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Technician Versus Performer: Difference between revisions
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Obviously, the form that Alice's "originality" manifests itself in will depend on the art/sport she's involved in. She might be an imaginative writer who can't spell, or a painter of simplistic, cheerful paintings in an art school full of students who tend to produce Mona Lisa style works. She may be the ice skater who zooms around the ice happily, but can't quite pull off that tricky spin, or a musician that finds classical music boring and likes to jazz them up with their own variations (with varying degrees of success). Whatever the scenario, the individuality that makes her "unperfect" is the same individuality that endears her to anyone watching.
Generally, the narrative will be in favour of the enthusiastic performer (who sometimes has [[The Gift]], but not always) rather than the diligent technician. This can be seen as a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]], since it means undermining the hours of practice the technician has put in to get to that level. At its best, the trope sings the praises of enjoying yourself and [[Be Yourself|being unique]]; at its worst, it implies that superior skill hamstrings individuality.
Differs slightly from (but is related to) [[Hard Work Hardly Works]]. In this trope, there is no denying that the Technician is usually ''better'' at what they do, but the Performer is more fun to watch, while [[Hard Work Hardly Works]] adds insult to injury by giving a cheerful slacker superior ''skill'' than those around them who actually practice now and then. Also similar to [[Weak but Skilled]]; similar in that there is a better trained performer against a stronger or more talented rival, but different in that the one with the best training wins, usually through cleverness and skill. If paired with [[Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training]], then the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] can get worse as it implies not only is hard work foolish, but harmful. Sometimes the technician might be technicaly better, but the performer can still be superior due to creativity.
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== [[Anime]] ==
* [[Dragonball Z]]: In a way Vegeta is the Technician to Goku's performer. Vegeta trains and fights to be the strongest fighter in the universe, he also never spars, pushes himself waaaay too hard and his pride won't allow him to ask for help. Goku trains and fights because he loves it and is willing to learn from and train with others. In the end Goku is the better fighter despite not taking his training quite as seriously as Vegeta.
** A better example may be Piccolo (post [[Heel Face Turn]] anyway) and Goku... Or, frankly, anyone else in the series that isn't a normal little human. While preternaturally strong, he usually ends up registering about a 7 or 8 while others spike at 10-15. But he's just so damn ''good'' and knows so many techniques (when it doesn't just come down to a planet-busting [[Beam-O-War]]) that he can hold his own with the best of them. [[The Worf Effect|Unless he's the one that gets picked on to prove "how much a threat" the new villain is.]]
* ''[[Kaleido Star]]'': Sora is the Performer; Leon and May are mainly Technicians. Layla, however, has both traits despite her [[Defrosting Ice Queen]] persona. Marion lampshades this when she comments on Sora's incompetence as part of the reason she's such a crowd pleaser: knowing that she might screw up keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Unlike Leon (too racked with guilt and angst to enjoy what he does) and May (too intent on winning to care about the audience), Sora loves her job and plays to the crowd... and sometimes too hard.
** Heavily lampshaded later, when Katie chewed Leon and May out during the ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' rehearsals. She basically tells them "A selfish Romeo who only cares about his own splendor? A cowardly Juliet who seems scared and diminished? Don't make me laugh you guys, you epically SUCK!"
** Of note: a good part of May's [[Character Development]] comes from her training to become more of a Performer, dropping the flaws that her Technician side brings her.
** Don't forget Rosetta versus Sora early in season one. Rosetta was a stellar technician whose act looked like a "Diavolo machine". According to Kalos, she looks cold and mechanical when performing, that the audience gets bored despite all the skill she develops; therefore, he teams her up with Sora so Rosetta cn learn has to teach her how to enjoy herself more so she'll win the audience's love. When she ''does'' becomes more of a performer thanks to Sora's help, he lampshades this by saying "Rosetta has finally become a performer".
