it required familiarity with the work to be understood (and there were debates over whether Spike was even an example), and because it could easily be assumed to refer to the process of making things spikey.
 * Badass in A Nice Suit was originally "Dressed to Kill". The word "dressed" was too vague, and the word "kill" was too specific, leading to the misinterpretation that this was about an assassin who wears fancy clothes or a costume when working, rather than being about any ol' badass who wears a business suit or tux to look sharp or professional.
 * Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work used to be "Big Damn Villains". Renamed because it was a snowclone of Big Damn Heroes and confusion with Villainous Rescue.
 * Bad News, Irrelevant News used to be "Switching to Geico", which itself was shortened from "I Just Saved a Bunch of Money on My Car Insurance by Switching to Geico" because overly-long titles are hard to type right.
 * Bad Writing Index was formerly "Bad Writing", which enjoyed massive misuse for complaining.
 * Bait and Switch Gunshot was renamed from "False Gunshot" to clarify the difference between it and Staged Shooting.
 * Bait and Switch Tyrant was formerly "Bait-and-Switch Umbridge". After The Umbridge was renamed to Tyrant Takes the Helm, Bait-and-Switch Umbridge was renamed for the sake of clarity.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy used to be "Anime Anatomy", but was renamed because it is a) also common outside of anime and b) not the only kind of odd anatomy found in anime.
 * Barefoot Cartoon Animal was originally "Barefoot Funny Animal". It was renamed to match up with its Sister Tropes Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal, Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, and Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
 * Basso Profundo was originally named "The Dish Rattler". It was renamed due to failure to thrive after over a year.
 * The Bechdel Test was formerly known as "Bechdels Rule". Arguments over whether the "rule" was being broken in various works got the name changed to emphasize the testing of a work. Now moved to Useful Notes.
 * Behind a Stick used to be "Narrow Escape". It was renamed for having nothing to do with the common meaning of that phrase, or, for that matter, with escapes at all.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension was known for a while as "When a Jerk Loves a Tsundere". Before that, it was briefly known as "Tsunderes in Love" before it was decided as a misleading title since a jerk is not a Tsundere. Before that, it used to be called a "Takahashi Couple", named for mangaka Rumiko Takahashi (whose works are known for prominently featuring such relationships), a name dropped when specific references in titles fell out of fashion.
 * Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend used to be "Spectacled Sadist"; it was renamed because of confusion with Four Eyes Zero Soul. Before that, it used to be "Kichiku Megane". That title gave no information to those outside the anime/manga fandom, or to those within the anime/manga fandom who hadn't come across the trope. It was also the name of a yaoi eroge Visual Novel, necessitating a rename to avoid confusion.
 * Best Her to Bed Her used to be "The Red Sonja". It was renamed due to misuse, and because the trope only constitutes one of the traits of the Trope Namer.
 * Best Known for The Fanservice used to be "Everyone Remembers the Stripper".
 * Big Bad Wannabe was "Evil Frog Who Wants to Be an Ox", a title that is quite awkward in a sentence due to its length, requires more typing than ideal, and is not immediately connected to its subject unless the reader knows the specific Aesop and applies it correctly.
 * Big Bulky Bomb used to be "BFB". It was renamed for being a confusing snowclone of BFG.
 * Big Damn Movie was formerly "Why Is Arnold Saving Something" after the occurrence of this trope in the Hey Arnold movie. It was renamed because the name Arnold could refer to multiple people (such as Mr. Schwarzenegger or Mr. Rimmer).
 * Bigger Is Better in Bed was formerly "Biggus Dickus", a reference to Monty Pythons Life of Brian. It was renamed because the Trope Namer was not actually an example of the trope in question, leading people to think that the trope was about joke names rather than large penises themselves. It also clarifies that the trope is about the connection between size and sexual performance, not just large size on its own.
 * Bizarro Episode was once two different tropes, "BLAM Episode" and "A Day at the Bizarro". When the former was up to rename for being a confusing acronym, the latter was merged into the new trope.
 * Black Comedy was originally "Dead Baby Comedy". The latter name is better known as a term for Refuge in Vulgarity, leading to confusion.
