Diagnosed by the Audience: The way Miranda is — hyperfocused, brilliant, seemingly obliviously obnoxious, with no real friends despite her love for her family appearing to be genuine, and eating the exact same thing every day — leads to many fans claiming that she is autistic.
Harsher in Hindsight: Andy has extended Anxiety Dreams about her tenure as a Runway assistant, that are Played for Laughs. One involves Alex taking Miranda's side against Andy. In the sequel, Andy's new husband Max goes behind her back to sell The Plunge to Miranda, essentially taking Miranda's side.
The Scrappy: Lily in the books. Although she and Andy have been best friends since they were children, Lily rapidly starts to lose control of her life, her academics and her drinking problem. Andy isn't Lily's mother even if she insists on being her best friend as well as her emergency contact. If not for Lily drunk driving and ending up in a coma, Andy wouldn't have been put in an impossible situation where her family and Alex expected her to come home from Paris to check on Lily at the risk of getting fired.
Tear Jerker: No matter what you think of Max, or what he did, it is utterly heartbreaking when he realizes that he messed up by going behind Andy's back to sell The Plunge to Miranda. When he arrives at home with flowers and an apology dessert, she immediately demands a divorce, won't talk to him, and kicks him out. Max doesn't even put up a fight.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Alex breaks up with Andy when he knows she hesitated on coming home to see Lily when the latter woke up from her coma. He says that it violated basic decency, though as Andy points out in her internal monologue when pondering the decision, she only had to be with Miranda for a few more days and leaving mid-fashion week would ensure her year would be for nothing. Not to mention that, as many readers pointed out, Lily is an adult and was in denial of her problems, even going Never My Fault afterward. In fact, Andy was going to be fired anyway because even she knows that passports can't be renewed within three hours at night and that was when she decided to leave. The sequel has Alex admit he had no right to judge Andy, ten years later and that breaking up with her was a big mistake. He says he would understand if Andy didn't want him back, though they do reconcile.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Lily is already a piece of work, but the clincher comes at the end of the first novel where she jokes about Andy writing about her life experiences on shutting out everyone. Complete Never My Fault about her drunk driving and problems. Then, after Alex and Andy's parents in book one stressing that Andy has to be there for Lily, Lily decides the best thing to do is move out to Boulder to get a fresh start on her career and leave behind her tarnished reputation. It's really hard to blame Andy for becoming friends with a recently-fired Emily instead.
Values Dissonance: Lampshaded. Throughout the book, Andy tries to explain how hard her job is. Namely, that there is no way to take personal time when Miranda demands more than the usual eight-hour workday. Which is fairly true for most jobs in retail or food, and fashion as it turns out. Her dad and pregnant sister seem to be the only ones who get it, while her mother tries to guilt Andy into visiting home or her sister. Alex eventually loses his temper when Andy has to cancel their high school reunion trip and says the job is taking over her life.
Accidental Aesop: Despite some moral ambiguity in the film at large, one could definitely take a main Aesop of the film as being to learn as much as you can from every professional experience. While Andy had talent in her desired field of writing from the start, it's clear that working as Miranda's assistant, while nothing to do with that field, taught her many things she didn't consider, including how far she could push herself and the importance of details and presentation.
One could interpret the movie as a big Break the Haughty for Andy. At the start she turns up for a job interview knowing nothing about the magazine she's applying for or the woman she could possibly be employed by. She seems to view fashion as being beneath her, and the other girls as being ridiculously silly for indulging Miranda. Throughout the course of the story, she learns to take fashion seriously and her makeover is a sign of her applying herself to be successful at her job and understanding what she's doing - which any good writer needs to know.
