Carefully. Most have hard, solid metal soles. Some may even have small, sharp points on the undersides of their pedes, especially miners and construction workers. Also, claws happen sometimes.Â
Sneakier-frame Cybertronians, though, sometimes have silicone pads on the undersides of their pedes. Nice, soft, solid enough to add some good friction.Â
Basically, it depends on the frame.
Tempo has pedes that fork into two claws each, plus soft pads that are lightly ridged. Heâd be great for pedejobs. Could rub those pads over someoneâs valve, too.
Avalon has spines that extend from the undersides of his pedes if he tenses enough, plus large, heavy claws, and no padding. Probably not a good plan to put a dick near there.Â
Angusâs coaches probably have a specific contingency plan for whichever dad happens to be attending his games/practices but sometimes itâs the Grim Reaper and like, how do you deal with that?
The eyes-in-the-front thing (usually) only applies to mammals. Crocodiles, arguably the inspiration for dragons, have eyes that look to the sides despite being a predator.
hey what up Iâm about to be That Asshole
This isnât a mammalian thing. When people talk about âeyes on the frontâ or âeyes on the side,â theyâre really talking about binocular vision vs monocular vision. Binocular vision is more advantageous for predators because itâs 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 itâs not like binocular vision is inherently âbetterâ than monocular vision. Itâs 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 doesnât 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, itâs 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. Iâd say that makes monocular vision worthwhile.
Which brings us back to OPâs point. Why would dragon evolution favor field of view over depth perception?
A lot of the stories Iâve 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. Thatâs a major point in favor of monocular vision. Moreover, you donât 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.
Really, why would dragons have eyes on the front of their heads? Seems like theyâve got the right idea to me.
this is some good dragon discourse right here, 10/10, and i dont mean to derail the whole thing away from the eyes, but i feel obligated to mention that in many stories and accurate to some reptiles, dragons have an extremely acute sense of smell/taste which would definitely help narrow down the depth perception issue. things smell stronger the closer they are. and i feel like i read somewhere that a blind snake can flick the air with its tongue and track its target mouse with no trouble at all. gotta imagine the âgreat serpents of the skyâ had some pretty advanced biology. enough to make field of view win out against depth perception.
anywho. cool stuff. fear the dragons even if they are the prey cause they still beat us on the food chain.