 * Black Comedy Rape was originally "Rape As Comedy".
 * Black Shirt was formerly known as "Jackals", since it was originally split off from Dying Like Animals, which still recognizes it under that name.
 * Blasphemous Boast was formerly "More Tropes than God", renamed to get away from "trope" as a placeholder.
 * Bloody Murder was originally known as "Weaponized Blood" before it was lost in The Great Crash. It got its new title when it was relaunched.
 * Bluff the Impostor was formerly "Cry Wolfie", after a scene in Terminator 2 and as a pun on Crying Wolf.
 * Blunt Yes was once "Flat Yes". It was changed to be clearer.
 * Boisterous Bruiser was formerly "The Toblerone" after the obscure nickname of a character from a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie, who was in turn named after a Swiss candy bar. The title was so beloved that it still exists as a separate, Just for Fun page, as well as being the Trope Namer for a Sugar Wiki page.
 * Bonus Material used to be called "Omake". It wasn't easy to search it for a person who wasn't familiar with the term.
 * Borrowed Biometric Bypass used to be "Bloody Biometric". It was renamed for clarity.
 * Braces of Orthodontic Overkill was formerly "Lisa Needs Braces" for a mildly memetic early The Simpsons quote. It was changed because the latter is somewhat obscure and the former much more descriptive of what the trope is about.
 * Brady Bunch Spin Offs was for a short time "Jim Henson's Muppet Bradys"; a title referring to the cartoon Muppet Babies and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 running joke of saying "It's Jim Henson's _________ Babies!"
 * Brain Food used to be "No Brainer", among other titles.
 * Breakout Character was formerly "The Fonzie". It was changed because most people aren't aware that Fonzie was ever just a minor character.
 * Breakout Mook Character was formerly "A Day In The Slimelight". Renamed for being a bad snowclone of A Day in The Limelight while not actually having much to do with that trope at all.
 * Breakout Villain was formerly The "Moriarty Effect". It was renamed because the first association with Professor Moriarty is criminal masterminds. Also, Moriarty was deliberately introduced as an archenemy, making him a less than ideal example. Finally, any Breakout Villain has a tendency not to be known as one because they are one -- see Breakout Character.
 * Break the Scientist was originally "The Professor Is Crying Again" after an opaque reference to a one-shot joke from El Goonish Shive.
 * Breakup Breakout once was "The Jannetty", but you know -- character-named trope.
 * Breath Weapon was formerly "Beaming Grin" after a pun on the facial expression.
 * Bring It used to be "Bring It On", but was shortened to distinguish it from the movie Bring It On.
 * Bring My Red Jacket was formerly "Bring My Brown Pants". The name was changed to use the line from the joke/song that actually applied to the trope, and to free up Bring My Brown Pants for use on the trope that it fits: soiling or wetting oneself from fear.
 * The Bronze Age of Comic Books was formerly known as "Bronze Age". It was renamed because not only did it need to be changed to match the new names for Golden Age and Dark Age, but there were also references to the concept of a Bronze Age independent of comic books.
 * Bubblegloop Swamp used to be "Krem Quay", after a stage from Donkey Kong Country 2. It was renamed for being non-descriptive and unintuitive. A Rare game is still the Trope Namer, however.
 * Building of Adventure was once "Xanadu", from a large mansion in Citizen Kane. This somewhat obscure reference was not an example of the trope, since the film has several settings. Additionally, many folks assumed it linked to Xanadu.
 * Built With Lego was originally called "Everything's Built With LEGO", according to the discredited and completely unrelated Everything's Better With Indexes snowclone family.
 * Bulk Buy Only was "Midnight Bakery Trip". The name neither indicated the trope nor fit the Trope Namer (some bakeries sell goods at lowered cost the next morning, but only if bought in dozens).
 * Bullets Do Not Work That Way used to be "Magic Bullets", but it kept getting confused for actual magical bullets.
 * Bumbling Sidekick used to be named "The Baldrick" after a particular example, but this was impenetrable to non-Black Adder fans.
