So, I'm thinking about Dread. (Shocker, right?) Anyway, I was thinking about the first time we meet Dread. How he seems all jovial and happy and just living life. Throwing party after party, and seemingly turning coward when his old crew shows up.
Party Pirate Dread is happy(ish) and friendly(ish), doesn't want to talk about the Devil's Lighthouse, and seems really unwilling to even entertain the idea of trying for it again. He legit does not want to even think about it. I hesitate to say he feels regret for what happened, but that may be a bit of what's going on.
It's possible that this Dread is dealing with a very bruised ego and pride, because his lust for the Devil's Lighthouse cost him EVERYTHING. It's possible he recognized that going for the Lighthouse was foolish in the first place, and he feels ashamed for doing so and losing not only his first crew, but his entire ship and his reputation, as well. And it's possible that he turns coward when his first crew attacks, because he feels so ashamed of himself for putting them in harms away that he can't face them. They're the personification of his failure, so he would rather hide from it than face it head on.
Then we have the change after Rusty Rose attacks and the ship is sinking. He abandons ship, leaving his crew to presumably die. And this doesn't even come as a surprise to the crew, especially Batten, who very casually hooks a thumb in his direction when Sonic asks where he went. This kind of selfish behavior is known to the crew, and yet they still follow him.
So Sonic does his little "You'll be the legendary Knuckles the Dread!" speech and Dread gets that batshit glint in his eye. He only comes back because his chance at getting the Devil's Lighthouse is higher now with Sonic's help.
This Dread is possessive, selfish, aggressive, and would sacrifice anyone to keep his Beauty safe and in his hands. He actively engages in battles, all to keep the treasure he so obsesses over.
So let's back up. Dread tries for the Devil's Lighthouse with his old crew. He seems pretty determined and everything else be damned. He wrecks his ship, his crew abandons him, and . . . what? Does he realize his dream of obtaining that gem was a folly and best left at the bottom of the ocean, like his old ship? Does he realize that his obsessive pursuit for the Devil's Lighthouse ultimately took everything from him and how he wants to simply (and quite literally) be dead in the water rather than move forward?
Dread's behavior is very much like an addict. He tried to quit, go 'cold turkey' so to speak, but when temptation came, he couldn't resist. He's back to his old ways, his every thought and action focused on getting that Shard. He'll sacrifice everything--his crew, his ship, his own world--as he follows it through to New Yoke, and would have fallen to his death had Sonic not caught him.
Which brings me to another aspect. He helps Sonic because of the 'debt' he owes the hedgehog for saving his life. This doesn't jive with the Shard Addict Dread's behavior. Helping Sonic with Chaos Sonic doesn't get him closer to his Beauty. It's not advantageous to Dread's end goal. So why help at all?
Then he turns on Sonic the second his Beauty is in reach again. It's very much like Gollum and the Ring, or Captain Ahab and the white whale. He's obsessed with this one singular thing and it's driven him mad in its pursuit.
I wonder what he was like before the Devil's Lighthouse took hold of his senses. Did he care about his crew then? Was he always a self-centered asshole? Or did his lust for this gem, this fame, break him?
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I do love how Rick has been so abusive and unrepentantly cruel to Morty for so long but he also gets so hurt when Morty so much as calls him names or doesn't trust him after everything he's done. He can dish it out left and right all damn day, but the second anything similar gets aimed back at him in response to his shitty past behavior, he can't handle it.
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