Voice of the Legion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"[Black Mage] has got some sort of screaming demon background noise reverb thing going on with his voice. I think he just wants attention."''

 

Evil characters get a lot in the way of cool toys, [[Bad Powers, Bad People|powers]], and even [[Spikes of Villainy|wardrobe]] [[Evil Costume Switch|options]], but one of the coolest additions a sufficiently evil and powerful character gets is being able to speak with the Voice of the Legion.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Dragon Ball Kai]]'', Goku's voice turns [[Nightmare Fuel|slightly demonic]] for a short while just as he turns Super Saiyan for the first time.

* In ''[[Birdy the Mighty|Birdy the Mighty Decode]]'': Birdy is human, alien galactic superheroine who merges her body with Tsutomu, a typical high school boy who she [[Accidental Murder|mistakingly kills]] during an intense battle with an alien criminal. Over time, Tsutomu's mind begans to claim dominance over Birdy's, his memories eventually melding with hers. This leads to Tsutomu inhabiting Birdy's body instead of his own for a short period, resulting in his (and her body's voice) speaking in sync of each other. However, no one else can hear this since this is in his own thoughts.

* One of a the first of a series of horror stories stories from the manga ''Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi'' had the main character, Ootsuka Kaho, and her three friends receive a cursed text message. When two of her friends suddenly disappear, Ootsuka begin to panic fearing she will be next, but is calmed by her remaining friend, Maaya, who reassures her that the other two will be found eventually. When Ootsuka, though her texts, finds Maaya on the roof, she notices her talking in a completely different voice, which then become many voices. In a [[Twist Ending]], it's revealed that it was Maaya who was sending her the cursed texts. Her negative emotions were absorbed and amplified by malevolent spirits, covering her body in misshapen faces, including Ootsuka's two missing friends who were jealous of Ootsuka's relationship with a popular boy they were attracted to.

 

* V in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', at least in the comic.

* [[Ax Crazy|Jei-san]] in ''[[Usagi Yojimbo]]'' {{spoiler|and anyone who is possessed by him/it.}}

* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]'', Jesse's words are in red when he's using [[Compelling Voice|the Word of God]]. Except when the typographer slips up, which happens.

 

* B-3-K, of ''[[Yukari Is Free]].'' Portrayed in written form via different colors of text.

* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]/[[Doctor Who]]'' Crossover ''[[Time Lords and Terror]]'', the G1 villain known as the Smooze is [[Darker and Grittier|reimagined]] as [[Adaptational Badass|The]] [[Eldritch Abomination|S’Müz]], a being so infused with unreality that its voice is described as

* In ''[[Halo Combat Deformed]]'', the Master Chief speaks in a deep, satanic rumble whenever he gets very angry.

 

* Played with in the Disney film ''[[Chicken Little]]''. The title character is abducted and put in a black room where a sinister bunch of eyes yells at him in a deep voice... and then a woman is heard telling said bunch of eyes to "turn off the Big Voice." A door opens and we find out that the owner of those eyes is about the size of [[Kirby]].

* One of the experimental voices of God in ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' involved using every voice Moses had ever heard in life at once. After creating "many excellent voices for Satan" and apparently running out of time they dropped all the special effects in favor of {{spoiler|[[Talking to Himself|just having God use Moses' own voice]].}}<ref>Which unintentionally added a [[Genius Bonus]] for anyone familiar with ''[[w:The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind|The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind]]'' by [[w:Julian Jaynes|Julian Jaynes]].</ref>

* [[The Mysterious Stranger]] in ''[[The Adventures of Mark Twain]]'' is voiced by a male and female speaking simultaneously.

* In ''[[Care Bears]] 2'', the villain Dark Heart speaks this way occasionally.

* Used for the voice of Drazuul in the film ''The Gamers: Dorkness Rising''

* Regan from ''[[The Exorcist]]'' might be the ur-example of this trope.

* Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin sounds this way in ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension]]''.

 

* A rare literary example of the tandem voice occurs in ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'', where the representative of the demons appears as a perfectly normal human man with a perfectly normal voice... followed on a slight delay by the faint and far more unsettling voice of his true form.

** An arguably more creepy version is actually a subversion. The Auditors of Reality do not have voices as one would think of them. Instead, they simply alter the nature of reality such that ''they have already spoken''. The words appear fully formed in the mind.

*** Death's voice is often described as going to the brain while skipping the ears completely. The Auditors don't do even that. You just suddenly remember that something was said moments ago.

* In Dennis L. McKiernan's ''Mithgar'' series, all necromancers must deal with this when trying to find out information. Nothing is hidden from the dead, but whenever a corpse is raised hundreds of spirits try to speak through it, and only a necromancer's intimidating power can force the voice he wants to speak just ever so much more loudly. [[Nightmare Fuel|Considering]] [[Body Horror|what most]] [[Complete Monster|necromancers]] [[Cold-Blooded Torture|are like]], this is hardly a surprise.

* In Jonothan Stroud's ''The Amulet of Samarkand'', the demon Ramuthra's voice sounds as if spoken by a large group.

* In ''[[Belgariad|Polgara the Sorceress]]'', an adolescent Polgara shows off at one point by singing with three voices (and three different vocal ranges) at once.