 * Bunny Tropes used to be Everything's Better With Bunnies. It was broken up into several tropes and turned into an index of rabbit related tropes.
 * But Not Too Foreign was originally known as "Charlie Dog", after the Looney Tunes character.

C

 * The Cake Is a Lie was "There Will Be Cake", but issues about the name having no indication of the actual trope content, resulting in misuse for just any cake related situation, led to a rename.
 * Camp Follower was once "Bring Your Halter to the Slaughter", a rather obscure pun on an Iron Maiden song. Camp Follower is the term used in Real Life to refer to such people.
 * Cape Snag was "No Capes". Renamed for clarity.
 * Capital City was originally named after "Shattrath", an Outlands city in World of Warcraft.
 * Captain Morgan Pose was originally called "Riker Pose", renamed for greater recognition.
 * Career Building Blunder was "House Hiring Heuristic", after the lead of medical drama House who followed the trope several times. But it's not hiring: it's promotion or other increases in trust and responsibility following a bad mistake -- something not apparent from the title. It also required specific work knowledge of the word "heuristic" for rule of thumb, which was tripping some folks up.
 * Casanova Wannabe used to be "The Leisure Suit Larry", from Leisure Suit Larry. The too-close names led to roughly half the Leisure Suit Larry links mistaking the game for the trope. (Originally the trope name was actually the same as the game, without the definite article.) Also, Larry is not a Casanova Wannabe: he always ends up with many conquests. He has to be the opposite, a Kavorka Man, for the games to work.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys was originally "Blue Bishōnen Ghetto", snowcloned from "Pink Bishōjo Ghetto" (which itself has been renamed). It was renamed for not actually being the Spear Counterpart to that trope.
 * Catastrophic Countdown used to be "Metroid Bomb", providing no information to those outside a very specific fandom. Even within the Metroid fandom, there are several bombs it could be, whereas this trope refers to the interesting kind of timebomb that causes the surrounding area to join in with sympathy explosions even before it goes off.
 * Cel Shading was formerly "For the Cel of It".
 * Censorship Bureau was formerly mashed into the historical article of Comics Code.
 * Changed My Mind, Kid was renamed from "Abandoned by the Cavalry" because it usually failed to suggest a last minute save by a returning abandoner. Worse: it sometimes suggested the opposite.
 * Character Aged With the Actor was formerly "Getting Too Old for This". It was renamed to reduce misuse for that stock phrase.
 * Character Outlives Actor was formerly "Died On A Bus".
 * Chewing the Scenery was once "Feed Me", after an actor's joke in reference to an 80s movie.
 * Childhood Friend Romance was the result of a quick merge of "Unlucky Childhood Friend" and "Victorious Childhood Friend", since they were inverse tropes of each other. The page and its subpages are soft split into examples of the respective subtropes.
 * Chokepoint Geography got pushed through as the "Third Law of Travel", for the item on The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches.
 * The Chosen Many used to be "Green Lantern Corps". Slightly over half the uses of it assumed it was an article on the the fictional organisation rather than the trope centering on a band of chosen ones. Additionally, the old title didn't convey much to those unfamiliar with Green Lantern works. Green Lantern Corps now redirects to Green Lantern.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome was originally "Brother Chuck", changed to indicate that it was more about a phenomenon than an actual character type.
 * Circling Monologue was "Circle of Extinction". It was changed to improve its clarity in hopes of attracting better usage.
 * Civilian Villain was previously named "Civillain" and was renamed for clarity since the pun in its title was far from obvious.
 * Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity was renamed from "Cliffs of Insanity" to point out that it isn't just about tall cliffs.
 * Closer to Earth was renamed from Women Are Wiser, as it is a supertrope to that and other tropes.
 * Coat Full of Contraband used to be "You Wanna Buy a Watch", which was deemed too narrow and a Stock Phrase.
 * Coincidental Dodge was originally "Gardener Contract". It was named after Chance, the gardener from Being There, despite not actually having a failed assassination attempt foiled by coincidence in the movie.
