L[]
- Lampshaded Double Entendre had previously been "Nudge Nudge", and before that Nudge, and even and before that "If You Know What I Mean". If You Know What I Mean had "I" in the title, which signals conversation in the main article and attracts potholes. Nudge was used as a temporary replacement. It was changed to Nudge Nudge to be a little more clear. The current name came about to point out that the trope is about the lampshading of Double Entendres, not the entendres themselves.
- Landlord was formerly "The Kanrinin" from the Japanese term. It was renamed because it was Gratuitous Japanese for a concept much further reaching than anime.
- Large Ham Announcer used to be called "Anything's Awesome with Announcers", which did not state what sort of announcer the trope covered.
- Late Arrival Spoiler was formerly "You Should Know This Already", in reference to how it would seem that only the creators considered recent plot revelations to no longer be spoilers. It was eventually renamed due to many, many tropers misusing it either by literally interpreting the title, or as an excuse to not use spoiler tags.
- Late to The Punchline used to be "Swiss Moment" from a relatively minor association of the Swiss with being slow to get jokes rather than the major associations with chocolate, money, cheese or neutrality.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships was previously known as "Little Black Dress" (since such characters "go with everything"). This was renamed since it has nothing to do with dresses and the fact that there were many male examples fitting the trope too. Little Black Dress now covers Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Lesser Star was originally "Garfunkel". Not only was it commonly misused as Stuck in Their Shadow, it wasn't even an example.[1]
- Light'Em Up used to be "Light the Way". It was renamed since the old name was getting confused for literally lighting the way, not light as an elemental power.
- Light Flicker Teleportation was renamed from "Blackout Blink" to clarify the trope's meaning since "blackout" was being used in a non-traditional way in the old name.
- Likes Older Women used to be "Cake Eater". It was renamed to clarify what the trope means.
- Literal Minded used to be called "Amelia Bedelia" after a character in an eponymous series of children's books. It was renamed because it was too obscure a title for too major a trope.
- Literal Split Personality once lived its life as a trope named "Starfish Character", an Animorphs reference. A character was split into a Angry and a Wuss version of herself, after being cut in half... as a starfish.
- Little Bit Beastly was once known as "Kemonomimi". However, the former title was very hard to search. Before that it was named Petting Zoo People which became entirely a new trope.
- Little Guy, Big Buddy was formerly "Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot", characters from an old cartoon. The name was being used for the characters, and was also being mistaken for a trope about a dog and a cat, instead of a broad trope about a relationship between two people.
- Little Miss Badass was formerly known as "Badass Lolita". The name was changed due to the original's reference to a character with major unrelated connotations, and because "loli" hit some sort of filter and caused Google to refuse to support the page with ads.
- Little Miss Snarker was originally known as "The Ruri" (named after Hoshino Ruri of Martian Successor Nadesico), but then it was changed to "Deadpan Loli". Now it has been renamed for the same reasons as the above trope.
- Loan Shark was shortened from "All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks", the name of a company in Pikmin 2.
- London Gangster was called "Kray Winstone", the apparent first name actually being the surname of an iconic pair of Real Life London gangsters, the surname being of an actor whose performance was inspired by the Krays. Most tropers didn't get the two references and the examples include a variety of London Gangsters, not just Dons inspired by the Krays.
- Lonely Funeral was "Tragic Funeral" before. The previous title wasn't clear enough.
- Longing for Fictionland was "Longing for Pandora" (after the setting of the movie Avatar). There was too much scope for confusion with the character from Greek myth / Pandora's box.
- Long-Lost Uncle Aesop was previously "Uncle Ned", a character reference (from Family Ties) nobody connected to and which obscured the point of the trope, leading to confusion with Remember the New Guy?.
- Look Behind You! was "Hey, What's That?" Renamed in the dark days before punctuated titles, when apostrophes where frowned upon.
- Loot Drama was "The Ridill". Which it was. Few people outside the Final Fantasy fandom will know of this sword — but Loot Drama in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games is fairly common and this is usual term for it. The term gives good clues to those outside this broader camp, too.
- Lost in Medias Res once was "Hold Your Horses", where it wasn't that obvious that the author was meant.
