i didn't ask for this

- Brim is so wide that I stay BONE DRY taking walks in the rain

- Brim can be positioned to block the sun from ever getting in my eyes AND keeping it off the back of my neck

- The pointed top part creates an air pocket, keeping my head from getting hot or squishing my hair as it might in a ball cap

- Hat can easily be pulled down over the tips of my ears without looking dumb, protecting them from wind chill

- Strangers say they like my hat, giving me the chance to tell them that I am a wizard

- When you’re wearing a wizard hat, ALL OTHER FASHION CHOICES become secondary, allowing you to branch out with style

When you see an animal with its eyes set to the front, like wolves, or humans, that’s usually a predator animal.

If you see an animal with its eyes set farther back, though—to the side—that animal is prey.

Now look at this dragon.

See those eyes?

They’re to the SIDE.

This raises an interesting—and terrifying—question.

What in the name of Lovecraft led evolution to consider DRAGONS…

This isn’t a mammalian thing. When people talk about ‘eyes on the front’ or ‘eyes on the side,’ they’re really talking about binocular vision vs monocular vision. Binocular vision is more advantageous for predators because it’s what gives you depth perception; i.e, the distance you need to leap, lunge, or swipe to take out the fast-moving thing in front of you. Any animal that can position its eyes in a way that it has overlapping fields of vision has binocular vision. That includes a lot of predatory reptiles, including komodo dragons, monitor lizards, and chameleons.

(The eyes-in-front = predator / eyes-on-sides = prey thing holds true far more regularly for birds than it does for mammals. Consider owls, hawks, and falcons vs parrots, sparrows, and doves.)

But it’s not like binocular vision is inherently “better” than monocular vision. It’s a trade-off: you get better at leap-strike-kill, but your field of vision is commensurately restricted, meaning you see less stuff. Sometimes, the evolutionary benefit of binocular vision just doesn’t outweigh the benefit of seeing the other guy coming. Very few forms of aquatic life have binocular vision unless they have eye stalks, predator or not, because if you live underwater, the threat could be coming from literally any direction, so you want as wide a field of view as you can get. If you see a predator working monocular vision, it’s a pretty safe assumption that there is something else out there dangerous enough that their survival is aided more by knowing where it is than reliably getting food inside their mouths.

For example, if you are a crocodile, there is a decent chance that a hippo will cruise up your shit and bite you in half. I’d say that makes monocular vision worthwhile.

Which brings us back to OP’s point. Why would dragon evolution favor field of view over depth perception?

A lot of the stories I’ve read painted the biggest threats to dragons (until knights with little shiny sticks came along) as other dragons. Dragons fight each other, dragons have wars. And like fish, a dragon would need to worry about another dragon coming in from any angle. That’s a major point in favor of monocular vision. Moreover, you don’t need depth perception in order to hunt if you can breathe fucking fire. A flamethrower is not a precision weapon. If you can torch everything in front of you, who cares if your prey is 5 feet away or 20? Burn it all and sift among the rubble for meat once everything stops moving.

And judging by the fact they usually tend to look directly at someone when talking to them rather than turning their head sideways they clearly see head on.

Compare that to the eyes of a cow or even a monitor lizard which you generally can see much less of the eye

Heck if you put a hawks head sideways enough it will look like its eyes are off to the side

But if you look from the front youll see the eyes are foward

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is probably the most famous dinosaur. It was a gigantic killing machine. In Jurassic Park, when confronted with queen of the dinosaurs Rexy, Dr Grant tells the girl not to move, because the T Rex can’t see you if you don’t move. This is absolutely false and palaeontologists unanimously agree that Dr Grant and the children would’ve been Rexy’s dinner. Much tastier than goat.

The T Rex had acute vision. T Rex eyes faced forward like a hawk’s and were spread farther apart on its face than most other dinosaurs’ eyes, giving it superior depth perception during a hunt. It also had some of the largest eyes of any land animal, about the size of oranges.

Let’s take a look at Rexy. In profile, her eyes appear on the side of her head:

But when you view her head on, it’s pretty clear her eyes are facing forward, and she can see you:

Here’s some pictures more clearly demonstrating the forward-facing eyes:

And some unsettling photos from a case study by Prof. Kent A. Stevens from Oregon university:

The study, which looks at binocular vision in theropod dinosaurs, can be read here. It might give some idea on the vision of dragons.

In conclusion, like hawks and some other birds of prey, a Tyrannosaurus Rex had forward-facing eyes, but due to their angular head shape, their eyes appeared to be on the side of their head when viewed sideways-on. As theropod dinosaurs were possibly one of the inspirations for dragons and are a real animal that most closely resembles the typical model of a dragon, it can be safely assumed that dragons would have similar eyesight to that of a theropod dinosaur.

I think we can say that not only would a dragon share the acute binocular vision of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it would like have a similar keen sense of smell and excellent hearing, meaning there’s no hiding from a dragon.

And people like "wtf why" looking out their hotel room window and there's this. This dragon just curled up in the pool chilling, literally, cooling itself down

Also, if you didn’t care about the future, didn’t that mean you didn’t care about the stone either? You might as well give it to someone else. Maybe someone better suited than you. There was this little girl across the street who had an acorn necklace and played in puddles and always sat very still until the every last stray cat felt safe enough to eat what she brought them. Maybe the stone should go to her, she at least gave a shit.

You debated arguing or refusing, but your disinterest won out in the end. “Sure,” you answered, holding out a hand for them to plop the stone into. You weren’t scared of it, especially since it looked utterly unremarkable. If you tossed it into a river, no one would be able to tell it apart from the other rocks.

The three wizened elders, apparently the smartest of their magic circle, exchanged grave looks and you waited until they were done with their silent communication and their leader stepped forward.

“We entrust you with the Stone of Possibility, never use it and always hide it,” they said, voice solemn and carrying the sort of undertone that spoke of great importance. You blinked slowly. “Give it to no one, no matter how noble their hearts, how pitiful their tale or how silver their tongue.” You couldn’t help but imagine a genderless person sticking out their tongue dripping with mercury.