like a star, like a firefly

The former. I'm definitely the former here. Going out of my way to kill a favourite character who isn't a mandatory fight and is fairly easy to avoid altogether has got to be the height of masochism. =/

Honestly, though, recruiting so few kids from other houses isn't just about hurting myself by playing into the tragedy of things. It's also simply because it feels pointless to recruit too many people, because the maximum number of units you can deploy on any given map is so low compared to other FE games that at least some characters aren't gonna get used at all. ^^; Even on my current run, I feel like I've got more people than I need just by having most of the faculty -- which is why, on my Deer run where I'll be grabbing all the Wolves plus three or four other kids, I'm intending to not get any faculty units at all except for Cyril (and Flayn and Seteth since they're automatic recruits, but they'll almost certainly sit on the bench).

Petra's high speed and dodging ability don't make her an easy opponent, I'll certainly give you that...

If that's the case, that'll make things a lot easier. Death Knight is so fast that he'll double my Mercie even with her lightest spell equipped, and her being immune to crits thanks to the Rafail Gem won't mean much if he can tear her apart with normal attacks anyway. >>;