- Loudness War was "Record of Loudness War". The old name was an awkward pun off of Record of Lodoss War and there was no reason to use it over the pre-existing term.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch was "Lovable Libby" and renamed for the same reasons as The Libby — essentially for being a (work knowledge dependent) character named trope.
- Loved Ones Montage used to be called "Nakamania". Renamed for being opaque, especially after the rename of Nakama to True Companions and for not thriving.
- Lovely Assistant was once "The Vanna" after the hostess from Wheel of Fortune.
- Lover Tug of War used to be "Tug Lover War". It was not widely used, though it's a moderately common trope, so it was given a clearer/less bizarre name.
- Loves My Alter Ego was formerly "The Lois Lane". Not only was the first non-descriptive, many thought it was a separate trope, and many linked to it as Lois Lane the character.
- Lyrics Video Mismatch was renamed from "Narrative Non Sequitur" to clarify its meaning as a trope exclusive to music videos.
M[]
- Machine Worship was "Ave Machina". It was changed because many people thought Ave was a religious term, when it's actually a latin salute (like in "Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant" -> "Hello Ceasar, those who will die salute you").
- Magical Girl Warrior was originaly "Magic Warrior", and was changed to make it obvious that the trope was about Magical Girls and not Magic Knights.
- Make Room for the New Plot was renamed from "Got a Bigger Problem Now" to clarify the trope's meaning and to rid it of a line of dialogue title.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage was "Mixed Marriage". It was changed because people kept using the old name for interracial relationships in general.
- Man Bites Man was once "Take a Bite Out of Crime" from an unrelated Public Service Announcement where it was the slogan of McGruff the Crime Dog. Didn't make it clear who was biting who and gave the misleading impression it was something to do specifically with crimefighting.
- Man Child was originally named "The Oscar" after a character from Arrested Development who didn't even fit the trope.
- Mandatory Motherhood was once "Childfree Is Not Allowed". It was renamed because childfree is not synonymous with "childless"; it is the name of a somewhat controversial movement. The old name caused some misuse, and carried unnecessary connotations that other, clearer names could avoid.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy was originally "Pink Boy, Blue Girl". It was changed due to the old name being misused as an inversion of Pink Girl, Blue Boy.
- Meaningful Echo was once "You Are with Me", after a line from Harry Potter. Fan Myopia at its finest.
- Meddlesome Patrolman was formerly "The Longtarin" after a character from Gaston Lagaffe which few people knew about.
- Media Scrum was formerly just "Scrum". It was renamed because Scrum is broader term and the media version isn't the predominant use of it.
- Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus was renamed from the even longer and harder to remember "Men Are from Candy Bars Women Are from Shaving Products".
- The Men in Black was MIB. We generally don't like acronym trope names unless the spelled out title contains profanity.
- Metronomic Man-Mashing was formerly "Metronomic Mook Massacre", but was renamed because it had little to do with Mooks or massacres.
- Merged Reality was renamed from "Make a Better World" because it was being misused for characters who want to make the world a better place rather than for examples of parallel worlds being merged.
- Messy Pig was originally titled "Everything's Messier with Pigs", 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 pigs regardless of portrayal.
- Minigame Zone was "Golden Saucer", after the amusement park in Final Fantasy VII. It got renamed because the true name is Gold Saucer, and the name wasn't working well enough (not enough wicks and inbounds).
- Minimalist Cast was renamed from "Omega Cast" to help encourage use for an underused trope and to clarify its meaning.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot was renamed from "Gonna Need a Bigger Warrant" for clarity and to more directly include non-official investigations within an otherwise common trope that was being underused.
- Minor Flaw, Major Breakup used to be "Man Hands", in-reference to a Seinfeld episode that used the trope. This was an opaque title; no indication of what was happening, nor why.
- Mismatched Eyes used to be "Boat Lights" — a nice visual image but too many people didn't know boats have different lights on each side and too many people didn't make the link between lights and eyes — so the old title was opaque.
