Third Eye

"A pleasant-faced man steps up to greet you
He smiles and says he's pleased to meet you
Beneath his hat, the strangeness lies
Take it off, he's got three eyes"

— Rush, "The Twilight Zone"

An eye grants sight, and thus symbolizes perception and understanding of the world. Two eyes gives the ability to perceive depth, so what new dimension might we be able to perceive with a third?

This is an Older Than Print trope that goes at least back to the Hindu Puranas, and shows up in various other religions as well. The Third Eye represents supernatural and mystical perception, possibly even spiritual enlightenment. As such it's not necessarily biological; characters might make a glowing eye tattoo appear on their forehead when using their magical perception abilities such as Aura Vision and Blindfolded Vision.

Aside from the spiritual, a Third Eye is common among mutants, aliens, and strange creatures. With them it usually provides purely worldly Super-Senses related to vision, especially True Sight.

As the picture shows, it is typically in the center of one's forehead and might be parallel or perpendicular to the two normal eyes. It may also be made more otherworldly by being a different color than the two normal eyes. While this trope is pretty neutral as to heroes and villains, usually evil characters have the mutant type third eye while heroes sport the more "enlightened" mystical one. Either way, expect the owner of the eye to suffer from Freakiness Shame if not outright persecution.

It's frequently paired with other Eye Tropes and Fate and Prophecy Tropes. One of the few ways to put Extra Eyes in odd places without incurring Eyes Do Not Belong There. Compare Pineal Weirdness — the third eye is sometimes identified with the pineal gland. Many characters make do with placing a Power Crystal over this spot. Extra points if it's eye shaped... or used to be an eye! Beware, though, sometimes having a third eye sets you up for a Poke in the Third Eye.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• 3×3 Eyes: Pai and her race, the Sanzhiyan Unkara a.k.a. the "Triclops". When Pai's third eye is closed, Pai is in control. When it opens, Parvati takes over. The same applies to all other Sanzhiyan, with their human identity being required to move their bodies while the third eye recovers.
• In Bleach, Aizen sprouts an eye in his forehead after using the hōgyoku on himself. It's quickly joined by with a bunch of other eyes.
• As their name suggests, the members of the Third Eye in Black Clover each have a hidden third eye on their forehead as a result of being resurrected by Forbidden Magic. Activating said eye dramatically increases their power.
• A great deal of demon Digimon (most notably Beeelzebumon and Baalmon) have a third eye.
• Dragon Ball: Tien Shinhan/Tenshinhan, who meditates frequently, has a third eye, possibly as a result of that meditation. Every other time it's just an extra eye. Yamcha used to insult him by calling him Triclops; given that Tien was a violent asshole before his turn around, the remark was fairly justified. Akira Toriyama later revealed that Tien is descended from a three-eyed race of Human Aliens, though this never comes up in the show and Tien is treated as an Earthling.
• Runa in Fairy Navigator Runa has one on the back of her neck.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, the Big Bad Father has been shown to open up a third eye in his forehead and pop out a spare philosopher's stone.
• Ryuuho Kibe from Gamaran has large vertical eye painted on his forehead. When he takes the Jugan Battle Drug his normal eyes takes the same color scheme of the third one (dark red sclerae and white iris).
• Vampires in Hellsing have a third eye which they can open through visualization to see through illusions and use as one would use the sight on a sniper rifle. The third eye does not materialize physically, though Alucard is rather fond of having multiple eyes when he transforms into shadows.
• Natsume Zange of Inu × Boku SS has an eye in the middle of his forehead... among other places. He's the descendant of a hyakume, or "hundred-eyes monster", so that was to be expected. He keeps all except for his left eye covered up with clothes.
• Naruto:
  • In Naruto, the Sage of Six Paths and his mother, Princess Kaguya, both possessed a third Dojutsu eye on their forehead, the former has a Rinnegan, and the latter has a massively powerful Dojutsu called the Rinne-Sharingan. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Madara awakens the Rinne-Sharingan after he absorbed the God Tree and regained both of his Rinnegan, he then used it to trigger the Infinite Tsukiyomi in order to trap the entire world in an eternal dream world.
