Aaron is the boy and is coming as Jacob’s replacement…?

I was thinking about the young boy that has now made two appearances to Nemesis on the island. The boy seems to have grown between the two visits – his hair has darkened. As I thought about it, Walt’s appearance to Locke when Locke was shot by Ben came to me. When Walt appeared to Locke, he was neither dead nor anywhere near the island – so it was not as a spirit and not him in physical form – he had aged (grown like 4 feet), which actually seemed to mean it was a ‘vision’ of the live Walt, who was at that time in America, having left the island. This, in turn, made me think of Aaron.
How old is Aaron now? It depends on the viewpoint. Widmore or Desmond do not seem to have aged much, so in general people on the island are not aging much faster than those off island. But then again, the space-time shifts seem to depend on where you are looking within the magnetic ‘snow globe’. So Aaron may still be young off the island, but this is his future self as a ‘vision’ coming through a space-time morph.
Anyhow, I believe Aaron could quite possibly be the sixth candidate. I know there is a lot of attention on Desmond, but I think he is more of a key player based on his abilities, not on the fact that he is a candidate to replace Jacob. His role seems unique in a different way.
I believe Aaron could be the one that will take Jacob’s place. He is still innocent, after all. And that may be key to the individual that takes Jacob’s place. As I think of Aaron, I believe he has to be key to the overall story.
– He was meant to be on the flight
– He was born on the island
– In the episode ‘Abandoned’, when Locke was handling Aaron for Claire, Charlie got dreams about the need to baptize Aaron. Was this some kind of foresight sent to Charlie by the island? Charlie goes to great lengths to baptize Aaron, even starting a fire to distract everyone. Why baptise Aaron? Wikipedia: The purpose of baptism is as a means of repelling evil.
Even though Charlie fails, Aaron and Claire eventually get baptized by Eko (recall Jacob’s relationship to water; and recall Richard’s ‘baptism’ by Jacob).
– Claire abandons Aaron when Christian Shepherd comes up to her after the house explosion. Is this the “spirit” Christian, or MIB/Nemesis guised as Christian? I believe it was the “spirit” Christian, protecting Aaron from Claire, who had “died” in the explosion but come back to life and was now potentially “infected”. If Claire is not infected, why else would Nemesis keep her around?
– When Kate is off the island, Claire comes to her in visions, saying not to bring Aaron back to the island. Why? My guess is because it is not the right time or the right way, and protects him from Nemesis. It’s possible Aaron will find his own way to the island, just as he seems to be doing now with these ‘visits’ that anger Nemesis.
There are many holes in this theory, like – how does Aaron know the “rules” of the island? Why would he say, ‘you can’t kill him’ to Nemesis, etc…. how would he know that? How does this fit into the alternate reality. Not sure… I have a theory on that, but that’s for a later time….
Another hint to Aaron’s importance is his connection to the Shepherd family, which is obviously a special family in the Lost world. But the name itself may be a hint. I still have a theory (though not getting many people onboard with it) that the island is the lost Garden of Eden (“this Godforsaken rock” as Nemesis put it) and that:
1. Jacob is Annubis (Annubis is the keeper of lost souls; in the temple there is a heiroglyphic of him facing MIB/Nemesis symbolic of him preventing Nemesis from leaving. Annubis also uses a balance to weigh good vs evil).
2. Jacob was once a man, Abel, a shepherd that was killed by his brother.
3. Nemesis is ‘evil incarnate’, basically the choice to do evil over good. He also was once a man, possible Cain, the “Bad Twin”.
So I think ‘Shepherd’ is a clue that links the Shepherds to Jacob (who was the original ‘shepherd’, thereby linking Aaron to Jacob.