- Mistaken for Pedophile was once "Little Kid Lover"
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal was originally "Help Face Turn". It was renamed for being a Bad Snowclone of Heel Face Turn that was entirely misleading; it sounded more like a trope about a minion making a Heel Face Turn because The Hero helped them rather than because their boss mistreated them.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold was once named "The Boo Radley" from a character in To Kill a Mockingbird. The name provided no context and was opaque to those unfamiliar with the work. To those who intended to read the book it acted as a spoiler.
- Mock Guffin was previously "Golden Helmet of Mambrino". Renamed for being too obscure and non-indicative.
- The Modern Age of Comic Books was formerly known as "Modern 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 Modern Age independent of comic books.
- Moe was formerly "Moe Moe" because of a now-obsolete minimum on how long trope names could be. It was changed to Moe because that is the correct term for the trope and less confusing (except for all the Western-media characters named "Moe"). As they say, mo' moe, mo' problems.
- Moe Stare, which easily rolls off the tongue, used to be "Manic Pixie Dream Girl Stare", which... doesn't.
- Moment of Awesome was "Crowning Moment of Awesome" (and shortly before, "Awesome Moments"). Renamed due to trope decay, as the name implied a singled out epic moment for a character (or work), and instead characters/works were receiving entire lists of said moments. Likewise, the snowclones Crowning Moment of Funny, and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
- Money Making Shot was renamed from "Money Shot" due to the latter's porn connotations.
- Moon Logic Puzzle used to be "See the Sailboat", after a Magic Eye puzzle in the movie Mallrats. Since it isn't about sailboats and the somewhat obscure reference leads to a figurative link with Moon Logic Puzzles (something you stare at fruitlessly), it was changed to a descriptive title.
- Moral Event Horizon was formerly known as "Rape the Dog", but had to be renamed due to it being treated as Kick the Dog, But More Evil! (Also, TV Tropes is the wrong place for bestiality. Usually.)
- More Friends More Benefits used to be known as "Mambo Intimacy 5", but was renamed for clarity because the original name was obscure and somewhat unrelated to video games anyway.
- Mr. Alt Disney was formerly "Dis Not". It was renamed for clarity, partly to make it more apparent that the trope is about a parody of Walt Disney the person.
- Mr. Fanservice used to be "Estrogen Brigade Bait". It was changed because it's supposed to be a Spear Counterpart to Ms. Fanservice and kept getting misused to mean any male character that the troper thought was sexy. Also, not everyone attracted to men produces estrogen.
- Mrs. Hypothetical spent maybe a few hours as "Thinking of Changing Her Name to His" before being changed. The name it launched under was intolerably wordy and didn't quite outline the general concept.
- Mr. Vice Guy used to be "McDuck", but was renamed since it was unclear, lacked "The", and was being linked to by tons of articles referencing the character rather than the trope.
- Multicultural Alien Planet used to be "Lots of Planets Have a North". Created around a line from Doctor Who that wasn't an example for the sake of the reference, this misleading title suggested it was Aliens of London i.e. aliens with real life accents rather than, well, a Multicultural Alien Planet — an alien planet with distinct ethnicities, cultures, and traditions. Misuse followed.
- Mummies At the Dinner Table started life as "Last Dance With Mary Jane", then was changed to Norma Bates to to make it clear that it covered more than necrophilia, then was changed again when it was pointed out that "Norma Bates" was misleading to people who were familiar with Psycho, opaque to people who weren't, and was a spoiler, to boot.
- Mundane Made Awesome was originally "What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome". It was changed to be clearer, and to get away from the tired What Do You Mean, It's Not X? snowclone family.
- Muppet Cameo was renamed from "Everything's Better with Muppets" to cut ties with the discredited and only tenuously connected Everything's Better with Indexes snowclone family.
- Mutant Draft Board used to be called "The Corps Is Mother", after the slogan of the infamous Psi Corps from Babylon 5. The original title was another victim of the move away from referencing specific series.
- My Friends and Zoidberg was changed from "And Zoidberg" (via "Ladies and Alice") after significant statistically verified misuse of the name for any broad use involving "and", with "And Zoidberg" not having much to help it distinguish itself from other "and" tropes except for a very specific show reference.
N[]
- Naked Freak-Out used to be "Unmentionable BSOD", implying a connection between the trope and Heroic BSOD that wasn't really evident.
