Sandbox / Raspy and Tough

There are various ways to make a character sound strong or tough. Writers often give a deep voice, while other writers give them a raspy voice.

In the latter case, the characters have a distinct rasp to their voice. They could be an Old Master whose voice cracked some time ago. They could just be young fighter who have a naturally raspy voice. Regardless of gender, raspy voices are a good way to signal that this character are very hardened as far as combat is concerned.

Often overlaps with Baritone of Strength. See also Evil Sounds Raspy (for when evil characters are signaled by them having a raspy voice) and Tomboyish Voice (a girl with a raspy voice to signal her being a Tomboy).

Examples:

Film

• The Fast and the Furious:
  • Main character Dominic Toretto himself, played by Vin Diesel, is a highly-skilled street racer, mechanic, and thief, with a bald head, a Heroic Build, a durability that borders on superhuman, and a deep voice that growls like the engines of one of his cars. And Dom's voice has become even more growly as Vin Diesel has aged. In terms of strength, he can snap a man's neck with one punch after choke-slamming that man onto the hood of a car and holding him down.
  • Deckard Shaw also counts. A formerly-Evil Brit, with an equally bald head, who speaks with the low, gravelly voice of Jason Statham. Shaw is a former black ops agent turned rogue whose Establishing Character Moment is engaging in a brutal punch-up with DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (who, by the way, is played by the much-bigger Dwayne Johnson), in which he survives being punched, tackled, and slammed through glass walls and tables, and gives Hobbs as good as he gets in return. He's certainly tough enough that by the eighth film, he's confident enough to taunt the big man when they're both Conveniently Cellmates:
  Shaw: I mean, do you really believe you can stand in front of me, and beat me in a straight-up, old-fashioned fistfight?!
  Hobbs: Let me tell you something: Me and you, one-on-one, no-one else around! I will beat! Your ass! Like a Cherokee drum!
  Shaw: Maybe one day we'll find out.

Literature

• Goblins in the Castle: Igor almost always speaks in a growling tone, which Fauna notes in book 2 isn't because he's angry (usually), it's just the way he talks. He's also incredibly strong, as evidenced in the first book when he shoves aside a massive boulder.

Live-Action TV

• The Larry Sanders Show: Artie is rough and tough, and his voice is gruff.
• The Witcher (2019): Geralt speaks with a very guttural voice, which adds to his intimidating presence. It's basically Henry Cavill doing his Doug Cockle-as-Geralt impression, which isn't a surprise given his vocal love of the games.

Video Games

• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Throughout the series, a deep, gravelly voice is a trait of male Dunmer (Dark Elves), whose homeland of Morrowind is one of Tamriel's most inhospitable provinces surrounding an active volcano. They are noted by outsiders, including the Imperial Legion, for their toughness having repulsed multiple invasions throughout history by numerically superior forces and ultimately only joining the Third Empire as a Voluntary Vassal with special privileges. Even their women have deeper voices than those of other races. The only exception is Oblivion where, owing to the limited voice cast, all male Dunmer share the same high-pitched voice as the other races of Mer.
  • St. Jiub is a Dunmeri saint first encountered by the Player Character of Morrowind. By the time of Oblivion, he has been canonized for driving Morrowind's reviled Cliff Racers to extinction but was killed during the Oblivion Crisis. His spirit can be encountered in Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC where Morrowind voice actor Jeff Baker returns to provide the same voice (as opposed to the rest of the male Dunmer in Skyrim who use a still-deep but less-raspy voice with an Oop North accent), calling attention to his toughness as a character.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Dimitri has a significantly deeper, more aggressive voice post-timeskip, showing how much jaded yet stronger he become during that time period.
• In Final Fantasy VII Remake the party member Barret has a rough, growling voice, fitting for a tough eco-terrorist.
• Kingdom Hearts: Series Big Bad Master Xehanort is monstrously strong, clever, and is singlehandedly responsible for every misery in the series for the whole of the Dark Seeker Saga. His voice is accordingly very raspy and sinister, no matter who his voice actor is. It was most pronounced while he was voiced by Leonard Nimoy. After Nimoy Died During Production and Rutger Hauer took over, Xehanort's raspiness was dialled back for Kingdom Hearts III, though it was still audible. Then Hauer died and was replaced by Christopher Lloyd for Kingdom Hearts III: Re𝄌Mind, who strikes more of a middle ground in terms of raspiness.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure has Wald Wales, one of the strongest delinquents in Crossbell who fittingly has low, growling voice. His voice becomes even deeper when he becomes a demon.
• Saints Row:
  • Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV both have a British-accented male voice provided by Robin Atkin Downes that's the throatiest and raspiest of the lot. It also belongs to the tough-as-nails badass boss of the Third Street Saints who shoots their way out of danger on the regular.
  • Another example from Saints Row The Third, overlapping with Baritone of Strength: Killbane, the leader of the Luchadores, and The Brute of the Syndicate, is a gigantic muscular man who can do a Neck Snap with one hand and just a few of his fingers, and speaks in a deep, gravelly voice provided by Rick D. Wasserman. The Badass Boast he delivers to the Boss when they confront him at a public press conference speaks testament to this:
  The Boss: You wanna fight the best, you fight me!
  Killbane: "The best?" (he walks out from behind his podium, clicking his neck and making an Evil Laugh) The best is defeating Sway the Spider God in a Tijuana scaffold match. The best is defending the world title 13 times in one night! The best is winning a Last-Man-Standing match with TWO BROKEN LEGS!! Trust me, little Icarus... You're flying too close to the sun... If you wanna be broken by the Walking Apocalypse, I will gladly oblige you.
• Vanquish has Sam Gideon , the Badass Bookworm from DARPA performing insane, rocket-boosted stunts on the battlefield, and Lt Col Robert Burns, his grizzled old sarge blowing through hostiles like nothing. While Sam's voice is higher-pitched, Burns has the distinctive low growl of Steve Blum.
• Yakuza 0: One of the Dojima Lieutenants, Hiroki Awano, speaks in an intimidatingly low, throaty voice. He also extremely strong, as shown when he manages to punch a brick wall and leave a massive impact on it.