All The Tropes:Renamed Tropes/Q to Z

Q

 * Quip to Black used to be "Grissom One Liner" after Gil Grissom from CSI. The old name required people to know the Grissom character, who was perhaps not the best known example even within the CSI universe. In turn, CSI was not the originator of the trope. Finally, the strong internet meme surrounding the CSI: Miami (Horatio Caine) version makes it all too easy to mistake the trope for the meme and vice versa.

R

 * Raised Catholic used to be "Good Catholic", which was noted was a pretty poor description of the trope.
 * Raise Him Right This Time used to be "Second Chance", which could refer to all sorts of things that are not this trope.
 * Random Drop was "Randomly Drops", but a noun is more convenient for the trope than a verb.
 * Rapid-Fire Comedy used to be called "Comedy Through Superior Firepower".
 * Rapid Fire Name Guessing was formerly known as "Tom? Dick?" "My Name is Harry!"
 * Rascally Raccoon was formerly "Everything's Rascally with Raccoons". Changed because animal stereotype tropes shouldn't have "Everything's Better With" names.
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin used to be "Black and White Beauty". The name was changed so it would be more clear that the trope was about a beauty standard.
 * Real Joke Name was renamed from "Klutz the Surgeon", which didn't make it clear at all what the trope was about. Even before it was "Mulligan the Headsman", which was maybe even less explicit.
 * Really Gets Around used to be called "Miss Yo Yo Knickers", until the prudes found out. Changed to be gender neutral as well.
 * Recurring Extra was known by "Yuppie Couple" which sounded like a completely different trope.
 * Recycled Trailer Music was once "The Elfman Effect". Not a reference to the Danny Elfman / Tim Burton collaborations nor the The Simpsons theme overshadowing his work. Readers who got the right Elfman had to then guess it meant that he is one of a number of composers whose music appears in trailers for films other than the one it was composed for.
 * Red and Black and Evil All Over was known as "Red and Black, Keep Back". It was renamed to become more clear on what the trope was about.
 * Redemption Demotion was renamed from "Heel Face Downgrade", which itself used to be Good Is Dumb (the latter's meaning changed to fit the title more).
 * Regenerating Health used to be "Walk It Off". Renamed to make the connection between the trope and name clearer.
 * Regional Bonus was once "PAL Bonus", but was renamed to include bonus content from any regional version of a product.
 * Reliably Unreliable Guns was "Shur Fine Guns" (which has some meaning, but it's not mentioned anymore on the page).
 * The Remnant was formerly known as "The Undefeated", which sounds like another trope entirely.
 * Repeating So the Audience Can Hear was originally named "So What You Are Saying". It was renamed because it had nothing to do with the trope it described and sounded like a generic line of dialogue rather than a legitimate trope.
 * Replacement Flat Character was once "The Niles". Renamed for being an obscure and underused character-named trope.
 * Resignations Not Accepted used to be "You Can Never Leave". The "Hotel California" reference obscured the meaning of the trope a little.
 * The Rest Shall Pass was originally "I Got This", a vague Stock Phrase that's applicable to far more situations than just this trope.
 * Retroactive Preparation was once the opaque "Wyld Stallyns Rule", which was named from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where a case of Retroactive Preparation leads to the principle being arbitrarily after a band. The new name hints at time travel hi-jinx.
 * Rhetorical Request Blunder used to be "Rid Me of This Priest" -- from a famous oral tradition surrounding Henry II. His words were interpreted as an order to kill Thomas Becket -- which they may not have been. The reference was quite opaque to some, others mistook it to mean the trope was about priests. The trope was also clarified as being broader than murders, but always a statement not intended as a request.
 * Rightful King Returns was once "Return of the King" but it was getting confused with Tolkien's work.
 * Rise to the Challenge wasn't really renamed from an existing trope, but a similar trope had existed prior to The Great Crash as "Rising Death From Below".
 * Rogue Juror was formerly known as "Twelve Angry Men", named for a work which centered around such a plot. It was renamed so that the former name could be used to refer to the work itself.
 * Romantic False Lead was originally "The Paolo", after the character from Friends. Renamed because it required knowledge of a specific work and out of a general trend away from "The X" trope titles.
 * Romanticized Abuse was formerly "Abusively Sexy". It was renamed because the original name suggested that the abuse could be a good thing.
 * Romantic Plot Tumor was formerly "George Lucas Love Story" after the poorly received romantic subplot in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It was renamed because making titles just to be a Take That against a single work (it was determined most George Lucas stories don't suffer from this trope) isn't very good form and it's very likely the name will stop being topical.
 * Romantic Runner-Up was renamed from "The Baxter" (from The Apartment), to avoid a "The X" name.
 * Rousing Speech was formerly two separate tropes, Rousing Speech and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, which were merged under the name of the former, until the latter title was made a page about the poem of the same name (sort of).
 * Rube Goldberg Device was renamed from "Robinson Goldberg Contraption" because a.) Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg are two different people known for such devices, and b.) the term "Rube Goldberg Device" is in common use off-wiki, so there was no need to Call a Rabbit a Smeerp.
 * Russian Naming Convention was originally "Trope, Son of Trope, Smith". An example of why the use of "trope" in trope names is discouraged.
 * Russians With Rusting Rockets was formerly "Tricolours with Rusting Rockets". It was renamed because "Tricolour" can refer to a lot of different nations (esp. France). The new title also allows awesome alliteration.
 * Ruthless Modern Pirates was renamed from "A Disgrace to Blackbeard" for clarity. The old name was confusing because Blackbeard was ruthless, but also romanticized.

