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Title Confusion: Difference between revisions
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→Often occurs when a Revival or Media Franchise uses idiosyncratic names
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== Often occurs when a [[Revival]] or [[Media Franchise]] uses idiosyncratic names ==
=== Comic Books ===
=== Film ===
* When Hal Roach began his series of child-centered comedy shorts in the 1920s, his titles included ''Roach's Rascals'' and ''The Terrible Ten''. But because the first short was titled ''Our Gang'', the public started referring to them as "Our Gang comedies". By the time MGM took over production in 1938, ''Our Gang'' had become the official title. The series' [[Syndication Title]], ''[[The Little Rascals]]'', wasn't popular until the mid-1960s, when King World sold the shorts to TV stations.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was originally titled simply ''Enterprise'', to the confusion of fans.▼
* ''Grace And Favour'' was, due to its title, not recognized by many fans as a sequel to ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]''. It became ''Are You Being Served? Again!'' in the US, where it was apparently more successful.▼
* In [[Movies]], the ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]'' franchises had sufficient inconsistencies in their naming conventions that their first installments have been retroactively retitled.
** The first ''Star Wars'' film was originally titled "Star Wars". It was not titled "Star Wars: Episode IV: [[A New Hope]]" until its second rerelease 3 years later. George Lucas claims this was because the [[Executive Meddling|execs]] thought nobody would get why this was Episode ''IV'' ... instead of which, nobody got why the ''second'' film was Episode ''V''. By then, of course, he had enough [[Protection From Editors]] to get away with it.
** The first ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' film was titled "[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]". It has been renamed as "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" to fit better with the later movies, although the onscreen title is still ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''.
** Another ''[[Star Wars]]'' example: a [[Dark Forces Saga|video game series]] set in the New Republic Era, featuring Kyle Katarn, a mercenary-turned-Jedi (although he was not the player character in all of them). The games were named: ''Dark Forces'', ''Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II'' (with an expansion pack, ''Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith''), ''Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'', and ''Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy'' (without any numbers despite being a sequel to ''Jedi Knight II'', which brought yet more confusion).▼
*** Other confusion that ''Star Wars'' evokes is when mentioning numbers, since it started from the middle (when you mention "the first" can be either IV or I).
* A similar film example is the ''[[Rambo]]'' series: The first movie in the series is named ''First Blood'', the second ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', the third ''Rambo III''... and to add to the confusion, the fourth movie in the series is simply titled ''Rambo''.
* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' [[X-Men (film)|movies]] are largely themselves to blame for the confusion around their titles. While the first is simply ''X-Men'', the second is identified in its opening sequence as ''X2'' but in its closing sequence as ''X2: X-Men United'', and in publicity material is also promoted as ''X-Men 2'', ''X-Men 2: X-Men United'' and simply ''X-Men United''. Similarly, the third entry is variously known as ''X3'', ''X3: The Last Stand'', ''X-Men 3'', ''X-Men 3: The Last Stand'' and ''The Last Stand''. The next movie in the series, a prequel, gained the unnecessarily lengthy ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'', and is referred to simply as ''Wolverine'' by most sane people.▼
=== Live-Action TV ===
▲* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was originally titled simply ''Enterprise'', to the confusion of fans.
▲* ''Grace And Favour'' was, due to its title, not recognized by many fans as a sequel to ''[[Are You Being Served?
=== Video Games ===
▲
* The first game in the ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' series was retronymmed "Tiberian Dawn".
** That was always the subtitle at least, though you wouldn't know it without [[All There in the Manual|the readme.txt file]].
▲* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' [[X-Men (film)|movies]] are largely themselves to blame for the confusion around their titles. While the first is simply ''X-Men'', the second is identified in its opening sequence as ''X2'' but in its closing sequence as ''X2: X-Men United'', and in publicity material is also promoted as ''X-Men 2'', ''X-Men 2: X-Men United'' and simply ''X-Men United''. Similarly, the third entry is variously known as ''X3'', ''X3: The Last Stand'', ''X-Men 3'', ''X-Men 3: The Last Stand'' and ''The Last Stand''. The next movie in the series, a prequel, gained the unnecessarily lengthy ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'', and is referred to simply as ''Wolverine'' by most sane people.
* There seems to be some confusion about whether ''[[Transformers Animated|Animated]]'', the latest ''[[Transformers]]'' series, has a colon in the title, so it's either ''Transformers: Animated'' (like on the [[Cartoon Network]] site), or ''Transformers Animated'' (which shows up on all press releases about the series).▼
** Cartoon Network [[Credits Pushback|"up next" announcements]] sometimes make things even worse by appending "Series" to the end.▼
* After the success of ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'', the animated series set between episode II and III, Lucasfilm decided to create a new animated series set in the same time period called ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Star Wars:]]'' '''''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|The]]''''' ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Clone Wars]]''. Enough said.▼
▲** Similarly, there was a "Star Wars: Clone Wars" comic series long before the production of either television series. It was then followed up with "Clone Wars Adventures" then simply "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in turn followed up by "Star Wars The Clone Wars" graphic novel series. [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Wars_%28disambiguation%29 Throw in a book series and several video games using only the words "Clone Wars" as their titles] and you'd think someone would be able to think to at least subtitle them. Some people even mistakenly refer to ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' as "The Clone Wars".
* [[Bubble Bobble]]; Rainbow Islands: Story of Bubble Bobble II; Parasol Stars: Story of Bubble Bobble III; Bubble Bobble '''''Part''''' 2; Bubble Bobble II aka Bubble Symphony; Bubble Memories: Story of Bubble Bobble III. [[Non-Linear Sequel]]s have you confused yet?
* ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' originally didn't include the series name, [[Call of Duty]]; the original ''Modern Warfare'' was ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]].'' When it was discovered that the absence of the series name led to fans being less aware of ''Modern Warfare 2,'' it was added back on. The special editions of the game still omit it on their box art.
* The "Doom/Quake with a crossbow" series: ''[[Heretic]]''; ''[[Hexen]]''; ''Hexen II''; ''Heretic II''.
== Western Animation ==
▲* There seems to be some confusion about whether ''[[Transformers Animated|Animated]]'', the latest{{when}} ''[[Transformers]]'' series, has a colon in the title, so it's either ''Transformers: Animated'' (like on the [[Cartoon Network]] site), or ''Transformers Animated'' (which shows up on all press releases about the series).
▲** Cartoon Network [[Credits Pushback|"up next" announcements]] sometimes make things even worse by appending "Series" to the end.
▲* After the success of ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'', the animated series set between episode II and III, Lucasfilm decided to create a new animated series set in the same time period called
== Titles which are plainly understood but overly long, are usually abbreviated by fans ==
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