Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of wonderful characters – recruitable party companions and otherwise – for you to find and interact with. In fact, you could argue it’s one of this RPG’s best features. Whether you’re a lyrical Bard or a Barbarian bruiser when you’re playing, everyone has one or two favorites – it’s only natural. However, we don’t think anyone out there is Jaheira’s biggest fan. Why? Well, because it sounds like Jaheira herself is Jaheira’s biggest fan – and it’s so wholesome.
Discussing her character Jaheira and Baldur’s Gate 3 as a whole with The Gamer, actress Tracy Wiles isn’t just your average fan of one of the best RPG games of the year. She’s enamored with her character Jaheira and “her love for [the role] only grows” when she sees fan art, YouTube videos of scenes, and whenever someone says that Jaheira’s in their best Baldur’s Gate 3 party – among other things.
As interviewing journalist Rhiannon Bevan explains, Wiles “lives and breathes the role” of Jaheira in the best possible way. She’s enthusiastic about the character’s role as a motherly figure, emotionally invested in her grief, and confident that she’s still very-much in her prime. When Bevan goes off-track talking about Jaheira in her own party set-up, Wiles says “there’s nothing better than playing a character that means something to someone”. While we can imagine this is something any talented member of the Baldur’s Gate 3 cast would say, it sounds like Wiles knows just how much she means to people – as she means so much to her.
From calling on virtual photographers online to share more images of Jaheria in clown makeup – the result of a bug that has since been patched out – to creating a Spotify playlist for the High Half-Elf, Wiles is clearly someone who genuinely loves the character she’s portraying.
“I just love any picture where she looks a bit goofy”, she says alongside expressing that “she’s so well written… there’s so many layers to [her]” – and the rest of the Baldur’s Gate 3 cast of characters. “It’s a brilliant game… When I see all the clips now, I’m still so proud”.
Wiles also discusses the impact of Jaheira’s backstory and how the emotion of earlier scenes in Baldur’s Gate 2 (in which Heidi Shannon portrayed Jaheira) informed her performance in Baldur’s Gate 3.
“It was so beautiful… I felt really emotional. A Little tear came to my eye”, she says on a scene where Jaheira reacts to her husband’s death.
The characterization of Jaheira, though, came to Wiles “immediately from the script, even before she knew the full picture”. If that doesn’t suggest she’s the embodiment of the character, the actor even thinks about how “Jaheira has needs” – most of which we’re under the impression was left unwritten – and how that influences her relationships with other characters. If that isn’t dedication to developing a character, we don’t know what is.
Wiles’ interview with The Gamer ends on another sweet note than only reinforces the sentiment that she really is her own biggest fan. At her first convention, EGX London, she finds a fan cosplaying as Jaheira and is over the moon to meet her – and snap a picture, of course. She stands “arm in arm with fans fawning over her character” and it’s hard to imagine a character as important to the franchise as Jaheira in better hands.
If you want to make sure your custom character is as prepared as possible for any upcoming adventures with Jaheira, you can find out more about the best Baldur’s Gate 3 spells and our definitive ranking of the best Baldur’s Gate 3 classes right here.
In recent news outside of Wiles’ love for Jaheira, Baldur’s Gate 3 set South Park straight on this rather interesting PS5 save issue and Alan Wake 2 director Sam Lake shares that Baldur’s Gate 3 is the next game he wants to play. With that being one of the best horror games of all time, it’s clear he has good taste. So, if Wiles’ enthusiasm isn’t enough to convince you that it’s worth checking out, maybe that will.