 

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has invoked the trope on more than one occasion, including Willow in the midst of her black magic rampage, Caleb after merging with the First, and The Anointed One, who being a [[Creepy Child|child]] had a high regular voice.

** A non-evil version happens when a ritual grants Buffy the [[The Power of Friendship|combined power]] of the Scooby Gang, she speaks with all four of their voices simultaneously.

* In the "Small Worlds" episode of ''[[Torchwood]]'', the fairy things sound like multiple voices as once whenever they talk.

 

* Used a lot in Black, Gothic and Death Metal. The precursor is most probably King Diamond.

** Behemoth's album ''Demigod'' was both lauded and criticized for extensive use of this technique. The backwards Sumerian at the beginning of the single, "Slaves Shall Serve", stands out, but the vocals for the majority of the album are heavily layered for this effect.

* Strangely, makes a brief appearance in the Coldplay song "Rainy Day" in one verse. Hearing Chris Martin singing near the top and bottom of his vocal range simultaneously is both creepy and very cool sounding. (Likely the way it was meant to come off, considering the hodgepodge tone of Rainy Day.

 

 

* In ''[[The Bible]]'', Daniel sees a vision of a man who spoke with "the voices of a multitude" (Daniel 10:6).

* And, of course, Legion, the [[Trope Namer]].

 

* ''[[Captain Scarlet]]'': "This is the Voice of the Mysterons. We qualify in all the above respects, Earthmen."

 

* [[Older Than Radio]]: [[Our Dragons Are Different|Fafner]] in [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''Siegfried'' has a bass voice amplified by megaphone, and sings mostly in tritones before being mortally wounded by Siegfried.

* The extra-terrestrial "messenger" Astron, in Michael Tippett's opera ''The Ice Break'', is sung simultaneously by a tenor and a mezzo-soprano, to emphasise its alien-ness and sexlessness.

 

== Toys ==

* Zaktan from ''[[Bionicle]]'', being [[The Worm That Walks|composed of millions of small insects]]. It mixed with [[Demonic Possession]] in one scene, when the [[Evil Sounds Deep|deep voice]] of [[Big Bad|Makuta Teridax]] could be heard over his own words.

 

{{quote|Ahriman: ''All you have to to, is'' '''ask.''' THE ASKING IS YOURS.

The Mourning King: You know that is that I ask!

** And the Zerg Overmind. The Terran hero units also get a bit of it if they've been infested.

** Samir Duran, who already had the Voice of the Legion when he posed as an infested terran in Kerrigan's service, cranked it [[Up to Eleven]] when he met Zeratul on the Dark Moon.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' plays this trope completely straight with {{spoiler|Sovereign, the game's [[Big Bad]]}}. For bonus points it even says that "we are legion" at one point.

** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has Harbinger, who attains this when possessing other collectors.

* The Draug in ''[[The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings|The Witcher 2]]'' uses this to great effectiveness.

 

* When The Meta from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' talks (as opposed to snarling), you can make out a number of distinct voices speaking in unison, as befitting a composite consciousness.

 

* From ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]'', there's He-Who-Must-Be-Watered, who speaks from many mouths and with many voices. (Humorously undercut by one mouth that speaks out of turn, paraphrasing whatever the other mouths just said [[Layman's Terms|in a more colloquial style]].) He is, apparently, the personal servant of Lord Thezmothete, who is considered a Class 1 Power. (Humanity, by way of reference, is a Class 12 power.)

* In ''[[Looking for Group]]'', Richard's undead warlock voice comes across as red and black [[Speech Bubbles]].

* The Xul'kgmarhin aliens from [[The FAN]] have no word bubbles, and their lines switch between red and green to create the impression that they use two distinct voices that speak in tandem.

 

* Winnie-the-freaking-Pooh gets one in ''[[Dirty Potter|Dirty the Pooh and the Hundred-Acre Shitpile, Chapter Three]]'': "I want souls... Thousands and thousands of doomed souls..."

* This effect is pretty much the whole point of a minor [[YouTube]] fad called "[[Nightmare Fuel|Extra Scary]]", where the video is placed in a weird colour scheme and the voice track has several pitches playing in equal widths apart in a voice-of-the-legion-esque style.

* Representatives of the [[Image Boards|Anonymous movement]] are typically rendered this way, such as in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXyLrTRXso&feature=related this video], which is about the danger of [[Big Brother|NDAA]].

 

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', when Aang enters the [[Unstoppable Rage|Avatar State]], he speaks with the voices of all the Avatars. All 1000+ of them. When he's mad, [[Nightmare Fuel|the effect is quite terrifying]].

** [[Berserk Button|"TELL ME WHERE APPA IS!"]]

* In the ''[[Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United]]'' crossover, Alpha-Omega speaks this way.

 

* Tuvan Throat Singing is an art form practiced by the Tuvan people of southern Siberia. In this style two or more pitches sound simultaneously over a fundamental pitch, producing a mesmerizing, even entrancing sound. They literally sing in more than one voice as they are able to sing harmonies with one person.

* A live chorus will give this effect while performing, preferably in a music hall or a cathedral with good acoustics.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Paranormal Tropes]]

[[Category:Word Power]]

[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]