Eardwulf

Eardwulf enters The Last Kingdom as a decorated Mercian warrior, a hero of the battlefield whose courage has won him standing among the nobility. He carries himself with the easy confidence of a man used to praise, ambitious for rank and recognition, and quick to position himself close to power wherever it gathers.

Jamie Blackley plays the surface first: the warm smile, the battlefield swagger, the plausible loyalty that makes him easy to like on sight. The writing then lets you watch that surface do work, charm functioning as strategy rather than sincerity, so every scene rewards a second, more suspicious look at him.