As someone who has taken Aikido (as well as several other arts) - it has a lot of merit to the aspect of the self inner peace, control..and being a centered person...as a general Martial Art form it teaches well in regards to understanding joint locks, leverage and redirection of energy & chi...but as an actual or street grade aggressive martial art it leaves a whole lot to be desired. Steven Seagal for example is a 7th level (I think) aikido master - his moves you see in movies are impressive in appearance but if the stunt folks did not cooperate there would be joints and bones broken rather then the impressive looking flips and spins and throwing folks around - plus it is very exaggerated for the movies and I tend to think he has developed his own aspect/style to traditional Aikido...but his movies underling themes are also always "peace" and that underlying calm and centered aspect of a person--which is Aikido and which was last nights episode. Bo (Staff) fighting has little to do with Aikido directly however...and I found TWD display of it a bit off as some of the hand/grip/stance positioning and so on was painful to watch for the mistakes--it stuck with the very basic form which is fine--Eastman was not supposed to be some 'grand master' expert here..but it was slightly misleading that Bo is exclusively to Aikido. IMO Morgans form is a lot more spot on than Eastman's is but he has been having to do it more months than Eastman character in training for the show. With many martial arts - you figure out what works (for you), keep it and discard the rest..and work on integrating it for yourself. For joint locks and leverage Aikido can be informative..but as an aggressive martial art it leaves a lot to be desired--it isn't a "you can defeat anyone" type of art..and if you were to go up against someone with similar training or better or simply fighting back who knew how to fight--it would be a real issue to gain control. I'm sure a lot of Aikido dojo's are going to get some phone calls today from some folks wanting to learn--but they may find things disappointing.. If you ever see an Aikido demonstration in person it looks like a laughable staged chunk of bullshit as the 'aggressor' is the one often throwing themselves all over while the master just stands there barely flipping a finger. But IMO it is a good thing for those interested to learn various different aspects of different styles--they all have something to offer and things to be learned..which can only be a benefit to yourself overall...

My two cents worth before this forum becomes obsessed with Aikido this week as they were about Glen last week... :D