Out of all the alliance-themed characters heavily developed in BfA, I am still surprised he hasn’t been touched or mentioned in both Shadowlands and DF spoilers.
ALSO considering how much goblins helped in Mechagon, wouldn’t that be a great gateway to get more gnome-goblin collaboration in the future?
Him becoming the King of all Gnomes was a surprise, especially because he had one of the fastest returns after being seemingly shelved after getting placed in suspended animation by a malfunctioning escape pod.
To be honest with Taskmaster Overspark serving as Gazlowe’s opposite in Mechagon and the final of the war campaign, I wondered if Blizzard was going to make Overspark the new gnome leader, especially when Gazlowe became the goblin leader. They did have rivalry of sorts and it would be rather fitting to have the goblin and gnome leader view each as such.
Though I wasn’t sure exactly how Mekkatorque would fit into the story, if Overspark did become the new Gnome leader. I alternated between him being freed by the escape pod and dying soon after because of the malfunction, with him giving a final farewell, or going out in a fight for the gnomes, or if the pod would end up kidnapped… and Mekkatorque being another Alliance character placed into the neutrality role after he’s freed and guides us against the new threat.
I would LOVE to see some gold-plated Mechagnome with tons of money and a BIG weakness for Goblin girls just with the best Goblin girl ever. Like, smart, logical, and not afraid to spend rather than going the typical route of cutting corners to pocket more money. Not a gold-digger either. Sincerely finds him funny and likes being around him and what not.
I did enjoy the gnome content.
However, gnome lore is pretty much the only decent Alliance lore left at this point, largely because:
He’s a political leader, military leader, and inventor who is reasonably good at all those things but not end-all be-all or a target to be Worf Effected.
Given how bad SL’s story is, how little interest I have in dragonflight conceptually (mechanically, I’m sold just because no gd borrowed power) and how non-intersecting gnomes are with dragons, I’m not in a rush to see gnomes attached to anything here. If it happens; great. I’m willing for it to be a target of opportunity. WoW’s writing is consistently at its worst for what it is trying to make the focus.
Honestly, the fact that this thread is phrased as being about Mekkatorque when he was such a minimal part of Mechagon really highlights all of WoW’s problems in storytelling; it’s a game ostensibly sold on being heroes of our cultures, but at best we are blunt instruments of the Alliance and Horde, while characters that would probably be fine in another medium replace the players for everything important, each one standing in to represent a single culture. Some of these characters are fine or fine-ish, some are terrible, but none really mesh with the conceit of an MMO.
I found it pretty good, He pretty iconic now with where he sits in the alliance and his asethitic. He isn’t a standard priest/mage/paladin or warrior that the alliance is to full of at the moment.
I remember laughing during the legion cinematic watching him blast away a demon with the arm cannon while looking else where.
Not to mention hes a leader of his people not cause his daddy was king or high king. He is their leader as he earnt that position;
In general I love when those bite sized insults to God and nature turn up. In particular Mechagone might be my favorite bit of WoW content in recent memory. The fights over world bosses wouldve been fun enough. But then they gave us jetpacks and robo land shark torpedoes. It was pure bliss.
And then you’ve the Mechagnomes in the background all;
I want an entire expansion that is nothing but the Gnomes and Dwarves in a ‘man made horrors beyond your comprehension’ off with the Forsaken, Goblins and Mag’Har.
Or if we’re going with a faction cooperation idea have all 7 factions put their heads together and turn up at the final DF boss fight with one of these;
I’ll settle for hoping Kelsey Steelspark shows up again in an entertaining sidequest chain.
I enjoyed beating him about for the mount.
Gallywix has a great line at the end. He can be a little scene stealer.
I did enjoy seeing the gnomes contribute meaningfully to the Alliance war effort, mostly through Mekkatorque and Kelsey Steelspark. So often gnomes are portrayed as zany comic relief, but they had a chance to show that they can be formidable sometimes, too.
However, I did not like seeing Mekkatorque being referred to as King of Gnomes instead of High Tinker. Gnomes having an elected leader makes them a distinct society in the Alliance. I would be sad to see Gnomeregan turn into just another generic Alliance monarchy. Plus, I was disappointed to see Mekkatorque take leadership of the mechagnomes. Prince Erazmin was a good leader and great new character for the gnomes, and he was immediately sidelined in favor of Gelbin. I like Gelbin, but I want more Erazmin, too!
I have been keeping my eye out for appearances by Mekkatorque (and Kelsey and Erazmin) in Dragonflight, but I have not seen anything yet. I thought the revamped wing of Uldaman might have some new gnome lore, since that is where the first gnomes were formed by the Curse of the Flesh and from where all modern gnomes originate, but that does not seem to be the case. If there are any Titan vaults in the Dragon Isles, we may learn more about gnomes there. Also, I really hope one day to see some sort of conversation between the gnomes and Mimiron. He is their creator-- you’d think they would have some questions for him!
I can’t recall – has this ever actually been referenced within the game? I was always attached to this bit of lore but it feels like one of those things that a few individual writers carried on but that no one at Blizzard really cares about and casually overwrote without even knowing that they were doing so.
I’m not sure if gnomish government or elections are actually described in the game-- I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. The description I was thinking of comes from the short story “Cut Short.”
"Generally speaking, gnomes simply didn’t fight gnomes. In a world of lions, tigers, furbolgs, and Tall Folk, his people had to rely on each other. It went without saying. That was why gnomes didn’t need the primitive primogeniture that had caused so much bloodshed amongst other races of Azeroth, and had shifted away from monarchy centuries ago. Gnomes elected their leaders by common consent, based on the merits of their work. "
The character has been likely abandoned due the massive backlash (Mechagnomes) for the next 5-10 years.
It is also the most popular Mythic plus dungeon.
Who? Just kidding, was more invested in…whatever her name was and the goblin guy.