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The Nightingale & the Blackbird
Clare
Clare Carroll
Portrayed By: Aisling Franciosi
- Character Development: As she bonds with Billy, her racism gradually softens.
- Commonality Connection: From Billy, who she treats terribly at first but they bond over their shared victimization at the hands of the English.
- Crusading Widow: She's out to kill the men who murdered her entire family and gang-raped her.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Clare kills Jago this way, stabbing him over and over with his knife before smashing his face in with the butt of her rifle.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She treats Billy with vitriolic racism and deep-seated mistrust at first, keeping a rifle trained on him at all times and treating him like a wild dog she's in the midst of domesticating. In time, they grow to bond, understand one another and become loyal mutual allies.
- Happily Married: To her husband, Aidan.
Billy
"Billy" Mangana
Portrayed By: Baykali Ganambarr
- Ambiguous Situation: He appears to be mortally wounded in the final scene, but it's not shown whether he died or not. At the very least, he seems at peace with his decision.
- Given Name Reveal: He goes by Billy, but eventually reveals his true name is Mangana.
- Last of His Kind: He eventually learns that he's the last of the Linetemairrener people, prompting his final revenge.
- Native Guide: Clare hires him to get her through the Tasmanian forest.
- This Means Warpaint: He puts on ceremonial warpaint before going after Hawkins and Ruse. As he's the last of his people, the mission is effectively their last stand against the English, and thus the ceremony is appropriate.
The British Officers
Hawkins
Lt. Hawkins
Portrayed By: Sam Claflin
- Ax-Crazy: A slightly more subtle example, but it's clear that beneath the shiny buttons of his uniform, Hawkins is a man whose first reaction is violence. He murders according to his whims, and it doesn't take much more than a moment of potential vulnerability to drive him homicidal with indignant rage.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist, setting the events of the story in motion through his horrific actions.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Every time he almost shows a potentially decent side of him, he quickly swings hard in the other direction. Perhaps the most potent example is his treatment of Eddie, to whom he takes a liking to and tries to mentor, but the moment Eddie proves a minor inconvenience he murders the poor lad without a second thought.
- Never My Fault: He holds the belief that he's an unfairly-maligned officer deserving of an overdue promotion and all the benefits that come with it. In reality, he's a petty thug whose idea of leadership is nothing more than brutal bullying. He's a piss-poor officer who's unable to control his men.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a vitriolic racist and misogynist.
- Undignified Death: Hawkins is found mid-thrust in a brothel, where Billy tosses a spear through his chest before he can get a word out.
- Sociopathic Soldier: The man is a vicious monster, with the only difference between him and a serial killer being his uniform.
Ruse
Sgt. Ruse
Portrayed By: Damon Herriman
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Ruse is pretty merciless, but when the shoe's on the other foot, he becomes a weeping mess. When confronted by Billy with a spear in hand and unable to reload his gun in time, Ruse tries to beg for his life but Billy won't even hear him out.
- Dirty Coward: Ruse is a craven, pitiful man who permits himself to be bullied endlessly by Hawkins, to whom he still remains loyal.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: His reaction upon finding Lowanna is to take her as a sex slave.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Billy impales him through the throat with a spear.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Like Hawkins, he's a thoughtlessly cruel bigot who views non-English, non-white, non-male people as toys for him to use and dispose of.
- Stupid Evil: He's more motivated by his sadistic whims than any sort of plan or logic.
- Undignified Death: He dies sitting down in a brothel, wordlessly pleading for his life as he's impaled through the throat.
- Too Dumb to Live: Ruse isn't just a monster, he's a stupid monster. When he kills Charlie for no good reason, Hawkins is furious... not because he was morally opposed to the act, but because Charlie was their only guide for getting back down the mountain and through the bush.
Jago
Jago
Portrayed By: Harry Greenwood
- Alas, Poor Villain: It’s hard not to feel bad for Jago despite what he did. He may have killed Clare’s baby girl, but he wasn’t trying to; he just wanted to quiet her and he feels horrible after the fact. He might have otherwise been a decent person who was simply led astray by his cruel commanding officer. In a way, he’s also a victim of Hawkins and his cruelty.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of the main trio of soldiers, he's just about the only one with a shred of decency.
Other Characters
Charlie
"Uncle" Charlie
Portrayed By: Charlie Jampijinpa
- Heroic Sacrifice: He knowingly leads Hawkins' party astray in the back country, knowing that they might kill him or worse when they find out.
Aidan
Aidan Carroll
Portrayed By: Michael Sheasby
Claire's husband and the father of her child.- Small Role, Big Impact: He and his daughter are murdered in the first act, but their deaths are what drives Claire to take revenge on Hawkins and his subordinates.
Eddie
Eddie
Portrayed By: Charlie Shotwell
A young convict that Hawkins takes under his wing.- Break the Cutie: Hawkins tries to goad him into shooting Billy, and when he ultimately fails to go through with it he cruelly jokes about adding another 5 years to Eddie's sentence before getting sick of his sobbing and shooting the poor boy dead.
Lowanna
Lowanna
Portrayed By: Magnolia Maymuru
An Aboriginal woman who is captured by Ruse and kept as a sex slave.- Sex Slave: An unwilling one kept by Ruse.