 * Comically Missing the Point used to be "Completely Missing the Point". It was changed because too many people misunderstood the intention of the trope (a character missing something obvious for comic effect) and would use it in an accusatory manner against anyone or anything they disliked or disagreed with.
 * The Comically Serious used to be "Unfunny". It was changed to more clearly indicate that the trope is about a serious-minded person being put into comical situations, and the contrast being Played for Laughs, rather than something or someone which tries to be funny and fails.
 * Combined Energy Attack used to be "Spirit Bomb", named after a technique used by Goku in Dragon Ball. Renamed because the trope namer caused the definition to be too narrow and some tropers thought the trope was "a weapon to attack someone's spirit" instead of "group pools their energy for a attack or other purpose".
 * Complaining About People Not Liking the Show was originally named "Shit Flies from the Fans" for a couple days.
 * Confetti Drop was renamed from "Tickertape Parade" because the trope was about confetti/balloon drops on game shows, not tickertape parades. Tickertape Parade is now about Exactly What It Says On the Tin.
 * Confirmation Bias was renamed from "Preaching to the Choir" because the trope was using that phrase different than how it is commonly used and was encouraging misuse for the normal meaning.
 * Confusion Fu used to be "Schrödinger Fu", which was named from Schrödinger's Cat -- a thought experiment from quantum mechanics where a macroscopic object is in two states simultaneously while unobserved. The idea was to suggest randomness via quantum randomness. But the trope is a fighting style built from erratic, unpredictable movements: the fighter isn't splitting into multiple versions which influence one another while unseen.
 * Constantly Curious used to be "Elephant's Child". It was named after the main character in a short story by Kipling, and not very descriptive.
 * Consulting Mister Puppet used to be "Consulting Mr. Flibble" -- a name with little meaning to those unfamiliar with Red Dwarf. The new name invokes the most common scenario directly.
 * Consummate Liar was renamed from "Liar Liar" to avoid confusion with the movie of the same name and as a side benefit to be more specifically connected to the trope.
 * Contractual Purity used to be "Prisoners of Pollyanna", but was too easy to confuse with The Pollyanna and also assumed that people understood to which Pollyanna the name referred.
 * Convenient Replacement Character was once thge completely misleading "Welcome to the Liberator"
 * Conviction By Contradiction was formerly "Bugs Meany Is Gonna Walk", but people were being misled into thinking it dealt with different parts of criminal conviction tropes.
 * Conviction By Counterfactual Clue used to be called "Encyclopedia Browned", after Dan Browned. Renamed because Encyclopedia Brown is known for more than just the one thing. Like, say, the trope one line up from this one.
 * Cosmic Horror Story used to be "Cosmic Horror" (the proper term), but people kept using it to refer to the monsters that usually inhabit them, Eldritch Abominations. Cosmic Horror is now a redirect to Eldritch Abomination.
 * Could Have Avoided This Plot was once "We Could Have Avoided All This", but you know - Stock Phrase.
 * Counterpart Comparison used to be "Why Does Everyone Think I'm Deadpool?" It was renamed because the trope name was needlessly wordy, in addition to being from an obscure source.
 * Cover-Blowing Superpower used to be named "Awkward Ability", but was renamed because the previous name created confusion about the power itself being awkward rather than the cover-blowing effect of that power.
 * Crapsack World was formerly "Sick Sad World", which is from Daria.
 * Creating Life Is Bad was formerly "Creating Life", which is now a neutral supertrope and index.
 * Creator's Pet was "The Wesley" for a long time. Renamed for being a character-named trope, as well as failing the One Mario Limit, since there are characters from various other works who share his name.
 * Credits Running Sequence used to be "Running Sequence". It was renamed to clarify that the trope occurs during the credits.
 * Creepy Cockroach was originally titled "Everything's Creepier with Cockroaches", a snowclone of the discredited Everything's Better With Indexes family. As with several similarly named tropes, the earlier name encouraged a list of all roaches regardless of portrayal.
 * Creepy Crossdresser used to be "Villainous Crossdresser", so the definition could be expanded.
 * Criminal Mind Games was renamed from "Along Came a Spider" so as to avoid having a trope named after a work.
