Cyborg

"A handsome young Cyborg named Ace
Wooed women at every base
But once ladies glanced at
His special enhancement
They vanished with nary a trace."

—Barracks graffiti, Sparta Command, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The science of grafting mechanical/electronic enhancements on organic creatures, oftentimes by replacing limbs with robotic parts, such as an Arm Cannon, for instance, though often it's only called cybernetics if it's a smidge more complicated.

As Hollywood Science, cybernetics in fiction often involves replacing an entire body except half a face/chest with mechanical parts and can go as advanced as having a lone brain reside inside a machine, while cybernetics in Real Life presently peaks at ocular implants with low frame-rate and gray-scale vision. If your generic Mad Scientist has a specialty in robotics, or even dabbles in it, you should expect this trope to come up relatively soon.

Cybernetics is a broad category. Technically, even people with glasses (let alone hearing aids or pacemakers) could be considered cyborgs; cybernetics deals with all technological bodily enhancements, from the big to the small. Those who have been subject to cybernetics are called Cyborgs, as opposed to Androids, which are Ridiculously-Human Robots. It's somewhat common in media that take place in in the "present," and will almost certainly come up in storylines Twenty Minutes Into the Future.

There's also the matter of how one starts off. Cyborgs include biological humans with parts replaced with machinery, while machines with biological parts added are instead instead Wetware Body or Organic Technology (or if put together from scratch, an Artificial Human.) Whether or not this detracts from them being a person depends on the series. Sometimes as long as the brain is organic, in lieu of Brain Uploading, makes the difference. Sometimes not even then.

In the original definition of “cybernetics,” it was the study of constructing machines by mimicking real organisms, e.g. building insect robots that process sensory and motion information like insects do. Thus, “cybernetic organism” can refer to such a pure machine. The “super-prosthesis” part came later, but it has overshadowed the earlier definition. “Bionics” is an older term from the design field, where it meant mimicking nature in order to get an elegant, functional product (see Victor Papanek's seminal 1971 book, Design For The Real World for multiple examples). It was used much in this manner by Martin Caidin's early 1970s novel Cyborg, to describe mechanical prostheses designed to look and act like real limbs, but in the adaptation of Cyborg into The Six Million Dollar Man, the "elements of nature" aspect was lost and it became a generic term for the enhancement of people with mechanical (and often super-powered) parts. Fortunately for those who use it for its original meaning, this definition is seldom seen anymore.

Common things used in cybernetics include the Restraining Bolt, the Arm Cannon and Artificial Limbs. On the highest level of tech we have Nanomachines infusing biological beings. Just be careful not to overdo it, if you're in a setting where Cybernetics Eat Your Soul. Often cybernetics is used as an excuse to bring someone Back from the Dead, even if the brain has been dead a while. One can certainly expect some questions about What Measure Is a Non-Human?, and an attempt to take over or “replace” mundane humanity is not out of the question. Of course, it's also possible most cyborgs be Pro Human Transhumans.

Note that in many cases, a Hollywood Style Cyborg will become super strong or super fast just from replacement of arms and/or legs. Actually, the replacement limbs would require extensive attachments throughout the body, otherwise, the limbs would rip themselves from the body, among other non-optimal outcomes.

See its Super-Trope Transhuman for all ways of enhancement. If you're of a transhuman bent, prepare for a dose of I Want My Jetpack

Subtropes include:

Examples of Cyborg include:

