Minecraft wiki entry for Eye_of_Ender, associated text: When thrown in third-person view, the eyes of ender fly out from the player's feet instead of their hand.
Before Java Edition 1.9, eyes of ender can be purchased from cleric villagers, which means players can find a stronghold and go to the End without accessing the Nether at all.
In Bedrock Edition if the player travels beyond a certain radius (roughly 740,000 blocks), eyes of ender always point to a stronghold near spawn, even though strongholds continue to generate past this limit. If one travels to this limit, they can see eyes of ender suddenly switching direction. A similar phenomenon occurs with the /locate command.