Launch Displacement

This page refers to the organizational mechanics of the original TV Tropes Wiki. It documents a set of changes that are reflected in the organization of All The Tropes, and is maintained here as a historical document.

— The Mgmt.

This special case of Renamed Tropes occurs when an existing article is renamed to allow a new article to occupy ("displace", if you will) the old title. It is also nicknamed a "Trope Transplant", in the sense that the old trope was "transplanted" to a new title.

Reasons for this wiki phenomenon vary; it may be because the original title wasn't getting used correctly (possibly caused by the definition not matching what other tropers thought it was), or because it matched the name of a pre-existing fictional work (causing confusion about whether a given link refers to the trope or the work); the latter is now a formal policy.

Tropes renamed because of a fictional work

In some cases, we were able to preserve the reference to the Trope Namer during the rename.

• Along Came A Spider -> Criminal Mind Games
• Brigadoon -> Vanishing Village
• Bugs Bunny -> Karmic Trickster
• Die Hard -> Die Hard on an X
• Family Feud -> Family Rivalry
• Freaky Friday -> Freaky Friday Flip
• Green Eggs and Ham -> I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham
• Green Lantern Corps -> The Chosen Many
• Groundhog Day -> Groundhog Day Loop
• Go Ask Alice -> Alice Allusion
• The Hub -> Hub Level
• From Dusk till Dawn -> Halfway Plot Switch
• Heart of Darkness -> Send in the Search Team
• The Last Temptation -> The Final Temptation
• Liar Liar -> Consummate Liar
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance -> Framed for Heroism
• Marathon Man -> Plot-Powered Stamina
• Martin Guerre -> Dead Person Impersonation
• The Most Dangerous Game -> Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
• Name That Tune -> Theme Tune Cameo
• Pretty Woman -> Hooker with a Heart of Gold
• Rape Of The Lock -> Traumatic Haircut
• Sixth Column -> Sixth Ranger Traitor
• Sorcerers Apprentice -> Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot
• Soylent Green -> Powered by a Forsaken Child
• 13 Going on 30 -> Overnight Age-Up
• 12 Angry Men -> Rogue Juror
• The Village -> Uncanny Village
• Weekend at Bernies -> Of Corpse He's Alive
• Xanadu -> Building of Adventure

Other displaced tropes:

• Abandon Ship -> Abandon Shipping
  Shipping pun made at the expense of a Stock Phrase.

• April Fools' Day -> April Fool's Plot
  The former now means jokes made by makers and publishers of the work for April Fool's Day.

• Beyond the Impossible -> Serial Escalation
  The former was confused with Up to Eleven so it was redefined to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin and thereby end the confusion.

• Bizarre Alien Biology -> Human Outside, Alien Inside
  A fairly narrow and often misused trope about human-like creatures who are more alien than they appear was replaced with a broad trope+index covering all manner of bizarreness.

• Boy Meets Ghoul -> Nonhuman Lover Reveal
  Everyone who used this trope seemed to think it had something to do with the undead, which, frankly, made a whole lot of sense. The part about The Reveal was almost universally overlooked.

• Bring My Brown Pants -> Bring My Red Jacket
  Creating a Sister Trope that whose meaning was more clear from the old title. "Red" implying injury or blood; "brown" implying ... well, you know.

• The Cavalry -> Engineered Public Confession

• Color Coded for Your Convenience -> Good Colors, Evil Colors
  Creation of a Super-Trope to encompass colors identifying more than just who's good and evil.

• Closer to Earth -> Women Are Wiser
  This trope was misused for any situation where the usually White Male Lead gets inspirational advice from the downtrodden minority. It was renamed to make Exactly What It Says on the Tin and Closer to Earth is now a Super-Trope to those tropes.

• Confetti Drop -> Ticker Tape Parade
  Was a pre-existing term for something else, and the old title was not clear about being a game-show trope.

• Cosmic Horror -> Cosmic Horror Story
  Originally referred to the genre of stories involving a Cosmic Horror, but was being used in reference to the creature itself; now redirects to Eldritch Abomination for this reason.

• Dead Man Walking -> Near-Death Clairvoyance
  Old title was a pre-existing term for something else.

• Epic Fail -> Missed Moment of Awesome (and later to Offscreen Moment of Awesome)
  Misuse of a memetic Stock Phrase.

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones -> Even Mooks Have Loved Ones
  Was specific to Mooks, and widely misused for evil in general.

• Eye Open -> Eye Awaken
• Female Gaze -> Eating the Eye Candy
• Flashback Echo -> Visions of Another Self

• Genius Breeding Act -> Pair the Smart Ones
  The original trope described instances of particularly intelligent characters being matched up together by other characters, the author, or by the audience. Forced pairings of smart people now occupy the old trope name.

• Going Down with the Ship -> Dying Declaration of Love
  Shipping pun made at the expense of a Stock Phrase.

• Good Is Dumb -> Redemption Demotion
• Hammerspace Hair -> Compressed Hair
  Intended to mean hair of such volume that it may as well be stored in Hammerspace, it was constantly confused for hair being used as Hammerspace; which is what now occupies the old title.

• Hakuna Matata -> Sidekick Song
• In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You -> Glorious Mother Russia
  Memetic Mutation.

• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face -> Artistic License Gun Safety
• I Sense a Disturbance In The Force -> The Force Is Strong with This One
  Intended to reference Darth Vader sensing Ben Kenobi's presence on the Death Star (or perhaps the Emperor sensing Luke's potential as a Jedi), this Beam Me Up, Scotty is more famously associated with Kenobi's sensing the destruction of Alderaan. The old title now redirects to My Significance Sense Is Tingling for this reason.

• Kill the Poor -> Neutron Bomb
• Klingon Promotion -> Dying to Be Replaced
• Little Black Dress -> Launcher of a Thousand Ships
• Living Ship -> Setting as a Character
  Creating a Sub-Trope whose name is more indicative.

• Mo Cap Mecha -> Impossibly Graceful Giant
  Continuous misuse.

• My Name Is Inigo Montoya -> Heroic Second Wind
• Petting Zoo People -> Little Bit Beastly
  A lengthy forum discussion ruled that there was a clear distinction between these neighboring levels of anthropomorphism.

• Take This -> It May Help You on Your Quest
• This Just In -> Narrating the Obvious
  The old title is a Stock Phrase more commonly associated with news anchors.

• Twenty Four Hour Superpower -> Superpower Silly Putty
• Wizarding School -> Extranormal Institute
• Words Can Break My Bones -> I Know Your True Name
• With a Friend and a Stranger -> Two Girls and a Guy