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' and its sequel, ''[[Great Mazinger]]'': Koji Kabuto and Tetsuya Tsurugi have distinct ways to pilot their respective [[Humongous Mecha]]. Kouji is the Technician, who uses his weapons in a normal way -such as Mazinger's Photon-powered [[Eye Beam]] as a long range weapon-, combining them with pure brute force and [[Combat Pragmatism]]. Tetsuya is the performer who combines his own [[Combat Pragmatism]] by using Great's wide arsenal of weapons in an unorthodox way -such as shooting Thunder Break with both weapons or using it to turning his swords into Lightning rods, his surprisingly weird way of handling swords, or covering Great with [[Chest Blaster|Breast Burn]] heat energy (a movement which later would be adapted in [[Super Robot Wars Alpha]] and turned into ''[[Mazinkaiser]]s'' Kaiser Nova).
* Duck, in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', is so inherently clumsy that not even her passion for ballet can land her a leading role, but her performance does inspire a melancholy yet brilliant ballerina to find her own style rather than mimicking others.
* Briefly mentioned in a volume or episode of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', where Winry and Cheska debate over whether cooking is a science or an art.
* The ''[[Swan]]'' manga takes a different approach to this - heroine Masumi's originality and enthusiasm take her quite a long way, true...but it doesn't always triumph against her rivals, who often have superior skill on ''top'' of originality.
* Played in ''[[Skip Beat!]]'' with Kyoko and Kanae. While in the beginning it seemed that both were going to develop a Performer/Technician rivalry, soon it's revealed that Kanae, while more of a Technician actress than Kyoko, is able to pull Performer-like stunts when needed... and for a while, is ''Kanae'' who loves more her selected career (Kyoko was there more for the fame-making potential she needed for her revenge, until she grows). Besides, ''both'' girls are in the Love Me team, a division for people who, while very talented, still lacks a certain quality who drives the public to likes them.
* ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'' initially seems to set up this kind of conflict between uptight perfectionist Chiaki and quirky free spirit Nodame, particularly when their mentor Stresemann criticizes Chiaki's performance of Rachmanioff for lacking "sexiness." The conflict never quite materializes, however; Chiaki, despite his more technician-like approach to his art, regularly stuns audiences with the quality of his performances, and his technical skill is accompanied by a genuine love of and passion for music. Meanwhile, although Nodame also loves music and has a natural talent which Chiaki recognizes immediately, the fact that she takes it much less seriously and lacks Chiaki's drive proves to be a problem which hinders her performances.
** The trope is deconstructed in ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'', in that neither pure technician nor pure performer is right or better for classical music. A classical musician should have the mix of both. It is also implied that there is no right mix either. Chiaki and Kuroki are more towards the technician part, while Nodame and Jean Donnadieu are more towards the performer part. All of them are celebrated, but just in different ways, and it's difficult to say who is better.
* This trope is brought up in the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' Manga, when the character Toshinori Oda remembers the time that he and the protaganist, Shuya, performed music for the class; Oda's reserved violin recital received only polite applause, while Shuya's over the top guitar playing had the whole class cheering for him. Oda sees this as proof that his classmates are "uncultured"; Kazuo later thinks to himself (after killing Oda) that it was because Oda was too arrogant and "put himself between the listener and the music".
* Used beautifully in ''[[Beck]]'': In the "Grateful Sound" arc, the band breaks up thanks to internal tensions set off by Ryuske's Deal with the Devil. The rival band, Bell Ame, is set to totally eclipse BECK's set. Refusing to back down, Koyuki, followed by Saku on drums, grabs a acoustic and plays a stunning and spirited cover of <s>the Beatles's "I've Got a Feeling"</s> in-universe band The Dying Breed's song "Fifty Cent Wisdom". The result? The factory-produced sugar-pop rival's set actually bleeds off its audience!
** Belle Ame aren't helped by the fact that their special guest, the [[Bishounen]] [[Soap Opera|soup star]] (and love rival of Kouyuki) they have performing with them can't actually sing.
