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It was quite a way into my first playthrough when I first noticed my little Wood Elf smiling at Baurus. At first I thought she must fancy him...

So does anyone know what determines whether your character smiles or not? I've noticed that my char. frowns during or just after combat, but though she usually smiles at characters with high dispositions, sometimes even they are on the receiving end of a fearsome scowl for no apparent reason.

A couple of things - I've been watching this with rapt fascination since the game came out (no, I don't have a life)

** minor main quest & SI spoilers*

1 your Personality. The higher, the smilier.
2 the company you are in. For eg, your character will smile at fellow mages in the Mages Guild, especially if they are higher in rank than her/him. If he encounters a nasty person, she / he will scowl at them... test this by standing near one of those undercover Mythic Dawn types (before you bust up their Headquarters, of course!)
3 damage. If your character has been hurt in a battle or fall, she/he will scowl. Healing and resting will not restore them to a good mood.
4 certain Summons / Event make your character smile: rebuilding the Gatekeeper; summoning a Mended Flesh Atronach (once a day power); Ushnar's reward hound.

It happens.

My character smiled at everyone he considered a friend (The blades, Martin, ect)

He scowled at everyone else though (Or had a blank expression)

Thanks for all your interesting answers, everyone! It's becoming clearer.

I always play in 3rd person (1st person feels claustrophobic and the field of view is too limited) I find my character gets smilier as the game progresses, probably because her Personality is getting higher.

Morwen wrote:

When I designed my character, I gave her a just a hint of a Mona Lisa-style mysterious half-smile.

Back in the early days of my experiments with the FaceGen menu, I gave my character what I thought was a pleasant but demure smile. Then I saw her really smile in game.

She looked like she was doing a Jack Nicholson/Joker impersonation... since then I have learned to keep my characters serious looking during their design phase.

It's a point of honour with me to get 'em looking human when they smile or frown

The Joker smile is inevitable, no matter how Happy/Sad you set the mouth to during FaceGen.

My own character wasn't exactly created with a deliberate smile, but under a certain light, the shading of her lips turns the corner of that mouth ever-so-slightly. Makes it look like she can barely contain a knowing smirk as she walks nonchalantly past some clueless guard.

My assassin character smiles when she's about to shoot someone through their left eye.

My mage character smiles when he is jumping off of a 100ft high waterfall.

My warrior character smiles when the guards led a massacre in the Imperial city.

Each to his own.

My Evil Assassin/Mage smiled when these bandits charged me yelling, "You'll never take me down!"

Of course, me being a master of destruction, one Blizzard spell shut them up...