S

 * Sacrificial Lion was "The Cedric", which not only spoils the fourth Harry Potter, but is also not very specific.
 * Same Content Different Rating was "Rated W for Why". Renamed due to overly-wide name.
 * Same Language Dub was "Milli Vanilli", but Milli Vanilli was repurposed for the pop group, then re-cut as a stub that had virtually no effort put into it.
 * Sarcasm Blind was originally "Does Not Understand Sarcasm".
 * Satiating Sandwich used to be called "Everything's Satiating with Sandwiches" according to the discredited and completely unrelated Everything's Better with Indexes snowclone family.
 * Scandalgate was originally "Gate Construction". It was renamed for the sake of the page having a clearer name.
 * Schmuck Banquet used to be "Goldilocks and the Mines of Moria", which did not accurately convey the trope.
 * Scenery Censor was Peek-A-Boo, which did not accurately convey the trope.
 * Science Fantasy was once "Science Fiction Versus Fantasy", which was misused for literal conflicts between science fiction and fantasy and Fandom Rivalry. The new name indicates that it is about works incorporating science fiction and fantasy elements together. The long description about the differences between the two genres was moved to Speculative Fiction/Analysis.
 * Scrabble Babble was originally Kwyjibo.
 * Sealed Evil in a Duel was called "Sisyphus vs. Rock" after the legend about the man doomed to eternal toil with no meaning nor respite by having to roll a rock up and hill every day to just see it roll back down in the evening. Notice how that is not really related to the trope.
 * Searching the Stalls used to be "Stalling for Time" -- a name that was mistaken as meaning, well, stalling for time more often than it was used to mean someone searching a series of bathroom stalls.
 * Second Season Downfall used to be called "One-Season Wonder", which enjoyed almost 100% misuse (either as "series that lasted one season or less" or "great character who only appeared in one season").
 * Seemingly-Profound Fool was previously "Chance the Gardener", but was renamed because it was being used to refer to the character from Being There.
 * Selective Enforcement was once "Flaming Cobra Sugar Cellar" (named by something happening on The Simpsons). Another case of an incomprehensible trope name, particularly since it wasn't named In-Universe (as evidenced by the use of a British English descriptor based on an American work).
 * Self-Constructed Being was called "Evil Seed Plot" for a short while after launching. We realized that it isn't limited to evil folk, seed-based regeneration or whole plots.
 * Send in the Search Team used to be called "Heart of Darkness" after the famous book Heart of Darkness, thereby taking up the name, which has its own page now; and it was decided not to name it after the work anyhow since the actual book is just as more well known for other tropes.
 * Sensei for Scoundrels was originally titled "The Tyler Durden". Again, character named trope.
 * Sequel Goes Foreign was originally called "Third Movie Goes to Asia", renamed to be less restrictive sounding as the location can be anywhere and not just in Asia.
 * Serial Escalation was originally "Beyond the Impossible". Renamed because it was being widely misused to mean anything that was impossible, or as a synonym for Up to Eleven. Beyond the Impossible has been redefined to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * Set Swords to Stun was formerly "Reverse Blade Sword" which has nothing to do with the trope.
 * Shallow Love Interest was formerly "Shallow Female Love Interest". It was renamed because the latter had kind of a sexist ring to it and it being anywhere close to "female only" has been discredited time and again.
 * Shapeshifter Mode Lock was expanded from simply "Mode Lock" to help clarify that it is specific to Shapeshifting, and to prevent future confusion with Baleful Polymorph and/or Power Incontinence. It was being misused for these in approximately 25% of wikilinks.
 * Shoddy Knockoff Product used to be "POP Station" after an example of the trope. Not something ordinary readers could be be expected to know. The new name tells it as it is.
 * Shoo Out the New Guy was once "The Poochie", after the character from a Show Within a Show in The Simpsons. Renamed for clarification.
 * Shoplift and Die was once known as "Easily Angered Shopkeeper" before it was renamed to clarify that action was specifically caused by player shenanigans. Even before that, it was named "Izchak's Wrath" after one of the shopkeepers of Nethack.
 * Short-Lived Aerial Escape was formerly "Renny Harlin Helicopter Explosion".
 * Showing Off the Perilous Power Source was renamed from "Gorgon Gazing" since it is not about a deadly stare or one that turns you into stone.
 * Sickbed Slaying was renamed from "If You Should Die Before You Wake" because the previous name was unclear and made finding a fairly common trope rather difficult.
 * Side Effects Include was renamed from "Yes, But What Does Zataproximetacine DO?" for ease of spelling reasons.