Anime & Manga

  • Dragon Ball and Dragonball Z have Dr. Gero's creations, which are all under the blanket term "androids." However, two of the main four (Nos. 17 and 18; #16 is an android, as is, apparently, #8) in Dragonball Z are cyborgs, and it is implied that many of the previous ones were cyborgs as well. It is not revealed exactly how they were modified, only that it was enough for them to forget their previous lives. Eventually, Dr. Gero transplants his brain in a robotic body, becoming a cyborg as well. This is something of a case of Lost in Translation, as the original word would be closer to "Artificial Human" (thus it includes Cell who is wholly organic).[1]
    • Frieza also becomes a cyborg after being defeated by Goku on Namek. Oddly enough, in Hell he isn't allowed to keep his cyborg body while Dr. Gero is.
    • Perhaps it was because he was reverted back to how he was before he suffered the massive body mutilation in his fight with Goku. Gero was revived with a new humanoid body after escaping Hell- which was altered from the human flesh once again.
  • GaoGaiGar's Guy Shishioh is 90% machine, having been caught up in a space accident involving his shuttle, Galeon, and EI-01—it's actually Galeon who brings him back safe, and Galeon's technology that's used in rebuilding him. First describes himself as "The greatest cyborg in history", and has a valid claim towards it—but subverts it by collapsing after his first battle, as becoming GaoGaiGar puts a lot of strain on him, even without using Hell and Heaven. It turns out that it takes upwards of a week for his body's immune system to adjust to replacement parts, and if not for Mamoru's abilities with G-Stones, he would not have been able to fight in the second episode, nor survive certain events afterwards. After the end of the series, he (and Mikoto) become "Evoluders", something that isn't entirely explained, other than the effect that he can still use the GaoMachines just fine, but looks like a normal human.
  • Ghost in the Shell features "full-body replacement" cyborgs as primary characters, who have been modified to the point where the only thing that's human about them is their brain. One of the Tachikomas (insect-like, sentient mecha) successfully passes the Turing Test by claiming to be a full-body replacement when questioned. Kusanagi occasionally angsts about whether the military may have replaced her brain without telling her, presumably uploading her into a robot. As later events show, this is a valid possibility. The manga discusses the Required Secondary Powers: an organic human frame puts limits on how much ability enhancement cybernetics can impart, and thus a fully cybernetic body has much greater capabilities than a person with a largely original organic body and more limited cybernetics. Futhere, in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society a character limited cybernetics adds more. He is told to be careful, since his organic body will be put under further strain by this. The series explores the question of whether Cybernetics Eat Your Soul—a pressing question in this setting because the slope to becoming a full cyborg is slippery indeed.
  • Appleseed, has cybernetics anywhere from a replacement finger to a full-body conversion. Both series being from Shirow Masamune, he goes into detailed explanations as to the limitations of such enhancements, such as how simply having a cybernetic arm doesn't mean that arm would have super-strength, unless it was heavily tied in and firmly attached to the body. Full-body Cyborgs get to keep their reproductive systems too, or get new ones. Not so much in Ghost in the Shell, especially in the first movie where Motoko states she is incapable of birth due to her completely artificial body. In the Appleseed manga, this is made very clear since Deunan Knute (a human) and Briareos Hetanochires (a full-body replacement) are known to have a physical as well as romantic relationship.
  • Battle Angel Alita also goes the full-conversion route. Toyed-with somewhat in the final stages of the original manga, the residents of Tiphares/Zalem, all of whom thought they were wholly human (distinguishing them from the mongrel cybernetic hordes living below), discover that the network governing Tipharean society routinely takes all citizens upon their reaching maturity, downloads the knowledge from their brains onto small black chips, steals their brains, and leaves them with the chip as a replacement. While (almost) every cyborg in the Scrapyard, no matter how modified, has a human brain the Tiphareans can claim no such thing. This comes as something of a shock.
  • The main characters in Cyborg 009 are all cyborgs.
  • Mazinger Z: All villains -except Big Bad Dr. Hell- were cyborgs: Baron Ashura, Count Brocken, their Mooks... All of them -except by Archduke Gorgon- were created by Hell himself. Usually he fabricated his cyborgs by modifying corpses, replacing damaged parts with artificial limbs or organs and implanting cybernetic components in their brains to create obedient, brainwashed slaves (and there was at least one scene in one of the manga versions where Baron Ashura killed many people off, as gloating they would be transformed into cyborgs and turned into his/her slaves. Now you know what happened to all people who died when a Mechanical Beast attacked). It looked like this. However, in at least one instance he saved the life of the subject -Count Brocken- by turning him into a cyborg. Other cyborg characters were Kenzo Kabuto and in the Gosaku Ota manga Kouji Kabuto himself was turned into one by the end of the series.
  • Naoko Takeuchi once planned to make Ami Mizuno of Sailor Moon a cyborg, to justify her incredible intelligence. She was even planned to have Pinocchio Syndrome and to make a Heroic Sacrifice since she "wasn't human anyways", but instead the cyborg elements were incorporated into Hotaru instead.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist
    • Edward Elric, with his automail limbs. Alphonse is sort of the magical version of this, being a disembodied soul animating a suit of armor.
    • Buccaneer, Panimya and Lan Fan as well.
    • Colonel Archer in the 2003 anime version of was blown up at one point, but came back in a half-robot form.
  • Subaru and Ginga in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, as well as the Numbers.
  • The title Amazon Brigade and Gantai in Koi Koi 7 are cyborgs, though they mostly appear to be normal humans, save for the superpowers. Otome is the most mechanical of the group, having to "feed" herself through an electric cable.
  • Jinno, of Afro Samurai, or at least when he is reintroduced in episodes 3-4. He has certain human parts, like his head, arms, and legs, but has to rely entirely on a mechanical body for his strength, breathing, and possibly his vision.
  • After he got run over by the Sea Train, Franky of One Piece saved himself by replacing just about all his body parts in the front with mechanical parts from his old warships. It should also be noted that Franky built himself. Then there's Bartholemew Kuma of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Unlike Franky he wasn't built from scraps, and it shows. At this point, it's not clear how much of him is still human, or if he's the equivalent of The Terminator now. As of chapter 560 the Pacifista transformation process (which was done gradually over time) was recently completed, leaving him a mute emotionless machine.
    • After the two year time skip, we find that Franky has "upgraded" himself even more robotic-looking. His shoulders are massive and spherical, and his forearms are cubes attached with giant screws (to list the two most obvious differences). In his own words, he's "completely beyond human understanding now!" Everyone else just finds it cool, though... except for Nami and Robin.
  • The manga Eden: It's an Endless World! features cybernetics prominently, from replacement limbs or eyes to full-body cyborgs (particularly useful to soldiers and hackers). The prosthetic parts are extremely common and seemingly available to all but the poorer characters, despite the story being being set barely a century from now. It's nicely justified by the recent body drying plague that crippled half of the world's population and triggered a technological revolution.
  • In Code Geass, Jeremiah Gottwald is outfitted with various cybernetics after being nearly killed by Kallen during the Battle of Narita, and then later rebuilt some more in the second season. He ends up with neural interfaces, built-in arm swords and bulletproof armor, and most importantly a Geass Canceller in his left eye.
  • Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Besides the replacement arm, other parts of his body have apparently been "repaired" with non-organic material.
  • In Gunslinger Girl, the girls are cyberized, and the cybernetics will kill them eventually.
  • In the early '90s OVA 8 Man After, there are two different types of cyborgs, both of whom rely on stimulants to keep their brains' motor functions from conflicting with the cybernetics. Eight Man himself is a total body replacement with a human brain, while the cyborgs he fights, Cyber Junkies, are street punks who cut off and replace limbs with high-powered weapons and abilities. Unfortunately, the Cyber Junkies rely on a crude version of the stimulant that eventually turns their brains to mush and makes them psychotically violent.
  • In Inuyasha, Ginkotsu of the Band of Seven is a heavily modified cyborg in feudal Japan.
  • In the manga series Change Hifumi (aka Change 123), the character Col. Ralph Austin (an American soldier) lost his left arm and had it replaced with an advanced prosthetic
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure gives us Rudolf von Stroheim, the Nazi cyborg. Yes. NAZI cyborg. Complete with a chest turret and swastika-shaped eye laser. He's on the protagonist's side.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the Puella Magi are said to be composed of a soul held in their Soul Gem and a "robotic body", though if this is literal or just an odd turn of phrase on Kyubey's part is unknown.
  • Sasori from Naruto turned himself into this, using magic puppetry instead of hard robotics. His gran did the same thing, but only to one arm.
  • Parodied in Astro Fighter Sunred when Florsheim decide to create a horrible cyborg monster to defeat Sunred by... Fusing a moth monster with a piece of lead pipe. Yeah, they replaced his right forearm with the lead pipe. Sunred is unimpressed.

Comic Books

  • Marvel Comics, particularly Spider-Man's Alistair Smythe and Dr. Octopus.
    • Iron Man is a cyborg, but not from his titular suit of armor. His heart is kept going with cybernetic parts. Later on in the series he becomes a more traditional cyborg with hollow bones full of nanites and the ability to control technology with his mind. Pepper Potts is also now a cyborg.
    • ROM Spaceknight. Though he volunteered to be made a cyborg, he loathed it and longed to end his war with the Dire Wraiths and regain his humanity. Eventually, he did! Good for him!
    • Wolverine's adamantium-bonded skeleton may count (which would also include Sabertooth and Bullseye). He definitely counted prior to having his admantium removed, because his claws were explicitly cybernetic implants in mechanical housings. They were later retconned into being a natural part of his skeletal structure, extended and retracted through muscular action.
    • Other Marvel cyborgs include Silvermane, Omega Red, Apocalypse, Cable, Deathlock, Lady Deathstrike, Donald Pierce, Cyber, Garrison Kane, Forge, and many more.
  • DC Comics has Cyborg, obviously, but there are also Metallo, Robotman of the Doom Patrol, and Cyborg Superman, among others.
  • Warren Ellis' Global Frequency deconstructed and subverted this, pointing out the extensive and conspicuous modifications it would take to make a real cyborg. It was so hard, in fact, that most people who underwent the procedure had psychotic breaks, and were intended more as non-nuclear WMDs than foot soldiers.
  • Also from Warren Ellis, the Engineer from The Authority and Wildstorm Stormwatch
  • Archie Comics' short-lived comic based on the MANTECH toy franchise was based around this trope, with heroic cyborgs fighting evil robots. The three dying heroes were made into cyborgs to save their lives, their whole bodies being replaced with boxy robotic bits, gaining superpowers in the process. Aquatech hates what has happened to him, Solartech accepts it as a necessity, and Lasertech loves it.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog has Bunnie Rabbot (now Bunnie D'Coolette), a Mobian that got partly roboticized leaving her with two robotic limbs. She eventually gets these parts upgraded, meaning the process could never be undone. As shown by Sonic Universe's "30 Years Later" storyline, her and Antoine's children, Jacque and Belle D'Coolette, have inherited this trait. In the same series we have The Dark Legion, whose Machine Worship lifestyle dictates that all their members become this. Trademarks include one robotic dreadlock and a chip implanted into their brain at birth that allows them to wipe their own memory, in case of capture or defection. Particularly disturbing as it has been recently revealed that instead of executing prisoners, they forcibly "Legionize" them into cyborg soldiers in public.
  • Last Man Standing has a few of them are running around. The most notable one would be Judge, a zombie Psycho Electro Glass Cannon who used to be a Russian Soldier before his death while working for Armtech. He got better, and now he's looking to lay down a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people who left him to die.
  • Lady Mechanika
  • The Castaka Metabarons in The Metabarons.
  • In All Fall Down, Pronto undergoes this treatment to regain his lost powers and attack Siphon on equal footing.
  • Judge Dredd has several of them, known as Mandroids. Most notable are Judge Guthrie and Nate Slaughterhouse.