  • Boruto: Naruto the Movie and its Sequel Series retelling reveals that extra eyes are common among the Otsutsuki Clan that Kaguya came from. Momoshiki gains a Rinnegan on his forehead after devouring Kinshiki to enter his One-Winged Angel form as well as gaining a yellow Byakugan eyes. Urashiki gains a third eye after he goes One-Winged Angel, gaining a yellow version of the Byakugan in his original eyes, and a yellow Rinnegan. Shibai Otsutsuki had three eyes, each with a different power, a Byakugan, a Rinnegan and a new Dojutsu called the Senrigan.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • The End of Evangelion features Lilith temporarily growing a third eye to absorb something powerful. To be specific, it's the Tree of Knowledge. There are... other connotations to its appearance, however...
  • In Rebuild of Evangelion, Unit-01 forms a third eye as it begins its ascension to a divine Energy Being.
• In Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary, the title character (a Cyclops) has a younger sister with a third eye. Her personality changes depending on which eyes are open or closed.
• In One Piece, Charlotte Pudding, the 35th daughter of Big Mom, shows off her third eye in her first silent appearance... and hundreds of chapters later, Pudding fully reveals her third eye along with her Evil Plan. According to Big Mom, the eye itself should help Pudding read the Poneglyphs' content without understanding the language, like how Roger used his mysterious ability of "hearing the voices of all things" to read Poneglyphs.
• In RG Veda, Taishakuten and Kujaku each have one, although in this case the third eye is a symbol of "sins even a demon wouldn't commit". Taishakuten got his by eating Ashura-ou, and Kujaku's was because his parents were siblings.
• In Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Chiri occasionally reveals one.
• The Kishin Asura from Soul Eater has a major Buddhist motif, so naturally he has a third eye on his forehead... as well as eyes on his hands, eyes in his hair, and eyes within his regular eyes.
• In Tanabata no Kuni, members of a certain family from a Town with a Dark Secret have special abilities which reference the idea of a "window into the soul". One of them involves creating balls of energy which cleanly destroy anything they come into contact with. Using the ability causes a jewel-like eye to form in the middle of one's head. Continual use causes the "jewel" to get larger, and the person to start looking like one of The Greys — the precursors who were the source of these powers.
• The Three-Eyed One is about a dimwitted young boy who becomes an Evil Genius with Psychic Powers whenever the bandage over his third eye is removed.
• Starjun from Toriko has an Appetite Demon that resembles a Cyclops. When his Gourmet Cells become stronger after a battle with Toriko, he manifests a Third Eye in his forehead that looks like the Cyclops' eye.
• YuYu Hakusho: Hiei has one, which turns out to have been implanted on his forehead by the Combat Medic Shigure.

Comic Books

• Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto, a talisman that sees the true nature of things. He can call it up to his forehead and see through it like a third eye.
• In Final Crisis, the redesign of the Forever People from hippie kids to vaguely gothy kids includes Beautiful Dreamer having a third eye drawn or tattooed on her forehead.
• Global Guardians: Tuatara, hero of New Zealand, has a third eye, allowing him to see things in 4-D (forwards and backwards in time).
• Justice League of America: The alien villain Despero's Psychic Powers are linked to his third eye.
• The title character in Madman has a third eye that pops out of his forehead in the form of an antennae.
• In Max Ride: First Flight, Ari is shown to have three eyes, in contrast to the rest of the Erasers who have the regular two eyes. This probably to mark his status as The Dragon to Jeb whilst the rest of the Erasers are just nameless Mooks.
• Mazeworld: The Dragon to one of the Mazelords is a tattooed man known simply as the Dark One, who has a third eye that grants him both psychic powers and the ability to see into the future.
• The Muties story "Third Eye Blind" (probably named after the alternative rock band of same name) is about a drug-addicted mutant whose mutation includes a third eye in the center of her forehead. Her drug abuse keeps the eye closed for most of the story, but when it finally opens, it causes other people to go temporarily blind.