The Take posits that another interpretation is less "holding true to your morals" vs "selling out," and more about finding a healthy balance between being invested in your job without falling into its toxic or destructive tendencies. Andy starts off thinking the fashion industry is beneath her and is rightly called out for it, but once she applies herself she outstrips Emily as Miranda's preferred assistant. Meanwhile, Emily is so devoted to her job that she's a Nervous Wreck, Extreme Doormat, and Professional Butt-Kisser who is literally killing herself to please an unappreciative Miranda (goes on starvation diets, works even when sick, and is hospitalized due to being so distracted running errands for Miranda that she gets hit by a car). Whereas when Andy realizes she's becoming too invested in her industry's cutthroat and back-stabbing politics, she takes a step back and decides to pursue the career she really does want.
The Take: So, like Emily, we can all stand to learn that a job is just a job.
Alternate Character Interpretation: The movie frames Miranda's marriages repeatedly failing because she's Married to the Job and the husbands can't handle a woman being more successful than them. Given what a horrible person Miranda is, it's likely they just got sick of having to put up with her.
Angel/Devil Shipping: Easily the biggest ship in the fandom is the sweet and kind Andy with her abusive and often rude boss Miranda (who is the titular Devil). This is mainly because of the chemistry between the two and the fact that many fans don't like Andy's canon relationship with Nate, as well as the fact that Miranda is a frequent target of the Draco in Leather Pants treatment and, even without that, being a major Love to Hate character.
Award Snub: Emily Blunt became a name after this and got a Golden Globe nom and BAFTA nom, but wasn’t too lucky at getting an Oscar nom.
Awesome Ego: She doesn't drone on about how great she is, but everything about Miranda's conduct clearly shows how firmly she believes she is the centre of the universe. In the fashion world, she's absolutely right.
Nate used to be a straight up scrappy when the film first released, due to many finding him dull, along with him being in a relationship with Andy getting popular ships but in more recent years he has developed a lot of vocal defenders. The main sticking point that causes flame wars is his treatment of Andy's job. His detracters point out that he constantly insults her job and her boss, encouraging her to quit when this is the only way to get her dream job, but his supporters will often point out that Andy clearly hates the job, he is absolutely right that Miranda is a horrible boss, and that the job is indeed changing Andy.
Fans' opinions of Christian seem to be split down the middle, with most either loving or hating him. Some love him due to Simon Baker's natural charm, his actually supporting Andy's efforts at Runway, and finding him more likable than Andy's actual love interest Nate. However, some fans dislike him just as much as Nate due to his pursuit of Andy despite knowing she has a boyfriend, feeling he comes off as creepy rather than charming, and him trying to cost Miranda her job.
Broken Aesop: Andy is presented as being "too good" for the fashion designer assistant job she applies for, and she derisively says she will only tough it out for a year to gain the experience and connections needed to get the job she wants. When she finally learns to take her job seriously and do it well she's presented as "selling her soul," while her abruptly quitting is presented as "holding true to her morals." However, when she applies for the serious journalism job that she only took the fashion designer assistant job to get, they almost don't hire her due to her abrupt departure ("holding true to her morals"), and only hire her due to Miranda giving her a glowing recommendation... which Miranda only gave her due to Andy learning to do her job well ("selling her soul") in the first place.
Broken Base: With regards to the depiction of the fashion industry. Several industry figures called it a Cliché Storm that seemed to represent more what an outsider thought fashion was like. Others however praised the film for getting the politics and "sucking up" of the industry spot on.
Cliché Storm: Many pointed this out about the film, notably that it indulges several cliches about usual depictions of the fashion industry - all the workers being weight-obsessed, people being able to afford expensive clothes despite being paid minimum wage, and presenting buying designer brands as crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
Crossover Ship: A lot of fans ship Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs with Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians (1996)), either individually or together. A lot of this comes from how similar Miranda and Cruella are to each other, so a lot of fans feel they would have good chemistry. They also feel that Andy would have a similar dynamic with Cruella and will often rewrite the film with Cruella in Miranda's role. The fact that both their actresses have appeared opposite Glenn Close before in different films also helps. The threesome pairing has a lot of fanfiction about it and is only topped by the very popular Miranda/Andy/Emily.