Film

  • Star Wars, particularly Anakin (both legs and both arms) and Luke (right hand) Skywalker, Lobot (Lando Calrissian's assistant, direct brain-link to the city mainframe), and General Grievous (entire body except brain, heart and lungs).
    • Also a possible aversion as the Jedi at least generally experience a decrease in power due to cybernetics. Anakin loses the ability to use Force Lightning, as well as a lot of his lightsaber combat effectiveness. Grievous is the exception (playing the trope straight) as his remaking only seems to enhance his capabilities, but he was never Force-sensitive to begin with. It could also be one of the reasons that if the player cross-classes Bao-Dur in Knights of the Old Republic, he becomes the class with the lowest amount of Force abilities and Force Points.
      • The reason Anakin lost his lightsaber prowess was because his cybernetics were shoddy, third-rate models. It's been implied that Palpatine deliberately equipped him with cybernetics bad enough to keep Anakin under control.
    • Whether or not cybernetics interfere with the Force Depends On The Writer, another possible explanation for it is that the loss in Force power is directly tied to the Body Horror aspect of the cybernetics. A simple hand or limb replacement that you can easily accept? Probably not too bad. Being turned into a metal-shelled, horridly scarred monstrosity? That's got to cause some mental issues, which will definitely interfere with Force use. Or it simply creates physical handicaps that even the Force can't fully overcome.
      • What is (mostly) consistent though is that Darth Vader can't use Force Lightning because it would fry the electronics in his armor.
  • RoboCop's body is almost completely mechanical. The only organic parts are his brain, part of his spinal cord, and his face. Murphy's face was peeled off and placed upon a layer of synthetic support as a posthumous honor to the dead cop.
  • Terminators are termed cybernetic organisms, though they can survive without the organic parts. Cameron has said his initial concept had the Terminator would depend on its organic parts, to reflect on how society needs machines. That metaphor didn't make it into the movies. The cyborg terminology is correct in this sense: the flesh is a useful part of the whole stealthed weapon system.
    • The organic parts did, though. While the first three films had Terminators that seemingly lacked any organic part aside from the skin, the fourth one had the infiltration Terminator prototype having substantial wetware including a fully organic heart and a mostly-organic brain.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: First Contact Data, an android, has organic parts grafted on, to a rather disturbing effect.
    • The Borg, whose name is shortened from Cyborg to Borg. Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager who, though she supposedly had most of her Borg implants removed, always had enough left to solve or create the Crisis of the Week.
    • Geordi LaForge's VISOR and, later, cybernetic replacement eyes.
    • Picard's artificial heart.
    • In one problematic episode of The Original Series, Spock's brain was stored in a jar and replaced by a remote control receiver.
    • In Deep Space Nine, Vedek Bareil is injured in a shuttlecraft accident and, against Dr. Bashir's advice, has parts of his brain replaced by positronic synapses. They don't work as well as the original.
  • In Army of Darkness, Ash builds a fully functional artificial hand out of springs and a metal gauntlet. Why? Because he's Ash.
  • Long John Silver is changed from the "one legged man" of Treasure Island to a cyborg in Treasure Planet, with the cybernetic equivalents of an eyepatch, hook hand and peg leg.
  • Thanks to being blown apart and a Contrived Coincidence or two, Jason Voorhees becomes a cyborg in Friday the 13th (film).
  • Alice in Resident Evil appears to be this, post-Resident Evil Apocalypse, at once point in Resident Evil Extinction being remotely shut down. Nemesis also appears to be some sort of cyborg, with his POV being shown in a blue-tinted robo-vision.
  • Literally most of the characters seen on-screen in Alita: Battle Angel, the 2019 Live Action Adaptation of Gunnm.