Eastern Animation

• The Qumi-Qumi episode aptly titled "The Third Eye" features an enchanted eye talisman that embeds into the user’s forehead and allows them to turn others into mindless monsters that do their bidding. They easily go mad with power, though.

Fan Works

• The title character of Empath: The Luckiest Smurf as well as the Psyches originally referred to their telepathic abilities as a "third eye", though now they call it a "minds-eye".
• A good chunk of both fan art and fanfiction about Welcome to Night Vale depict Cecil, the well-informed host of the supernatural town's radio show, as having a third eye... and it definitely fits. This was

Films — Animation

• Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes: The Brute of the villains, Ogun, have a red eye in his forehead. His two other eyes are blue.

Films — Live-Action

• The Jiuxian Witch from The Devil's Mirror has a third eye on her forehead, for reasons never explained.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Sinister Strange has a third eye on his forehead as a result of reading the Darkhold. In the end, 616-Stephen also gets a third eye, because he had to use the Darkhold to stop Wanda.
• In the climax of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Evelyn places a googly eye that was once a bullet on her forehead. With her mastering verse jumping along with embracing her husband's values of kindness, she succeeds in bringing inner peace to everyone trying to stop her, including Jobu Tupaki.
• One of the alien thugs in Men in Black II has a "pineal eye" hidden under his hat that is his species' Achilles' Heel.
• One of the "commercial breaks" in Starship Troopers features a spooky-looking man asking the viewer if they think they're psychic. In an in-universe example of this trope's symbolic use, a third eye appears on his forehead as he suggests they might be.

Literature

• One of the least remarked upon differences between the Abh and baseline humans in Crest of the Stars and sequels is the fact the Abh possess a third eye. Rather than a full eye, it's a small structure in the middle of the forehead that's described as something more comparable to the compound eye of an insect. The reason it's usually not mentioned because under most circumstances its covered up by a small tiara like item. Military issue ones, in addition to displaying rank, can be used connect to a ship's computer and transmit information through the third eye.
• In The Dresden Files, Harry refers to using The Sight, which allows him to see the mystical threads and symbolic meaning behind things, as opening his Third Eye, and it's a skill/power inherent to wizards. One subplot of Storm Front involves a magical drug called ThreeEye which does the same thing, but inevitably drives the users mad because they aren't trained to handle what they're seeing, and can't turn it off.
• Dorian Hawkmoon, one of the manifestations of the Eternal Champion in Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion Saga, has a third eye surgically implanted in his forehead in the form of a technomantic Black Stone. This is used as a spying device when his controllers send him to infiltrate the last part of Europe holding out against the Dark Empire of GranBretan.
• Fengshen Yanyi: Grand Tutor of the Shang Dynasty Wen Zhong makes his Immortal nature clear by having a pale golden face and a third eye in the middle of his forehead, which emits beams of light when he's furious and can allow him to follow fast movements and magic. A handful of other Immortals have such a third eye with supernatural powers, most notably Crown Prince Yin Jiao and his two generals, which is mocked by Nezha when he comments that three people have enough eyes among them for four persons and half.
• The Glove of Darth Vader has Trioculus, the three-eyed son of the Emperor — except he's not really the Emperor's son, he's just some random guy with an extra eye on his forehead. The real son of the Emperor has his third eye on the back of his head.
• Ingeborg Refling Hagen, when writing her Magnum Opus (heavily autobiographic), described how an inner Mentor Archetype, which she called "the old one", showed itself like a "grey eye" in her mind. When this happened, insight was preeminent. Those experiences, which the author probably had herself, came after heavy pondering over literary subjects (or tropes and memes).
• In Nation of the Third Eye, the opening of the Third Eye plays a central role. It gives access to memories of past lives, as well as the ability to do Astral Projection and travel in the non-physical worlds.
• In the YA novel Reversed, three eyes or specially designed trinocs are needed to see in four dimensions.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Bran Stark has a metaphysical third eye opened by a dream crow with three eyes. She pecks it open. This all leads to what is perhaps the most densely supernatural plot in the books so far.
• Talesof Kaimere: Fabadonts are a class of tetrapods that evolved exclusively on Kaimere during the First Dynasty, with their basal parietal eye evolving into a fully functional eye. The front eye is used to track color and depth, while their other two eyes are extended out by their wide skulls to track movement and avoid predators.
• The Third Eye by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa is titled after a trepanning operation Rampa supposedly underwent, which gave him clairvoyant powers. He is told "For the rest of your life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be."
• The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye: All of the Third have a third eye that allows them to interact with technology. Honoka has one that enhances her ability to use Ki Attacks.
• In The Wheel of Time, Moiraine wears a blue jewel on her forehead. This is a fashion in her country, but it's later revealed she can use the stone for limited scrying.

