Is there any reason a Bjornaer Great Beast might bahave or act differently than a normal Magical animal?
In regards to abilities like Animal Handling, V&Fs like Magical Animal Companion, or Plagued by Supernatural Creature.
There is hardly such a thing as a "normal" magical animal. There are so many different magical animals and they vary so much that you can probably find all kinds of behaviours and ways to act among them.
For most purposes Great Beasts would follow the same rules as other magical creatures. There isn't really any reason to treat them differently.
As for virtues and flaws, keep in mind that Great Beasts
a) are rare
b) almost always stays far away from humans. It is usually decades between sightings of some Great Beast
c) Few people even know they exist
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There's a difference between Great Beasts and Magical Animals. Great Beasts still supposedly retain some memories of their time as Bjornaer, after all, they serve as Mystagogues for Bjornaer who undergo the Inner Heartbeast initiation.
Allegedly.
I've been listening to an owl hoot for 3 seasons in a row and enlightenment still eludes me... Truly Euler ex Bjornaer is wise!
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At our covenant, the Wise Owl of the forest has joined in for regular drunken philosophers' nights with a scribe companion.
One may doubt the quality of enlightenment.
But they surely enjoy themselves.
Whether the Owl is a Great Beast or not has not been explored.
Responding to the OP's narrowest points: yes, but mostly because Great Beasts are powerful, and "normal" Magical animals are usually not as powerful.
Animal Handling: this ability works best on domesticated/domesticable creatures, and is extremely unlikely to work on extremely wild animals, like most Great Beasts will be. Without a considerable show of power, I would expect any difficulty factors to be in the ludicrously hard range.
Magical Animal Companion: As Great Beasts are quite powerful, they would be out of the typical range for most Magical Animal Companions (in rules-as-written, the Might is 10-size of creature). If your saga would allow a friendly dragon or basilisk as a companion then sure, let someone have a Great Beast.
Plagued by Supernatural Creature: as Great Beasts are powerful, this will require skilful explanation as to why the character isn't dead yet. "Travel to sea? Never! I am plagued by a great white whale, and I fear it will have me yet..." or "ever since the incident near that Bjornaer holy site, I dare not travel into the wilderness"
Plagued by Supernatural Being doesn't have to mean the being is out to kill or even hurt you.
It might even wish the character well - and therefore be constantly testing them, and providing "opportunities" for the character to practice their skills.
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Which could well be a way for a Bjornaer character to have a somewhat easier path to Inner Heartbeast initiation. Though might not fully be the path they set out on.
I have been contemplating a character whose great * 7 grandparent was once a Bjornaer mage who was in life a busybody with regards to their descendants, and now as a Great Beast visits every now and then, to "help".
I thought that might count as Plagued By a Supernatural Creature
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And mythic blood too.
Possibly a side question - How does a Great Beast produce a Mythic Bloodline?
After they transform into a Great Beast? (and probably after they have been using a Longevity Enchantment).
Does someone have to slay a Great Beast and bathe in/drink their blood?
Or does the transformation into a Great Beast by sympathetic means affect descendants produced in their young, pre-LP human days?
(actually the question could be generic for Mythic Blood from any source - by the time a wizard is powerful enough to be "Mythic", they are probably past directly generating descendants).
Which segues into Magical Blood.
Not all Faerie Blood characters have faeries in their ancestry - some could be conceived in places of great faerie power. So, can Magical Blood happen the same way? (Must do if it is from a Magic Thing)
Now I am imagining the hypothetical situation where a pregnant woman is feeling poorly in front of a church, then a passing rich old woman takes pity and leaves her guard contingent to comfort the young mother-to-be. The kindly (but unnerving) old woman chants Latin sounding "benedictions" over the pregnant woman, but is interrupted by the tolling church bell. An invisible storm envelops the old woman, and the young woman she is supporting, and something like a Great Beast appears (possibly from hell) and swallows the old woman, before racing off to the forest.
The young woman may receive a warping point, and the child will be born with Magical Blood of the Great Beast?
I'd say yes to each and every one of these. The first and 3rd regroup, and the second screams Siegfried (yes the dragon was not a great beast of house Bjornaer , but still).
I'd say possibly yes too, if it suits the saga. Being born and raised in a strong magic aura could be a justification, although then it raises a the question of why all the grogs of Durenmar and other major Covenants don't all have magical blood (or do they?, that would help explain the longevity of Durenmar Covenfolk).
Maybe a different story but: pregnant woman is kidnapped by a great beast who lavishes care and attention on her during the pregnancy, and she gives birth in the Great Beast's aura 6 lair to a slightly strange child seems like an interesting plot hook rich series of events.
Does this child have the gift? Is the child of noble birth and the legitimate heir to some barony? Can you rescue the child from the lair on behalf of the rich parents'? Will they pay you despite it being blue under the influence of the great sea snake? How will house Bjornaer tolerate your meddling?