 * Sidekick Song used to be "Hakuna Matata" after a song in The Lion King. People were using it for Hakuna Matata (the life attitude) which is what the phrase is best known for, not for songs sung by sidekicks. Hakuna Matata, meanwhile, was recycled as a different trope.
 * The Silver Age of Comic Books was formerly known as "Silver 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 Silver Age independent of comic books.
 * Simultaneous Warning and Action was once Stand Back Hello, which required knowledge of Half Life to understand.
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor was once "Sixth Column". It was an exact duplicate of a work title. The work was not an example. The protagonist refers to the resistance movement as a Sixth Column: loyalists -- the opposite of a traitorous fifth column. The new title clarifies the Sixth Ranger reference and avoids the indirect fifth column conflation by just saying they are a traitor.
 * Skyward Scream was originally known as "The Khan". It was changed because all other "The X" tropes were character tropes (the trope is a camera trick), and the Trope Namer wasn't even an example of the trope. As a result, The Khan is now a redirect for Say My Name.
 * Slave Collar used to be called "Chain of Command". It was renamed because it has nothing to do with chains and could be confused with The Chains of Commanding... or, for that matter, the chain of command, or the chain of command.
 * Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification was once the negative "Sliding Scale Of Adaptation Decay"
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism used to be "...Versus Realism". It was changed by idealists. To be fair, it was probably named by the cynics.
 * Slow Electricity was named "Power Slows" for about 30 minutes.
 * Small Name, Big Ego was formerly known as "Ted Baxter". The former was originally meant to be a Real Life counterpart of the latter, but that turned out to be a bad idea, so it was locked and kept exampleless for a long time. Eventually the two were merged using the definition of Ted Baxter and the more descriptive title of SNBE.
 * Smash Mook used to be "The Ogre". It was changed so The Ogre could redirect to Our Ogres Are Hungrier.
 * Smelly Skunk used to be "Everything's Smellier with Skunks". Changed because animal stereotype tropes shouldn't have "Everything's Better With" names.
 * The Snark Knight was originally "The Daria" after the eponymous show. It was renamed and slightly redefined after some confusion as to what the trope actually was, and the relative obscurity of the Daria character outside of the show's target demographic.
 * Soap Within a Show used to be "All My Circuits", after the Show Within a Show soap opera in Futurama (whose title is a parody of All My Children). Renamed for requiring familiarity with Futurama.
 * Softer and Slower Cover used to be "The Vonda Shepard Treatment", after a singer who performed some Softer and Slower Cover versions of popular songs for Ally McBeal. It read like a character named trope and required specific fan-knowledge to work.
 * So Long and Thanks For All the Gear was originally "Wutai Theft", after an incident in Final Fantasy VII. Renamed to avoid the specific reference and because the trope is general enough to include cases that aren't deliberate theft.
 * Solve the Soup Cans was "Soup Cans" after a puzzle in The Seventh Guest where a message must be spelt out using soup cans. It was renamed to give the sense of a weird puzzle to those unfamiliar with the reference.
 * The Snack Is More Interesting was renamed from Cavalier Consumption to be more clear, with Appetite for Apathy as an additional redirect.
 * The Something Force was formerly "Troper Force", but was renamed to not use the placeholder "troper".
 * The Something Song was renamed from "The Trope Song" for the same reason as the above.
 * Something Only They Would Say was "As You Wish" after a quote from The Princess Bride. Changed to avoid mistaking the trope for "a declaration of love that doesn't include the word 'love'", which is what the quote is more commonly known for.
 * Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot used to be just "Sorcerers Apprentice", but when it wasn't being confused for a trope about The Apprentice to a sorcerer, it was being confused for the title of the film or the Disney animated short. Sharing the same title as a work was the nail in the coffin for the old name.
 * Space Zone was once "Lylat System", a non-descriptive title that gave no clues to those who did not know the reference (the setting from Star FOX).
 * Spanner in the Works started life as Xanatos Gilligan, which required knowledge of two specific works and of the once-ubiquitous "Xanatos ____" snowclone in-joke system to understand. As a bonus, the current name is commonly used outside the site as well.
 * Speaking, Like, Totally Teen was once "Get a Load of That Square". Renamed because the old title sounded like a line of dialogue and was hard to search for.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal was formerly "The Dr. Dolittle". It was renamed for being character-named and not thriving.
