I've dated all of the Cardinal sign men and we clashed because I found them all to be passive and boring. I pretty much am going to go out on a limb and say they thought I was an A Whole and bossy lol. Now, number one I'm an Aries so I find males of all signs to be very subservient to me to begin with. Cardinal sign men I don't peg as easily bossed around but compared to an Aries female they are. I dislike the Cardinal males', " Oh I'm always right" attitude. And then I berate them and they quickly change their mind.
Aries men I've found to be the most irritating and I steer clear of them now with good reason. Too much Cardinal, I'm the Boss ego between us and I every Aries man I've dealt with that liked me I just couldn't stomach their smug behavior. Libra and Cancer men I think are sweet and romantic, not that bossy but too passive. I actually only view Capricorn men as my Cardinal Counterpart, if there is such a thing... They are self confident and their "bossiness" doesn't come off whiny like Cancer and Libra men, nor does come off as prickish like Aries men. They have this controlled calm about them that I like.
As for the initiator thing, eh, I don't like to be chased nor chase, I just like us to be casual like a buddy buddy type of thing. Usually when a guy pursues me hard I get turned off, and I refuse to chase men, so I don't consider myself to be the initiator either.
Now, Cardinal Mars signs is another story... You put two of those together and there's gonna be some trouble a brewing' in THAT relationship. Lucky me, I have Cardinal Mars too ;)
Oh BQ: I don't know, that's something of personal preference and of course you need to look at the Moon and Venus signs. I adore the personalities of Gemini and Sagittarius men but they aren't all too trustworthy IMO. The only males I genuinely like and get along with well from Fixed are Aquarius. Me personally, I'll take any of those three over Cardinal males any day.