what's so special about aikido?

Outside of the whole beauty of aikido with its flowing, circular movements, the thing that drew me to aikido the most was the whole philosophy behind it. It's one of the few martial arts that goes beyond self-defense to include keeping your attacker safe as well. This is a lot higher bar to pass than most martial arts that only aim to keep yourself safe. It's what makes aikido so difficult, mentally (having a calm and cool head) and technically (not harming someone with technique by accident). I sometimes like to refer to it as a social-defense, since you're trying to foster a good social relationship with the attacker. One may ask, why do this when they're only interested in destroying you? Well, if the attacker happens to be a family member or a good friend who's having a bad day, I'd like to have the option to keep both of us safe. If it's a random person on the street, then I'd like to be able to tell the police or a court of law that I gave the attacker many chances to stop by attempting to keep them safe. This was something I could get on board with.