When She Smiles/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character is especially gorgeous when she (or he) smiles.

  • Played Straight: Sakura doesn't smile much, but when she does it's amazingly cute.
  • Exaggerated: Sakura is very plain and never smiles, ever, except once, when she is the prettiest person in the cast.
  • Justified: It's a Crapsack World where nobody smiles, least of all her.
    • It's a Fisher Kingdom, and her smile literally makes the sun come out.
  • Inverted: Sakura is totally gorgeous, but when she smiles she shows More Teeth Than the Osmond Family.
  • Subverted: Everyone spends an episode trying to get the Emotionless Girl to smile, but when she does, it makes her look right out of the Uncanny Valley.
  • Double Subverted: ...But that was a fake smile because she was feeling incredibly self-conscious, and when she really does smile it's mind-blowingly sweet.
  • Parodied: Sakura is a Gonk and, when she smiles, metamorphoses into Ms. Fanservice.
  • Deconstructed: Sakura's Love Interest notices her smile and becomes smitten, eventually turning into a Love Martyr as he tries to make her smile again and gets dragged into her depression.
    • Sakura feels her smile is the only good thing about her, and transforms into a Stepford Smiler.
  • Reconstructed: ...But eventually he helps her snap out of it and they go on to a long and loving life.
  • Zig Zagged: As Sakura's smile grows, it goes from cute to creepy as hell...and then adjusts into perfection.
  • Averted: Nobody is especially more attractive when they smile.
  • Enforced: "We need a reason the Love Interest is attracted to her. How about a really cute smile?"
  • Lampshaded: "You really need to smile more."
  • Invoked: Sakura is pure evil, but knows that if she spends hours in front of a mirror teaching herself to smile in a way that looks heartfelt and genuine, men will scramble over each other to do her bidding.
  • Discussed: "You know, I've never seen Sakura smile. Do you think she'd be cute when she did?"
  • Defied: "I'm not smiling." "But--" "No."
  • Conversed: "You know those characters who are really plain, except sometimes they smile and it's cute?"
  • Played For Laughs: Sakura's smile leads to suitors popping up whenever she unleashes it, even if she's entirely alone. They leave when she stops and never come back.
  • Played For Drama: Sakura is a Broken Defrosting Ice Queen who tries to appear distant, gloomy and unattractive so people don't try and get close to her. When she smiles, it's a sign that she's letting that go of that and warming up to her Love Interest...

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