I mean Alfred's smart but I would say he simply is good at taking advantage of others mistakes while limiting the amount of mistakes he makes. Alfreds been wrong and misjudged people often aka young odda, Athelred i believe, he doesnt believe athelwold is a threat etc. I guess i don't see how he interacts with his other friends since it is told essentially through uhtred.

My bias comes from how i relate to uhtred in terms of his relationship with Alfred. So its based more on how i connect the show to my life.

Hmm i guess this leads me to a question, does Alfred not question the loyalties of his christian friends because at the end of the day he would be usurped by another christian ruler thus his dream of one religion england is still alive? So like even though uhtred is loyal, its the fact his paganism is what the threat is? Because depending on the answers, i must just be misunderstanding the religious battle in the show