Live-Action TV

• Gavin the warlock in the Charmed (1998) episode "The Truth Is Out There and It Hurts" has a third eye. It doesn't signify any sort of insight. He just uses it to kill people with Eye Beams.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "Doctor Who and the Silurians", the eponymous creatures have a third eye in their foreheads that glows when they use their psychic powers.
  • Davros, creator of the Daleks, has a cybernetic blue eye in his forehead in place of his real sunken eyes.
• In Farscape, the enigmatic mystic Noranti has a third eye, which only opens occasionally when she uses psi powers.
• Gosei Sentai Dairanger: Several members of the Gorma tribe have either three eyes or only one eye in their monster forms. The Gorma Emperor has a third eye that can pop out of its socket and fly around to allow him to remotely spy on people.
• A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the Muppets Now episode "Socialized" reveals that Janice has a "guided meditation podcast", the logo of which is a stylised image of Janice with her usual Eyes Always Shut and an open one on her forehead.
• Power Rangers:
  • From Power Rangers Wild Force, we have Master Org, who wears a helmet with a mechanical third eye to hide his human heritage, then grows an actual third eye after his org powers reawaken.
  • One-Shot Character The Oracle from Power Rangers Mystic Force has an additional eye in the palm of his hand.
• Discussed in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Kira and Dax are chatting about guys in the turbolift, and Dax suggests one to Kira to date. Kira replies that his eye weirds her out — his third eye.
• An anthology television series titled The Third Eye ran on Nickelodeon in the early 1980s, showing kids' spooky miniseries from the UK and New Zealand. No actual three-eyed people appeared, but the introductory narration before each episode referenced this trope.
• The Twilight Zone:
  • The Twilight Zone (1959): One of the aliens in the episode "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" has a third eye. The lyrics in the page quote Rush song are a reference to this specific episode.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985): In "A Message from Charity", Master Croft's ewe has a lamb with three eyes. This is used as evidence when Charity Payne is accused of witchcraft. After Squire Jonas Hacker finds her innocent, he holds that the deformed lamb was as a result of a noxious plant growing on Croft's farm.

Music

• Florence + the Machine has a song titled "Third Eye".
  Cause there's a hole where your heart lies
  And I can see it with my third eye
• Gong's song "Perfect Mystery" — "Look up in the air, the Octave Doctor's there, and when he strokes his gong, your middle eye comes on."
• From The Manhattan Transfer's "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone":
  Unpretentious girl from Memphis
  Saw the future through her third eye
• From Muse's "Uprising":
  If you could flick a switch and open your third eye, you'd see that we should never be afraid to die
• tool:
  • "PRY-ING O-PEN MY THIRD EYE! PRY-ING O-PEN MY THIRD EYE!"
  • At the end of the music video for "Parabol/Parabola", a pair of flaming leaves enter the main character's body, which has become transparent, and circle their way up through his body to join together and form a third eye in the center of his forehead.
• In the Voivod song "Jack Luminous", President X-D uses his third eye to transmit mind-control waves through television screens, which is how he takes over planets.

