Is Spike unpopular?

[CastletonSnob 3,078]

I've noticed that Spike has quite a few people who dislike him, and he doesn't get much fanart or fanfiction.

Is he not a popular character in the fandom? Why not?

[Misty Shadow 7,941]

You really seem to be hung up on Spike lately. 

The answer is no. Simply searching Spike on Derpibooru yields well over 75,000 image results. Simply searching Spike on FiMFiction yields 16,000 story results. Compare that to an immensely popular recurring character like Maud Pie, and you will be shocked to only find 12,000 image results on Derpibooru and 800 story results on FiMFiction. 

Though results like that definitely do not tell what the majority's opinion on a character is, they do tell that people are maintaining interest in a character so long as big numbers like that continue to grow. And they also definitely tell that the statement, "he doesn't get much fanart or fanfiction", is not true. 

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I think that it isn't so much him being unpopular persay more the fact Spike is a dragon and not a pony. Makes sense there would be more pony art and fanfiction from a show based around ponies. So if anything it doesn't have anything to do with Spike as a character rather the show hasn't really focused much on him. I would say though that he is relatively popular.

 

 

[JMTV99 1,354]

Uh, he is popular. Spike has been around since Generation 1. That's number one.

Number 2, there's a tons of fans who love Spike. There are a TONS of fanart and fanfiction EVERYONE about him. The haters of him are nothing more than just a vocal minority, anyway. So don't try to tell me that Spike didn't get much love in the fandom. That cannot be further from the truth.

Finally, not to be rude, but what's up with you with those Spike topics lately? They sound pretty bitter to me.

 

[EpicEnergy 23,223]

Just because some people dislike a character doesn't mean that character is unpopular or unloved. Every character is disliked by at least a few people, and Spike is no exception. This doesn't necessarily mean that Spike is popular and loved, but neither does it mean he is unpopular and unloved. I say all that because the OP suggests that Spike is unpopular due to the fact that some people dislike him.

As for the question as to whether or not Spike is unpopular, I think he is an extremely prominent figure in the brony fandom judging by how often he is mentioned.

20 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

The answer is no. Simply searching Spike on Derpibooru yields well over 75,000 image results. Simply searching Spike on FiMFiction yields 16,000 story results. Compare that to an immensely popular recurring character like Maud Pie, and you will be shocked to only find 12,000 image results on Derpibooru and 800 story results on FiMFiction. 

Nice, I didn't realize that Maud is less popular than Spike, but it makes sense because Spike has been part of the show since the beginning with Maud coming in at later seasons than Spike.

Also searching Spike on this site itself will have about 42,400 results, with Maud only having about 6,900 results. That suggests that Spike is being discussed higher than 4x more than Maud.