Basic Trope: A character has a mischievous look on their face and is later found to be up to something.
- Played Straight: While plotting something, Alice narrows her eyes and gets a sly, toothy grin on her face.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice gets a Psychotic Smirk or Slasher Smile while plotting something.
- Alice gets this look on her face for even the most minor schemes.
- Downplayed:
- Alice gets a mischievous look on her face, but she was only thinking about possibilities, not actually planning to implement them.
- Alice gets a slight smile on her face when scheming.
- Alice gets a mischievous look on her face when scheming, but only for a second – it's a "blink and you miss it" situation.
- Justified:
- Alice is really bad at hiding what she's thinking or feeling.
- Alice is imitating cartoons, which tend to exaggerate facial expressions.
- Subverted:
- Alice has a mischievous look on her face, but that's just her face. She's not up to anything.
- Bob thinks Alice is up to something because he saw her get a mischievous look on her face, but it turns out she's part of the Drama Club and is rehearsing for the play.
- Double-Subverted:
- Alice wasn't actually up to something, but when Bob accuses her of being up to something, she decides that the suggestion is too good to pass up.
- Just because Alice was rehearsing for the play doesn't mean she isn't plotting anything.
- Inverted: Alice only has a mischievous look on her face until she's up to something, at which point, she adopts a poker face.
- Parodied:
- Alice gets a mischievous look on her face, and suddenly alarm klaxons go off to alert other people of the scheming.
- Alice gets a mischievous look every time she makes some kind of plan, even if she's just planning when to leave for work.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob thinks that Alice is up to something because of the look on her face, but Alice isn't actually making a face. Except it turns out Alice was up to something; Bob has past experience with Alice's schemes and knows that she isn't always obvious about it, so he was on edge and justifiably paranoid.
- Bob thinks Alice is up to something because she made a mischievous face, so he follows her to see what she's planning... except she's not actually up to anything. Charlie is up to something, though – Alice just has a Psychic Link with Charlie, so she's aware of his plans.
- Averted: Nobody makes any particular expression when they're plotting or scheming.
- Enforced: The writers want to make it clear that a character is planning something or is the Big Bad.
- Lampshaded: "You've got that look on your face again. What are you planning?"
- Invoked: The Mole Bob deliberately assigns planning duties to Alice, because she always gets a certain look on her face when plotting something and he wants to sabotage her or her plan.
- Defied:
- Alice becomes extremely skilled at maintaining a poker face when plotting something.
- Alice knows that people can tell when she's planning something, so she assigns planning duties to a less expressive person.
- Discussed: "Keep an eye on Alice. She's got that look on her face again, and you know what that means."
- Conversed: "How do none of the characters ever realize Alice is planning something? She always gets that exact same smirk on her face."
- Implied: Alice gets a mischievous look on her face, and then the scene cuts to the aftermath of an elaborate scheme.
That look on your face... You're plotting a way back to Mischievous Body Language, aren't you?
