To-do list:
- Split the trope in the following ways:
- Split off a trope for “deep voices signaling an authority figure" (unisex)
- Split off a trope for “deep voices signaling a physically strong character" (unisex)
Badass Baritone is supposed to denote a character who is tough and "badass" by giving them a deep voice. However, Like other Badass tropes, It became a ZCE magnet, and a few examples attracted some gushing especially in regards to the actors/voice actors that portray such characters.
Here are the results from my Wick Check: (Thanks Yindee for the organization help!)
- Valid- (7/52)
- No mentions of the character being a badass- (11/52)
- ZCE- (24/52)
- Maybe/Not sure- (10/52)
Fortunately, There are 2 solutions I can think of:
- Disambiguate with other deep voice related tropes (Contralto Of Danger, Evil Sounds Deep, Power Makes Your Voice Deep etc.).
- Retool the trope to signify deep voices with masculine characters (Much like how Manly Facial Hair was retooled from Badass Beard and Badass Mustache) as well as yard it for deep voices symbolizing a leader/authoritarian figure.
Wick check:
As brought in here
Badass Baritone has a lot ZCEs, Possible Misuse (Its supposed to denote a tough character via deep voice), among others. So I'll check if there's an overarching problem with it.
Gonna play the eenie meenie miney mo game with this
52/52
- Valid- (7/52)
- No mentions of the character being a badass- (11/52)
- ZCE- (24/52)
- Maybe/Not sure- (10/52)
- Fire Emblem Heroes Midgard (Gustav)/ Badass Baritone: The tough king of Askr, with a very deep voice to match, courtesy of Joji Nakata and Edward Bosco. Valid
- Far Cry 3 (Dennis)/ Badass Baritone: He has a deep, mature voice, and he's an African warrior of the Rakyat tribe. Valid
- Horizon Zero Dawn - Tribes(Aratak)/ Badass Baritone: His voice is deep and commanding, as befits a powerful tribal chieftain. Valid
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Wolverine)/ Badass Baritone: Has the usual low register to provide the usual badass image for Wolverine. Valid
- Now and Then, Here and There (Elamba)/ Badass Baritone/Evil Sounds Deep: In the english dub his voice is much deeper to emphasize the ruthless warrior he is and seems to lower as his cruelty becomes more apparent. Comes naturally when you have the same voice as the Shredder. Valid
- Transformers Prime Autobots/ Badass Baritone: He's got a deep voice and a deep love for combat. (Wheeljack) Valid
- Punch-Out!!/ Badass Baritone: In the Wii game, he speaks with the deepest voice of all the boxers next to Mr. Sandman. He's easily one of the tougher opponents in the game as well, if you haven't figured out how to deal with his attacks. (Great Tiger) Valid
- The Locked Tomb (Silas)/ Badass Baritone: It's noted by Gideon's narration that he has a rather deep No mentions of the badass part
- Resident Evil - Albert Wesker/ Badass Baritone: He has a very deep and booming voice. No mentions of the badass part
- Live A Hero (Monomasa)/ Badass Baritone: Has a very deep voice, though it is unclear if this is Drovain's own voice or if he is using Monomasa's. No mention of the badass part
- The Testament Of Sister New Devil Moderate Faction (Rasmus)/ Badass Baritone: Both Tesshō Genda and Christopher Corey Smith provide a deep, booming voice of Ramsus. No mention of the badass part
- Kamen Rider Revice / Weekend (The Masked Man)/ Badass Baritone: His present self has a deep, almost metallic sounding voice, courtesy of Shinshu Fuji. No mention of the badass part
- Doom (2016): UAC and ARC (Samuel Hayden)/ Badass Baritone: His deep voice has drawn more than a few comparisons to Peter Cullen's take on Optimus Prime. Doesn't explain the badass part
- Knives Out (Benoit Blanc)/ Badass Baritone: Blanc's Southern accent blends extremely well with Daniel Craig's natural deep voice. no mentions of the badass part
- Sybal-Heim (Basileus)/ Badass Baritone: His deep voice is portrayed with black speech bubbles instead of white. No mentions of the badass part
- Team Fortress 2: The Engineer/ Badass Baritone: Maybe not as much at launch, but Grant Goodeve tends to use a noticeably deeper voice for lines added in later updates. No Mention of the badass part
- Metroid - Bounty Hunters (Ghor)/ Badass Baritone: His voice is significantly deeper in his battle suit. It's most obvious in the conversation you have with him on the first mission to Norion. Mixes with Evil Sounds Deep after his corruption. no mention of the badass part
- Puyo Puyo Fever (Possessed Klug) / Badass Baritone: His English voice acting in his Tetris 2 DLC appearance has an impressively deep and intimidating pitch. no mention of the badass part