 * Special Person, Normal Name was renamed from "Plain Name" as the latter was People Sit on Chairs.
 * Splash Damage Abuse was formerly "Hit the Helpless Hex". It was renamed for being an obscure term and having extremely poor performance, overall.
 * Spoken Word was renamed from "Plain Song" to reflect the prexisting term.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad was formerly named "Uchiha Syndrome" due to a commonly held belief that Sasuke Uchiha of Naruto derailed the series away from the title character.
 * Sprint Shoes was formerly named "Bunny Hood" after the item from The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask (which appeared in Ocarina of Time but wasn't an example then).
 * Sprouting Ears was formerly named "Hyperspace Ears". Renamed after consensus that sprouting was a more appropriate description.
 * Square Race Round Class was renamed from "Rogue Elephant" to clarify the trope's meaning and to try to deal with a lack of usage.
 * Staged Shooting was renamed from "Fake Gunshot" in order to clarify the distinction between it and False Gunshot.
 * Stalking Is Love was formerly known as "Edward Cullen Syndrome" after a character from Twilight.
 * Standard Evil Organization Squad was known as "Generic Evil Organization Squad". It was changed so the trope would sound less negative.
 * Standard Fifties Father was formerly "Mister Cleaver" (from Leave It to Beaver).
 * Stating the Simple Solution used to be known as "Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?" The trope was renamed, and the old name reworked into a supertrope, because the name was far too easy to use as a troper Catch Phrase, leading to massive amounts of misuse.
 * Status Quo Game Show was originally named "You Can't Win" after an in-universe game show from the John Ritter movie Stay Tuned which wasn't even an example.
 * Stealth Pun was formerly "Incredibly Lazy Pun", renamed to avoid misusage considering the similarly-named Incredibly Lame Pun.
 * Stopped Caring was formerly "I Don't Even Care". It was renamed for sounding like a line of dialogue and being non-indicative of the trope.
 * Stop Trick was changed from "Jeannie Cut", due to the latter being a work-based name and the former being an established term.
 * Strange Minds Think Alike was formerly named "Did a Korean Person Die?" after a single episode gag from Thirty Rock.
 * Strange Secret Entrance was renamed from "Platform Nine and Three Quarters" to avoid Fan Myopia.
 * Straw Man Has a Point was formerly named "The Strawman Strikes Back".
 * Stupidity-Inducing Attack was stagnating under the name "Idiot Cannonball".
 * Sudden Downer Ending was formerly "Cerebus Ending" from Cerebus Syndrome. Renamed, because the Trope Namer wasn't an example.
 * Suddenly Always Knew That was formerly named "I Know Kung-Fu". It was renamed because it had nothing to do with knowing kung fu, which was confusing especially since we have the trope I Know Karate. I Know Kung Fu is now a redirect to I Know Karate.
 * Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish was formerly "Talks to Squirrels" and got confused with Speaks Fluent Animal, which is the ability to talk to animals in general.
 * Suggestive Collision used to be "Gravity Is a Harsh Seductress", an overdone snowclone of Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress. Gravity is not luring people to a harsh fate.
 * Super-Hero Gods used to be "Super Gods". It was renamed for clarity.
 * Superhero Trophy Shelf was once "Super Trophy Super Rack", which was unclear about the meaning.
 * Supernatural Proof Father was once "Dad's Afraid Of No Ghosts". First, that's a stock phrase, and second it's about not believing him - not seeing them and not being afraid.
 * Superpower Silly Putty once was "Twenty Four Hour Super Power". That page is now a redirect to Superpowers for A Day.
 * Supporting Leader was "The Aragorn", renamed because it was named after a character.
 * Surprisingly-Sudden Death was formerly "Deadly Guest". It was renamed because the trope is a specific kind of death trope rather than a character one and the previous name was causing some misuse because of that.
 * Surveillance as the Plot Demands was formerly named "Palantir Ploy" but was changed due to being rather obscure even to those who have read Lord of the Rings.
 * Surveillance Drone was formerly "Magic Cam". It was renamed because the trope has nothing to do with magic.
 * Suspiciously Similar Song was "The Jimmy Hart Version" for a long time, named after a professional wrestling manager who would write those kind of songs. Obviously, it was needlessly obtuse to anyone outside of the wrestling fandom.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute used to be "Jonas Quinn", after a Stargate SG-1 example.
 * Swarm of Rats was formerly known as "Squeaking Carpet" and was renamed for clarity.
 * Swiss Cheese Security used to be "Lex Luthor Security". It was named for a character in a shared universe that only sometimes displayed this trope.
 * Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist was "Inspector Zenigata", changed because it was named after a character.