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond used to be called "Surname First Name Surname". It was changed because the use of technical words (forename, surname) made the trope title unwieldy. This is one of the few trope names that was changed from something extremely generic to a specific series reference.
- Narrating the Obvious was "This Just In", which was easily confused for being a News Tropes. The latter is now used as such.
- Naughty Nurse Outfit was "Night Nurse" but kept getting confused for a character type instead of a costume trope.
- Nested Story was once "Push Pop Plot" after the Computer Science abstraction known as a stack. Most readers do not know how push and pop operations apply to a stack and so found the title opaque. Of the few who did make a link, some made the link to candy rather than data structures. One wonders what a hash table would conjure.
- Neutron Bomb was formerly known as "Kill the Poor" (after the Dead Kennedys song of the same name). Kill the Poor has since been redefined to mean Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Never a Self-Made Woman was changed from "Female Success Is Family", due to the sheer amount of people misunderstanding it for Acceptable Feminine Goals, Career Versus Man, Family Versus Career and other tropes of that ilk.
- Never Live It Down was formerly known as "Jean Grey Escalation" — referring to the fact that Jean Grey's one Comic Book Death was blown out of proportion by writers and fans. This same mischaracterization plagued the trope name, with tropers using Jean Grey Escalation as a synonym for Death Is Cheap. Oh, the irony.
- Never My Fault used to be "You Blockhead", which referenced the Catch Phrase in Peanuts — which wasn't always used in conjunction with unfair blame shifting .
- New Rules as the Plot Demands used to be named "The Catapult Turtle Flying Castle Gambit", named from Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series. Renamed because the old name was clumsy, hard to remember, and unintuitive. Was first renamed "Screw The Rules, I Have Plot" but renamed again since it had nothing to do with other "Screw The Rules" tropes.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant used to be "Nightmare Dispenser", and before that it was... Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. The first change happened after 1. someone tried to YKTTW a "High Octane Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant" trope (which basically amounted to "NFSA, but scarier!") and 2. someone else pointed out that unlike Nightmare Fuel, Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant is not a subjective trope. So divorcing the two only made sense. [2] Later it was reverted back.
- Nightmare Sequence was previously "Nightmare Dreams", considering to be unwieldy with obscurification.
- No Biological Sex was formerly "No Gender". It was renamed in order to stop misuse of the trope for situations in which a character has no gender identity, but still has a biological sex.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male was renamed from "Light Masculine and Dark Masculine" to clarify the trope as being distinct from its Light Feminine and Dark Feminine counterpart.
- No Dead Body Poops was once "Bowel Existence Failure", an awkward snowclone of Author Existence Failure.
- No Delays for the Wicked used to be "The Trains Run on Time". Changed because it misused the idiom.
- No Except Yes was originally named "This Is Pest Control" after a Doctor Who quote. Renamed because it made no sense to anyone outside the fandom.
- No Export for You originally bore the LOLcats-ish title "Our Country Is Speshulz". Funny, but hard to remember the exact spelling for, not to mention mistakable for other nationalism tropes.
- No-Gear Level was renamed from "Warring Without Weapons" in order to stop misuse for Good Old Fisticuffs and to deal with underuse.
- "No. Just... No" Reaction was originally named "No Just No". Renamed to make it clear that it is an in-universe trope.
- Non-Action Snarker was originally named "The Shelton". It was changed because the character it was named for is from an obscure work.
- Non Sequitur Distraction used to be named "Forget It, He's Rolling", but was renamed because the original trope title was misleading as it was alluding to the opposite reaction of the one the trope describes.
- Not So Phony Psychic was once "Phony Phony Psychic", which was rather ambiguous.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream used to simply be Not Wearing Pants. It was renamed because it was being misused for non-dream examples.
- No Sidepaths No Exploration No Freedom was formerly "Pipe Shooter" (which remains as a redirect). The original name was ostensibly a nickname from Finnish media, but was judged too obscure; also, it was intended to invoke images of the early videogame Tempest, which is technically not an example but rather a Rail Shooter.
- Not Growing Up Sucks was formerly "Can't Grow Up". Too general for the specific trope at hand, and a ptitle to boot.
- No Time to Think was originally known as "Red Wire Blue Wire", which led far too many people to confuse it with the Wire Dilemma.