Literature

  • Spare Parts by Australian Author, Sally Rogers Davison, is about a girl selling her young healthy human body so she can be implanted in a "cyberform".
  • There's a rather nice example of a more realistic cyborg in Segregationist, a short story by Isaac Asimov. It involves a doctor replacing the heart of his patient. He tries to persuade the patient that an organic prosthetic is the way to go, only for the patient to decide that he doesn't trust it and wants to go with a mechanical heart. We discover at the end that the doctor is actually a robot, one of the few who has not chosen to become more human by surgery while the humans have all been becoming more and more robotic. The implication is that eventually, they'll all slowly morph into one cyborg species.
  • In Daniel Keys Moran's Tales of the Continuing Time, the Peaceforcer Elites are cyborged super soldiers. Gi'Suei'Obodi'Sedon, a purely organic Super Soldier, considers the Elites to be horribly maimed (not to mention, not all that elite).
    • Trent Castanaveras is also modified, in that he had the Tytan NN-II, a "nerve net that's designed to sit in high memory and model what's happening in your brain. It has nearly half a million processors, and makes a discrete connection somewhere inside your brain for every one of them. Once it is installed between your skull and the outer surface of your brain, it doesn't come out."
  • Just like in the rest of Star Wars, the Star Wars Expanded Universe really likes the Artificial Limbs trope. It's not usually explicitly mentioned whether or not they make people stronger, and the prejudice against cyborgs is lessened when they have convincing synthetic flesh covering them, but Ton Phanan feels that his Cybernetics Ate His Future. Interestingly, though he's mentioned as having synthflesh on his limbs, which are once seen to be twitching eerily when malfunctioning, there's none on his face.
  • In the classic short story "Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith, humans are unable to cope with the "Great Pain of Space" and rely on cold sleep ships crewed by habermans whose brain has been severed from all sensory input except the eyes, and whose body therefore has to be regulated by implanted instruments.
  • Alastair Reynolds' is in love with this trope. The Revelation Space universe has the Ultranauts, which are the crews of the slower-than-light interstellar freighters, who use extreme cybernetic replacements to counter the effects of age and help with ship maintenance. Revelation Space novella Diamond Dogs has the main character being slowly, voluntarily being turned from a human into a cybernetic dog like creature with a skull full of computer bits. Unfortunately the doctor who did this took himself apart so he wouldn't have to undo his 'greatest work'. There's also a cyborg in the Steampunk area of his novel Terminal World, a man whose lungs were crippled in a war; he's linked up to a furnace which powers a pump that replaces most of his chest.
  • Possibly the earliest example of a full-body-replacement cyborg in modern literature is the Tin Woodsman from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz—once a perfectly ordinary human being, he had progressively more parts of his body replaced with tin prosthetics as they were chopped off by a cursed axe—until essentially all that was left was a mind in a tin shell. Given that it's too primitive to have life support for his actual fleshy brain, one must assume his mind/soul has somehow been moved into the tin body.[2]
    • This is precisely what happened according to Philip José Farmer's A Barnstormer in Oz, although the Woodsman didn't wait until most of his body had been replaced first, so as to spare himself the continuing effects of the curse which caused him to accidentally chop off pieces of his own body.
  • In Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman, the heroine Fatale agrees to have her legs - and right arm - replaced after an accident. The scientists have to modify most of the rest of her body in order to make those parts work. After the experiment she weighs hundreds of pounds because of all of her cybernetic parts. The corporation that funded her reconstruction promptly vanishes, leaving her to pay for the regimen of antibiotics necessary to prevent infection caused by her new parts.
  • Non-humanoid example: The Rat Things in Snow Crash are basically cyborg dogs.
  • Cyborg by Martin Caidin. Later made into The Six Million Dollar Man.
  • Anne McCaffrey's Brainships in the Brainship series are cybernetics carried about as far as possible, with human brains implanted into and in complete control of entire space ships and space stations. It's implied that the human body is still there, but only as a life-support system for the brain.
  • Molly Millions in Neuromancer has retractable razors beneath her fingernails and can see the time by pressing her tongue against a tooth. Most impressively, though, her eyes sockets have been sealed with mirrors and her tear ducts rerouted to her mouth so that, when she cries, she spits.
  • The [Star Trek: The Next Generation]] novel Q Squared featured an inversion of the usual form of this trope. An alternate universe version of Data consisted of a positronic brain in a cloned human body.
  • Harry Potter: Mad-Eye Moody could be a "magical cyborg" given that he replaced a lost eye with a magical one that gives him enhanced abilities. He also has a prosthetic leg, but this isn't described as giving him any extra abilities and is more often than not a hindrance.
  • Lila Amanda Black, the protagonist in Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series begins as a fairly standard (if fusion-powered) cyborg of the We Can Rebuild Him variety. It all eventually gets subverted and the experimental prototype first-of-your-kind thing gets pulled to tiny little bits.
    • Subverted hard in the first book, as the cybernetic parts are actually more physically powerful than her body can withstand. Her Super Mode simply involves turning off the governor units that prevent this and flooding her body with painkillers. The first time this is shown in the book, she manages to break her own spine. Fortunately for her, she's back at base when this happens, and spends a while in a regeneration tank instead of a body bag.
  • The Cobra books by Timothy Zahn feature as their protagonists members of the elite Cobra guerrilla commandos, who receive surgically-implanted skeletal laminations (to make their bones effectively unbreakable), servomotors (to give them superhuman strength), hidden weapons (two small antipersonnel lasers in their fingers, one anti-armor laser in the calf and foot of one leg, an "arc thrower" that shoots an electric current down the ionized trail of one of the finger lasers to fry electronics, sonic projectors, and an emergency self-destruct mechanism), optical and auditory enhancements, a tiny supercomputer to control it all (as well as giving them preprogrammed combat reflexes), and a tiny fusion power plant to power all that. Quite an impressive load-out, especially considering they can still pass for normal civilians, which is necessary because they work in sabotage and subversion in cities captured by their enemies. After the war is over, they find it difficult to re-assimilate into regular civilian life, and most go on to move to a group of new colony planets where they prove themselves equally adept at surviving the ridiculously dangerous local fauna. It should be noted that the Trofts (the enemies in the war) actually believe the Cobras to be unkillable. They're just that good.
    • That said, there are major side effects, including early-onset arthritis.
  • Max Barry's Machine Man has Dr. Charles Neumann spend time as an exceptionally powerful one along with the Security Guard Carl, before ending up just uploaded minds.
  • Empire From the Ashes: the Fourth Imperium used "biotechnic" enhancement to give its military personnel Super Strength, Super Speed, Super Senses, and a lot of other things. The main character gets improved versions of the implants.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • The advanced technology of Academy City allows many injured characters to regain function through cybernetics. After brain damage that leaves him unable to walk, talk or use his power, Accelerator receives an electronic choker that lets him borrow the brainpower of others. Shizuri receives a cybernetic arm and leg after losing the originals in a fight.
    • Salome is an unusual example - not being from Academy City, she made her cybernetics out of everyday objects. Most of her body is cybernetic except for her brain, giving her superhuman strength, speed and durability. However, it's noted that her haphazard construction makes her vulnerable to contaminants such as dust.

Live Action TV

  • The Cybermen in Doctor Who. The extent to which they're cybernetic varies from story to story; in earlier stories, the Cybermen's biological hands are visible, while in the revived series they're simply human brains transplanted into robot bodies.
    • Similarly we have the Daleks, who are usually assumed at first glance to be robots of some kind, but in actuality the Dalek itself is a small, squidlike creature piloting the famous mechanical exterior. It's not quite clear how integrated Daleks are into their "suits", so whether they're true cyborgs or simply machine operators is up for debate.
    • Footage and descriptions by other characters imply that the Daleks are most likely somewhere between Mechas and cyborgs. The creature proper could exist outside the mechanical shell, but is very small and weak and must be augmented by the mechanical components. In their introduction, Ian Chesterton was able to "drive" a Dalek shell after discarding the creature. The expanded universe indicates that the Dalek creatures are so biologically degenerate that they have no functional digestive system, no vocal cords and even have difficulty breathing on their own; being implanted in their casings is vital for them to survive for any great length of time, and their nervous and circulatory systems are tied directly into the casing's systems. The Dalek voice is harsh and grating because it is entirely artificial.
      • The "New Paradigm" Daleks introduced in Victory of the Daleks have an organic eye visible at the end of their eyestalks. Apparently this is the eye of the internal creature, with its optic nerve extruded down a metal pipe.
    • Davros. Right from his first appearance it's apparent that his chair is also a life support system and he will die within minutes without it. Since the chair can move without Davros needing to use a joystick or other controls it's safe to say it's tied into his nervous system in some way, and of course Davros also has an artificial eye embedded in his forehead. By "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", his one functioning hand had been replaced with a mechanical one capable of shooting electricity from its fingertips.
  • The Six Million Dollar Man and his Distaff Counterpart The Bionic Woman.
  • Adam in Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes this to the next level - he is part human, part machine, and part demon.
  • Most if not all Cylons in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica are cyborgs. The raiders are almost entirely organic on the inside, and the human-forms are ambiguous. On the one hand, they are extremely difficult to tell from humans. On the other, Sharon once accomplished something useful by cutting her hand open and jamming a fiber-optic cable inside. In a later episode it is stated that the human-form Cylons have some sort of organic optical data port in their hands, which is how they control and receive data from the basestars. Presumably Sharon was inserting the fiber so that she could make a good connection to the Galactica's less advanced hardware. On a Basestar, they just stick their hands in the literal datastream.
  • Mr. Sellars in Tad Williams' Otherland novels is a moderate version; he implanted computer hardware into his own body in order to allow him to connect to the Net without his captors noticing; by the time of the main story he's practically half computer. Treated fairly realistically in that it doesn't make him any stronger; quite the opposite, in fact.
  • Kamen Rider. It's been a while since this was anything like standard, but the old-school Riders were either (a) kidnapped by bad guys and put through Unwilling Roboticisation to serve them, escaped brainwashing, and kicked Monster of the Week butt (literally. RIDER KIIIIIICK!) or (b) were upgraded by good guys to fight the rising evil organization, usually after losing a friend or family member (or several!) to the bad guys. If Kamen Rider G doesn't count, the last such Rider was Kotaro Minami of Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX, in 1988-89.