T

 * Tailor-Made Prison was once "Oubliette".
 * Taking Up the Mantle was formerly known as "You Are Batman".
 * Talk About That Thing was formerly known as "The Thing", after an episode of Family Ties which used the phrase "the thing" in the service of the Room Shuffle. It was changed because the title wasn't the slightest bit descriptive of the trope, and too easily confused with the classic horror film. (Or the comic book character. Or that other character.)
 * Talking with Signs was formerly "Sign Language", but was renamed to avoid confusion with literal Signed Languages.
 * Tangled Family Tree was formerly "Summers Family Tree", after the X-Men character.
 * Teacher-Student Romance was originally named "Mary Kay Letourneau Teaches Here", after a highly-publicized real-world example. It was changed for being long, hard to spell, and difficult to use organically in descriptions. The new name, "Hot for Student", got eventually changed to illustrate it goes both ways.
 * Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats is a double case. It was originally "Radioactive Teenage Samurai Robot Wombats". This was way too long, cumbersome, and hard-to-remember, so it was changed to "Secret Mutant Hero Team". However, the new name never caught on like the old name had, and a subsequent revisiting of the discussion decided to rename it again, keeping the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference, but in a more concise, easier-to-remember package.
 * Temporary Substitute was formerly known as "Substitute Teacher" but people kept confusing that for tropes about actual substitute teachers.
 * Ten Little Murder Victims is named after And Then There Were None (in a fashion) but it used to be given the exact same name which lead to a lot of wicks linking to the wrong page.
 * Tennis Boss was once named "Playing Tennis with the Boss". Was probably renamed since it sounded too similar to Go-Karting with Bowser.
 * Terrible Artist used to be known as "Hollywood Scribbling". It was renamed because it didn't really belong in with the Hollywood Style tropes and most of the wicks referred to a character who draws bad art.
 * Terrible Trio was formerly named "Team Rocket" after a well-known trio -- although Jessie, James, and Meowth aren't known for villainy effectiveness.
 * Thanksgiving Episode used to be Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day was a duplicate page with Thanksgiving, because the two pages had both factual information about the holiday and examples of the use of the holiday in fiction. The historical information was moved to Thanksgiving Day, and all the fictional examples were moved to Thanksgiving Episode.
 * That One Level was previously "Scrappy Level" but was changed due to it being a closer parallel to That One Boss than The Scrappy and relying on another trope reference.
 * That One Player was called "That One Guy", but was renamed to avoid confusion with The One Guy.
 * Thememobile was originally "Tropemobile". It was renamed because it used "trope" as a placeholder.
 * The Assimilator was "You Will Be Assimilated". The new name more clearly says that it's a character trope.
 * Theme Tune Cameo was formerly "Name That Tune". It was changed for being named for a show and not clearly suggesting an in-world cameo of a theme tune.
 * They Killed Kenny Again used to be "They Killed Kenny". The "again" was added to make it clear that this was a Running Gag.
 * Thing-O-Matic was renamed from "Trope-O-Matic" because the previous name used "trope" as a placeholder.
 * Third Option Adaptation was formerly "The Pikachu Effect" but was renamed because everyone who attempted to guess the trope based on the former name failed to get it even close.
 * Third Option Love Interest was formerly "Cheryl Blossom", changed for being named after a character (from Archie Comics).
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch was formerly "This Is a Sentence, Bitch!"
 * This Loser Is You was "You Suck" for a very long time, but was changed because far too many people thought it meant "when a show gives a Take That to its audience".
