History Main / ByThePowerOfGrayskull

* In ''Defenders of the Earth'', the Phantom would activate his super-strength by chanting "By jungle law, the Ghost Who Walks calls forth the power of ten tigers." His transformation sequence would then show... varying numbers of tiger heads passing into his body.

* Where's the love for [[SuperSentai Super Sentai]], the show Power Rangers get their basic concept from? Granted, they didn't do it until [[DenshiSentaiDenziman the fourth series]] but that's still 13 years before Power Rangers.[[hottip:* : For a bit of fun trivia, the transformation call for [[KyoryuSentaiZyuranger Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]], the first Sentai to be adapted for Power Rangers, was "Dino Buckler".]]

** And just for shits and giggles, let's list them all in order!

In situations where the hero explicitly cannot transform without [[MagicalIncantation magic words]], rest assured that EasyAmnesia will rear its ugly head at least once, making the change impossible when needed the most. If the phrase also untransforms the hero, expect him to do this by mistake sometimes. Villains in particular will often be tricked into saying their power-down phrases.

* ''{{Jem}}'', a rare western example of the MagicalIdolStar series, had Jerrica Burton transforming into Jem with the words "It's showtime, Synergy." When she needed to change back, the words were "Show's over, Synergy."

* In ''{{Jem}}'', Jerrica would "transform" into Jem by touching her earrings and whispering, "Showtime, Synergy!" This was actually a slight subversion of the trope, however, as this wasn't a magic incantation; the earrings enabled her to communicate with the advanced computer system called Synergy, and "Showtime" was the code to tell Synergy to project the computerized hologram which changed Jerrica's appearance into that of Jem. (Synergy could be contacted in the same manner to project other holograms, usually with more explicit commands.)
** There is also an equivalent "power down" phrase: "Show's over, Synergy."

* The spell that serves as a modifier for Raven's powers in ''Series/TeenTitans'' is "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

** Ironically, it's not just the phrase that transforms him, he needs to be holding his magic sword (which he pulls out of Hammerspace).

** Ironically, it's not just the phrase that transforms him, he needs to be holding his magic sword (which he pulls out of [[Hammerspace]]).

* In ''MagicalStageFancyLala," Miho transforms into Lala by saying "Toki no kioku ni omoi wo komete, ima, Fancy Lala ni karei naru seichou!" which translates as "Bringing my thoughts into the memory of time, grow now magnificently into Fancy LaLa!"

* Storm has an annoying habit of doing this for no apparent reason when using her powers in ''[[Series/{{X-Men}} X-Men The Animated Series]]''.
** This is riffed on during the CrossOver with ''{{Spider-Man The Animated Series}}'':
--->'''Storm''': "Power of lightning illuminate the night!"
--->'''Spider-Man''': "Uh, power of webshooters get real sticky."

* DannyPhantom had "Going Ghost!" which didn't really activate his transformation, he just thought it sounded cool.
* Really? Not one person mentions ''XiaolinShowdown''? Every time they used a shen gong wu they had to call out its name.
** This fits more with [[CallingYourAttacks Calling Your Attacks]].

* ''Magical Angel Creamy Mami'': Yuu's transformation required the phrase "Pam puru pim puru parim pompun! Pim puru pam puru parim pompun!"

* The spell that serves as a modifier for Raven's powers in ''TeenTitans'' is "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
** Similarly, an issue of ''Teen Titans Go!'' had the Titans' powers get juggled around, so Beast Boy ended up with Raven's magic and demonic taint. Her mantra doesn't work for him because he doesn't know what they mean, so she suggests he come up with something meaningful to him. He decides on "[[TrademarkFavoriteFood Tofu]], Gamestation, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Terra]]."

*** ''PowerRangersRPM'' handwaves the catchphrase as a voice lock for the morphers.

** It is not entirely clear in which cases the phrase is {{By the Power of Grayskull}}, and in which it is an {{Invocation}}. For the original rangers, saying the name of their respective animal was required (Zordon tells them to summon their powers thus), and the now-famous prelude, "It's morphing time!" was absent in the very first morph (Zordon is the first to use the phrase in the second episode). With every team since, it was the team call, not the individual call, that triggered the morph. ''PowerRangersTimeForce'' is a strange case: the Quantum Ranger's morpher was voice-activated, and this is ''explicitly different'' from the way the Time Force morphers worked. Doesn't stop 'em from saying "Time for Time Force!" to morph.

** An interesting note is that the power suit seems to be able to hear the phrase no matter how far away the speaker is. In one episode, Fenton is hundreds of miles away and needs the Gizmoduck suit. He says the phrase and it activates, and flies across the country to get to him.
*** This leads to a WallBanger moment in another episode where Fenton actually telegrams home to his mom and gets her to transform, because he's in Switzerland in that episode...