All The Tropes:Trope Decay

Sometimes, the idea of what a Trope is actually about gets lost somewhere along the way. Either new entries miss the point somehow, or the author just read the trope title and thought they got the gist of it. This includes things like describing just anything remotely scary as Nightmare Fuel, when Nightmare Fuel was originally intended to be things you found unintentionally scary as a kid. (Hence why Accidental Nightmare Fuel was created and Nightmare Fuel repurposed) Remember though, that Tropes Are Flexible—what you think is decay may just be unusual usage on second glance.

A good example of Trope Decay in action at one time could be seen with Not Allowed to Grow Up. This trope was originally about early live action Sit Coms where the situation was so strictly defined that the real children in them could not be allowed to grow up lest they destroy the show's dynamic, a practice that culminated with the sad case of Anissa Jones from Family Affair. However, it was quickly taken over by hundreds of breathless revelations that cartoon characters don't age, and the Family Affair material was exiled to an analysis page in August 2011. (However, in 2017, the trope was rescued from decay.)

When Trope Decay gets too bad, it may be necessary to rename the trope to avoid confusion, or remove the Trope, or completely rewrite it.

See also Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions and Square Peg, Round Trope.