Designated Villain: The movie tries to frame Christian as being a dick for knowing about the plan to replace Miranda and the whole thing as a Moral Event Horizon for the character. However, as some fans have pointed out, he is not wrong that Miranda is a horrible boss who needs to be replaced (as shown by the next scene where she backstabs her best friend to keep said job). The only genuinely "villainous" thing he does is kiss Andy while he knows she has a boyfriend, which ironically the movie blames Andy for.
Die for Our Ship: Miranda/Andy shippers often do this to anyone who could interfere with the two getting together. Christian is often portrayed as a creepy stalker who doesn't get that Andy is not interested. Stephen is often made out to be a cheater who divorced Miranda, so he could sleep around more. However, Nate gets the worst of this, with many fanfics turning him into a man-child or making him abusive to Andy. This is however mostly averted with Nate's book counterpart Alex.
Draco in Leather Pants: Miranda Priestly is presented in a far better light by the fanbase than the film, mainly due to the commanding presence of Meryl Streep. Fans seem to ignore her abusive behavior towards her employees and instead portray her as a tough but fair or even outright Benevolent Boss. Fans also like to ignore the fact that she robbed her friend, Nigel, of his dream job to save her own. This also comes from the fact that a lot of fans like to ship her with the lead Andy, so these fans often say the fact that she gave Andy a recommendation at the end is her supporting Andy's career, but this ignores the fact that much of the film is Miranda trying to mold Andy into being ruthless like herself.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Serena is quite popular in the fandom despite not having much plot relevance beyond being Emily's friend. This is especially true in the shipping community. Where she and Emily make up the second most popular ship after Miranda/Andy.
Evil Is Cool: Those who don't try to soften or justify Miranda's behavior will admit that she is a shit-tier human being who is very good at what she does, and has built an impressive empire around herself. Even Anna Wintour, rumored to be the inspiration for Miranda, thought she was cool.
Most fanfiction based on the film will have Andy and Miranda meet up soon after Miranda's recommendation and reconnect on a more personal level. It's usually thanks to some meddling on the part of Nigel or the twins. The exact kind of relationship they form depends on the writer, though most will have the two get together romantically, either by finding out they have feelings for each other or by having them admit already existing ones. Some will have the two form a more Mother-Daughter bond, with Miranda encouraging Andy's feelings for another character.
Despite the film ending with her quitting, Andy returning to Runway to finish out the rest of the year is very popular in fanfiction, mainly as a way to keep the Runway characters in contact with Andy.
Fanon: A lot of fans assume that Andy got very close to Miranda's daughters, Caroline and Cassidy, to the point that she is one of only two people, along with Miranda, who can tell the two apart. This is despite there being very little evidence of it in the actual film.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Most of the fanfiction about the film is about Miranda and Andy getting together. This is due to the fact that their growing relationship drives the film, and feeling that the Streep and Hathaway have great chemistry together. There is next to no fanfiction that have Andy being paired with Nate or Christian. They have the most fanfiction about them on Archive of Our Own, with it being in the 2000s, and the pairing remains quite popular on sites like Tumblr and YouTube to this day. Emily x Serena is also quite popular.
Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The film has several deleted scenes between Andy and Miranda, some of which fans feel should have been left in. One particular moment is Miranda mouthing "thank you" to Andy for stopping her husband from embarrassing her at the party, which some fans feel added more depth to Miranda that was lacking from the finished product. Another is the small scene of Miranda and Andy awkwardly riding in an elevator to James Holt's office, which many feel was one of the funnier jokes that the writing team came up with.
Harsher in Hindsight: Nigel's initial ill-treatment of Andy is a little hard to look at after Hathaway alleged that Tucci harassed her by elbowing and commenting on her breasts.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Anne Hathaway learns An Aesop about the evils of being Married to the Job. Fast forward to The Intern where she is now the head of a fashion company, struggles to juggle her personal and professional life and eventually finds a balance without having to quit the job. The Intern could almost be viewed as a Spiritual Successor to this, given that Hathaway plays a Benevolent Boss.