Myths & Religion

• Er Lang Shen, a deity in Chinese Mythology, has one. It can see through disguises.
• Hindu Mythology:
  • The God Shiva. The Hindu Matsya Purana tells of the fear of the gods when Shiva mourned unceasingly for his dead wife Sati, because a prophecy stated that a new son of Shiva was needed to save the gods from a coming catastrophe. Kama, god of love, shot Shiva with a love arrow to make him fall in love with Parvati, so Shiva grew a third eye and burnt Kama to a crisp with Eye Beams.
  • Similar things have happened to the heads of Daksha, Ganesha, and Brahma after offending the god (although the last did have four to spare).
  • Shiva is far from alone. Many of the "Shakti" goddesses of Hinduism, including Durga and Kali, have a third eye in their forehead. Shiva's son, the elephant-headed god Ganesha, is frequently depicted with a third eye as well.

Podcasts

• Featured in the logo of The Joe Rogan Experience.

Professional Wrestling

• A third eye is part of Ojo Diabolico and Ojo Diabolico Jr.'s gimmick, the latter of which is also red.
• During Kevin Sullivan's "Satanic" heel run in Florida in the mid-1980s, he would sometimes talk about "the lady with the Third Eye".

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • There is a villainous Prestige Class that has this — there are sects that worship beholders and some of the most devout cultists can end with a small beholder-kin eye grafted into their foreheads. It can be used to fire various Eye Beams, but due to beholders' Genetic Memory, it isn't very conducive to the recipient's sanity.
  • There is also a group of psionic items called Third Eyes that can be attached to the wearer's forehead. They can grant the wearer a variety of effects, such as helping them concentrate, telling them when someone is lying to them, or making them immune to mind-reading.
• The Daksha Legacy in Mage: The Awakening gains one of these in the back of their head, which provides them with the ability to see both behind them and into the Akashic Records.
• Old World of Darkness:
  • The Salubri clan from Vampire: The Masquerade have a third eye that opens when they use their clan-specific healing powers. The Salubri antitribu also acquire the third eye, but whereas the main clan's looks peaceful, the antitribu's looks angry.
  • The Salubri got their powers via the Wan Kuei, the Kindred of the East, who develop a third eye when they learn a particular set of spiritual powers. While the Salubri's third eye looks like a normal human eye, the Wan Kuei's third eye goes from looking like a circular gemstone to looking like a human eye to looking like a blazing orb as their powers increase.
  • The Werewolf: The Apocalypse book Guardians of the Caerns makes a Shout-Out to the Salubri with the third eye as a Metis deformity. Unlike some third eyes, it provides no mechanical bonus (except preserving depth perception if you lose an eye). The book hilariously notes that Metis characters with this deformity may find that Tremere vampires (the traditional enemies of Salubri) attack them on sight for no apparent reason.
• Sepharans, in the Talislanta supplement Midnight Realm. It's called the Demon Eye, and can be used to invoke various nasty magical effects.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Navigators have a third eye which allows them to see in the Warp and navigate starships through it. Meeting the gaze of a Navigator's Third Eye is fatal.
  • Draznicht, champion of the Crimson Slaughter unit known as the Ravagers, has a third eye in the center of his forehead that grants him limited prophetic abilities.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: There are several characters with glowing psychic eyes on the forehead, typically appearing when someone uses or is being controlled by the power of a Millennium Item. The above image is from the card "Goddess with the Third Eye". Another monster called "Darkness Neosphere" has a third eye that is located on the back of its head. Its actual face is blindfolded, but it has two other visible eyes on its chest in place of breasts.

Toys

• Kalmah from BIONICLE, although his third eye is canonically blind thanks to his leader stabbing him through it. Reidak was at first designed to have three eyes, and appears as such in outdated promotional images and games, but the finished figure replaced the third eye on his forehead with a purely decorative "ring".