* ''[[Iron Wok Jan]]'' twists this trope with Kiriko Gobancho and Jan Akiyama. Jan, the [[Jerkass]] [[Anti-Hero]], is an inverted Performer in that he cooks to deliberately earn the hatred and disgust of the audience—to make the victory of his cuisine all the sweeter. And yet he admits that he cooks mostly because it's all that his grandfather [[Training
* Inverted in ''[[Captain Tsubasa]]'', Hyuga Koujirou is a Performer who uses raw power and hot blood as he plays, whereas Ohzora Tsubasa is a devoted Technician who focuses on his skills. They quite clash as a result, but later Hyuga finds himself landing in quite the trouble when he plays abroads and sees that his Performer traits are a hindrance on his playing style...
** It could be argued that Hyuga is the technician and Tsubasa the performer in the sense that Hyuga only plays to be the best, to get noticed so to land a contract in a major club to provide his family with money, and spends countless hours in training from hell while Tsubasa plays mainly for fun, is enthusiastic enough to have everyone behind him and seems innately gifted.
** Tsubasa as a performer (albeit a very talented one) pit against technicians happens on a regular basis. It starts with Wakabayashi in their first encounter (thus beating the best goal keeper of all Japan for whom soccer was serious business), Misugi, Hyuga and later Santana.
*** For example between Tsubasa and Carlos Santana in Brazil with Tsubasa being the performer and Santana the technician. The latter is called the "Socccer God's son" but also the "Soccer Cyborg", playing soccer at perfection but with no soul anymore {{spoiler|due to his [[Training
* ''[[Glass Mask]]'' has heroine Maya Kitajima as a Performer who pours her soul when she acts, with her rival Ayumi Himekawa as a practically perfect Technician. Lampshaded when Maya says she envies Ayumi's technical skills and grace, as well when Ayumi thinks Maya can reach emotional depths that she simply can't equal.
* The [[Long Runner|many many episodes of]] ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' did this a few times, once with two rival restaurants, one where the chef was a Mr. Mime and the other where the chef was a Sneasel. The Mr. Mime cook put a lot of flash into his cooking, turning even the cooking itself into a performance of sorts with his psychic abilities, and the presentation of the meal could not have been nicer...[[Lethal Chef|but the food itself was virtually inedible, as the flavor was nightmarish]]. The Sneasel, by comparison, was an unimpressive minimalist, cooking in the backroom and bringing out extremely ordinary-looking, even ugly-looking dishes...[[Supreme Chef|that turned out to be mouthgasmically delicious]]. After a [[Cooking Duel]], the two rival restaurants teamed up, with Mr. Mime teaching Sneasel about presentation and Sneasel teaching Mr. Mime about how to make food your patrons can actually eat.
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*** Ash does have a certain amount of Technician, especially in Sinnoh (taking Dawn's Spin Dodge and Ice Aqua Jet ideas, meant for conmtests, and turning them into valid Battle techniques, for example), though how much strategy he'll get to use varies [[Depending on the Writer]].
** One other episode features a Hitmontop trainer who relies too much on being a Performer and has to tone it down and balance it with being a Technician.
** Being a Co-ordinator requires a higher amount of Performer than being a regular Trainer, as points are lost if your performance isn't flashy enough (or your opponents performance is flashier).
* Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' fit this trope perfectly. Whilst Yusei is a master of gadgetry and engineering and calm and calculated as a result, Jack on the other hand appears to have no technical skill but is a hugely talented entertainer, and arguably a better duelist than Yusei with his only two loses capable of being chalked up to overconfidence in the first case and an obsessive desire to defeat Yusei by conquering the card combo he lost to in their last match during their rematch.
** Not necessarily. Those were losses in his professional career. And Jack's specialty, akin to Kaiba in the original, is that he favors beatdown. Yusei counters this with strategies often centered around weaker monsters with protective abilities.
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*** Lately in manga Eiji also came closer to Technician side, especially with {{spoiler|his new series, "Zombie Gun"}}, that is far more plotted than previous.