- Berserk: Guts/ Badass Baritone: Damn, even his voice is badass! And it was shown (or rather, heard) in the anime that Guts went through some major puberty at around age 14 or 15 since he already has a deep voice by then. It just adds to the sexiness. ZCE plus creepy gushing
- Pastamonsters Enderman And His Allies (Enderman)/ Badass Baritone: Especially when he sings ZCE
- Trails Series Erebonia Ironblood (Rufus Alberea)/ Badass Baritone: To emphasize his noble bearing and combat prowess. ZCE
- Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom of Lucis (Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII)/Badass Baritone: It gives him a fitting air of command and gravitas. ZCE
- Helheim Hassle (Bear Death)/ Badass Baritone: He has this up until his identity is revealed. After that, his voice is considerably less baritone and badass. ZCE
- Bravely Default Protagonists (Ringabell)/ Badass Baritone: He has a rather deep and smooth voice in the Japanese dub. Not so much in the English version. ZCE
- Trails Series Calvard Arkride Solutions Office/ Badass Baritone: Part of the parcel when you're a badass martial artist played by Daisuke Ono. (Van Arkride) ZCE
- Trails Series Calvard Arkride Solutions Office/ Badass Baritone: As expected from the man who voiced Snake and Big Boss, Bergard has a really deep voice. (Bergard Zeman) ZCE
- Borderlands: Hyperion (Vasquez)/ Badass Baritone: God bless you, Mr. Warburton. ZCE plus gushing
- Tsukihime: Supporting Cast (Nrvnqsr Chaos)/ Badass Baritone: He's voiced by Joji Nakata. ZCE
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) (Napoleon Solo)/ Badass Baritone: American accent or not, that is Henry Cavill's natural voice. ZCE
- Hololive Holostars Japan Generation Three (Oga Aragami)/Badass Baritone: Has one of the deepest (if not the deepest) voices among the Holostars. This is heavily abused during Oga's cover of Love Live!'s 'Snow Halation' during a collab singing session. He later mentions during a late-night talk stream that because his voice is naturally low, it can be difficult for people to hear him clearly, which causes him to raise his voice, which in turn spooks people. ZCE plus possible IRL troping
- The X Factor USA Season 2 (Willie Jones)/ Badass Baritone ZCE
- Destiny The Guardians (Commander Zavala)/ Badass Baritone: Has one of the deepest voices in the game and you do not become Titan Vanguard without reason. ZCE
- A Dragon in Shining Armour (Alphamon)/ Badass Baritone: Alphamon is described as having a deep voice. ZCE
- Tada Never Falls in Love (KittyBig)/ Badass Baritone: The voice in his heart one could easily mistake for James Earl Jones. It's not though. ZCE
- Witch Cartoon Allies(Vathek)/ Badass Baritone: He has a deep voice in the animated series. ZCE
- Tales of Xillia (Gaius)/ Badass Baritone: In the dub, courtesy of Travis Willingham. ZCE
- Jak and Daxter (Sig)/ Badass Baritone: Courtesy of his voice actor. ZCE
- Okupas (Pollo)/ Badass Baritone: Has quite a deep voice. ZCE
- Saints Row The Third Street Saints (Keith David)/ Badass Baritone: A given, as he is one of the go-to voices for such an archetype in Hollywood. ZCE
- Total War: Warhammer - The Greenskins (Grom the Paunch)/ Badass Baritone: During the trailer of The Warden and the Paunch, Grom had a voice almost as low as Grimgor's. While significantly higher-pitched in game, his voice is still notably deep for a goblin and far deeper than Skarsnik's. ZCE and no mention of the badass part
- Transformers Prime Autobots/ Badass Baritone: Comes with being voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. (Bulkhead) ZCE
- Transformers Prime Autobots/ Badass Baritone: Comes with being voiced by Michael Ironside. (Ultra Magnus) ZCE
- Like a Dragon: Kazuma Kiryu/ Badass Baritone: Takaya Kuroda, an actor with a notably deep voice, plays Kiryu with pure, unadulterated badass. He also uses it to great effect whenever he sings. Darryl Kurylo's no slouch in this regard, either. Maybe valid
- Splinter Cell: Fisher Family (Sam Fisher)/ Badass Baritone: He's one of the most lethal men on the planet, and he's voiced by Michael Ironside in almost all appearances. His distinct low growl is often the last thing his opponents ever hear. Also counts for Daniel Beretta in the European French version. Maybe valid (Note: I combined it with the subbullet so I won't get confused during counting)
- Super Robot Wars UX (Agnes "Agni" Berge)/ Badass Baritone: He has a slightly deeper voice in Act 3, signifying his more serious and professional attitude at this point. Maybe Valid