Hollywood Homely: Parodied and used to show some of the ridiculous standards of the fashion industry - since the beautiful and svelte Anne Hathaway is described as an ugly fat girl by Miranda. It's clearly used to show Miranda's Insane Troll Logic.
Specifically, Ambition Is Evil. A popular criticism of the movie is that Andy is painted as having gone over to the dark side for having somewhat less time to spend with her boyfriend, family and friends, who are all constantly giving her shit for having a job they don't approve of and implying that she's probably bad at it anyway since they never knew her to be interested in fashion. And in spite of taking this approach, it also passes on the chance to do a Beautiful All Along — Andy gives away most of her designer stuff at the end, but she remains the thinner, sleek-haired, flatteringly-made-up, well-dressed woman she learned to be working at Runway.
A secret plot to replace Miranda is meant to be seen as a bad thing. Getting rid of an abusive boss who had one assistant getting into a car accident because of how stressed she was and had another at risk of being fired if she couldn't do an impossible task is bad because reasons? The movie even seems to backtrack on it when Miranda backstabs Nigel to keep her spot.
Miranda's daughters, if you stop and think about it. They're clearly spoilt by her and they direct Andy upstairs knowing Miranda will be furious with her, seemingly For the Lulz, but though Miranda obviously loves them very much, she rarely spends time with them thanks to the magazine coming first. The few times we see them or hear them mentioned besides the scene at Miranda's house, they're always being escorted by Miranda's staff and have had to go through not only several stepfathers, but every newspaper calling their mother an Ice Queen for driving another one away.
Emily, considering that she was practically killing herself just to make it to Paris with Miranda, only to have Andy steal that opportunity from her- right after she gets hit by a car while running errands for Miranda. While she may have been a rude and hostile person, it's really hard to not feel bad for her during the second half of the film. Emily seems to be teetering into an eating disorder, as well. On the positive side, though, Andy and Emily's lukewarm friendship might not be completely severed, and Andy's influence as well as time out in the hospital may have given her a reprieve from her stressful job. She does at least seem to be more relaxed in her final scene.
Nigel, who accepts a job as a Creative Director for acclaimed fashion designer James Holt, only to have Miranda snatch that opportunity from him to preserve her career and position. He may have been an unsympathetic character, but it's very disheartening that he was simply robbed of a job that he dreamed of since childhood.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: An extreme example in that the "jerks" in this case aren't really jerks in the first place. Miranda Priestly is an abusive boss who regularly verbally belittles her employees, robs her friend of his dream job just to keep her own, and openly admits to trying to corrupt protagonist Andy into being ruthless like herself. However, due to her charisma, and being played by Meryl Streep, most fans will often go to great lengths to justify and explain away her deeds. Ditto for Emily, who's entertainingly mean and given a Freudian Excuse over what stress Miranda puts her under. Meanwhile, Andy's friends are rude to her at the dinner table by playing keep away with her phone and get mad at her for getting swept up in her job. However, fans are far less forgiving of this, even claiming that her boyfriend, Nate, is the real villain due to him getting angry with her for putting her job first.
Andrea "Andy" Sachs is shipped with almost every character from the film. The most popular overall is her with Miranda, but a lot of fans also ship Andy with Emily, Serena, Christian, Lily, and, while less popular, her actual boyfriend Nate. Andy also has popular Crossover Ships with Cat Grant from Supergirl (2015), Patty Hewes from Damages, and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians (1996). There are also OT3 pairings that have her with both Miranda and Emily or Miranda and Cruella.
Miranda Priestly is most often shipped with Andy, but also has pairings with Emily, Irv, Stephen, and Jacqueline. Miranda has also been shipped with Jules Ostin from The Intern, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians (1996), and Baroness von Hellman from Cruella. There are also ships for her with both Andy and Emily or Andy and Cruella.
