Technician Versus Performer: Difference between revisions

** 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".

* 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.

* ''[[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.

* 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.

* 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.

*** 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 From Hell]] involving a huge dose of [[Break the Cutie]]}}. On the other hand there is Tsubasa, who always considered the soccer ball as his friend and is playing for fun. Even though Santana is clearly superior to Tsubasa, being able to even reproduce perfectly and actually improve on the way Tsubasa just scored a goal to try to humiliate him, in the end it's Tsubasa who won the duel (matches in that show usually relies mainly on two men with the rest of the team being useless) through his creativity and never quit attitude because it is too much fun to give one's best 'til the end for him. When they meet again much later, [[Defrosting Ice Queen|Santana's]] [[Character Development|emotional damage has begun to mend]], and thus while he's still mostly a technician, he has dropped a part of his arrogance and plays for both enjoying himself ''and'' winning.

* ''[[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.

** This also happens a lot with Ash in Pokemon battles. Ash is a Performer whose Pokemon are ultimate because of the [[Power of Love]], and often gets paired up with Technician opponents who go for type advantages and such and aren't as inspiring to their Pokemon.

** 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).

** 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.

** And take into account the definition of 'technician' in [[The Verse|the Yugiverse]]:For example: Yusei's combos for summoning Stardust Dragon, his level 8 Ace [[Mons|Monster]], are truly numerous, with some marvels as Junk Warrior(5)+Junk Synchron(3), Debris Dragon(4)+Bolt Hedgehog(2)+Speed Warrior(2), and Junk Synchron+Bolt Hedgehog+Speed Warrior+Tuning Supporter(1). As for Jack and his [[Mon|Monster]] of equal level, Red Demon's Dragon, his usual is a Vice Dragon(5)+ Dark Resonator(3), and very few times does he deviate. In terms of combo and strategy creation, Yusei is the Performer and Jack is the Technician, because the former uses every card's effect to its fullest in near unheard of ways whilst he latter uses mainly tried and tested methods which tends to bore the audience, [[Truth in Television]] when looking at the [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]] who look down on those not using Top-Tier Decks. Can be an [[Irony]] judging by the metagame. Yusei's flashy, interesting and complex combo is the basis on one of the most sucessful deck at the time, yet while decks that uses simpler tried and tested combo while sucessful(such example being Six Samurai and Dragunity) never manage to be as sucessful as the former.

** The trope is still mostly played straight, since Eiji's work (especially Crow) consistently outperforms every other named character's manga, including the main pair's. But they're much closer to Eiji's level than most instances of this trope.

*** 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.

* 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.}}

* ''[[Macross Plus]]'' features a literal chart graphing the performances of test pilots Guld (the Technician) and Isamu (the Performer), with Isamu's wildly inconstant numbers nonetheless surpassing (most of) Guld's steady and even progression.

* ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' features Mugen the performer, and Jin the technician. Mugen's style is entirely self-taught, and relies on creativity and unpredictability, while Jin's style is disciplined, relying on traditional moves. Played with a bit as Mugen and Jin both learn from each other. Most evident in their respective final fights.

* ''[[Stick It]]'', about gymnastics, deals with the dichotomy of focusing on perfection and "sticking" everything versus going all out and "flooring it" and doing things that are more impressive even if you can't guarantee you'll nail the technical elements perfectly. The end message seems to be that it's not about what you know, but who you know, so if you don't know the right people you may as well say screw the rules and have fun with it.

* ''[[Sister Act]] 2'' has Sister Mary Clarence's [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] (perfomer) against a choir that's won the championship for 3 years running (technician). To illustrate the effect, both choirs sing "Joyful Joyful". The other choir sings it with military precision, while the misfit class puts in raps and riffs on Janet Jackson. One guess as to which choir wins.

{{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."''<br />

''(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."'' }}

* Referenced and played out somewhat in ''[[Inception]]'' while making the actual inception plan. Arthur is the technician and Eames is the performer.

* Bethany Hamilton is definitely a performer in [[Soul Surfer]]. Her rival's technician qualities are not made explicit, but she does carry that vibe.

 

 

== [[Music]] ==

* 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.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] 3rd Edition Wizards (technicians) and Sorcerers (performers). Tends to be [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] though, because wizards end up with much more versatility, more spells per day, and easier access to metamagic feats.

 

 

* ''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.

** Shooter and Yammer are parodies, they parody this trope along with other cliche'd [[Shonen]] [[Serious Business]] tropes.

* [[Street Fighter]] vs [[Tekken]]. Street Fighter is the 'technician' role, a game largely focused on trying to balance characters, but its very difficult to get into 'casually' vs Tekken, the performer, a fighter game which is easy to play but has fewer special moves. Though considering that the 'Technician' here has spectacular special attacks and characters shoot fireballs, while the performer is focused largely on hand to hand combat, the lines can be blurred. There's going to be a [[Intercontinuity Crossover|two-game crossover series]] according to the other wiki, with one game built on each engine.

