I… failed to recruit him on my first run. I recruited literally everyone else, I got his support up to B but couldn't take it because the support convo wasn't ready yet, got my armor up to D, just barely short of d+… but I couldn't do it. No matter how many times I saved and reset, he was the ONE character I outright failed to save rather than was physically incapable of saving. It eats at me a bit, even now. I don't know why, it just does.

I got this dialogue on my first playthrough, It hit me hard. I also had Dorothea fight him, leading to some really sad dialogue reflecting their relationship before she 1 shot him with meteor.

2 or 3 lines of dialogue that really highlight alot about Ferdinand's character. It makes me wish that you weren't able to recruit people from other houses, as heretical as that might be. He would have made a great Camus archetype, but because he is recruitable, that means he can't be important to the story and he's reduced to literally one of the first people you kill.

That, or atleast make it so that more characters are locked to the enemy army until you get to a certain chapter and defeat them, instead of only doing that LITERALLY once a route. Like, Ingrid wouldn't defect immediately, Lorenz would stay in the alliance under his father, Bernie would be too scared to abandon what she knows, etc.