Manhwa

  • Namu of Dorothy of Oz initially believes he is an android (a robot that merely looks human), but it turns out he's actually a cyborg and thus half human. This turns out to be the reason behind his unwillingness to let anyone get killed while he's in the vicinity, which is, of course, a good thing for everyone involved.

Music

  • Jonathan Coulton:
    • The Future Soon is a song about a jilted schoolkid who daydreams of becoming, among other things, a cyberneticist and then "engineering away" things about him that make him "weak and strange".
    • Better, is about a man breaking up with his girlfriend because he can't cope with her extensive robotic enhancements.
  • The music video for Broken Bell's "The Ghost Inside" features a cyborg girl. Or maybe she's a gynoid? I am not entirely sure.

Tabletop Games

  • Cyberpunk gaming is also rife with heavily cybered characters, such as the Street Samurai from Shadowrun and the Solos from Cyberpunk 2020.
    • Cyberspace (Iron Crown Enterprises), Cyberhero (Hero System), GURPS Cyberpunk, Cyborg Commando (New Infinities Productions), Amazing Engine: Kromosome (TSR)...
  • Rifts splits them into several classifications: Cybernetics are basically mechanical prosthetics (which come in fully mechanial or organic Bio-Systems), while Bionics actually augment the user to combat-capable levels, and include weapons. Cyborgs come in three levels: Minor cybernetic/bionic enhancements, Partial Conversion (all limbs and some torso reinforcement) and Full Conversion (Entire body except for the brain and spinal column).
  • Warhammer 40,000. Extensively modified cyborgs, especially Necrons and servitors, seem to be a substitute for undead in 40K. Though one can be mixed with the other - some hereteks have devices raising nearby bodies as zombies (known, but proscribed) as implants.
    • Cybernetic prosthetics and improvements are widely available in the Imperium, except low-tech worlds. Even a lowly adept may turn out to have data-port on the neck and scribe-tines instead of a hand, a run-of-the-mill pilot may control the shuttle via standard vehicle interface, and so on. Every series of WH40k RPG from Dark Heresy on introduced more possible implants.
    • Servitors - sometimes criminals and heretics who have their personality and higher reasoning wiped and turned into cybernetic slaves, and often bodies vat-grown for this specific purpose, without any higher brain functions that would just be removed as soon as they're done growing. The applications range from servo skulls (which already cover most single functions that can be done in a small weak package, be it a flying lamp, semi-autonomous first aid station or light gun drone) to gladiator-warriors and walking heavy weapon platforms. After the Robot War ended Humanity's golden age tens of thousands years in the past, there's taboo on A.I. (which stands for "Abominable Intelligence") - the Imperium, including Mechanicum, considers full AI heresy of the highest order, and requires all robotic lackeys of sophistication beyond that of an automatic defence turret or so to be based on a human or beast brain. Of course, lobotomised things are not good at complex tasks... which is why some cyber-constructs can also be remotely controlled to much greater extent than giving them the same voice commands via integrated vox receiver - and yes, this involves implanted cybernetic interfaces.
      • Space marines also have some servitors, but common criminals are unworthy of serving them - they prefer space marines who sinned or trainees whose minds have broken.
    • Space Marines are cyborgs themselves, although not full-conversion. The Black Carapace implant that is an inalienable part of any fully qualified battle brother is a neural interface to his Powered Armor, making them in effect a single organism. They also have a lot of other nifty implants, though they are generally organic (created by the Emperor himself from modified samples of his own clones).
      • The space marines also have Dreadnoughts - armored two-legged war machines housing coffins for half-dead Marines that could not be healed with normal methods.
    • The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose techpriests believe in the ideal perfection of the machine and willingly have their "impure" biological bits replaced with robotic cybernetics. Except many Genetors, who consider flesh just another machine and employ both cybernetics and organic grafts.
      • Same goes for Tech-marines. And the Iron Hands Space Marine chapter.
    • The Necrons appear fully robotic at first glance, but are actually sort of full-body cyborgs - minds uploaded into "living metal" - created from a long-extinct alien race.
    • Eldar wraith technology is somewhat similar to the Necron example in that once-living souls are stored and grafted into completely artificial bodies.
    • Orks make extensive use of cybernetics. Due to their extremely tough physiology they can survive having extremely crude cybernetics added (and in one instance, replacing a large portion brain).
    • The Rak'Gol are typically augmented, often extensively so, and their Techno-Shamans have implanted devices making them sort of Psykers. Those are artifacts of Yu'Vath, who were the overlords in their area of Galaxy until it transpired that they have enslaved a lot of humans and a full-blown Imperial crusade ran them over.
  • The denizens of Phyrexia in Magic: The Gathering. Upon birth, they are immediately gutted with most of their body parts replaced with mechanical ones. Even the robots they build themselves are borderline cybernetic. Someone dissecting one of their artifact creatures pointed out: "its as though someone started out with a living thing, and then replaced bits piecemeal until there was nothing of the original left."
  • The Fading Suns setting similarly has the option to outfit characters with cybernetic parts. What makes it interesting is that the available enhancements run the full technological spectrum, from simple metal and ceramic limb replacements, to synthetic flesh, to nanobots.
  • Dead Lands: Hell On Earth subverts, inverts, reverts, and blipverts the trope. Basically, in the universe it's impossible to make enough room in a human body to insert any relevant cybernetics. There is plenty of room in an undead body, though, with the added bonus that, with a bit of demonically influenced Mad Science, you can run the machine parts on the spiritual energies used to create the undead.
  • Mage: The Ascension from the Old World of Darkness included Iteration X, "mages" who could do impossible things with cybernetics and robotics. Besides generally being cyborgs themselves, they frequently made use of HIT Marks against their enemies. Occasionally other science-focused mages, even in the Traditions, also created cyborgs. The degree to which Cybernetics Ate Your Soul varied with the amount of replacement and the manner in which your storyteller enforced the Resonance and Paradox rules. As a nice nod to reality, people with any kind of cybernetic enhancements have to get a full-body reinforcement.
  • In Paranoia, humans in the robot-loving Corpore Metal secret society often get cybernetic replacements. Inverted by Corporganic, whose robotic members sometimes get organic replacements ("orgcybing").
  • Exalted has these in the Alchemicals sourcebook. Any Alchemical with an Obvious charm qualifies, as well as many that don't.
  • New Horizon has the Prometheans.
    • Oddly, the cybernetic enhancements are stated to be tailor-made to an individual's biochemistry, preventing both interchangeable prosthetics and cybernetic enhancement to the genetically altered Medeans. Hmm.
  • The d20 Modern supplement d20 Future has some coverage of this topic and Cyberscape expands on it.

