Power Makes Your Voice Deep

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

When a person taps into some mystical wellspring of power, a common side effect is that their voice immediately plummets several octaves. Naturally, this is a tell-tale sign that copious amounts of ass is about to be kicked.

When pulled off correctly, the results can be spectacular.

If the subject is a woman, this usually presents itself in the form of their voices sounding huskier and more sensual (remember, Power Is Sexy), although there are cases where their voices just become deeper and booming like the men.

May be justified if the power upgrade comes with Hulking Out or transforming into a One-Winged Angel: being larger probably corresponds with longer vocal chords, which produce deeper sounds.

Sister Trope to Power Echoes, and the neutral cousin of Evil Sounds Deep and Voice of the Legion. It's not quite the same as Badass Baritone, although these two tropes aren't mutually exclusive.

Examples of Power Makes Your Voice Deep include:

Anime and Manga

Kaiba: "Wait. Did your testicles just drop in the last five seconds or something? What the heck happened to your voice?"

Comic Books

  • In the Marvel Universe, Tyrone Johnson's voice became much lower when he changed to his Cloak superhero identity.
  • The comic versions of Ghost Rider all get deep, scary voices once they change from their human identities to that of the demon.

Fan Fiction

  • Subverted in 'Nexus'. When Jack’s in his demon form, his voice has a metallic edge; much like the Autobots.

Film

  • Blackheart from the movie Ghost Rider gets this magical power once he summons 1000 souls into his body. That may have been the only benefit from the whole deal; unless standing around getting blown up so you can slowly reform again is highly sought after in demon society.
  • Done for humorous effect in Batman Forever:

The Riddler: "For if knowledge is power, then A God Am I!" (Beat) "Was that over the top? I can never tell!"

  • Galadriel's voice got pretty deep (and reverbed) in the first The Lord of the Rings film when she was imagining what she would do with the kind of power provided by the One Ring. However, Galadriel is already plenty powerful, so all the deep voice and special effects that went with it were her own doing.
    • In the book, her normal speaking voice is described as "clear and musical, but deeper than woman's wont."
  • When Tia Dalma once again becomes the sea goddess Calypso in the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, her voice grows extremely deep and reverbed. It could be because she was also extremely pissed off.

Literature

  • The High Seekers in the Novels of the Change, controlled by some unearthly force, sometimes go so deep that it's represented by boldface. This usually heralds the good guys getting a royal spanking.
  • Subverted in Artemis Fowl, when the characters expect this, but get a falsetto instead.

Number 1: I know. Less airy, more fairy, right?

Live Action Television

  • Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets amped up on mystical magic powers and Alyson Hannigan speaks the character with a slightly lower and slower tone and speed.
  • Bailey from Suite Life on Deck when she got possessed by Princess Xaria.
  • Anyone in Stargate SG-1, when possessed by a Goa'uld symbiote, although it's actually the Goa'ulds invoking the trope. They can use normal voices if they want to, but they want people to think that they're all-powerful gods, so they change their voice to match people's expectations.
  • Merlin gets into this when Merlin begins speaking Dragon-language. His regular magic doesn't usually deepen his voice, but the dragon calls do.

Radio

  • This trope's roots may have sprouted from the old Superman radio dramas, in which the same voice actor used his tenor range for Clark Kent and his baritone range for the superhero. Most exemplified when, in order to show that Clark Kent was changing outfits, the voice actor would start out in his Clark Kent tenor saying "This looks like a job," then his voice would drop nearly an octave and he'd finish with "for Superman!"

Video Games

  • Soki in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. For his Level 3 Hyper, he assumes his Black Oni Onimusha form, donning a mask with Red Eyes, Take Warning and a mane of white hair. His voice goes from "Boisterous Bruiser" to "Holy hell! He sounds like Satan!". Said voice is also booming and incomprehensible, but his voice drops from bass to baritone in no time flat.
  • In Devil May Cry 2, when Dante's health is at critical levels (his lifebar will be flashing red), activating his Devil Trigger will cause Dante to morph into a stronger, bigger, invincible alternate form (Devil Trigger Majin Form) able to mow do anything in the game with ease. While all of Dante's Devil Triggers echo (except for in the first game), this one has a much deeper, demonic sounding voice.
    • In Devil May Cry 3, Arkham manages to unlock the dormant power of the Sparda sword. Three guesses on what happens to his voice.
    • Nelo Angelo (aka a Brainwashed and Crazy Vergil) has an unnaturally low voice. According to The History of DMC, Mundus destroyed Vergil's original body and placed his soul into an artificial, yet powerful construct. Compare this to Vergil in 3, where his original form had a slightly raspy, but still normal-sounding voice.
    • Arius, the Big Bad of 2 (the one nobody talks about), gets a deeper voice when he's killed and revived as a demon by Argosax's power.
  • Invoked Trope/Enforced Trope/what?! in Jak 3, where the Precursors, revealed to be fuzzy little Ottsels with not-so-impressive voices, use a voice-manipulating device to get that "uber powerful ancient" boom. They know they wouldn't be taken seriously without it.
  • In Guild Wars: Nightfall, Kormir's voice becomes layered over a less high voice when she replaces Abaddon as the God of Secrets.
  • When Link wears the Fierce Deity Mask in Majora's Mask, he physically becomes older, and therefore his voice becomes deeper.
  • In Viewtiful Joe 2, when Blade Master Alastor is defeated, the Black Film controls/empowers him, warping him into the even more demonic Underworld Emperor Alastor. When the transformation is complete, his voice quickly deepens. Cue Round 2, where he has a slew of new tricks, more power and defense, and a much larger healthbar.
  • In Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Dracula's voice deepens mid-word as he transforms into a massive bat-creature for the second part of the battle. Conversely, when that form is defeated, he roars in pain, and his voice spontaneously rises back to normal as his transformation is forced to revert.

Webcomics

Web Original

  • Inverted Trope in the Eskimo Bob episode "The Swarm". When Yuck absorbs all his clones and takes on his One-Winged Angel form, his voice actually becomes more high-pitched.

Western Animation

Other

  • Truth in Television, funnily enough. Men will subconsciously deepen their voices if they feel confident or superior to the person they're talking to. (And the other way around—if you feel inferior, your voice gets higher.) Has to do with establishing dominance. Hence, not only will a person with a very deep, gravely voice subconsciously be seen as a powerful individual, BEING powerful will also cause you to lower your voice without realizing it.
  • Male frogs and toads developed their extensible chin pouches so that their mating calls would sound deeper and more resonant. This suggests larger body size to females, which seek out the biggest males to father their offspring (because only males with a good set of genes live long enough to grow big).
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