(part one) could you explain or link me to how transformers (the bots) anatomy works alongside the aliens that are inside of them and how those two connect ? is the transformer sentient on it's own or does it need the alien to function ?
This user also added: i feel like they need each other to function because if a bot gets a virus the alien doesn’t just go out and find a new bot. say that instead of optimus prime being just the bot or just the alien the two of them together make up optimus
I assume you’re asking about things like Headmasters here, correct? While the questions you ask are the sort of thing that could potentially make the idea behind Headmasters really interesting, they’re also the questions that Transformers media rarely addresses!
The Generation 1 cartoon presented the Transformers’ head as a kind of cockpit in which the pilot sat; here’s Duros instead Hardhead’s head, looking out through his visor:
The heads would transform into armored exo-suits, which the pilots could remove without no ill effect to anyone. The physical connection was shown only through the gauntlets you can see on Duros’s arms, there. There WAS some kind of greater bond between robot and pilot - Daniel and Arcee talked about how they were “a part of each other,” and indeed, the very reason Daniel underwent the process was because he suffered fatal wounds that required a life-support machine, which Arcee took the place of - but the show didn’t go any further than that, and the characters definitely retained their individuality, with the Nebulans at one point even abandoning the Autobots, leaving them stuck in vehicle mode.
The Marvel comic of played with this a little bit more. The Nebulans here were subjected to complex surgery to enhance and rebuild their bodies so that they actually transformed into the robots’ heads. In fact, they actually replaced the Transformers’ original heads, which were said to remain “in radio contact” with the Nebulans, who were now actually in control of the Transformers’ bodies.
Per that particular description it certainly sounds like the characters retain their own individuality, but the idea that the Transformers’ heads were being kept on Nebulos was pretty much forgotten immediately. A later story would introduce the idea of a real bond between minds - when Spike Witwicky quits being Fortress Maximus, he still finds that he has dreams of Maximus, and eventually realizes that through some side-effect or unforseen consequence of the bond, they’ve become two halves of the same being, and that he doesn’t need his armor or control helmet to be connected to him.
Towards the end of the series, this was especially pronounced with Scorponok, who would, in his private thoughts, think of himself as being both Scorponok AND Lord Zarak.
This idea was explored to its fullest with Powermaster Optimus Prime and his partner Hi-Q in the final issues of the series. When Optimus Prime dies fighting Unicron, Hi-Q survives, but is then exposed to some Nucleon, which is said to accelerate the Powermaster process within his body, taking it to its final stage - a stage in which both Transformer and Nebulon become literally the same being in two bodies. As such, this is how Optimus returns to life, as Hi-Q evolves to BE him, mind and soul, and then has his body stripped down and rebuilt as the full-size Prime. This seems the closest to what you’re envisioning.
The Marvel method was how the process was described in Dreamwave continuity, but with the added visual wrinkle of depicting the heads as oversized “power armor” that the Nebulons sat in the chest of and piloted:
In Japan, it’s a bit more straightforward, as there is only one mind involved in the Headmaster process - the head is a tiny robot, who controls a lifeless larger Transformer body called a Transtector. In the sequel series Super-God Masterforce, humans are brought into the process, but it’s still the same - theirs are the only minds involved, as they control Transtectors of their own. There’s no surgery here, but good old-fashioned shonen anime magic, as their “Master-Brace” bracelets literally transform their organic cells into metallic ones so they can transform.
The IDW depiction of Headmasters was a bit more brutal and body-horror-ish, but was largely similar to the Marvel version in practice. As in that continuity, it involved the human being bio-mechanically rebuilt into a transforming head, with the added “bonus” of having to be painfully tapped into the Transformers’ neural net. This essentially made them two beings sharing one mind, by active design rather than side-effect. Also, when the robot’s body transformed, the head did not disconnect, but remained a part of the vehicle mode. This was another case when the “original” head remained apart from the robot, with the Headmaster partner taking its place, and like Prime and Hi-Q, was another story in which the robot “died,” but continued to live because their partner lived and was able to be restored.
Long post, but hopefully that helps to explain it for you!
