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Author: matthewsychantha

Oct 28th 2013 at 4:24:21 AM

The thing is, as a trope namer, Mac vs. PC is fitting because of how well known it is at the moment. While The Aesthetics of Techology comes close, we're talking about a deliberate design choice to establish characters and instantly show a rivalry as opposed to simply imply to the viewer that new product B should grab your attention than product A.

In practice, it does crossover a lot if said rival is introduced halfway through a TV season or if the entire world is Mac-like, however it doesn't necessarily create a personal rivalry unless the aesthetic choices are personified by two characters or specific settings on bad terms with each other.

If this was pre-ipod though, I would have called this trope "Edison vs. Tesla". However, in the short run of things, people aren't going to stop seeing Macs or iProducts any time soon, and this trope tends to go back and forth as to who's the protagonist depending on what the creator's opinion on Macs are at the moment.

I also think there is room for a third trope, which would work best if the name stays for "The Linux", which would be when the hero of a story isn't either of the two feuding sides, and is instead an independent genius of his own side who gathers a following of the disenfranchised. In this case is technology will look even more ramshackle in contrast to the blocky, but more complete and refined pc(in this case) and the sleek mac.

Like in any of the Star Wars games in which you play as someone who's not a force user, one side will have very clean, polished designs, the other will have a workman's design, though functionally polished, and our third rogue element of a bounty hunter or the like has something completely cobbled together out of nowhere and has to deal with both sides.