The Guardian has an article today about the most memorable video-game characters to date: Lara Croft, Crash, Bella and Mortimer Goth, Cloud, Pac-Man, Sonic, Solid Snake, Kirby, Link, Mario, Aw, Dr. Gordon Freeman, Ryu, Max, Rayman, Jak, Pikachu, and Spyro the Dragon. Most of these are entirely new to me, but I immediately recognized Lara Croft and Mario. To my shame, I even knew their names. One feature of most of the faces in the series is that they look improbably fierce. Or implausibly tough. The combination of soft features and tough frowns is what makes them what they are, I guess. Heroes and heroines of this day and age. To wit, video games are meant for the weak who dream of becoming strong. The winning combination, or so it appears. Which explains why the military establishments around the world now use the video-game enthusiasts of yesteryear in armed conflict. Sitting comfortably in some base far from the fight, they wield the deadly joysticks with palpable relish. The improbable heroes and heroines of a moribund civilization in its final convulsions.