 * This Product Will Change Your Life was originally "This Trope Will Change Your Life". Changed because of the word "trope" as a placeholder.
 * Those Two Actors was formerly "Bogart-Bacall Syndrome", playing on the medical condition of the same name. It was renamed because it didn't really describe anything.
 * Three-Month-Old Newborn used to be "Dawson Babies" which was a bad snowclone of Dawson Casting.
 * Threesome Subtext was renamed from "Three Yay" for the same reason Homoerotic Subtext was split off of "Ho Yay".
 * Timeline-Altering MacGuffin was formerly "Gray's Sports Almanac" after the Trope Codifier, Back to The Future.
 * Tin Can Telephone was "Tin Can You Hear Me Now". The old name was an overcomplicated "Before & After" for something that has a much simpler name in Real Life, so there was no reason to Call a Rabbit a Smeerp.
 * Token Mini-Moe was once called "Token Loli", and was renamed due to the rather squicky sexual connotations of the word.
 * Token Minority Couple was once "Token Shipping" due to a complete and utter lack of shipping.
 * Too Awesome to Use was renamed from "P Wing Effect" after the item from Super Mario Bros. (twice, thanks to The Great Crash).
 * Toplessness From the Back used to be "Sexy Back"; it was renamed because people were assuming it meant "back that is sexy". The "backless dress" subtrope put on the page because of the confusion was split to Sexy Backless Outfit.
 * Training Montage was "Gonna Fly Now Montage". It was renamed because most people were using the redirect Training Montage instead of the main name.
 * Transformation Name Announcement was originally "I Am Hero Hear Me Roar". Renamed for being incomprehensible and completely unintuitive.
 * Translation Train Wreck was formerly "Do Not Want". Renamed because it was being very frequently misused for the meme. Do Not Want was later redirected to Squick, then moved to the Permanent Red Link Club.
 * Transplanted Character Fic was formerly "Cookie Cutter Fic". Renamed due to the unclear meaning of "Cookie Cutter".
 * Trapped in the Past was formerly "Connecticut Yankee", after the Mark Twain story. Moved at the same time as Giving Radio to the Romans was created, to help distinguish the two tropes.
 * Traumatic Haircut used to be "Rape of the Lock", named after a literary work. It was renamed so that the original name could be used for the work itself.
 * Trojan Prisoner was formerly known as "Wookiee Gambit" after the scene in Star Wars where Luke and Han infiltrate the Death Star's prison deck by bringing in Chewie in chains.
 * Tropes About Perverts was formerly "This Index Is Full Of Perverts"
 * Trouble Magnet Gambit was "Vasor Gambit". The fact that you'll probably have to mouseover or click this link to find out where Vasor came from, never mind who he is, provides the reason for the change.
 * Troubling Unchildlike Behavior used to be the more grammatically baffling "Troubling Unchildhood Behavior".
 * True Companions was formerly known as "Nakama". It was renamed for clarity and because the old name was incorrect.
 * Trust Password was formerly "I Am John Smith", named for a specific example of the trope from a multi-format Japanese series. It was changed mostly because "I Am John Smith" is a massive spoiler. In case you're wondering and can't resist finding out, said series is.
 * Tsurime Eyes and Tareme Eyes used to just be "Tsurime" and "Tareme". They were renamed to clarify that they are about eye shapes.
 * Turn the Other Fist was renamed from "McLintock Punch" because the old name was obscure and work specific and the trope itself was very underused.
 * Two Decades Behind was renamed from "Still the Eighties" in order to encourage uses of the trope for works that depict any settings that seem to take place two decades before the work was created despite supposedly representing the present.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm was formerly "The Umbridge". It was renamed due to the Trope Namer being known for several other things than just the trope content, leading to confusion and misuse in examples and potholes.