- Not Now, Kiddo had to be renamed from "Not Now Bernard" since it was named exactly after a work.
- Not Quite Forever used to be "You Fail Forever Forever", a snowclone made in error from the You Fail X family — it was never related.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain used to be simply "Not So Harmless". It was renamed because it sounded far broader than the trope actually is and was used for anything that seemed harmless but wasn't rather than a Harmless Villain specifically.
- Not with Them for the Money used to be "Gold Burier", an opaque snowclone of Gold Digger.
- Nutty Squirrel was originally titled "Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels", 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 squirrels regardless of portrayal.
O[]
- Obstructive Vigilantism was originally "Obstructive Vigilance", and was renamed for greater clarity.
- Of Corpse He's Alive was originally "Weekend at Bernies", a prominent cinematic example of the trope. As with most tropes which share their name with a work, it was renamed so that the original title could be used for the work itself.
- Offscreen Inertia was once "Tethercat Principle", a rather obscure name. The porn-specific form "No End In Sight" was alos merged there.
- Off the Table was formerly "Pound of Flesh".
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome was originally called "Missed Moment of Awesome", and took the name of "Epic Fail" even longer ago. The latter was because of conflicting with the more widespread meaning "a complete catastrophe of a failure", which Epic Fail is now about. The former was because people kept mistaking it for something they thought would have been awesome.
- Oh God, with the Verbing! used to be "Oh God, with the Troping!" until it was changed to be a bit more specific.
- Older Alter Ego was formerly "Glam of Shazam", named for the comic that featured a major example.
- The Old Convict was once "The Old Con", which didn't thrive and got confused for The Con.
- Old Cop, Young Cop used to be "Somerset and Mills", but was changed because the old name was named after a pair of characters and required knowledge of a particular movie to understand.
- Once Killed a Man with A Noodle Implement used to be "Once Noodled a Man to Death". Turning the murder implement into a verb was judged confusing. Plus it was YKTTWed under the current name.
- One Judge to Rule Them All was once "Aoyama Panel Judge", changed to be less obscure to anyone not in the fairly narrow demographic of Shoujo manga fans.
- One of the Kids used to be "Adult Child". It was renamed after people kept confusing it for Man Child.
- One-Scene Wonder was originally "Cardinal Wolsey", after such a scene-stealing role.
- Only the Chosen May Wield was formerly "Sword in the Stone". It was renamed in order to encourage broader usage of the trope outside of just swords in stones and to avoid misuse for simple references to King Arthur.
- Only the Pure of Heart was renamed from "Nimbus Privileges" for being work dependent (also got used as a redundancy for Incorruptible Pure Pureness quite a bit).
- Only Sane Employee used to be "Liz Lemon Job", which, in addition to being a character named trope, was also incredibly indirect.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses used to be "Nerd Glasses"; it was Trope Transplanted to make room for the supertrope.
- Organization Index was renamed from "The Organization" because the former name made it sound like a trope itself rather than an listing of multiple different organization tropes.
- Ostentatious Secret was once "Meghan Box", after a high-profile secret on Felicity. The name was changed since without the reference the title was opaque.
- The Other Darrin was originally "Sister Becky", referring to the second most well-known instance of the trope (and falling in line nicely with Brother Chuck, which has also been renamed).
- Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future was formerly "We Will Use Micros in the Future", changed because it's not clear what the "micros" in the title are (most people would immediately think microwaves, which is wrong).
- Outlaw Couple was formerly "Bonnie and Clyde", but was renamed because it shared a name with the film Bonnie and Clyde and was being used to refer to the people/characters Bonnie and Clyde rather than the trope itself.
- Out-of-Genre Experience was once "Unexpected Genre Change". When the latter was changed to Unexpected Gameplay Change, the former also got changed, presumably to avoid confusion.
- Overnight Age-Up used to be "Thirteen Going on Thirty". It was changed due to being named after a work.
- Overshadowed by Awesome used to be "The Krillin", named after Krillin from Dragon Ball.
- Overused Copycat Character used to be Drizzt Syndrome.