Video Games

• In AdventureQuest Worlds, Chaorruption gives infected a Third Eye.
• The Agarest games have an entire race who are born with a third eye in their foreheads, the Oneltes. It is representative of how most of them have powers to see the future. However, many Oneltes hide their third eye in order to blend in with humans and avoid persecution. Every game has one such character: Vira-Lorr in Agarest Senki, Cal-Vina in Agarest Senki Zero, and Li Ra-Lua in Agarest Senki 2.
• The Binding of Isaac:
  • Inner Eye, Spoon Bender, Eye of the Occult, and Godhead all give Isaac a third eye around his forehead. The latter three all have a varying degree of a supernatural element to them, while the Inner Eye literally just seems to be a third eye that allows for firing three tears at once.
  • Two major bosses of Repentance have a third eye. Dogma temporarily gains one to fire shots similar to Godhead tears, while the Beast always has three eyes on its face.
• In Breath of Fire III, the hero, Ryu, gains an ability called this, though actually what it does is point the direction he must go with a beam of light.
• Chauncey Chantenay, part of the Root Pack in Cuphead opens a third eye to attack Cuphead with psychic waves.
• The One Who Waits from Cult of the Lamb has three eyes. During the second phase of the boss fight against him, his three eyes pop out of their sockets to attack the Lamb while he gains 18 Extra Eyes on a set of petal-like appendages on his head. When he is defeated and reduced to a powerless form, he still has an extra eye on his head, but he never opens it.
• Destiny: The enemy alien race called the Hive have three eyes, and are the most mystical of the enemy races, using dark magic in rituals. Unlike most third eyes, however, theirs are positioned below their main eyes.
• In Final Fantasy XIV, pureblood Garleans have a jewel-like third eye in their forehead, theorized to give them greater spatial recognition, making them adept at using the guns and war machines they built their empire with. Since they tend to wear helmets, only a few of them can be seen directly, though Garlean headgear often has visible "visors" on the forehead area to accommodate them. Those who have defected and work with the players usually hide the eye with accessories, such as Cid Garlond's goggles.
• The Star in Furi opens up an extra eye on his forehead in the later stages of the fight. It's not a weak point or a weapon and he doesn't seem to need any more visual information, so it must just be for intimidation.
• Vadasi from Gigantic possesses a third eye, from which she can project beams of light that heal allies or damage enemies. It's also implied that its gaze is capable of seeing the truth in a person, and that she uses it for interrogating criminals.
• In Killer7, Emir Parkreiner, a person greatly foreshadowed throughout the game, has one, and the eye itself is foreshadowed along with it, most of which also double to the foreshadowing that Garcian is Emir. When the duel between the two personalities happen, Garcian needs to shoot Emir's third eye.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The secretive and mystical Sheikah tribe have sported an eye symbol with a stylized teardrop on their clothes and relics since Ocarina of Time. Sometimes they've sported said symbol as a forehead tattoo similarly to the original Hindu context, as with Impa in Skyward Sword and Paya in Breath of the Wild.
  • The Zonai of Tears of the Kingdom each have a third eye on their foreheads, although they are usually closed. Even the Zonai's Constructs have three eyes.
• In Lost Souls (MUD), characters have a number of chakras which can be energized, one of which is the ajna chakra, the third eye. Energizing it grants various perceptual benefits, including astral perception.
• Oriental Legend 2 has a new character, Yang-Jian, who had a third eye on his forehead. Which can shoot Eye Beams as a Limit Break attack.
• The Nomai in Outer Wilds were three-eyed aliens, and one log implies that the third eye is better at sensing...something than the other two. This leads to an interesting in-universe subversion when another, upon encountering the fish that will eventually evolve into your own four-eyed species, says "I wonder what the fourth eye does"—by all accounts it seems the lot of you just have a second, redundant set of regular eyes.
• Pokémon:
  • Jirachi has one...on its stomach.
  • Gastrodon is a large slug with three eyes.
  • Sigilyph is a bird-like thing with two eyes on its torso and a head consisting of nothing but an eye.
  • Gengar gains one when using its Mega Evolution.
  • Solgaleo and Lunala have third eyes that only appear when they are using certain moves.
• Prayer of the Faithless: The Lavingard Chapel talks about a "blessing of the stars" that acquiring requires the opening of "thy third eye".
• In Puzzle Pirates, high-ranking cultists on the Cursed Isles wear tribal masks with a perpendicular third eye.
• In Star Ocean: The Second Story, both Opera and Ernest have third eyes, a trait of the Tetregeniot species. The third game's dictionary mentions that Tetregeniots are extremely good marksmen.
• Sunset Overdrive: The purple banners near the Brewery are for "Third Eye", a store of some kind that says "The Rift Is Open", which sounds mystical/psychic.
• A rare unintentional example. The Daisy trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee has a third eye in the back of its head. You're able to zoom in close enough behind the hair to see it. Later revisions of Melee removed the eye, but it's still kinda creepy to realize it was there in the first place, especially if you weren't aware of it beforehand.
• Both Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama from Tekken grow third eye when they tap their Devil Gene, which can be used to shoot lasers. Angel, their Good Counterpart, can also shoot lasers, but she does it through the gemstone contained within her tiara, instead of an organic third eye.
• Touhou Project:
  • The Komeiji sisters have third eyes on their hearts, which are external and don't particularly look like hearts. The third eye lets them read minds, but Koishi has closed hers and as a result she can read and manipulate the subconscious instead.
  • Utsuho has a Sauron-esque third eye on her chest.
• The Witch And The Hundred Knight 2: Anyone who contracts Hexensyndrome ends up growing one of these in their forehead. Once it fully opens up, they become a witch, but it can be surgically removed beforehand. Kicking off this game's plot is Amalie's younger sister Milm going into surgery to have hers removed, but the surgery fails and the Witch Chelka is born.
• In The Wonderful 101, both Prince Vorkken and Immorta have third eyes. They're usually hidden beneath their mask and hat respectively.