LGBT Fanbase: This film has a large fanbase of lesbian and bisexual women, mainly due to a lot of the actresses already having some, especially Meryl Streep. The focus on fashion and Nigel being gay have also led to a large fanbase of gay men.
Love to Hate: Miranda Priestly is an ice cold bitch, but its hard not to love her given the way she oozes style, hilariously puts down others, and repeatedly shows just why she's at the top of her industry. Add on to all that one of Meryl Streep's most beloved performances and you have an iconic villain.
Magnificent Bitch: Miranda Priestly is the strict and overbearing but classy editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine. She constantly assigns her assistants Andrea "Andy" Sachs and Emily Charlton very menial and personal tasks to accomplish, in addition to remembering the most obscure facets of the job for her and demanding they never ask twice about anything. Miranda's extremely perfectionist and precise tactics have made her the most successful fashion editor in the city. She also spoils her twin daughters rotten to make up for not being around more and even has Andy locate the then unpublished Harry Potter "Book 7" manuscript for them. Miranda then ousts Emily from the highly-anticipated Paris trip and prevents a rival from replacing her by giving her a job she had promised another and warning of every employee who would leave the magazine with her.
"Are you wearing the Ch"-- "The Chanel boots? Yes, I am."Explanation It's popular to comment on particularly stylish fashion choices, or at the very least a surprising look, with this exchange between Emily and Andy after the latter gets a makeover and shows up to work in a stunning outfit, including the boots.
Nate is the real villain. ExplanationIt sums up the Ron the Death Eater treatment he gets from shippers.
"Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking." Explanation Miranda's snarky dismissal of one of the editors'suggestions. The first two questions are often replaced by two other obviously related things.
Mind Game Ship: Andy's dedication to do her role well drives her to seek Miranda's approval, and because of this, a lot of shippers have taken to the ship, to the point that they interpret that into thinking that Miranda was "manipulating" Andy. There are quite a few fics where they have Miranda succeed in the attempt and turn Andy into her perfect match. There are also some where Andy turns the tide and proves herself to be an equal match to her boss. The one constant in these fics is that the two love playing mind games with each other.
Never Live It Down: Andy's friends really can't live down the scene of them playing with her phone while she's trying to answer it in the restaurant. Though it only lasts for about 10 seconds, among shippers, it's practically their Moral Event Horizon.
One True Threesome: From the movie, Miranda/Andy/Emily is the most popular threesome pairing. It covers two very popular pairings, that of Miranda/Andy and Emily/Andy. It has also been known to sometimes become a foursome, and include Serena. It's also very popular on YouTube to make a video about the three.
Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Unlike their book counterparts, the interactions between the film versions of Andy and Miranda come off to many as Belligerent Sexual Tension, and a May–December Romance later on, rather than the overbearing boss-employee relationship it is supposed to be. This is especially apparent after Andy's make-over, where Miranda checks her from head to toe and proceeds to stare at her as she walks away. Meanwhile, Andy goes from complaining about Miranda behind her back to repeatedly gushing about her to people and breaks things off with Christian immediately after finding out the plan to replace Miranda. The scene where Andy finds Miranda after Miranda learns of her impending divorce is often singled out by fans as seeming to come out of a romance movie. This gets lampshaded by both Emily, "Why didn't you just climb into bed with her", and Andy's actual love interest Nate, "The person whose calls you always take. That's the relationship you're in".
Portmanteau Couple Name: The most popular one is Mirandy (Miranda/Andy) for the lead character and her boss. There is also Seremily (Serena/Emily).
