Headmaster (technology)

''"Headmaster stuff is definitely NOT something you want to get into, kid. So if I was you, I'd forget about it right now." ''—Ironhide knows some stuff.

Headmasters are a type of symbiotic variation on the Transformer lifeform in which a smaller being, frequently but not exclusively organic, transformsinto the head of a larger robot. Headmaster bonding typically occurs between two sentient beings, but there have been cases in which the head or the body (such as the Transtectors or the Sunstreaker clones created by the Machination) is a non-sentient construct controlled entirely by the other partner.

When it occurs between two sentient beings, the benefits of the Headmaster procedure are many: The partner gains control of a larger, more powerful body, and the Transformer gains an extra perspective on the battlefield, the psychic binary bonding involved allowing him to draw on both his own ideas, tactics, and instincts as well as those of his partner as quickly as if they were coming from his own head (since they are). Agility, reaction speed, and targeting accuracy are often enhanced by the process.

The Headmaster process leaves its subject Transformers with one glaring disadvantage: when separated from their partners, they have no head. Most can continue to function as vehicles without their partners, but can do little in robot mode besides stand around.

In conversation, the term "Headmaster" can apply to both the small partner (the head) and the significant other (the body).

Description
The Headmaster process was apparently the idea of former Elite Guard cadet Windcharger, who had advocated that using an organic partner would be a good strategy in combat with the Decepticons. It also seems much less invasive for the organic humanoid involved. No surgical alteration is apparently needed on their part, and the process seems to consist mainly of altering the Transformer's head to 1) have a control center for a partner to sit at inside and 2) transform around the partner into a fancy exosuit. While some who have undergone it have commented at feeling a closer bond with their respective partners, there is no reason to believe there is any true psychic connection between them as in the binary bonding of other continuities. Before detaching his/her head, the Transformer downloads his memory and personality into his auxiliary memory circuits in his chest.