Aikido is the most passive art there is. It focuses on the actions of your opponent and how to use the energy he gives you against him.

I respect aikido practitioners. Its a very interesting martial art. I think its a nice conduit to Ju Jitsu and other styles that open doors to a variety of applications.

It also depends on the particular school one studies at. Not all are created equal, like in all other MA. Not to slag the art, which can be amazing, I wasn't that impressed with their weapon methods when I sparred with a practicioner (testing for his black belt soon) a few months ago, using my longsword waster against a bokken. I got the majority of the hits. Due to his training, he found it hard to take the intiative and strike first, which in weapon encounters is important to do. He did get one really beautiful hit on me, though, and that wasn't the only hit he got. Keep in mind that Aikido uses weapons to teach the art, rather than "teaching weapons" if you get my meaning. We had a really nice exchange of concepts and conversed at length (hours, really). It was interesting to see the differences and similarities between out Arts. I'm glad I was able to keep him out of grappling range, though. My grappling sucks, even if it is a major part of German swordsmanship. Then I would likely have ended up on my bum. :)

Aikido is one of the so called SOFT arts. A hard art will typically involve linear moves, hard style impact strikes (punch & kick, maybe knees & elbows) as well as rigidity and tension throughout the body. These arts also usually SPEND your own energy in an attempt to transfer energy from you to your target and deliver that energy in a destructive way by bruising or bone breaking by force. A soft art, such as Aikido, will typically involve arcs, spirals, twists, and circular moves and will make use of so called WRAP & TRAP techniques as well as grabs, throws, simple redirect nudges, and of course accupressure point pokes and pinches. As far as energy goes, most soft styles will actually draw out or absorb and transform the energy of your attacker giving you a bit more than before the attack started, or at least turn and or use your attacker`s energy against your attacker himself, which at worst will leave you with the same amount of energy as you had before the attack began so you can more easily survive a very long battle with many attackers ... unlike the rapid exhaustion that comes with a hard style after beating a gang or army of attackers by SPENDING your own energy. One more thing, when comparing one martial art to another, you should try to imagine two incredible grand masters, one from each art, both of whom have an absolutely perfect ability within their art, but only within their art ... to try to compare the arts using low level students and their inferior abilities and many lessons not yet learned will not do justice to either of the arts in their entirety. I say this because it is never the art itself, but rather the person from the art that one is able to test and then compare. ... keep your mind even sharper than you keep your sword!

I have since found this video that says it all.