P[]
- Paintball Episode was formerly "Paintball Error". It was renamed because a page of mistakes in media paintball games isn't really a trope, and making those kind of mistakes doesn't happen unless the characters are playing paintball to begin with.
- Pair the Smart Ones was renamed from "Genius Breeding Act" in order to make it clear that the trope is about smart people pairing up rather than situations when some organization or government causes them to do so.
- Palette-Swapped Alien Food was renamed from Green Eggs due to underuse from the unclear name.
- Pan-Up-To-The-Sky Ending was "Look Up the Sky Ending". Changed for grammatical incorrectness, since the trope is not about endings in which someone looks up the word "sky" in the dictionary.
- Parrot Exposition used to be "Metal Gearing", which used to be "Prince of Space Sir". Prince of Space was too obscure, and Metal Gear is famous for far more than just repeating stuff.
- Past Victim Showcase was originally "Not Very Pretty Now, Is He?", a dialogue title that had absolutely nothing to do with the trope at all.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest was originally "Osananajimi", but was renamed for being too hard to remember[3], meaning just "childhood friend" with zero romantic connotations whatsoever (nevermind the other qualifiers) with far too many sinkholes with that in mind.
- Pendulum War was originally "One-Sided Battle", but was renamed because the trope is actually a series of alternating curb stomp battles. Consequently, One Sided Battle was never actually used, and now redirects to Curb Stomp Battle.
- Percussive Maintenance was formerly "Fonzarelli Fix" after a Happy Days character, but revelations of the widespread use of the term Percussive Maintenance in Real Life made the new name far more viable and less dependent on a reference.
- Perfect Play AI was renamed from "MK Walker" to discourage non-video game uses of the trope and to clarify its meaning.
- Periphery Hatedom was formerly "The Barney" after a prominent example: the eponymous character from Barney and Friends. Changed to indicate that it was more about an audience reaction than a particular character type. Additionally, wiki trends disfavor "The <character>" trope names, not to mention the possibility for confusion with other characters named Barney (such as the ones from The Flintstones, Barney Miller, How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, and The Andy Griffith Show).
- Persona Non Grata was "Banned from Argo". After some discussion, it was changed due to the Trope Namer being obscure and the new name being the technical term for the trope.
- Person as Verb was originally "I Pulled a 'Weird Al'". Renamed because this trope wasn't something Weird Al Yankovic was particularly known for.
- Pink Is for Sissies was "Pink Is for Girls", which was easy to interpret as "pink as a girls color" rather than "boys wearing pink getting labeled as effeminate".
- Planet Heck was formerly known as "Bonus Level of Hell", but was renamed since the original name both implied the subject was always a bonus level (not necessarily) and was getting confused with tropes like That One Level. For hard bonus levels, the page Brutal Bonus Level was created, which Bonus Level of Hell now redirects to.
- Planet of Steves was formerly called "Welcome to Marklar", a reference to an episode of South Park. Renamed since the more obvious gag with Marklar was SMURFING, which isn't quite the same thing.
- Platonic Life Partners was renamed from "The Straight Will and Grace" due to the old name being confusing and oblique.
- Playable Menu was once called "Walk Over Here for Options", but was renamed for clarity.
- Player Personality Quiz used to be "Test of Character", but was renamed in order to discourage confusion with Secret Test of Character, a largely unrelated trope.
- Player Versus Environment was renamed from "PvE" in order to remove an acronym, clarify the trope's meaning, and to be consistent with Player Versus Player.
- Playful Otter was formerly "Everything's Wetter with Otters". Like many snowclone titles this one failed to convey any useful information about the trope. The new title gets the gist across.
- Playing a Tree was "You Are a Tree, Charlie Brown". Renamed because the old name has a character name.
- Playing Cyrano was simply "The Cyrano", but in addition to the relative obscurity of the Trope Namer (Cyrano De Bergerac) and a low inbound count, Cyrano was not known exclusively for this trope. The name change made the trope more clear and preserved the reference.
- Plot Irrelevant Villain was "Villain Who Doesn't Do Anything". The new term better reflects the trope.
- Plot-Powered Stamina was originally "Marathon Man", but was changed to avoid confusion with the novel and film of the same name.
- Plot Tailored to the Party was changed from "Eigen Plot" because the trope doesn't really have much to do with the mathematic concept of eigenvectors.