- Kirby - King Dedede/ Badass Baritone: In games where he is voiced, Dedede is liable to have a bellowing, kingly voice. It's greatly emphasized by his tendency to roar, and he indeed has the strength to back it up. Maybe Valid
- The Elder Scrolls Online (King Fahara'jad)/ Badass Baritone: He has a very deep voice and is a capable king. Maybe Valid
- Kingsman: Kingsmen (Merlin)/ Badass Baritone: Merlin has a deep voice and is the Kingsmen's resident Badass Bookworm. Mayhaps
- Soul Eater: Troubled Souls - Headmaster And Staff (Lord Death)/Badass Baritone: During his Let's Get Dangerous!! moments, otherwise his voice is chipper and goofy. Unsure
- Transformers Prime Autobots/ Badass Baritone: Peter Cullen's voice has only gotten more deep over the years, and even more badass.(Optimus Prime) Not Sure
- Transformers Prime Autobots/ Badass Baritone: He's got a deep voice and can fight with the best of them. (Cliffjumper) Maybe Valid
- Punch-Out!!/Badass Baritone: The Wii version gives him an impressively deep voice to make him even more intimidating. (Mr. Sandman) Maybe
- Possible solutions:
- Disambiguate with other deep voice related tropes (Contralto Of Danger, Evil Sounds Deep, Power Makes Your Voice Deep etc.).
- Retool the trope to signify deep voices with manly characters (Much like how Manly Facial Hair was retooled from Badass Beard and Badass Mustache) as well as yard it for deep voices symbolizing a leader/authoritarian figure.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 1st 2023 at 1:22:27 PM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Paging ~Ayumi-chan to the thread.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
The Man Outside Reality
I think retooling sounds like the better option.
Trust no one.
the Retromancer
"Badass Baritone" implies that the baritone is badass.
Renaming to Baritone Of A Badass and clarifying the description if necessary should fix it.
And I doubt the disambig would be viable example-wise anyway.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I do think retooling sounds good, but possibly not the way the OP says because I noticed two types of examples that aren't simply "character has a deep voice":
- An authority figure has a deep voice.
- A strong person who isn't necessarily an authority figure has a deep voice.
Maybe Baritone Of Power would work for both strength and authority due to the word "power" being usable for either.
Edit: I'd rather not reuse the word "badass" if we rename/retool this, especially because the change from Badass Baritone to Baritone Of A Badass strikes me as just changing the order of the words without changing their meaning.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 19th 2022 at 10:42:45 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
the Retromancer
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
(I'm having a deja vu)
Edited by Amonimus on Dec 19th 2022 at 7:42:29 PM
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
The Man Outside Reality
I kinda prefer Baritone Of A Badass name-wise, but if it won't fix the problem, I guess Baritone Of Power works too.
Trust no one.
10000% full, deep voice for manly characters is a thing, would love to retool to that. I don't think we are beholden to the term "baritone" for a rename; a name like Manly Deep Voice gets the point across might without getting into the precise "technically Jean Valjean is a baritenor role, but he's much manlier than Marius..." types of discussions.
RJ Savoy
Baritone Of Power sounds like a synonym for Power Makes Your Voice Deep. If it's about the speaker having political power of some kind, I would prefer something like Voice Of Authority. If it's about manliness, something like Manly Deep Voice.
Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Maybe it's a thing, but are there examples in the wick check that focus on manliness instead of strength or authority? That might be something to Yard or take to TLP instead of something we can make with this thread.
I didn't know about Power Makes Your Voice Deep. Voice Of Authority sounds fine if we want to avoid confusion with other tropes (it would parallel Bald of Authority), though it wouldn't cover physically strong characters who aren't authority figures. Would it be better to split examples for physically strong characters and examples for authority figures? If we split, I suppose Voice Of Strength would work for the strength trope.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 19th 2022 at 11:44:29 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
The Man Outside Reality
I don't really like the name Manly Deep Voice, as it sounds kind of lame and doesn't really grab my attention like any of the other suggestions do.
