I just came across an editorial about Spike on Equestria Daily and seeing a lot of the common misconceptions about him expressed in it, I spontaneously decided to write a comment about it.
It turned out as a full-blown analyzis about Spike and the fandom, which is something I have not expected to happen when I started writing the comment, so I thought about sharing it here too:
Ah yes, Spike. The only character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who is truly misunderstood by the fandom. Even Applejack fares better than him.
Your editorial sounds like you're trying to figure out what the meaning behind Spike is and how to make sense of