U

 * Uncanny Village was formerly "The Village". It was renamed as per new policy that trope and media should not share titles whenever possible.
 * Unconfessed Unemployment was formerly I Can't Tell The Wife I Got Laid Off, which was a line-of-dialogue title, and an overly long one, at that.
 * Prize Letdown was formerly "Flokati Rug", and renamed for greater recognition outside the fandom.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change was originally "Unexpected Genre Change". Changed to make it clear that the trope is specifically about gameplay styles in video games. However, the latter would get changed to Out-of-Genre Experience, possibly to avoid confusion.
 * Unexplained Recovery was originally "I Got Better". It was renamed because it was being constantly misused as a Stock Phrase and a generic pothole for "getting better" in general rather than the actual trope.
 * Unfazed Everyman was "The Arthur Dent". Renamed because it was named after a character.
 * Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway was formerly *But Sir, It's Not Yet Ready". Renamed for being an underused Stock Phrase.
 * Universal Adaptor Cast used to be "Commedia dell'Arte Troupe".
 * Unkempt Beauty was formerly "The Benson", renamed to avoid a character/actor-named trope.
 * Unnaturally Blue Lighting used to be "Bad Blue Lighting", which sounded too much like a negative subjective trope.
 * Unsettling Gender Reveal was "Dropped a Bridget on Him", a snowclone of the completely unrelated Dropped a Bridge on Him which was unclear and was being misused for the (as of then uncreated) supertrope.
 * Unsportsmanlike Gloating was formerly "Victory Gloating". It was renamed to clarify that the trope is about gloating after a contest, not just gloating in general.
 * Unwanted Gift Plot was "The Zotz". It was renamed for being a character-named trope and for not thriving.
 * Unwinnable Training Simulation was once "The Kobayashi Maru", but it was deemed opaque and hard to spell.
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom was formerly known as "Swiss Messenger". Renamed due to being a named after a rather obscure character from Sherlock Holmes.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda was once "Schala Lives"; however, problems with the examples obscurity for some and lack of comfornment to the trope for other (Schala actually ends up living) led to the change.
 * The Usual Adversaries used to be "Goddamn Orks". The old name was funny but had devolved into a verbal tick game.

V

 * Vampire Dance used to be "Blood on the Dance Floor", but since blood is related to more than just vampires (and didn't have much to do with the trope, anyway), the trope was renamed.
 * Vanishing Village used to be "Brigadoon", after the musical play of that name. Changed to avoid conflicting with the work title.
 * Verbal Tic used to be known as "Spoon Speaker", after the catchphrase of The Tick (animation), who wasn't actually an example.
 * Verb This was "Dodge This" after a line in The Matrix, but some examples missed that the emphasis is on the second word, and were about dodging instead of "___ this!".
 * Vetinari Job Security was "Vetinari Paradox", which wasn't that paradoxical if you think about it -- only hard to pull off at the start.
 * V-Formation Team Shot was formerly "Justice League Shot" but was renamed to be less work-specific and less opaque.
 * Victim Falls For Rapist used to be Rape Is Love, changed presumably due to the old title being full of Unfortunate Implications.
 * Victor Gains Loser's Powers was "Your Defeat Means I Obtain Your Powers". The original name was created with only clarity in mind, but many people thought it could be easily improved.
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind was launched as "The Viral", after a character in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The page was renamed because the word "Viral" has meanings which are more common than the the character name.
 * Villains Blend in Better was "Antagonists Assimilate", name was stretched to keep unused Transformers Quote.
 * Villain's Dying Grace was renamed from the unundicative "My Revenge Is Mercy".
 * The Villain Makes the Plot was once "The Law of Bruce", which failed the One Mario Limit. The title failed to provide context: readers who guessed the Bruce were no nearer to the trope.
 * Virginity Makes You Stupid used to be "Innocence Virgin on Stupidity". It was changed to be more transparent, as most people didn't get the pun and simply thought the title had bad grammar.
 * Visions of Another Self was originaly masquerading as "Flashback Echo"; the new name is much more accurate to the description and allows a broader interpretation of the trope. A relaunched Flashback Echo ought to refer to the flashback version of Ironic Echo or Meaningful Echo, which is what some people thought this trope was under the old name.