Video Games

  • The Master Chief and the rest of the SPARTAN-II Super Soldiers in the Halo universe have a neural interface implanted in their brains to allow them to properly control their Powered Armor, as well as reinforced skeletons. The rank-and-file members of the human military also receive neural implants, but they're not as advanced as the SPARTAN's.
    • Kat, from Halo: Reach, has a mechanical right arm.
    • Ditto the earlier Marathon series, where the skeleton, musculature, and nervous systems of dead soldiers were augmented with various technology (possibly including some Lost Technology from Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that had previously originated an ancient race of Uplifted Animals) to create the Mjolnir battleroids. They can pass so well for normal, even they aren't always aware of their true nature prior to “activation.”
      • Also, Durandal's BoB army are equipped standard with implanted Electronic Eyes.
      • For that matter, the entire S'pht race are cyborgs. Somehow, their mechanical parts reproduce themselves along with the organic ones when new S'pht are created. Indeed, they are even unsure whether or not they'd even be sentient without their mechanical parts.
      • The Pfhor use a kind of soldier called a cyborg as well: this one looks like a giant, deformed human torso stuck on top of some tank treads.
  • Raiden started out in Metal Gear Solid as a human but in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, he showed up as a cyborg ninja. Gray Fox also became a cyborg ninja in MGS.
  • All of the pirates in Black Market seem to be enthusiastic about cybernetics, much to everyone else's disgust.
  • In the Command & Conquer Tiberium series the Brotherhood of Nod make use of cybernetics for their elite forces, first seen during the events of C&C Renegade and later much more prominently in Tiberian Sun. During the Firestorm expansion, however, Nod's combat AI goes rogue and takes the cyborgs with him, so when Tiberium Wars rolls around cyborg forces are conspicuously absent. The Kane's Wrath expansion brings them back in the form of the Marked of Kane, made up of Nod's fallen soldiers resurrected through technology and linked to the new LEGION AI.
    • One of Red Alert's expansions featured a cyborg commando named Volkov and his cybernetic dog Chitzkoi, the former capable of surviving a shootout with an Allied cruiser and the latter able to leap all over the battlefield to tear out the throats of enemy infantry.
      • In Zero Hour's Contra mod, General Algrin "A.I" Ironhand has cyborgs instead of rangers as his basic infantry.
  • Dr. Curien's most powerful experiments in House of the Dead (the video games, not the movie; curse you, Uwe Boll!) involve using electronics as well as scientific necromancy. Note The Magician and The Wheel of Fate.
  • See also Dr. Tokentäkker in the sideshow spoof [3] Carn Evil, who is Curien in a pun-filled circus of mayhem. You'd think someone on the HOTD team would have thought to buy the rights to distribute and plunked it as download content or a limited edition disc with some of the HOTD games.
  • In Resistance: Fall Of Man, the Chimera have heat sinks implanted in their backs to keep them from cooking themselves in the middle of battle. This is why the Chimera change London's weather to freezing winter in the first game. The Grey Jack enemies are stock Hybrids who have lived so long their heat sinks have broken down, and their bodies are breaking down because of it.
  • The Terrans in StarCraft do so slightly for their Marines, and heavily for their Ghosts, who not only have inhibitors, but also other enhancements to increase their effectiveness including ocular implants. The Protoss, on the other hand, have Dragoons, which are fallen comrades brought back in robotic bodies. Dragoons are especially revered among their people for their dedication and bravery. Starcraft II will feature the Dark Templar equivalent, Warp Stalkers, as well as the new breed of Dragoon, the Immortals.
  • In Team Fortress 2 one of the unlockable weapons, the Gunslinger, is a mechanical hand, designed by Radigan Conagher, the grandfather of one of the playable characters, some time around the turn of the 20th century. The arm is capable of holding a pistol and a shotgun, makes punches hurt the enemy as much as a wrench hit, and from a gameplay standpoint, gives +20% MAX HP and lets the Engineer deploy Mini-Sentries instead of the normal Sentries. The Gunslinger is designed to be mounted on an arm stump, replacing the hand. The Engineer didn't meet the requirement of not having a hand. At first.
  • A common costume part in City of Heroes and City of Villains. All Freakshow have metal parts replacing some or all of their limbs, as have many Arachnos troopers. Nemesis, and the Malta Titans, are essentially brains in robotic bodies. One interesting version is the Vahzilok, cyborgized zombies.
  • Ziggy in Xenosaga was revived and turned into a cyborg roughly one hundred years after committing suicide. Interestingly, cyborgs are actually considered obsolete by the time the series takes place. Also, T-elos, a cyborg created from the (surprisingly well-preserved) corpse of Mary Magdalene.
  • In Deus Ex, Gunther and Anna are the classic mechanical cyborgs, showing all the nifty dermal plates and robotic appendages that come with the territory. JC Denton and his brother Paul appear to be a highly advanced model based on a nanotech platform with fluid upgrade capabilities and ability to pass completely for human, except that their eyes glow.
    • Adam Jensen from Deus Ex Human Revolution is a sleeker version of Anna and Gunther from 25 years earlier. Replacements (due to heavy damage and being shot in the head) include prosthetic arms, legs, eyes, part of the head and most of the torso. It's heavily implied, but not confirmed until later, that Jensen is now more machine than man: his arms, legs, and large portions of his chest have been replaced with augmentations, and his cranium is at least 25% mechanical.
      • Jensen also has the ability to unlock new features in his existing augmentations (justified as a process of naturalization: the longer he spends with his augmentations, the more he gets used to them, and the more his brain can naturally reach the many features to "turn them on"). These include the ability to run silently, jump higher, see through walls, fall from any height without injury, and launch explosive ball-bearing sized munitions from his arms in a 360 degree arc.
      • Jensen's sleeker cyborg appearance is justified as being due to Sarif Industries investing a lot in augmenting him during the operation at the behest of David Sarif himself, which is further helped by his genetic makeup being the holy grail for making augmentation available for everyone. The aug parts used by many cyborgs in the game are shown generally looking roughly on par with Anna and Gunther, if not much more bulky as is the case of Tai Yong Medical's cheap versions.
  • In Quake 4, your character gets "Stroggified" and rescued literally the moment before he gets brainwashed. Before that, his legs were cut off and replacements stuck on, and something was done to his hands and chest, and he got a translator chip stuck in his head. See it here! Result? He runs and jumps faster and understands Strogg. Of course, other humans are distrustful of him, but he never protests.
  • The main character of Bionic Commando is an early example of this.
