I cannot imagine having a kid brother who is better than me at everything, especially warfaire after I've already been through a war and he hasn't.
Ryan, having matched his older brother's stats (in all but HP and luck) by level 4.
When he and Ryan start out, the kid is level 1 and Gordin is level 5. Ryan's stats are close to Gordin's, and he has sufficient enough stat growth to outgrow his brother within a handful of levels. For some reason, the kid also has the greatest tendency to get defense upon level ups, and he becomes one of the tankiest archers in the whole dang series. (At least, out of the games I've played)
Meanwhile, poor Gordin sucked so bad in Shadow Dragon that even the stat buffs they gave him make him only a mediocre unit that is still inferior to his adorable younger brother.
Oh well. It's better this way. There's just something more fun about having little kids take the frontlines and come out on top.