Power Echoes

Power reverbs. The more power, the more echo. So when a magical person such as a witch, wizard or some other type of spellcaster is reciting the lines of a curse/spell, or when a seemingly omnipotent being makes itself known, their voices suddenly becoming booming and echo-y is practically a given. Same thing goes for when fighters, even the most mortal, are announcing their attacks.

The phenomenon could be attributed to the character's supernatural qualities, but let's face it, echoes just make recitations cooler.

A subtrope of this is when a character speaks not with an echo but with multiple voices simultaneously. Often this is because they're channelling spirits, using the power of many beings, or are some form of composite entity. This is likely related to the phenomenon of characters switching voices as well as bodies in Freaky Friday situations.

See also: Power Glows, Power Floats, and Power Makes Your Voice Deep.

Examples of Power Echoes include:

Anime and Manga

• Just about everyone in Dragonball Z.
• Digimon in all its incarnations echoes attack names. Can become Narmish if the attack (or its name) is something that's particularly un-badass.
• A common staple of Super Robot pilots when calling their attacks. An almost funny example is found in the Super Robot Wars series (Alpha, mostly), where Kushua's voice echoes with authority when in the cockpit of her Humongous Mecha, but she's rather soft-spoken otherwise.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann! Lagann... Lagann...
  • More like everything Simon said in the last 4 episodes. I mean, he looked like he was going to EAT the Anti-Spirals...
• Mai-Otome: "MATERIALIZE!"
• The claim of Masami Eiri to be a god is reinforced by the reverb effect of his first appearance, although this effect is intermittent in his later appearances in Serial Experiments Lain.
• Spell incantations in Mahou Sensei Negima anime are said in Japanese and dubbed in Latin, making it sound echo-y.
• The English dub of Final Fantasy Unlimited adds echo to Kaze's lines whenever he uses the Magun. Strangely, the original Japanese track has no such echo....
• In Bleach the Vizard including Ichigo get this when they put on their Hollow masks.
• Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22 has Shinji and Rei echoing during the Take My Hand scene. Additionally, Rei has an otherworldly overlay in her English dub during the same scene. It ceases once she's extracted from Zeruel.
• Tekkaman Blade has every Tekkaman gain an echo when they transform. Makes it much more impressive when they use Voltekka

Comic Books

• Galactus of the Marvel Universe. A staple for when incarnating or parodying the character.

Film

• In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf's voice gets deep and echoes when he declares: "BILBO BAGGINS -- DO NOT TAKE ME FOR SOME CONJUROR OF CHEAP TRICKS!! I AM NOT TRYING TO ROB YOU!"
• Also: YOU... SHALL NOT... PASS!!!
  • Also heard when Saruman is chanting the spell to "bring down the mountain" on the Fellowship in the Pass of Caradhras.

Literature

• Death's voice in the Animated Adaptation of the Discworld novel Wyrd Sisters echoes with power constantly. This is a substitute for his voice in the books, which is rendered Like This, and is described to sound "like a lead weight in your mind."
  • Also used in the animated adaptation of Soul Music. Of course, since he's voiced by Christopher Lee, there's really no need for an echo.
  • The same effect is used in the Made for TV Movie of Hogfather.
  • His granddaughter Susan can turn the effect (known as the Voice) on and off. When it's on, people obey her without thinking.
    • There are, however, limits to what The Voice can do. For one, it is impossible for even a voice of eldritch command to get more money out of a Head Schoolmistress (in Thief Of Time.)
• In the Young Wizards books, spellcasting sometimes echoes.

