A Question/Concern about the new Jaheira and Safana personality

marceror

This question is not meant to fan any flames, but it's one I need to ask. My concern is mostly around Jaheira here, but it applies to Safana as well.

Baldur's Gate is a long saga -- one that is very close to my heart -- and my concern is, if I were to play the entire saga through front to back, am I going to experience continuity issues with certain characters' personalities when I enter the SoD portion of the game?

If BGEE is going to give me the Jaheira I know and love, and BG2EE will also, but "a Jaheira" with a different personality is going to pop in for the "interlude"... that's going to be a very, very hard pill for me to swallow.

And as much as I'd love to give Beamdog the benefit of the doubt that they've managed to introduce these changes seamlessly into the series, given what I've seen of how the trans character was written, it doesn't seem like a seamless and logical writing style was the top priority for them.

So, I'd really like to know if Jaheira is going to effectively display multiple personality disorder over the course of the game. If so, this is probably going to be deal breaker for me to purchase and play SoD.

I greatly appreciate your thoughtful and well-reasoned responses on this. And please, let's not use this thread to bash anyone. PLENTY of that going on elsewhere.

TIA!

Purudaya

From my experience, both characters were true to cannon. Safana was one-dimensional to begin with, so players may feel that's she's "different" because there really wasn't much about her to go on otherwise. There are definitely no jarring or drastic changes - these characters have not been turned into political mouthpieces or anything like that.

Jaheira is my favorite romance option and one of my absolute favorite characters of the series. If her personality had been altered, I would be in here complaining about it.

EDIT: Remember that Jaheira is the only returning character without a voiceover, however, so that does make her feel different from other npcs mechanically. I hope Heidi Shannon comes out of the woodwork and gives Beamdog a call.

rojay

marceror said:

So, I'd really like to know if Jaheira is going to effectively display multiple personality disorder over the course of the game. If so, this is probably going to be deal breaker for me to purchase and play SoD.

I did not find Jaheira's personality in SoD to be notably different from that in Baldur's Gate.

It is, of course, very different from BG2, for obvious reasons.

marceror

Thanks for the responses. Though given all the clamoring and activity on these boards, seeing only one person chiming in to say that there are no continuity issues isn't exactly an overwhelming indication that all is well.

Regarding Jaheira in BG2, yes, she goes through a significant life event that causes her to act differently, which is of course totally appropriate given her circumstances. This does not in any way create a consistency issue with her personality. Quite to the contrary, in fact.

Excalibur_2102

I created a thread on this a couple of days ago, about 5 or 6 people replied saying they thought there was no difference in their personalities.. I think one person mentioned they thought safana was different, but that was it.... Most of the time I see people speak of this they only refer to that article with the Interview with Amber..

Purudaya

marceror said:

Thanks for the responses. Though given all the clamoring and activity on these boards, seeing only one person chiming in to say that there are no continuity issues isn't exactly an overwhelming indication that all is well.

Regarding Jaheira in BG2, yes, she goes through a significant life event that causes her to act differently, which is of course totally appropriate given her circumstances. This does not in any way create a consistency issue with her personality. Quite to the contrary, in fact.

Well, it is a different author so it's going to be hard for Beamdog to nail her perfectly. What I'm saying is that there is no intentional or overt change that has taken place - the staff are all either lifelong fans of BG or were part of the team that made it, so I doubt they would want to fundamentally change a beloved character and ruin consistency for the series.

In fact, you could argue that the additional content between Jaheira and Khalid adds more weight to her loss in BGII and improves her character's transition.

Envygames

In my personal Opinion i agree...Jaheira isnt realy an issue. Safana i have to admit i didnt use at all in BG1, like never. But i know that the Safana from SoD is about annoying as one can be...i specificly created a Thief Dualed into Mage so i dont have to use her/ interact with her at all. Wich didnt helped since she came along the ride anyway...next time i try to kill her in the chapter you are supposed to recruit her...maybe that gets her out of the game...

Aedan

I played SOD and I found nothing wrong in Jaheira and Safana. They are both consistent with their personality in BG/BG2. Really.
I like Jaheira a lot (she is one of my best BG characters) and I would have been upset if I had noticed something weird in her.
Rest easy. You will not be disappointed

marceror

Thanks for the additional comments guys. This is making me feel better. Much appreciated!

ber5nie5

i can't really comment on jaheira. she wasn't available until late in the game, which was a disappointment to me since i also really like having her in my group. what made it even worse was while playing a good party with a 20 reputation, viconia wasn't an option either. so i got stuck with a thief/cleric.

i did enjoy having safana as my thief. nice romance and she had the same flirty personality as in bg. as well as being a very capable thief.

i would have liked to see all the different characters being able to be added to my party before leaving the city of bg. that way you can start developing them from the beginning.