* One episode of ''[[Fushigiboshi no Futagohime]]'' illustrates this trope using Altezza, who practiced hard before each Princess Party, but had yet to win one, thanks to interference from the main characters' [[Magical Girl]] powers. When the twins found out how hard she worked, they got depressed about their own laid-back, "just have fun" approach to the parties and being princesses in general. Bright, Altezza's older brother, tells the girls that they have something Altezza doesn't, but is cut off before he can tell them what it is.
* This is oddly inverted in ''[[The Cherry Project]]'', a pre-[[Sailor Moon]] [[Naoko Takeuchi]] manga. The protagonist and newcomer figure skater Chieri learns everything she knows by copying others' technical moves, but doesn't have the "artistic grace" that semi-pro Canty has.
* The Manga ''Piano no Mori'' exemplifies this trope in the relation between friends and competing pianists Shuhei (the technician) and Kai (the performer).
* Played with in ''[[Hikaru no Go]]'', with Hikaru (Performer) and Akira (Technician). The twist is that while Akira thinks Hikaru is good enough to play at his level from the start, that's actually not true, and it takes Hikaru years to reach a level where he can compete with him. Even then {{spoiler|Akira is always seen as the better Go player, and Hikaru never beats him, though he comes close.}}
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{{quote|''(on Iceman) "It's the way he flies. Ice cold, no mistakes. He wears you out 'til you do something stupid, then he's got you."''
''(on Maverick) "You are dangerous. I don't like you because every time you fly you're unsafe." (later) "You are still dangerous. ([[Beat]]) You can be my wingman anytime."'' }}
* Deconstructed in ''[[Black Swan]]'', which asserts that the White Swan character must be a technician, while the Black Swan must be a performer. The director wants to cast the same dancer in both roles. The main character is a technician, and struggles greatly to embody the easy confidance of a performer while playing the Black Swan. Her rival is a performer, whose dancing is not flawless, but who displays natural confidence in her dancing and in life.
* Referenced and played out somewhat in ''[[Inception]]'' while making the actual inception plan. Arthur is the technician and Eames is the performer.
* In ''[[The Legend of Bagger Vance]]'', the two rival golfers competing with the main character are portrayed as a technician and a performer.
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* Played with a bit in ''Ballet Shoes'', where it's mentioned at one point that the sister who hates dancing ends up being one of the most technically proficient dancers in the school ''because'' she hates dancing, so she ends up taking basic classes year after year and gets all the core moves completely ground into her mind. But her performer sisters are the ones who always get major roles in ballets and plays, while she's always (gladly) stuck in the background. Although in this case her sisters aren't ''bad'' at technique they just never learn it by rote the way she does (and when one of them does end up stuck in that same situation, her performer side comes out more strongly than it does at any other time in the book).
** Dulcie (Technician) and Hilary (Performer) in ''Dancing Shoes'' play out the above description almost to the letter.
** In ''White Boots'' (known as ''Skating Shoes'' in the US), Lalla is the Performer, Harriet is the Technician. Slight subversion in that it's Harriet, the newcomer to ice skating, who's the more precise skater (usually, the Performer is the rookie) and that the book comes out on her side - Lalla is sympathetic and charming, but also a bit of a spoiled brat, while Harriet is modest and loyal.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' stories involving the Witch Trials: Granny Weatherwax is the Technician and she always wins. But Nanny Ogg is the Performer, and people buy her drinks and say "It was a good try". Both of them are happy with this.
** It should also be noted that Terry Pratchett [[Word of God|stated]] in one of the Discworld art books that he "always believed, deep down, that Nanny Ogg is the most powerful of the witches."
* In ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', both protagonist Elizabeth and her bookish younger sister Mary play the piano and sing. Mary is a technically accomplished musician (with a terrible singing voice) who practices hard and works for accomplishments. Elizabeth isn't as skilled technically and often makes mistakes in her playing, but her performances are cheerful and pleasing, and on the whole people much prefer to listen to her.
