Competent men make me hot

I have this long-standing kink for competent men (and women, one reason I love Mace in Strange Days, Ripley, and Sarah Connor so much) -- nothing endears a character to me more than competency. Even if they make the wrong decisions, they are capable and dauntless in the pursuit of getting things done. They know how to improvise. They know their tools, their weapons. They know their shit. Jack Bauer of 24 is turning out to be my World's Most Competent Man hero -- I never much liked Kiefer Sutherland before 24 came on, but right away I recognized Jack Bauer as a defining Competent Man kinkfest. I loved that he shot an unarmed guy in the end of first season because it was the expedient thing to do and also revenge; I loved that second season opened with him shooting an actual handcuffed suspect, killing him daid, right there in the interrogation room, and then asking for a hacksaw so he could cut the guy's head off. Because they needed the head. Jack does not fuck around.

So I loved Monday night's episode with him just being all "fuck your missile strikes, I'm going in to save my girlfriend and my boss." Go, Jack. And he and the defense secretary were so great together! Competency to the max! They had their maneuvers down perfectly, right down to the back-to-back sneak down the hallway -- no untoward surprises for them. They were just a fantastic team together, both of them knew their weapons and how to handle them, knew hand signals and how to use them... yeah, baby. Plus, Jack is hot in a flak vest. 24 lost my interest last year, but I'm loving this season, especially because Jack is just so amazingly competent once again. (And Arnold Vosloo's coming up soon, so they better get this party started, whoo-hoo!) I need a competent Jack Bauer don't fuck with me icon sort of like this Mal icon that boniblithe made. Because he is just... so... cool.

Kiefer's ability with a gun reminds me of something that makes me crazy about The Fast and the Furious -- every time I see Brian pointing that gun at Dom, I want to yank it out of his hand, bitch-slap him, and then pistol whip him with the damn gun he doesn't know how to hold. Whoever let Paul Walker decide to hold that gun in such a pussy way, and so bizarrely (no cop would ever hold a gun like that; hell, no normal person would, either), should also be bitch-slapped. The next vid I wanted to make for F&F would involve a lot of the gun scenes, so I'm dreading having to look at that idiotic stance for long periods of time. Brian, you're pretty, but you're an idiot.