  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri features the "Bioenhancement Center" base facility, which increases the morale (i.e. experience level) of all units built at a base by 2. The "Cyborg Factory" Secret Project, the movie for which provides the page quote, places a Bioenhancement Center in each one of your bases for free. In addition, several technologies have to do with varying levels of cyborgdom, most notably "Neural Grafting" (which enables Bioenhancement Centers), "Mind/Machine Interface" (which enables The Cyborg Factory and for some reason allows you to build helicopters) and "Homo Superior" (which is explained in-game as creating cyborg Ubermenschen—complete with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche).
    • And lest we forget: The Cybernetic Consciousness faction, composed entirely of humans merged with AIs, making them cyborgs of a different sort (rather than human brain in a mechanical body, organic and silicon minds fused together in a body of any kind). That they are a faction also makes them a Robot Republic.
  • Kanon of Wild ARMs 2, who replaced most of her body with mechanical parts to become a demon hunter after a demon attack on her village left her mostly crippled.
  • Wild ARMs 4 has the chainsaw-wielding Balgaine, which explains his immense strength as well as his weakness to Jude's Short Circuit technique.
  • In the Alien vs. Predator Beat'Em Up by Capcom, the two Human characters are said to be Cyborgs. Dutch is obviously so, while Linn's cybernetics are only apparent by the fact that she can fight on even terms with a Predator or Xenomorph bare-handed.
    • The first PC AvP FPS gave us the Xenoborg. Yes, Weyland-Yutani thought putting armor and a lethal laser weapon system on a Xenomorph was a good idea. Yes, the things go berserk and start killing people.
  • The titular protagonist of Iji, as well as every single alien, is augmented with Nanomachines that make her stronger, sturdier, and allow her to command her Nanogun.
  • The Agent in Crackdown, is essentially a living Evolving Weapon.
  • The human race in the Mega Man ZX series is co-evolving with Reploids into something else. There was also Dr. Light, who was strongly implied to be an infomorph, and Hub Hikari/Megaman.EXE, who definitely was.
  • Mother 3 contains several cyborg-style animals along with Mix-and-Match Critters, as well as the Masked Man, a human cyborg.
    • And then there's New Fassad and Miracle Fassad.
  • Cyborgs are commonplace in Mass Effect, ranging from chips in the fingertips to use holographic keybords, artifical arms and organs, electronic eyes, memory chips inside the brain, etc. Cybernetics are so advanced that the President of the United North American States was able to remain in office by transferring most of his neural functions into a computer. Then there are biotics, individuals capable of telekinses and other feats; they require a "bio-amp" attached to the brainstem in order to actually use them.
    • Actually there are two types of cybernetics that human biotics need: "Implants" which allows biotic power to be used ranging from L2 to L5.n and L5.x, and "amps" which, well, amplify biotic power to non-uselessness. The difference between the two is that amps are detachable without causing damage to the user.
  • In Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard is brought back from the dead, and is not entirely human anymore. While Shepard could've been brought back wholly human, that process would have taken more time than Cerberus had. As a result, the Commander is mostly human, albeit with a number of modifications, usually beneficial ones (the ability to surive a poisoning that would have killed anyone else, for example).
    • Calling Shepard "mostly human" is somewhat misleading; after the surgery, his/her combat capabilities are considerably advanced. You can even buy upgrades for his/her body, making his/her skin capable of withstanding considerable gunfire and increasing strength to point of being able to win fistfights with creatures two or three times the average human's size. And even without those upgrades, s/he can use weaponry that has kickback so forceful they are physically impossible for even the genetically modified soldiers of the day to use without being seriously wounded.
      • The "upgrades" for Shepard are said in the item descriptions to not be upgrades to Shepard's cybernetic components, but are a type of genetic engineering/cybernetics in and of themselves.
    • Overlord showed off some of the deepest extensions of Shepard's cybernetics. He actually gets hacked near the end of the story, allowing him to view the memories of the Overlord subject.
  • Kurtis from Disgaea was rebuilt as one after surviving an explosion.
  • The Cyborg class in Ghouls vs. Humans. He actually looks indistinguishable from a robot. He had to be made into a half-man half-machine after barely surviving an attack by a ghoul, and is now going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to avenge his family. But at least he's got a bitchin' plasma cannon and a jetpack.
  • Genosect from Pokémon Black and White, which resembles a prehistoric insect that was revived and had its missing body parts lost during its fossilization replaced with cybernetic ones.
  • In the Fallout: New Vegas add on Old World Blues The Courier is abducted by sentient brains who replace your brain, spine and heart with advanced Tesla coils that grant you immunity to poison, resistance to damage as well as enhanced strength and other benefits. Even after completing the main quest and (possibly) restoring said body parts, some advanced technology still remains in the Courier's body.
    • Plus the seven SPECIAL implant (one for each attribute), the regeneration implant, the sub dermal armor (these 9 ones are in the vanilla game). Old World blues also adds an implant increasing by 10% the damage output against cazadores, another increasing crouch speed, another filtering drinking radiation, and a last one for getting action points and more health from food, plus the level 30 perk Implant GRX (a Turbo Implant). When you get all these, the Courier is more machine than man at this point.
    • Fallout 3 has no implants but does have Cyborg as a perk.
  • Cyborg enemies and cyborg augmentations feature prominently in Space Siege. Ever more heavily augmented cyborg enemies take up much of the second and third acts, replacing the Scary Dogmatic Aliens from act 1 completely by act 3.
  • The name Shatterhand is not only the name of the game, but the code name given to the hero after he gets bionic fists.
  • From Skullgirls comes Peacock, a cyborg on the more fantastic side of the spectrum. Her arms are clearly mechanical, made of sections of metal with three large eyes attached to each arm. Concept sketches of her (her outfit is not very revealing) show that her legs and other parts of her body appear mechanical as well. It's unclear just how much of Peacock's original body is left, if anything but her brain and her face.
    • It's possible that Painwheel from the same game could be considered one as well with the large pinwheel-like blade coming out of her spine. These two are both products of the Anti-Skullgirl Labs, so it's likely that other cyborgs are present in the story as well.
  • Many of the monsters in Parasite Eve 2 have some sort of cybernetic implant on their bodies. Most are implied to be some sort of life support. There are also the Golems, twelve-foot tall ape-man cyborgs armed with everything from grenade launchers to flaming machetes. No.9 in particular makes Vader-esque ventilator noises when he breathes.
  • X Com: the Floater in both versions of the game falls in into this catagory-his core organs have been removed and replaced with a cybernetic life support system including a flight unit (in either antigravity or jetpack flavors, depending on version). The Lobsterman in Terror From The Deep either qualifies or is a combat android with some organic components.