Ron the Death Eater: Nate is far from the perfect boyfriend in the film, but even with that, the fanbase, mostly those who engage in shipping, portrays him as far worse than he actually is. Most fans make him out to be an abusive jerk, when the most he does is get angry at Andy for putting her job first. They also like to ignore his more positive traits, like trying to comfort Andy when she is forced to take Emily's place in Paris. This also comes from a healthy dose of Die for Our Ship, as a lot of Miranda/Andy shippers like to play him as far more aggressive in trying to get her to quit, when in reality he is right about the job changing her, mainly because Miranda acknowledges just that as well: Andy is indeed a very different person at the end. The shippers also take issue with his breaking up with Andy... Which is exactly the right thing to do if you're unhappy in a relationship. He even points out how it's best for both of them since then she can fully dedicate to her job with no added pressure of any commitment to him. Nope, he still gets hate for that, even though it "frees" Andy up for any other ship.
Rooting for the Empire: A lot of fans rooted for the abusive boss Miranda rather than any of the heroic characters, thanks to Meryl Streep's charismatic performance.
Ship Mates: Miranda/Andy shippers tend to get along great with Emily/Serena shippers, mainly because it gets Emily out of the way of their ship and avoids Ship-to-Ship Combat. They also tend to get along with the small number of Nigel/Doug shippers as well.
Strawman Has a Point: Both Nigel and Miranda tell Andy off in her early days. They do have a point, as she seems to view fashion as being beneath her, which is a tad hypocritical considering she accepted the job. And in this case, knowing about the industry you're working in is kind of important, even if Andy is only an assistant. Miranda's "cerulean" speech punctuates how the industry affects even the lowest working class consumer.
Unintentional Period Piece: One of the "impossible" tasks that Miranda assigns to Andy is to acquire a manuscript to an unpublished Harry Potter book for her kids, which became dated in the year after the film released when the final Harry Potter book was published. Note that while the film’s release year indicates they were talking about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows they never actually say that it’s the seventh book; just unpublished Harry Potter manuscript. It’s only in a "blink-and-you’ll-miss" moment with the twins on the train that shows the manuscript is indeed "Harry Potter 7". Given that other Harry Potter stories in the official franchise have been published since the film was released, had that moment not happened they could have narrowly avoided it.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Andy has a terrible job that she ends up being determined to make the best of, and she happily shares the designer swag she gets with her friends. Said friends then toss her phone around and criticize her for "changing" when all she essentially did was put on nicer clothes.
Many think Andy's friends attitude of throwing Andy's phone around while her boss is calling is way out of line. Lily blames Andy for Christian kissing her, not allowing Andy a chance to explain the situation.
Nate especially gets this, with some thinking that his complaining about Andy's job is unsupportive.
Vanilla Protagonist: While Andy's not a bad character and Anne Hathaway does a good job portraying her, some find her a bit bland and overshadowed by her supporting characters, and everyone agrees that Miranda is far more interesting and Meryl Streep completely steals the show. It's telling that despite Hathaway portraying the true lead, Streep was the one who sucked up all the leading awards and nominations.
Nightmare Fuel: Many of their music videos, including “Assistant To The Regional Manager”, which plays more like a Tool music video, “First Sight” with its disturbing stopmotion and concept, “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?”, showing a young boy killing a bird with a slingshot, blood and all, and “Planet A”, where a female astronaut spends the entire video traveling through space, only to end up in a completely white, empty dimension way beyond the reaches of space. Nothing Is Scarier indeed.
“Zombie EP” and “Space EP” are this trope in its entirety.
posits that another interpretation is less "holding true to your morals" vs "selling out," and more about finding a healthy balance between being invested in your job without falling into its toxic or destructive tendencies. Andy starts off thinking the fashion industry is beneath her and is rightly called out for it, but once she applies herself she outstrips Emily as Miranda's preferred assistant. Meanwhile, Emily is so devoted to her job that she's a Nervous Wreck, Extreme Doormat, and Professional Butt-Kisser who is literally killing herself to please an unappreciative Miranda (goes on starvation diets, works even when sick, and is hospitalized due to being so distracted running errands for Miranda that she gets hit by a car). Whereas when Andy realizes she's becoming too invested in her industry's cutthroat and back-stabbing politics, she takes a step back and decides to pursue the career she really does want.