Live Action TV

• In Star Trek:TOS episode "Return to Tomorrow", when the aliens possess humans they gain echoing voices.
  • In the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the crewman altered by the galactic barrier gets this as well, as his condition gets more dangerous.
• In How I Met Your Mother there is a flashback to Ted's days as Dr. X, a pseudo-revolutionary radio host. It is basically just Ted in front of a microphone, so he doesn't have any sort of effects and does the echoes himself. "X marks the spot-ot-ot-ot-ot"

Tabletop Games

• This troper's friend has created a tabletop RPG from scratch, and one of the abilities of the wizard class is this trope, where by expending a little extra effort, a high-level wizard can make his casting heard for hundreds of yards and cause fear in enemies nearby.

Video Games

• Almost all Dungeons & Dragons-based PC games with voice do this when characters are casting spells.
  • Taken to a ridiculous extreme in Neverwinter Nights 2 with the epic spell 'mass fowl' which sounds like a evil chicken clucking.
• Anders in Dragon Age 2 gets a more echoing voice after merging with the spirit of Justice.
• In Final Fantasy IV DS, Golbez echoes ominously with every word in voiced cutscenes. The echoes stop when he's freed from Zemus' control.
• Lampshaded by Annah in Planescape: Torment after you unite with the Transcendant One in one of the endings and your voice gains that echoing quality.
• In StarCraft, Kerrigan's voice echoes slightly after being infested. Protoss voices get a similar effect.
  • Lt Samir Duran also has an echo-y voice when he becomes Infested Duran.
    • Might have more to do with the Hive Mind than the power.
• Anyone who calls their attack when performing a Final Smash in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
• Dark Samus never speaks, but she laughs with a deep echoing sound.
• In NBA Jam, the announcer greets you by saying yelling "WELCOME TOOOOO... NBA JA-JA-JA-JA-JA-JA-JA..."
• The Eldar of Dawn of War all have this effect while talking.
  • As do the Imperial Guard Psykers, when they're attacking or yelling.

Web Original

• Whateley Universe example: the demon of "Ayla and the Grinch" speaks like this.
• Given that it's one long Homage to Dragonball Z and the Rule of Cool in general, characters in Super Mario Bros Z have a tendency to do this when powered up. Mario in particular gets an impressive one when obtaining a fire flower.

Western Animation

• Gwen, the Magical Girl of Ben 10, is quite possibly the current undisputed champion of this trope in the west.
• Teen Titans: Raven, when she recites the spell to release Malchior and later to open the portal to Azarath.
• Spoofed in an episode of |Hercules: The Animated Series, in which the Egyptian god Ra speaks with Power Echoes, but after a while, presses a button on his staff that turns it off. He felt that while good for introduction, the echoing tends to grate on you.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: "I-I HAVE-AVE-AVE THE POWER-ER-ER-ER-ER-ER!!!!!"
• Invader Zim: SPAAAAAAACE MEEEEEAAT!!!
  • Not having access to that technology, they make theirs out of "Napkin".
• In The Penguins of Madagascar, "Two Feet High and Rising" features King Julien declaring a new law, and Mauriceadds echoes for dramatic effect.
• Centurions: "POWER EXTREME!-REME...reme...reme..."
• In an episode of The Tick (animation), when Arthur starts using Baron Violent's power belt, along with making him bigger, stronger and more aggressive, Arthur's voice starts to echo.
• Bionic Six: "Bionics On! On... on...on..."
• Magic-users of sufficient power have this in WITCH - it's demonstrated by Cornelia when wielding the combined powers of the Guardians, Nerissa after absorbing the powers of the original guardians, Phobos both when he's combined his power and Elyon's and when using the Seal of Nerissa and Cedric after eating Phobos and acquiring his and the Seal's power.
• In Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui, Makuta delivers his line "Come. Join my brothers and me" with an echo effect added over his voice. In most dubs, though, they simply enahnced his already deep, robotic tone to create a wholly different effect.
• Princess Luna in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic DOES THIS ALL THE TIME. She's struggling to break the habit after a thousand years on the moon, even though it's impossible to make sound on the moon, let alone echoes.
  • She manages to rid herself of the echo, but has more trouble shaking off the Flowery Elizabethan English that comes with it.