Visual Novels

• Discussed and conversed in Ever17. Though no one has one, it marks the point where the Kid is slowly starting to figure out that something is definitely wrong here with the way time is going.
• Hajun, the sixth heaven of the Throne from Kajiri Kamui Kagura has a third eye that allows him to view all creation as whole. Due to his extreme egocentric focus its mostly useless to him though.

Webcomics

• The Kyorls in Drowtales have senior members whose indoctrination tattoos sometimes grow into third eyes. Surprisingly few people comment about a religious militia with frequent eye mutations.
• Technically a fifth eye, sported by Cyrus Anubis of Its Midnight Somewhere, who claims to be religiously enlightened but only comes across as overzealous and arrogant.
• Kill Six Billion Demons:
  • Several characters have crystals or similar in the position of a third eye, which resemble bindi to the uninitiated. For the Demiurges (as well as Allison), their Magus Key causes this third eye to glow, especially when they draw upon the power of their Key.
  • Princess Jack Moonshine has an explicit third eye in her forehead, alongside the ones on her chest, shoulders and sixpack.
• Marionetta: Ah'kon have three eyes, though the third on their forehead can only see spirits; it can't be used like a regular eye.
• Ruby Quest: Ruby's Cure-granted Lovecraftian Superpower is one of these. When looking through it alone, what's seen is a darkened view of the surroundings with certain hidden things highlighted in red.
• Chapter eleven of Sleepless Domain delves into the powers of Vedika, one of the girls of the Magical Girl Power Training Club. It's revealed that she has Psychic Powers, including telepathy. Corresponding to that, her Power Tattoo is an eye on her forehead, normally covered by her hair until she transforms.
• Sandra of Zebra Girl has three eyes after being turned into a demon. Several other demon in the comic also have three eyes. And when Professor Broadshoulders activates the curse mark on his forehead it changes into an eye, then turns him into a demon similar to Sandra. The third eye apparently gives demons the ability to see souls and other supernatural things. But it also can be a hinderance. When Sandra faces a human who has no soul, she is completely unable to see or hear him until she closes her third eye because her demon instincts tell her that he doesn't exist without a soul.