 * Criminal Procedural was renamed from "Crime Time TV" because it was both underused and unnecessarily medium specific.
 * Crowded Cast Shot was renamed from "Everyone Get in Here" for clarity and in order to avoid using a stock phrase.
 * Cruella to Animals was renamed from "The Cruella" to emphasize which aspect of Cruella DeVil's character exemplified the trope. As a valuable bonus, those who know not of Cruella shall gain purchase on the meaning via the pun.
 * Cruel Twist Ending was renamed from "Outer Limits Twist", not only because the original name came from a work, but to prevent confusion between the two versions of that work.
 * Crutch Character was renamed from "Jeigan Character" since Jeigan is not well known outside the Fire Emblem fandom. The old title essentially conveyed no information to readers outside this community, not to mention Spell My Name With an "S" issues (since the character's "official" English name is Jagen).
 * Cryonics Failure used to be "Popsicle Splat", referring to Human Popsicles, but was renamed for clarity.
 * Cryptic Background Reference was originally "What's a Secret Four", referring to the kids' detective novel series The Three Investigators; the old name was impenetrable to non-fans and, since it was one and all, sounded like it was about Henway-type plays on words.
 * Cultural Stereotypes was renamed from Acceptable Cultural Targets to make it objective.
 * Cut a Slice Take The Rest was formerly "Improper Fraction", but was renamed for clarity.
 * Cutaway Gag used to be "Manatee Gag". It was renamed for several reasons (it was a Take That on a South Park episode that parodied Family Guy; the name was incomprehensible to anyone who never watched said episode, and the term "cutaway gag" is commonly used elsewhere). Funnily, the trope actually was YKTTW'd as Cutaway Gag, but somehow got launched with that name.
 * Cute and Psycho was originally "Yangire", which is used by the anime fandom to describe this kind of character and is not an actual Japanese word.
 * Cute Clumsy Girl was formerly "Dojikko", the term used within anime fandom to mean the same thing. As of this writing, Dojikko is an official subtrope of Cute Clumsy Girl, with its own trope page.
 * Cute Kitten was originally titled "Everything's Cuter with Kittens", a snowclone of the discredited Everything's Better With Indexes family. As with several similarly named tropes, the earlier name encouraged a list of all kittens regardless of portrayal.
 * Cutting Off the Branches used to be named "Road Cone", but the old title was deemed too opaque.

D

 * Damsel Scrappy was formerly known as "The Kimberly", named for Kim Bauer, designated Distressed Damsel from Twenty Four.
 * Danger Deadpan used to be called "Chuck Yeager". It was changed due to being a character named trope and for being opaque.
 * Danger Room Cold Open was called the long and unwieldy "Professor X Likes to Watch Teenagers Sweat", which was also loaded with (probably not unintentional) implications that make you think of a different trope.
 * Dating Do-Si-Do was originally "Degrassi Dating". Lack of archived discussion prevents Trope Archaeologists from determining whether it was changed as part of a general purge of show-named tropes, or because it was easily mistaken for a reference to the totally '80s made-on-a-shoestring look of early incarnations of the franchise.
 * Dating Service Disaster was renamed from "matchmaker.com" since it was the name of an existing company and was too broad leading to misuse.
 * The Dark Age of Comic Books was formerly known as "Dark Age". It was renamed because not only are there dark ages for other media, but there were also references to the concept of a Dark Age independent of comic books.
 * Dark Horse Victory was formerly "Zmelik", after an Olympic athlete (namely, the one that actually won the Decathlon gold in 1992, the year of "Dan vs. Dave").
 * Dark Mistress was formerly "Doctor Girlfriend" after the character from The Venture Brothers. Renamed due to the fact that there are several qualities of the "good" Doctor that could've attached to the trope and no way to figure out which was applicable from just a glance.
 * Dead Person Impersonation was originally "Martin Guerre", which was rewritten to cover the specific work of that title. The Don Draper may or may not have been considered.
 * Death By Woman Scorned used to be "He Had It Coming".
 * Death of a Thousand Cuts used to be known as "One Thousand Needles", until the latter was rewritten to better describe the namesake attack from the Final Fantasy games (which was itself renamed; see Fixed Damage Attack below).
