Tips for a floating boss head with hands

https://imgur.com/UdhiACx (Boss Head and Stage)

https://imgur.com/7dgcAbM (Boss Head)

So I had a conundrum and was wondering if I could get some input from the community.

In the boss stage of my game I have this character who circles around the stage attacking with his hands.
My questions are:

1) Would it be easier to separate the hands from the face, maybe further it and make the hands themselves
individual objects too (ie. Right hand, Left hand), or am I ok to keep them as one piece.

2) How would I go about animations like attacks, would I even need to animate or would it be better to somehow do it via code as far as the hands go.

 

First you can still control hands separately from head even if they're a part of the same mesh. This can be done by directly controlling bones (if you had them exposed during import) for each hand, or by overriding IK controls in animator controller.

SO there's no significant difference between having or not having hands as separate objects,

However, if there can be multiple hands and number changes over time, it would make sense to have hands as separate objects.

If you animate the boss as the whole, then you animate them traditionally.

If hands are supposed to move to different spots, you write code to controll where they are and maybe send notification to animator controller to make hand take specific poses (fist, flat palm, pointing finger and so on).

There's no better way, but it may be reasonable to take hybrid approach. For example, control hands as separate objects when they're doing an attack, and let animation play when they're idling.