W

 * Wackyland was once called "Magicant", an area from Earthbound. It was renamed to be less obtuse and more encompassing.
 * Wake Up Fighting was once called "Rude Awakening". Another case of taking a commonly used phrase and using it as something that wasn't the trope, causing underuse and misuse.
 * Waking Up Elsewhere was renamed from "Waking Up in Vegas" because the trope was much broader than the former name made it seem... and because the Trope Namer wasn't even an example.
 * Wants a Prize For Basic Decency was once "Virtue Is Its Own Reward", which sounded too much like another name for Think Nothing of It.
 * Watch It Stoned used to be called "Everything's Better on Drugs", which implied a connection to the unrelated and discredited Everything's Better with Indexes family.
 * The Watson was formerly both "The Sarah Jane" and "The Rick", named after a companion from Doctor Who and a character from Magnum, P.I., respectively. They were merged and renamed because "The Rick" is just flat out too vague, the distinction between the two was too subtle, and Watson from Sherlock Holmes is well-known outside of Science Fiction and Eighties TV fandom.
 * Waxing Lyrical was formerly "Don't Sing Along If You Don't Know the Words". It was changed because it was too long and not at all descriptive of what the trope was actually about.
 * Webcomic Time has been itself for quite some time, but "That Night Felt Like Months" was lumped with it.
 * What Were They Selling Again? was once known as "Distracted by the Shiny". It was changed because the trope name led people to believe this was a trope about characters being distracted by shiny things, which Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny now covers.
 * When You Coming Home, Dad? was originally "Cat's in the Cradle"; the new title is a lyric from the song which also provided the name of the old title. It was changed to clarify the meaning of the trope.
 * White Magician Girl was originally "Staff Chick", which underwent lots of misuse with people adding examples that played the role of healers but didn't match the personality (you might be looking for Healing Hands, The Medic or White Mage for more general cases) or worse, people assuming the staff to be the crucial aspect of this trope. The new name also matches this trope's Black Mage counterpart, Black Magician Girl.
 * Wicked Weasel was originally titled "Everything's Better with Weasels", 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 weasels regardless of portrayal.
 * Wife Husbandry was originally titled "Hikaru Genji Plan" but was changed since the latter was too obscure to those not knowing said work.
 * Wimp Fight used to be called "Zero Chops".
 * Wimpification was originally called "Ukefication"; it was changed to remove Gratuitous Japanese and because the trope was not actually about relative positions in a relationship as much as the stereotypes that went with them.
 * Windows of the Soul was originally "She Then Saw the Glint of Triumph in His Eyes", which was too long and unwieldy.
 * Word Salad Title is now the primary name for "Super Punk Octo Pudding Gas Mark Seven" instead of a redirect. This is because the original name was too hard to remember and spell, couldn't be used in a sentence, and didn't make all that much sense (which was both a problem and the entire point).

X

 * The X of Y was originally "The Noun of Adjective", but was changed due to deviation from the English language as we know it.

Y

 * YMMV used to be called "Subjective Tropes". It was renamed to Subjectives when someone pointed out that tropes are not subjective, and renamed again because people say "YMMV" more than "it is subjective", and because YMMV is an easy to remember namespace.
 * You Are Too Late was formerly "Thirty Five Minutes Ago" after a line from a comic book series. It was renamed because it was not only completely opaque and unsearchable, but also a major spoiler.
 * You Just Told Me was originally named "Rumplestiltskin Ploy"; renamed because the former Trope Namer is not an example.
 * Youkai was formerly "Yokai", with the latter now redirecting to the former, because the latter is wrong according to standard transliteration conventions.
 * You Know Who Said That was renamed from "And Now You Know the Rest of the Story" because the trope name was an obscure reference that didn't even fit the definition.
 * Young Conqueror was renamed from "The Alexander" because the name "Alexander" alone was not distinctive enough to clearly refer to Alexander the Great. Further, while Alexander the Great is noted for conquering a large part of the (known to him) world, the fact that he started out as a teenager is less widely known.
 * Your Mom was originally named "Yo Mommas a Trope", which was perhaps the ugliest use ever of the word "trope" as a placeholder in a trope name.
 * Yuri Fan was formerly "Yuri Fanboy". It was changed because too many of the examples and Troper Tales were female for the male-gendered title to make any sense as the primary title, though the original title was kept as a redirect.