** Tekken is more realistic in terms of the way the characters fight. Although fireballs are present, they haven't been that common in recent years. Many people believe Street Fighter's retro appeal is the only reason it remains so popular, as it has not made use of technology like Tekken has. They did try with the Ex series, but it didn't work that well.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In ''Hero 108'', episode "Camel Castle", {{spoiler|Lin Chung's drawing of Ape Trully turns out to impress the Camels by being considered unique}}.

** The most explicit Technician vs Performer argument in the series though would be [[Miles Gloriosus|The Great and Powerful Trixie]] (performer) vs [[Badass Bookworm|Twilight Sparkle]] (technician). Twilight has the natural talent and ability of the Performer, but with a slant of constantly learning new spells and being trained by [[Physical God|Celestia]]. Trixie has a natural affinity to magic as well, and is about as Performer as they come when it comes to desire and charisma, but while she has a more limited bag of tricks than Twilight, she seems to have them more adapt and flexible with her spell craft, getting through her complex spells about as fast as Twilight can go through a TK cantrip. While Twilight is a main character, and Trixie is a [[Jerkass]] [[Fake Ultimate Hero]] in her one episode, the two have an interesting dynamic in fanon when all other things are equal.

* [[Chowder]] has the Baker vs Cook duality seen in the real life section; Endive is the Baker/Technician and Mung Daal is the Cook/Performer. Many episodes, however, show that they're both equally competent, just different in their style and temperaments.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** Except that analogy is almost entirely backwards. Anyone who knows anything about chess will tell you that becoming grandmaster level requires not only raw analytical talent, but also obscene amounts of training and memorizing tens of thousands of maneuvers and responses by heart. The computer, meanwhile, needs only to know only the rules, and basically improvises in response to the human player. If anything, Deep Blue was the Performer, and Kasparov the Technician.

*** Only if you choose to disregard the opening and endgame databases usually used in computer chess (Deep Blue had those too) - which is one factor contributing to the fact that chess programmes are often weakest in the middle game.

* The El Alamein campaigns stands out: Rommel (performer) versus Montgomery (technician). Rommel was a tactical genius with a penchant for risky but brilliant maneuver warfare, conducted on a shoestring logistical line; Montgomery was excellent at organization and attention to detail, arranging for every shell to reach its destination. In a subversion, Montgomery won. Second El Alamein was not known for British maneuver genius but for meticulously-planned attacks that smashed through Rommel's depleted lines; Rommel had no fuel to maneuver with thanks to British air attacks, while Montgomery had even forecasted the length of the battle successfully.

* The entire chain of political events which ended in [[World War Two]] could be understood as the battle between the logic of a Technician and that of a Performer, while the former was the Soviet Union and the latter the community of Fascist states. If anything, the Communists were absolute maniacs of [[Charles Atlas Superpower|discipline and gain by struggle]]: they won the Russian Civil War by the skin of their teeth, developed the heavy industry and military forces of the USSR by iron hand, oppression, death and poverty, won [[World War Two]] [[Zerg Rush|by the force of numbers]], immitated to the point that Soviet cars, trucks, buildings or fridges were [[Munchkin|carbon copies of American designs]], only because [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|they were so determined to gain visible results]] that took the easier way by copying what worked, regardless of having understood the culture behind it or not. On the other side, the entire Fascist culture, from Benito Mussolini in [[Roaring Twenties|the 1920s]] to the end, revolved around [[Rule of Cool|coolness]], elaborate design, color, music, innovation, staging, up to the point of being a gigantic theatrical performance instead of true Machiavellian politics. They played straight the trope, as modern people are far more impressed by cool tanks, uniforms and heroic deeds of the losers instead of the anonymous labor and toil of the winners.

* Director-writer Franco Dragone, who handled most of [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s shows through 1998, arranged for extensive creative workshops with the gymnasts, acrobats, dancers, etc. hired for each show from ''[[Nouvelle Experience]]'' onward. He was confident in their technical skills, so in the workshops he focused on getting them in touch with their creative sides. From these, the quirky characters of the shows emerged -- performers who were nonetheless highly skilled. The first post-Dragone show, ''[[Dralion]]'', would have used similar methods but they ran up against [[Values Dissonance]] due to a predominantly Chinese cast that was not comfortable with Dragone's style; the creative team instead focused on getting the best work possible out of these technicians, which is why the show isn't as character/theme-focused.

* Karaoke singers tend to fall into one of these two extremes, and audiences tend to respond equally well to both the guy singing off-key and flubbing the lines while jumping wildly around the stage and the guy nailing the song flawlessly. Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary]]...a lot.

* Many technicians work hard to get a performalist appearance. Dancers are a good example, but holds for musicians as well.

* 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.

* 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.