 * Debut Queue was "Ducks in a Row". The link between getting organized when starting a new project and introducing characters one by one was too much of a stretch for most readers; and the related meaning of the expression, to line things up one after another (like duck-pins), was easily confused with All in A Row.
 * Decapitated Army was formerly "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead", and was renamed for frequent use as a reference to either the trope namer or confused for And There Was Much Rejoicing.
 * Decapitation Required was formerly Vorpal Weakness. Renamed for clarity.
 * Decoy Trial was formerly known as "Trial of Someone Besides the Defendant", which was a mouthful.
 * Deep Fried Whatever was originally titled "Everything's Better Deep Fried", a snowclone of the discredited Everything's Better With Indexes family. As with several similarly named tropes, the earlier name encouraged a list of all deep fried things regardless of portrayal.
 * Deliberate Injury Gambit was formerly "I Have Two Kidneys". It was renamed because the old title did a poor job of describing what it was about.
 * Delusions of Eloquence was "Shlubb and Klump English", but got a rename due to it being a character-named trope.
 * Demoted to Extra was formerly "Isn't It Sad", which originated in a meme among fans of Tsukihime, in reference to the character Sacchin. Renamed because it was too obscure, not to mention that the trope title could easily be assumed to refer to any kind of sad situation in general.
 * Demythtification was "Low Low Fantasy", which makes it look like a direct extension of Low Fantasy: it is not. These stories aren't intended as members of the fantasy genre, but as an External Retcon of a myth to strip it of fantasy elements and render it as historical fiction.
 * Designated Villain was formerly named "Designated Antagonist". It was renamed because being an antagonist does not always mean being a villain.
 * Despair Event Horizon was formerly "Morale Event Horizon". It was renamed because it was considered much too easy to mistake with Moral Event Horizon (which was what inspired its creation in the first place, Just for Pun).
 * Deus Exit Machina was merged with "Eaten by a Snake". The latter was a reference to an arc from One Piece, and was deemed too unintuitive.
 * Developing Doomed Characters used to be "Twenty Minutes with Jerks". It was renamed for being too negative.
 * Diabolus Ex Nihilo used to be "Diabolus Ex Vacuus". We were mixing up our nominative declension with the ablative. Who knew? Also, there is a common preexisting term: ex nihilo. So we use that.
 * Didn't Want an Adventure used to be "I Wanted to Go Bowling". The old name was trying to be a stock phrase and failed.
 * Die Hard On an X was just named "Die Hard" for a really long time. It was renamed because it made searching for the trope as opposed to the movie next to impossible.
 * Dies Wide Open was renamed from "Dies Wide Shut" in order to be less confusing and misleading.
 * Digging Yourself Deeper was formerly "Bucket of Ears". However, that Coupling reference was just too unintuitive and resulted in most references all being related to Jeff from the show.
 * Digitized Hacker was formerly "Malus Ex Machina", a Gratuitous Latin phrase meaning "evil out of the machine", in a failed imitation of Deus Ex Machina.
 * Disabled Love Interest was originally "Disabled Hottie", which encouraged misuse of the trope to mean "attractive disabled person".
 * Disappointing Last Level was once the completely nonindicative "Xen Syndrome", named for the area that the final levels of Half-Life 1 take place in.
 * Disco Dan was very briefly (one full day) named "Joe Quesada Reality", after the Marvel Comics executive who has acquired quite a hatred from the fans. It was changed because some people disapproved of the "bitter fan" vibe of the inherent Take That, and others said that the trope namer barely even fit the trope.
 * Disc One Final Boss was once "Fake Boss".
 * Disconnected By Death was once "Murdered in a Phone Booth", but got renamed and expanded to include other phone-based murders as well.
 * Disguised in Drag was formerly "Bosom Buddies". Being titled after a show was grounds enough for a rename, but also the "obvious allusion to female anatomy" wasn't that obvious.
 * Distressed Dude was formerly "James Bondage". It was changed so that it wouldn't sound porn-related.
