Old men are weak, right? When it comes to fiction, more often than not the oldest, apparently feeblest characters are the ones to be feared the most. They kick ass, take names, and can fend off armies single-handedly. They can be the strongest character in the entire story. The reason for this is obvious: "Experience and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time." Old men in a dangerous line of work have been doing it for a very long time. Additionally, in a Crapsack World, or when Earth Is a Battlefield, a man may well only live to be old if he is already very bad-ass to start with.