Aikido is the martial art that Steven Segal uses. It is a good martial arts but I have to wonder how long it would take to master a lot of the holds he uses. If you really watch you see he usually waits for an attack, does not defeat it straight on , but rather pulls your punching arm ,and strikes it to put it in a vulnerable position then puts a hold on a joint. I hope I desribe it correctly DarkKnight. You then use all your strength on a small joint. The easiest thing is if somebody puts their finger in your face grab it and bend it backwards they will go to their knees, while doing this, I would twist to the side so they don't strike your privates, you can just lift your leg to block most strikes.
Tao of jeet kune do is the book that bruce lee wrote about his fighting method, it is a method of fighting, I think as opposed to a style. The one thing about eastern martial arts is some of the moves are based on fighting that was used a long time ago. They use ridgid patterns of strikes, kicks,and grappling. Bruce Lee believed in the fact that every threat is different, so every attack, and defense is different, I believe, I have not read it in a long time. I guess he was trained in Kung Fu, or Gung FU, I think all eastern martial arts are offshoots of these martial arts, they combine kicks strike hold, almost anything you want.
As I understand it Tae kwon do is a korean martial arts, I studied Kenpo, which is a korean city, and a martial arts. I though people who talked about tae-won-do talked about a lot of kicks. The Kenpo I sudied was very modernistic, either using a traditional boxing stance, or a side stance. I was taught Front kicks, and side kicks, I also learned I could kick with decent power low. Learned the poses, and positions, but liked to spar more than do the "moves". Learned more about my weaknesses with sparring and what to avoid to get clobbered. I am a firm believer that power comes from the legs, through the midsection to the upper body. I learned the a proper side kick was executed byshift weight from kicking foot to non-kicking foot, lifting knee, and at the last moment pointing the foot at target, and pivoting on weight bearing foot to add power to your strike. You sound like a good person. If you can watch a little Ultimate fighting, and or pride. These are contestes that it hink the only rules are that no eye gouging, or biting, and no kicking while the opponent is down, in UFC, you can kick a downed opponent in Pride I believe. These contests are usually very interesting, they have more groundwork that an actual "street" fight, because people will bite you to stay alive. It stresses the variety of fighting stlyes, and body styles, Tito Ortiz is a guy who when I weight lifted, I would have said, trained for the beach, where Chuck Liddel is probably just a naturally strong person. Some of the older UFC's are probably on video, get one with Tank Abbot. The fighters within the last 2 years are highly trained, physically and in their art. At the start of UFC it was almost a "toughman contest" with guys who had almost no skill. Try to do some ab work, when you get the "wind knocked out of you" you will know why. Search the internet, they should have the major martial arts foundations. Good luck