 * Divergent Character Evolution was formerly known as "Luigification". It was changed because Luigi of Super Mario Bros is more known for other traits than this characteristic.
 * Divided We Fall was "Hanging Separately". Not everyone is familiar with the quote, so the name was changed to a better known phrase.
 * Divine Race Lift was formerly "Token Deity", a bad snowclone on Token that misrepresented the trope, since it isn't about tokens.
 * Documentary Episode was known as "The Documentary". It was changed because it was unclear and easily confused with the actual Documentary.
 * Dodge By Braking was renamed from "Top Gunned" since Top Gun is known for a variety of things besides that particular aerial evasive technique.
 * Does Not Know His Own Strength was formerly known as "Ace Lightning Syndrome". Renamed because the eponymous Ace Lightning was considered too obscure.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing was originally named "Pink Lipstick Aesop" after a scene in an episode of Daria, which made no sense to anyone who didn't get the reference. The name was changed to "Truffaut Was Right", referring to a quote from French director Francois Truffaut about anti-war movies. However, not everyone knows who he is, and aside from that he is also known for proposing the auteur theory. The new name gets the point across.
 * Don't Explain the Joke was very briefly "Yes Ted, That's the Joke" after an obscure Family Guy Ted Turner reference.
 * Double Standard Rape: X were once Rape Is OK When. Renamed as part of an effort to remove " is OK" names.
 * Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us was known as "Pandora Plea". It was renamed for clarity since Pandora's box does not clearly bring to mind using dangerous weapons.
 * Down to The Last Play was formerly "The Casey Effect". It was changed because it implied the protagonist team always losing, and because it suggested that the trope was baseball-specific.
 * Do Wrong Right used to be "This Is Not El Alamein", but the name was too obscure (El Alamein is a town in Egypt and a battle of World War II -- what it has to do with this trope is further info that is required to understand it; thus the change).
 * Dramatic Slip was renamed from "I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up" to discourage misuse for the stock phrase and to encourage use for an otherwise underused trope.
 * Driven By Envy was "Salieri Syndrome", but the old name was too opaque and failed to attract wicks.
 * Drunk On Milk was formerly "Drunk on Malts". It was renamed because of the possible confusion of malts with malted hops when malts are meant to refer to a clearly non-alcoholic drink like milk.
 * Dub Induced Plot Hole was originally "My Name Is Prince Darien", after a certain happening in the dub of Sailor Moon. It also spent some time hitchhiking cross-country under the alias "Errors Through Localization".
 * Dueling Hackers was renamed from "Dot Combat" for a clearer name.
 * Dying Declaration of Love was known as "Going Down with the Ship". It was renamed so that the title could be used for the "captain goes down with his ship" trope.
 * Dying to Be Replaced previously had the name of "Klingon Promotion", but was continuously misused to mean You Kill It You Bought It and what is now Klingon Promotion (even in its own Laconic and Quotes pages).

E

 * Earth All Along was "Planet of the Apes Ending", after a well-known example.
 * Easily Overheard Conversation was formerly "The Firstlaw of Sitcom Acoustics". Was renamed due to disuse and not being limited to sitcoms.
 * Eating the Eye Candy was originally called "Female Gaze", but it was agreed that it is not a variation of Male Gaze and shouldn't sell itself that way.
 * Eccentric Mentor was originally named "The Dumbledore" after the character from Harry Potter. It was renamed because the character it was named after was known for other things than just the trope he was named for.
 * Echoing Acoustics was the obscure "Live from Khazad Dum", named from a underground location in The Lord of the Rings. Old name was work-specific and unclear.
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette was simply "Pale-Skinned Brunette", which gathered many examples that were just light-skinned, dark-haired people; these were determined to be People Sit On Chairs. The "eerie" clears that up.
 * Egocentrically Religious used to be "Spoiled Brat of the Lord". Rather than a character actively being spoiled, this one is more about a egocentric mindset in worship. For some, Lord evokes nobility rather than a religious figure -- and it's not specific to Abrahamic religions in any case. The new name presents both elements of the trope more clearly.
