If I was a figurehead of this franchise, I’d be embarrassed.
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Wouldn’t put my eggs on said basket, as it was mostly an off handed note regarding how Gelbin needed the Alliance to send soldiers down to defend his people that were being harassed by…rats.
And the acknowledgment on Turalyons part that “they surely must be some tangible threat” for someone as large as a gnome.
Not really what I’d call a tangible or even positive, narrative development.
Books tend to not cover Gnomes at all, except when it’s about having either a cute or a comic relief. Much like goblins (only they get the money-loving moron trope).
With the culmination of both themes being that thing they did in Before the Storm with that couple.
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Kinndy was actually one gnome that got spotlight in Tides of War, even though she was ended right there and then. Shows the brilliance of gnomish brains.
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Okay, but as a Dalaran citizen she didn’t exactly teach us anything about gnomish culture. The only really relevant fact from that one that stuck to me is the confirmation that gnomes aren’t adults yet with 25, but are treated more like teenagers.
Lady Jaina treats her subjects as kids. No for real though I don’t think that she was meant to introduce as gnomish cultural representative. Just a novice mage who was pretty smart and doing well in Theramore. It was the closest look we got to the gnomish character. Actually by the end when she is no more it made me sad.
While this thread is still relevant I’m going to ask.
Do we know what the spark reactor is doing to Gelbin? Is that thing powering him/sustaining him? Because if it is, that technically makes him a mechagnome. Which is interesting.
Afaik it’s basically an easteregg around the Ark-generator that keeps ironman alive.
And he’s something of a Hybrid between Gnome and Mechagnome, because mechagnomes were switching bodyparts of their own free will and without the need to do it, just to “improve” themselves.
I wouldn’t call people with a cardiac pacemaker that sustains them cyborgs, but you do you.
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I mean this is why i asked if we know what it’s actually doing, because depending on what it is, I wouldn’t call a replacement heart a pacemaker.
But you do you, man
Well, I wouldn’t call Captain Picard a cyborg either, artificial heart nonewithstanding. shrug
I wouldn’t call him a mechagnome either, different franchises, different things 
I’d pretty much define a mechagnome the same as a cyborg, just based on a gnome body. Wouldn’t you?
My point is I’m not sure why you’re bringing in other franchises, or debating over pacemakers
Because I see no difference between cyborgs in other sci-fi and mechagnomes in WoW , obviously, except for the base race. So if I wouldn’t call a human with those changes a cayborg, I wouldn’t call a gnome with those changes a mechagnome. That’s the analogy. And I don’t really think you missed that.
I don’t think it’s really right to use the term cyborg as it seems to be too subjective. I mean what even defines one? You’re going to get different answers depending on who we ask. Best to just stick to mechagnome.
And I’d say exactly the same about mechagnomes, yes. So no, I don’t think mechagnome is in any way clearer.
According to Wikipedia:
A cyborg a portmanteau of “[cybernetic] [organism]”, is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.
The term cyborg is not the same thing as bionic, biorobot or android; it applies to an organism that has restored function or enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on some sort of feedback. While cyborgs are commonly thought of as mammals, including humans, they might also conceivably be any kind of organism.
So by this broad definition even a person with a pacemaker is a cyborg, specifically looking at “[…] restored function […] due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on some sort of feedback.”
But if you take a more specific definition, with enhanced abilities and voluntary replacement of perfectly fine biological bodyparts for perceived or factual enhancment Mechagnomes are still Cyborgs, while Mekkatorque and other people with Prostheses would fall out of it.
I mean in my eyes, Gelbin has Mechagnome technology integrated into his body and supposedly sustaining him (clarity probably needed there imo, doubt we’ll ever get it from Blizzard though) I’d say that was arguably mechagnome
That’s actually really interesting, I never considered looking for a defined definition of it.
I guess my great grandfather was indeed a cyborg.
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No argument there.
And I wouldn’t. If I wouldn’t call Picard a cyborg, I wouldn’t call Gelbin one, even if he needed a mechanical heart, which we actually don’t know. But as we made clear, the definitions aren’t clear, so Picard might count as a cyborg, strictly speaking, and if Gelbin is the same he can count as a mechagnome, sure. I wouldn’t define it like that, though.
Specific to WoW, mechagnomes have an entirely different gnomish culture. Gelbin doesn’t become a mechagonian by getting saved by mechagonian tech, so I’m not really sure why it would matter if he is “technically” a mechagnome. He certainly is still a gnome of Gnomeregan. And he certainly has an implant.