Western Animation

• Sky Pirate Captain Two-Eyed Alonso in The Adventures of Puss in Boots is so named because he has two eyes... one of which is on his forehead, and he also has an eyepatch. He flies a skull and crossbones with three eye sockets.
• In Adventure Time, Goliad (Princess Bubblegum's sphinx-like replacement for when she dies) has a third eye which she uses to control people and to read their minds.
• In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Circus", Shake tries to impress the crow after seeing Meatwad's popularity by calling himself a martian with a third eye (that's only a cut-out taped on his face). He calls out the audience, saying some of them smoke, while they boo and throw garbage at him.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, "Combustion Man" has an eye-shaped Power Tattoo (we hope) on his forehead based directly off the Hindu God Shiva's eye, complete with the three stripes of ash crossing it. Like Shiva, he can fire explosive blasts from it. P'Li from the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra has similar abilities, although the design is different.
• The Batman's version of Spellbinder has a third eye, which functions as Hypnotic Eyes.
• Ben 10: Xylene, a telekinetic alien and old girlfriend of Max, has a third eye on her forehead.
• In Celebrity Deathmatch, Willie Nelson defeats Tony Bennett when he takes off his bandanna, revealing his third eye, which vaporizes his opponent.
• Odval, King Zog's adviser from Disenchantment, has a third eye which is usually hidden by his hat. It doesn't seem to be much of a secret, as he removes his hat willingly a few times, though he never leaves it off for long. A line of dialogue implies he also has a fourth eye, though we haven't seen it yet — and we have seen him mostly naked.
• In The Midnight Gospel, when Clancy wishes to end a simulation, he blows on a shofar, after which a third eye appears on his forehead and he is transported back to the Ribbon.
• The Owl House:
  • Boscha has three eyes, with her third one located in her forehead. It appears to be genetic, as Eda's flashback to school days in "Them's the Breaks, Kid" has a Recurring Extra with three eyes who looks very similar to her.
  • The unnamed teacher for the Illusion track also has a third eye on their forehead, which is rather ironic when you consider the fact that she's teaching a form of magic that's all about deception, the exact opposite of what a third eye would usually represent.
• Tom Lucitor in Star vs. the Forces of Evil has a third eye on his forehead, inherited from his demon mother.
• Garnet from Steven Universe has a third eye, which is usually hidden behind her Cool Shades. It's there because she's a fusion, and one of her components, Sapphire, has only one eye. Also, while Gem fusions often have more than two eyes, only Garnet's is seen to enable her to see what others cannot — her "Future Vision", though that ability comes from Sapphire, who is a Seer Cyclops.
• Whenever Lion-O invokes "Sight Beyond Sight" in ThunderCats (1985), he holds the Sword of Omens before his face with its red orb, the Eye of Thundera, positioned level to his forehead like an actual third eye.

Real Life

• The late-great comedian Bill Hicks claimed that after eating psychedelic drugs, his (metaphorical) third eye opened.
• Vertebrates at one point actually used to have a third eye in their foreheads. It's purpose was a lot less exciting than what fiction would suggest, though: it merely served to detect the brightness of the sun overhead, same as the ocelli in insects. As vertebrates grew larger and their two main eyes became more advanced, the third eye became more and more useless until at one point evolution scrapped it altogether. Only a scant few lizards retain this organ.
  • The Tuatara has a third eye on top of its head called a parietal eye. It's useless for sight but it has its own lens, cornea, and retina, which suggests that it evolved from a real eye. It is only visible in hatchlings and it gets covered with scales as it ages. Many fish and amphibians also have a parietal eye, but it is less well developed than the Tuatara's, and often hard to notice externally. They are mostly used to regulate hormones that are on a day/night cycle.
• Most species of arthropods have one or more ocelli (simple eyes or eye spots) between their normal eyes though they often are only visible with close examination, or disappear in their adult phase. Triops gets is name from having three eyes. Sea monkeys or brine shrimp, also have them.

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