* In ''Virtuosity'' by Jessica Martinez, Grammy-winning [[Child Prodigy]] violinist Carmen is the technician while her opponent in the Guarneri competition, Jeremy, is the performer. Jeremy does an act in his performances, whereas Carmen just plays. Carmen is envious of how comfortable he is, while she relies on drugs to keep from getting nervous before concerts. It is somewhat of a subversion, however, since Jeremy has his own problems.
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{{quote|'''Sergeant''': There now exists a real possibility I might win. Even for me, that would be a joke too far.}}
* ''[[Glee]]'' makes Vocal Adrenaline out to be the "technically-perfect team with no soul" whereas New Directions are the plucky underdogs who make up for their lack of polish with their bleeding hearts. {{spoiler|But the Regionals judges don't see it that way.}}
** {{spoiler|Neither did the Nationals judges a season later.}}
** [[Your Mileage May Vary|For some viewers of the series]], Technician Versus Performer in some form kicks in within New Directions itself, particularly with regard to Rachel, who tends to be technically adept but an imitative and immature performer whose goal is winning approval and applause, and the rest of the girls (plus countertenor Kurt - they're in competition because they share equal ranges and song preferences), who sing with more originality, authenticity and emotion. However, it also applies in reverse to the boys. Finn, as by far the least accomplished of the male singers and dancers, looks like he should be an underdog Performer type - but he's resented for getting solos while other (far more accomplished and enthusiastic) singers such as Artie, Kurt and Puck, and dancer Mike, are undeservedly stuck in his shadow - largely because of Technician Versus Performer favoritism from Will Schuester.
* Often happens on [[So You Think You Can Dance]], especially with breakdancers. While technically wonderful dancers are often competent enough to stay on the show for a while even if their performance isn't too amazing, dancers like season 7's Jose sail through because they're fun to watch even if they don't dance very well.
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== [[Music]] ==
* One word, Rap. From the technical geniuses that dominate the underground but don't have the charisma to achieve superstar status (Talib Kweli, [[Nas]], Common, [[De La Soul]], sadly, a lot of political rappers fall into this), versus the loud, dumb, party lyrics backed by incredible stage presence ([[
* Amongst guitarists too, just look at the top 100 as ranked by Rolling Stone. The top 10 are mainly remembered as performers who played with a focus on soul and feeling. Whereas Technicians such as Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen are considerably lower on the list.
* Robbie Williams (performer) and Gary Barlow (technician) from Take That, and more notably their solo careers. Most people agreed Gary was the better song writer and singer but he was quiet and reserved with a fairly stable personality, where as Robbie was wild, charismatic and beset by personal demons. Interestingly this reversed once they got older, as Robbie started to look more and more like a wangsty man-child and Gary like a dignified if [[The Stoic|stoic]] gentleman.
* ''Pyromania''- and ''Hysteria''-era [[Def Leppard]] had co-lead guitarists Phil Collen (technician) and Steve Clark (performer). Collen has stated that, after Clark died, he almost wanted to quit the group over his frustration at the problems he was having with replicating Steve's guitar playing.
* Britney Spears (Performer) Vs Chritina Aguilera (Technician).
* The [[They Might Be Giants]] song "[[XTC]] versus [[Adam Ant]]" asserts that the two bands represent "content versus form," ie technical performance versus style.
* An unusually common situation: An actor-who-sings tends to be much more successful than the reverse. Though both fields are demanding, singing is also [[Crippling Overspecialization|extremely focused]]; singers (Technicians) often lack the physical presence needed to connect to the audience, while actors (Performers) may not be the best singers, but know how to get reactions from audiences. Underlining the differences, many actors already ''are'' decent singers—but they view it as a fun way to kill time, while singers view acting as [[Serious Business]].
* This trope is the main reason why it's generally [[Internet Backdraft|not a good idea]] to try to discuss either [[Garage Rock]] or [[Progressive Rock]] with fans of the other.
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** Technicians: Dean Malenko, Lance Storm, Furnas and Lafon. Startling degree of talent, wide knowledge of moves and countermoves but usually never really catch on with the casual fans at-large.