- Plummet Perspective used to be "The Apple Falls Far".
- Polar Opposite Twins was "Different As Night And Day". It was renamed because the original name wasn't clear that the trope only applies to twins and was getting misuse for people who are not twins.
- Polished Port was formerly "Porting Distillation". The trope name this old name was snowcloned from is a little controversial.
- Polygon Ceiling was formerly known as "Sonic Syndrome" after the most prominent example. It was renamed because its usage had pretty much just decayed to "Jumping the Shark, Sonic style".
- Portal Slam was renamed from "Portal Splat" in order to reduce confusion of the trope for Tele Frag and Teleporter Accident.
- Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure used to be called "What Was Whose Sled", a non-obvious sort-of snowclone.
- Porn with Plot was formerly "Plot With Porn", which sounded too much like Explicit Content and was misleading.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons was "Pounds Are Doggy Prison". It was renamed because the trope is not limited to dogs.
- Power Copying was "Mega Manning". It was renamed because of it being named after a character. Even if the name was known he's a character with many incarnations, something that could lead to confusion.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child was formerly "Soylent Green" (that name now reserved for the film), which carried too many connotations of Human Resources. It is worth noting that before some trope derailment, Aesoptinium was called "Powered by a Forsaken Child".
- Power Levels used to be "Over Nine Thousand". The latter has long been a redirect, but its destination was changed to Readings Are Off the Scale in early 2010.
- Powerup Mount was formerly "The Yoshi". Was being shoehorned into every use of the Mario character even when he wasn't a mount, and had a low inbound count.
- Pre-Approved Sermon used to be named "Ecumenical Meddling", but was renamed because the word "ecumenical" was being used in very different way from its dictionary and common use definition.
- Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner used to be "Chew Bubblegum", which much later became its own trope.
- Precious Puppy was originally titled "Everything's Precious with Puppies", 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 puppies regardless of portrayal.
- Predatory Business was "VoldeMart", but the namer had nothing to do with the trope.
- Preemptive Declaration was formerly "Your ____ Is Broken", but very few of the examples used the form "Your x is broken", apart from being completely unindicative.
- Pretty Butterflies was originally titled "Everything's Prettier with Butterflies", 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 butterflies regardless of portrayal.
- Primal Scene was formerly "Oh Kitty", a line from That 70s Show. Non-indicative.
- Product Facelift was originally "Plastic Surgery" and was renamed in order to discourage confusion between it and the kind of plastic surgery that actually could give you a real facelift.
- Progressively Prettier was formerly "Fail Polish", but was renamed because it was non-indicative and might lead people to think it was about someone becoming more ugly or that it was related to stereotypes about people from Poland.
- Prolonged Prologue was renamed from Longest Prologue Ever due to the latter's negative tone.
- Prophet Eyes was originally "Milky White Eyes". It was probably changed since the new name specifically addresses the psychic/prophetic aspect of the eyes, not just having them.
- Psychotic Love Triangle was originally "Yandere Love Triangle", was renamed due to the old name being too Japan-centric.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis! was renamed from "This! IS! SPARTA!" because the old name is a widespread meme that was prone to pothole abuse. (Also, it never showed up properly since it was a custom title on a ptitled page.)
- Puppeteer Parasite was original "The Puppet Masters". Presumably, it was renamed because the latter was non-indicative to anyone who wasn't aware of the Trope Namer.
- Puppy Love was renamed from "Toy Ship" in order to make it objective and because the former is what people outside the wiki call it.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses was formerly known as "Brainy Specs". It was changed because editors keep mistaking characters who wear fake glasses just to look smarter for smart characters who wear them. The latter part eventually has into a more appropriate trope called Smart People Wear Glasses.
- Psychological Torment Zone used to be "Epiphanic Purgatory". It was renamed to make the name less inclusive and more distinct from Epiphanic Prison.
- Psycho Supporter used to be called "Crouching Support Hidden Batshit". Changed to remove the family-unfriendly word.
- ↑ Art Garfunkel was very important in Simon and Garfunkel's harmonies.
- ↑ Wait, what?
- ↑ though it may be fun to say while you do