 * Either World Domination or Something About Bananas used to be "The Vodka Is Good But the Meat Is Rotten", which, aside from being opaque, was also an example of the wrong trope (namely Recursive Translation).
 * Elegant Classical Musician was originally "Air in a G-String", an obtuse pun that didn't convey what the trope was actually about very well.
 * Elevator Floor Announcement was changed from "Ding! Sportswear, Pantyhose and Tropes" thanks to under use.
 * Eloquent in My Native Tongue was originally "I Sound Like a Retard in English". It was changed to be a wee bit more politically-correct.
 * Emergency Impersonation was once "Guise Will Be Guise". Renamed for being a pun that hadn't anything to do with the trope and not being descriptive at all.
 * The Ending Changes Everything used to be, a name based around a specific movie, which revealed nothing to those unfamiliar with the movie and constituted a spoiler. Worse, the trope itself told readers at the very beginning not to read the rest of the trope description unless they had seen the movie first.
 * Endless Game was "Kobayashi Mario" (Kobayashi Maru + Mario). Changed partly because the Kobayashi Maru scenario wasn't endless, just unwinnable.
 * End-of-Episode Silliness was "Uncle Herbie", after a running gag example of this trope on Welcome Back Kotter.
 * The End or Is It was originally simply "Or Is It?" It was changed because the old name was highly prone to misuse as a Stock Phrase and Verbal Tic.
 * Enigmatic Empowering Entity used to be "Empowering Lake Lady" and, in part, "Strange Pond Woman": the partial merge was rather involved. The old names were a reference to a famous example, the Lady of the Lake from the King Arthur mythos. The title was changed for being overly specific. Probably.
 * Enthralling Siren was renamed from "Our Sirens Are Louder" due to bad snowclone application.
 * Epic Movie was previously "BFM". Renamed for being an incomprehensible initialism and because Epic Movie is the generally used term for the concept.
 * Erotic Eating was formerly "Yum Yum", which (possibly) sounded too ambiguous.
 * Eureka Moment was originally named the "Creek Moment" after the British TV detective Jonathan Creek. Renamed because the term "Eureka" was far more searchable, "creek" will never be immediately known as a character name, and even those who knew of Creek didn't understand what a Creek Moment was.
 * Even Mooks Have Loved Ones was originally called "Even Evil Has Loved Ones". However, it was misused in over 80% of wicks on works and character pages as "evil person demonstrates genuine love for another" (which is what Even Evil Has Loved Ones now covers).
 * Experimental Archeology was renamed from "Kon Tiki Plot" in order to broaden the meaning of the trope, clarify it, and encourage use for an otherwise underused trope.
 * Explaining the Soap was formerly "Soap on a Trope", but was renamed because it used "trope" as a placeholder and was overall non-indicative.
 * Exponential Plot Delay used to be "Zeno's Race", after an early mathematical theory of limits. The idea was a story that showed ever-greater plot delay could be metaphorically represented by Zeno's theory. In the theory, movement is impossible since no matter how many times you travel half a distance, you have an infinite number of half-distances to go. This was too much of a stretch for general readers.
 * Exposition Fairy was originally named "Ninja Butterfly", after the game Red Ninja. It was changed because Ninja Butterfly sounded like it's about stealth lepidopteran assassins of shadow, instead of "friendly advice-giving character who commonly makes you yell, 'Stop Helping Me!'"
 * Extranormal Institute was formerly known as "Wizarding School". People were taking the name literally, so EI was split off as the supertrope.
 * Extraverted Nerd was formerly "The Urkel", and was renamed for being a character-named trope.
 * Extra Y Extra Violent was once "XYY", which didn't demonstrate the trope of an additional Y-chromosome leading to violent behaviour.
 * Extreme Sport Excuse Plot was "Xtreme Sport Xcuse Plot", but the Xtremely Cool Letterz caused the trope to wither.
 * The Extremist Was Right used to be "And It Worked", but was renamed to discourage misuse of the trope for the stock phrase itself.
 * Eyelid Pull Taunt was once "Red Eye", which could refer to both the movie Red Eye and simple red eyes.