** Performer: The ur-example here is probably [[Hulk Hogan]]. Never a solid performer, but he knew how to put on a show and the fans adored him. More modern examples would be [[Mick Foley]], [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], [[Triple H]] (who is a pretty incredible technician to boot), [[The Undertaker]] (who can pull off some amazing stunts when it's called for) and [[John Cena]]. Comedy wrestlers, like The Honky Tonk Man and Santino Marella (amusingly enough, the guy has extensive [[MMA]] training, and was a fighter in Japan), fit here also.
** There are the rare wrestlers who bridge the gap, and they are usually regarded among the elites: [[Ric Flair]], Shawn Michaels, [[Chris Jericho]], [[Chris Benoit]], and [[Kurt Angle]] come to mind immediately.
** Steve Austin was both at different points of his career: As one-half of the Hollywood Blondes in WCW, he was known as a good technical wrestler. When he became "Stone Cold", he changed his style to highly entertaining brawler.
** The [[Bret Hart]] / [[Shawn Michaels]] rivalry is arguably the quintessential example. You can practically rename this trope "Excellence of Execution vs The Showstopper".
** [[Daniel Bryan]] and The Miz's feud over the United States Championship in WWE - Bryan widely considered the flat-out best in-ring technician in North America (winning the Wrestling Observer awards for "Best Technical Wrestler" five years in a row, "Most Outstanding Wrestler" four years in a row) pitted against The Miz, a charismatic [[Heel]] who got his start on reality shows.
* Some people says that two main WWE shows—Raw and Smackdown—are based on this dichotomy, with Raw putting more emphasis on storyline and spectacle while Smackdown is seen as the "wrestling" show.
** Similarly we had the old WCW (technician) vs. WWF (performer) rivalry, epitomized by the two companies' top stars, [[Ric Flair]] and [[Hulk Hogan]] respectively.
* Some even blame WWE's current [[Insistent Terminology|reluctance]] to use the phrase "[[Professional Wrestling]]" on this trope.
== Sports ==
* In the past, tennis had Andre Agassi (performer) vs. Pete Sampras (Technician).
* Steve Nash shows his passion every second of every basketball game. Steve is not a good rebounder or defender, but his passing game and scoring is beautiful to watch. Jason Kidd is more reserved, he is not a terrific scorer, but otherwise in his prime he was perfect in every way, not nearly as flashy as Nash but a deadly passer, defender and rebounder.
* Karl Malone (Technician, no flash at all) vs. Charles Barkley (Performer, polarizing on and off the court)
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* In [[Formula One]], Ayrton Senna (performer) vs Alain Prost (technician).
* In [[The World Cup]], historically the South American teams are the Performers and the European ones the Technicians, with Brazil and Germany being the best examples of each respectively.
* Partially true in modern roller derby; while it is very much a sport, and if you can't keep up technically you will be cut from the team, rollergirls are also strongly encouraged to play to the crowd.
* In the English [[Equestrian Sports|equestrian world]]: Showjumpers (performers) versus Hunter-Jumpers (technicians). The rivalry is - intense, as showjumpers yell that hunters are robotic and too focused on minutiae, while hunters wail that jumpers care more about leaping ridiculously high fences than they do about correct equitation. (From someone who has ridden both - both sides have a point.)
* In Alpine Ski Racing, Bode Miller, despite having cleaned up his 'rockstar' behaviour from a couple of years ago, still skis with a far less pretty and orthodox technique compared to other giants such as Didier Cuche. But *my god* the man is fast...
* Boxing: Roy Jones Jr. (performer) vs. Bernard Hopkins (technician)
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[Dungeons
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'''s [[Player Archetypes]] have the Timmy and Johnny types as performers and the Spike type as the technician. Timmies play to use powerful cards, Johnnies play to set up interesting effects and combos, and Spikes play to win.