Trust no one.
I like Baritone Of Power, but I can understand avoiding it given Power Makes Your Voice Deep. Maybe, "Powerful People Speak Deep" or "Powerful Person, Deep Voice"? That way we can still keep the combo of strong people and people who have authority (because tbh I don't think splitting them is a good idea)
I also don't like Manly Deep Voice, since women as well can be examples of this. There was a lot of conversation about former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and whether or not her oddly deepened voice and way of speaking were deliberately done to help her seem more authoritative. Like a voice specific version of The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask
Edited by amathieu13 on Dec 19th 2022 at 2:27:45 PM
Of the valid examples:
an African warrior of the Rakyat tribe.
powerful tribal chieftain.
the usual badass image for Wolverine. I'm Familiar with the character, Wolverine is definitely meant to be 'masculine' if not in the classical Hollywood hunky way
all the boxers next to Mr. Sandman. He's easily one of the tougher opponents
Some of this does overlap with "deep voice of authority", but traits like "tough king", "warrior", "boxing" are definitely masculine descriptors. I see it as a counterpoint to Contralto Of Danger (a woman with a deep voice is probably not the froufrou type). (There's probably a "third factor" discussion because of the intersection of authority and masculinity through the years)
Edited by Synchronicity on Dec 19th 2022 at 1:27:08 PM
Baritone Of Authority? Similar to how we have Bald of Authority.
Edited by FernandoLemon on Dec 19th 2022 at 6:20:00 AM
I'd like to apologize for all this.
low-poly Shinri
Sorry for being late to party. Just woke up.
Anyways, I do believe that the trope can retooled for manly male characters (especially if its done to parody manliness), but I do agree that Manly Deep Voice is a bad name. Open to more suggestions though.
E: also to Voice Of Authority to the “deep voices signals a leader/authority figure” split idea.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Dec 19th 2022 at 9:34:08 PM
She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A
This might be stupid, but how about Deep Dude Voice?
low-poly Shinri
Sorry but no, The title alone makes the trope sound very chair-sy
Maybe something like Manly Sounds Deep or Macho Sounds Deep to parallel with Evil Sounds Deep, then?
Edited by badtothebaritone on Dec 19th 2022 at 8:40:23 AM
low-poly Shinri
Now, THAT’S a good trope name (imo).
Just stoic wisdom.
I'd support that, especially the first one.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Those sound good if we retool this to focus on masculinity, since Synchronicity's most recent post showed that retooling it that way is doable. Maybe Macho Sounds Deep would be better per what was said about deep-voiced female characters.
I think I'm now in favor of retooling this in favor of focusing on masculinity since my question regarding whether it was doable was answered. That trait tends to overlap with male characters who are strong and/or authority figures, so I think we could list those two traits as common ways the trope can occur.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 19th 2022 at 12:26:30 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
low-poly Shinri
I also propose the Voice Of Authority split as well. Since, as you said, half of the examples in the wick check involves a person in authority. I also want to make that trope unisex, since there good chunk of deep-voiced female characters in positions of power I can think of (tho it might be redundant with Contralto Of Danger)
E: also, regarding Macho Sounds Deep for female characters, I think that might be redundant with Tomboyish Voice, since it covers ladies with deep voices signaling them being masculine.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Dec 20th 2022 at 2:29:25 AM
She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I suppose we could handle it this way:
- Move examples of authority figures to Voice Of Authority or another name.
- Move examples of masculine male characters to Macho Deep Voice, Manly Deep Voice, or another name.
- Move examples of masculine female characters to Tomboyish Voice.
Did I get everything? I think the second and third options would cover physically strong characters who aren't authority figures, or at least would overlap significantly enough that having physically strong characters separate from those two wouldn't be necessary.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 19th 2022 at 12:43:31 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
low-poly Shinri
Looks good to me
Crown Description:
Badass Baritone's tropeworthiness has been questioned, but splitting off specific concepts has been suggested. What should be done with Badass Baritone?
To-do list:
Badass Baritone is supposed to denote a character who is tough and "badass" by giving them a deep voice. However, Like other Badass tropes, It became a ZCE magnet, and a few examples attracted some gushing especially in regards to the actors/voice actors that portray such characters.
Here are the results from my Wick Check: (Thanks Yindee for the organization help!)
Fortunately, There are 2 solutions I can think of:
Wick check:
As brought in hereGonna play the eenie meenie miney mo game with this
52/52
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 1st 2023 at 1:22:27 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.