#And if I had the braincells I'd compare Sonic's treatment of (at the very least) Nine and Dread to how Sora in KH will handle everything

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

As a Sondread fan, my favorite piece of knowledge is the fact that Sonic has never once rescinded his comment that Dread is his favorite Knuckles.

After that comment alone, Dread hid while his ship was being boarded, threw Sonic out front of the ship to pull it, Sonic watched him speed through the loop de loop (with Dread not caring if he damaged it), Dread backstabbed him and framed him as a traitor, they fought over the shard, Dread shot multiple missiles at him, he tried to attack Sonic for the blue shard again while Sonic and Nine were trying to escape New Yoke.

Dread had done a lot of shit in Sonic's presence or to him (tried to kill him, backstabbed him, shows that he cares more about self interest than the crew now)

And Sonic *never* takes his comment back

In fact, not only does Sonic never take the comment back, he never really holds a grudge against him. And to be honest, it's mostly because Sonic seems to like him and keeps giving him the benefit of the doubt.

When Dread tries to leave his crew, making it clear that they could be pirates and go after the Devil's Lighthouse but he would have no part of it, Sonic came to retrieve him and to try to convince him. Sonic appeals to his ego and mentions how his (or original Knuckles', rather) stubbornness and unwillingness to give up is one of his usual traits. After Dread explains his tale of woe, Sonic spends time (operating on the assumption that the event scared Dread off from pirating) convincing him that he can be great. When Dread breaks the Loop De Loop, Sonic’s devastated, but never confronts Dread about it. When Dread betrays him and frames him as a traitor to get the blue shard, and even as Dread is actively trying to kill him/blow him up, yes Sonic is annoyed, but he spends a lot of time not only trying to convince the crew that he's not a traitor, but also trying to appeal to reason with Dread. Dread's shooting missiles at him and Sonic goes on and on about how he's (Dread) gonna feel so bad later for what he's doing to him (Sonic). When Mr. Dr. Eggman calls for the eggforcers to shoot Dread where he stands (WHILE Dread is still actively trying to get the shard from Sonic), Sonic expresses his care and concern over Dread's wellbeing by calling his name, and even gasps when Dread is shot. Then, when Sonic watches Dread lose his grip on the Chaos Council's ship when they arrive in New Yoke, he calls his name and lets go of his own hold on the ship. As the two plummet in the city, Sonic still reaches for him and saves him from meeting an untimely death, throwing him onto a roof of a building (which ultimately endangers Sonic's own life and mission). Sonic is happy when Dread comes to his rescue and aids in the fight against Chaos Sonic (and just happy that Dread IS in fact alive). And then finally, when Dread attacks him at the end of season 2 to get the shard back, Sonic's only response to that is that he thought he and Dread were "cool now" (funny, given that Dread himself told Sonic that it would be everyone for themselves again after Chaos Sonic was defeated). Beyond that, he just tells Renegade and Dread that they should be friends.

The funny interpretation of this is just how down bad for Dread Sonic may be to straight up ignore some of the clear red flags/proof Dread is gonna betray him, but my other (slightly more serious) interpretation is that Sonic must really like Dread to be able to care for him and his wellbeing the way he does, to try to reason with him and to not hold grudges on even the most awful things Dread has done. It says a lot that he still cares about him, still wants him to be alive, still tries to reason with him, still tries to get Dread to at least be friends with him again, still refuses to take back his saying that Dread is his favorite Knuckles, no matter what Dread does and how he treats him/his crew