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* [[Street Fighter]]: [[Ryu and Ken]]. To elaborate, Ryu is something of a [[Blood Knight]]-[[Spirited Competitor]] mixture whose main purpose in life is to perfect his fighting skill and have the perfect match. In that sense his fighting style is at its purest form and therefore does more damage without the focus on flash. Ken, on the other hand, is a showy combatant with a focus on fast kicks and punches and only cares about winning and putting on a good show. In this sense, he is more combo oriented and therefore, while not as damaging as Ryu's, his move do alot of damage if comboed into. This is best showcased in the UDON comic, where Ryu and Ken are both studying the Dragon Punch. Ken, with his natural abilities, gets the basic gist of the move, pulls it off perfectly and then throws some fire on it and calls it a day. Ryu on the other hand, continues to practice that one basic attack over and over with no variance in form or routine. In the end, Ryu ends up with a stronger, harder-hitting Dragon Punch while Ken winds up with a weaker but flashier one supported by other unique attacks and combos.
* ''Sakura Wars'' plays it straight in the fifth act of So Long, My Love when the protagonist has to take Subaru's place on stage after losing a contest to them. Subaru is the ultimate technician, while Shinjiro is the ultimate performer. Subaru also has a similar moment when she first tries to play Jazz music at a club. While she is technically proficient, it takes her a while to understand the performance aspect of the genre.
* ''[[Fatal Fury]]'''s Kim Kaphwan and ''[[King of Fighters]]''' Jhun Hoon. Kim is a very traditional Tae Kwon Do practitioner and his moves, while pretty flashy themselves, are fairly traditional and get the job done. Jhun Hoon, Kim's rival since childhood, is very much pure flash: he fights with [[Extremity Extremist|only his feet]] and kicks out ki phoenix talons (someting Kim doesn't do). He also has a very flamboyant aura about himself and is obviously very showy with his moveset.
* Used in a subplot in [[The World Ends With You]]. The Ramen Don's ordinary but very tasty and masterfully made Ramen is being ignored in favor of the mediocre, yet flashy and crowd pleasing Shadow Ramen, and Neku and Joshua work to reverse this by getting the celebrity supporter to try the "plain" Ramen and therefore support Ramen Don. Although in this case, Ramen Don is a guy who loves his Ramen, where as Shadow Ramen just views it in terms of cold hard cash, and this subplot is about integrity and doing whats right, not what looks good. It's also played straight with the characters of Shooter and Yammer. Yammer himself says he's more technical, but Shooter has more heart so he wins all the matches.
** Shooter and Yammer are parodies, they parody this trope along with other cliche'd [[Shonen]] [[Serious Business]] tropes.
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* The rivalry between skaters Robin Cousins and Jan Hoffman boiled down to could Hoffman win by more on the technical figure tracing than Cousins could on the free program.
* In Spain, at [[The Cavalier Years]], Cervantes was a technician, [[Hard Work Hardly Works|mediocre playwright and poet]][[Wide-Eyed Idealist|that wanted to establish rules in playwriting so every author in Spain could publish without fear to be arrested and set a standard for quality in entertainment]]. Lope de Vega, the performer, was a [[The Ace|accomplished natural poet and incredible successful playwright]] who was convinced [[Viewers are Morons]] and that the must create art with [[Lowest Common Denominator]] because[[Money, Dear Boy|is that what the public wants]]. (He stated it in verse, it’s awesome). [[Always Someone Better|Cervantes had serious disagreements with Lope de Vega that at the time seemed pure envy]]. Cervantes died in poverty and oblivion, while Lope de Vega was always popular and loved. Now Lope de Vega is recognized as one of Spain’s [[The Cavalier Years]] genius, while Cervantes has been [[Vindicated by History]] by an interesting experiment he did: the first modern novel, ''[[Don Quixote]]''.
* Beauty: Technician Dayanara Torres (may have won the beauty pageant) vs. Performer Jennifer Lopez (actually hailed as the world's most beautiful woman over and over again).
* Modeling: Technician Gisele Bundchen vs. Performer Heidi Klum.
* Whenever they work together, [[George Lucas]] (technician) and [[Steven Spielberg]] (performer).
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