Web Comics

  • Daisy Archanis from Last Res0rt has a potent prosthetic leg... that's detachable (presumably for upgrades). It helps her about as often as it hurts her.
  • Shows up as part of a Borg parody in Sluggy Freelance. Riff and Torg actually become cyborgs for a couple strips, but have all their cybernetic implants taken away when they get kicked out of the Collective.
  • Michelle Flammel from Monsterful, she can transform into a PHC (Psychotic Homunculus Cyborg) by fusing with her guardian golem Ourox, Gaining tons of gadgets, from the classic Arm Cannon, to Jetpacks and more.
  • In Harkovast Shogun has a mechanical hand that can crush metal. How this was constructed using the medieval technology levels of Harkovast has yet to be explained.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, the giantess Djali ("Jolly") is given cybernetic parts to help her move and respirate at a size that would otherwise run up against the Square-Cube Law. Since the Nemesites explicitly have technology to reduce an object's mass and to manipulate gravity, this isn't too unreasonable.
  • Bob and George: Mike has half his body replaced with robotic parts. Typically, he wonders whether he's robotic or a freeloader.
  • The lunar ambassador's bodyguard in Chapter 2 of The Water Phoenix King has both arms replaced with densely-folded ribbons of razor-edged, thought-controlled metal. It's explicitly described as Magitek and other artifacts of the same sort exist.
  • After Tavros from Homestuck was confined to a wheelchair due to Killer Game Master Vriska, Kanaya sawed off his legs while he was sleeping so Equius could fit him with newly-built robot legs instead.
    • Vriska gets a robotic arm (also made by Equius) after her original one gets blown off. Aradia may be an additional case, as she spents a good part of the plot as a ghost-sprite inhabiting a realistic robot (again, made by Equius).
  • In Impure Blood, one of Roan's opponents in the Gladiator Games.
  • Several characters in Schlock Mercenary. Or most named characters, if you count subtle augmentations such as "blood-nannies" and "Soldier Boost" implants. Generally, every tissue can be reconstructed, so there are few augmentations except the above, several interfaces and Implanted Armor, and fewer prosthetics.
    • Said interfaces include implanted voice communication (actually acoustic and as such detectable - easily installed if the patient doesn't mind holding still and suffering a headache, but now becoming obsolete), decryption device and transmitter on the optical nerve, and lately also RED/REO (backs up the brain into storage elsewhere in the body and possibly off-site, to recover in case of damage) and its extensions, such as REDphone.
    • Company chef Ch'vorthq after sacrificing his own limbs got cybernetic replacements that were originally being used by Der Trihs, Elf was going in oversized, armoured 'Odin Boots' when her legs got blown off before eventually getting them regrown.
    • One of the background members of the company was a member of a species who had one mind occupying two bodies connected by an organic radio link who for a hypercomm node installed to extend his range allowing him to pilot two tanks at once. Earlier this was used for Partnership Collective (Hive Mind of semi-autonomous Attorney Drones, most likely hijacked by certain Ancient Conspiracy), and later was done for a vastly greater Hive Mind (and quickly led to concerns about it being hacked via smaller remote swarms).
    • The most stand out example would be DoytHaban - a mercenary who had an extensive upgrade system, including the implanted AI (Haban). Later a thoroughly illegal AI doctor gave Haban more influence and added a rather ridiculous (but effective) concealed weapon package.
    • Haban II is an... odd example. Originally just a gate clone of DoytHaban, he got shot in the head, killing Doyt but leaving the Haban AI unaffected. Medical technology allowed the missing brain tissue to be regrown but as a blank slate, allowing Haban to "expand" into it.
  • In Cwynhild's Loom, Cwynhild is a cybernetically enhanced human, though her enhancements are mostly internal and not visible to the naked eye.

Web Original

  • The Kung from Pay Me, Bug! are "known for three things: their skill at robotics, their enthusiastic embrace of slavery as a commercial venture, and their tendency to replace parts of their body with machinery."

Western Animation

  • Gargoyles has two recurring villains, Jackal and Hyena, become cyborgs in order to gain new, more deadly abilities. Coldstone is a cyborg as well: a character for whom robotic parts (and magic) were used to join three fragmented Gargoyle corpses (and minds).
  • The Irkens in Invader Zim takes this one step further; they are implanted with back-mounted devices known as 'paks' immediately following decanting. The pak contains the actual mind of the Irken; their body is essentially only meat used by the pak to interact with its surroundings (a good analogy would be to compare the pak with the hard drive of a computer; the irken's brain is the processor). We also have the more classical mechanical-limbs-and-eye Sergeant Hobo in the Hobo 13 episode, and the Irken Tak, who also sports a cable implanted in her head (which may be the source of her neural suggestion power.
  • Inspector Gadget
  • Transformers Generation 1 episode Autobot Spike has Spike's mind being transferred to a mechanical body while his human body underwent risky surgery. Also, nearly every Transformer from the Beast era, which were the opposites of the typical cyborg, being robots who had living tissue grafted onto them.
  • Also seen in the technorganic Blackarachnia, Waspinator and Sari Sumdac in Transformers Animated.
  • The heroes in Robotix were aliens who got their minds transferred into Humongous Mecha without their consent.
  • The title characters from Challenge of the Go Bots are cyborgs of the Brain In a Jar variety, being organic brains installed in Transforming Mecha bodies.
  • Godzilla: The Series has Cyber-Godzilla, the resurrected form of GINO
  • Doc Terror and Hacker from Centurions, as well as some of their Evil Minions.
  • Technically, all of the lead characters in Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, as they have an experimental cybernetic implant that acts as an Amplifier Artifact. Team Leader Zachary Foxx is a more extreme case, having undergone an Emergency Transformation after being gunned down in the pilot episode. Over half his body is replaced by cyberware, including having an Arm Cannon installed.
  • The Platyborg from Phineas and Ferb The Movie. An evil, brainwashed cyborg Perry from another dimension.
  • In Rick and Morty, this is sometimes the case with Rick. And the "sometimes" part id not a case of Depending on the Writer. His current body is not the original one, and he has often avoided death by using technology to clone himself or steal the body of an alternate Rick. Thus, in " "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" he clearly has a few cybernetic enhancements, and this would explain his unnatural strength in "The Rickshank Redemption", but in "The ABCs of Beth", he seems fully human again.
  • Professor Honeycutt (aka the Fugitoid) from most versions of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles is a brilliant scientist who, via some accident, had his mind transferred to the body of his robot assistant.

Web Original

  • Several of the heroes and villains in the Global Guardians PBEM Universe qualify in one way or another. Robotman is a Brain In a Jar, while La Constructeuse gets her powers from various mechanical and electronic implants.
  • Present in Orion's Arm, and very diverse, ranging all over the scale of biology-vs-technology.
  • There are plenty of them in the Whateley Universe. At the Whateley Academy there's She-Bot. One of the Powers Lab teachers has a couple robotic limbs, probably from when he used to be a superhero (although that's just guessed by one of the protagonists). And the dreaded supervillain Deathlist is all robot except for his brain and his face.
  • The protagonist of Robo Girl.
  • Cybernetics is a growing industry in Nexus Gate.
  • Quirky Misadventures of Soldine the Cyborg


Real Life

  • Pacemakers. Cochlear implants. Hearing aids. Bionic eyes. Artifical arms. Dentures. The age of cyborgs is already upon us! Repent!
    • Glasses/Corrective lenses and contacts lenses
  • The Hybrot: one thousand rat neurons on a circuitboard remotely controlling a small robot. Now that's good biology. Warhammer 40,000 here we come.
  • Stephen Hawking and Kevin Warwick. The former depended on cybernetics to move and communicate because of his disease. The latter is a cybernetics researcher who interfaced his nervous system with computers to remotely control his home, operate a robotic arm, and telepathically communicate with his wife just to demonstrate the technology's Potential Applications (and probably also For the Lulz).
  • Meet Rob Spence, The Eyeborg. after an accident with a shotgun that resulted in his right eye being completely destroyed, he had said eye replaced with a camera that can actually track his vision and transmit video to a handheld receiver. He was actually hired by Square Enix to host a promotional documentary for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, showcasing several real-life people with advanced prosthetics, as well as talking about their future development.
  1. ↑ In the French version of the manga they are called Cyborgs, which makes sense for #17 and #18, but it makes less sense for #16 who is explicitly artificial.
  2. ↑ The tinsmith kept his old head in a closet, where, due to the no-death nature of Oz, it remained sentient, desiring nothing to do with the Tin Man when he returned to retrieve it.
  3. ↑ unfortunately still unreleased on a home console
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