Currently I have the problem that she inevitably dies in turn 2 or 3 of the Z'rell fight which I btw could not win in three trials till now, sigh. Her death would be a pity because her quest is nice and I like her personality. Maybe I should recruit her before the fight and let her in the camp, if possible.
I feel she is very suicidal if you don't take control over her during the attack on Moonrise - in case this is what you mean with the Z'rell fight. You can't properly recruit her before facing Ketheric (at least I couldn't) but you can at least control her enough to keep her alive.
I'm playing a modded game with a difficulty far beyond Honour mode, so it does not make sense to talk about details, but ... you can take control over Jaheira during the fights in Moonrise Towers? Never thought that's possible. How do you do this?
Before the battle you can ask her to join you. If you do she'llcome with you as a guest companion.
With all the other characters, I can point out their flaws and conflicts. Those things are such big parts of their characters.
Gale, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Wyll, Astarion, even Karlach. Same with Minthara and--to a much lesser extent--even Halsin.
But not Jaheira. She's treated as if she's harsh and distant, but essentially good. That harshness doesn't necessarily come across as a flaw. Rather it seems as if it's representing what a "strong" woman Jaheira. The sense that she has that right as a legend, and besides, everyone knows she's good at heart and trust in her core intent. Distant with her children, but bonded with them all the same. Adopted children, no less, further pointing out her essential goodness.
The more I think about it, the more I start to think that all the other characters are... better. Better written. More fleshed out, deeper with more dimension.
Jaheira stands out to me more as a symbol than a character.
*
All of that said, maybe I'm just missing something about her.
I think the thing with Jaheira is that she doesn'thave an arc. She's old, she's already gone through her character arc. She's seen lots, made her mistakes, and now we find her at a point in her life where she's mostly got it together. I would say that her distance and tendency to hold herself apart is her flaw, the fact she can't stop fighting the good fight even though she does recognize that part of her wants to. What I think it comes down to is that she's done enough and seen enough be able to work through her issues more or less on her own. At least to the extent that she doesn't need us the way the other companions need us. She's essentially a mentor character, but because we meet her well past the point when we need a mentor, she doesn't have to die to provide character growth for us.
