I agree, this is someone new. I'm still leaning towards a referee or a judge of the "game" that is being played.

Obviously, the "game" has been played before, by many different people and bodies (maybe possessed or copied like non-John). The bodies in the cave with the black and white stones may attest to that one. Also the "ashes" have been used before, so other bodies have been burned as Jacob's vessel, or body was burned.

My big reason to believe this is not Aaron is:

a. The age of the child.
b. Why wouldn't Jacob appear as himself to really rub it in MIB's face? Why a little kid? Don't buy it.
c. He had an "authority" to his voice, like a Judge or someone watching the rules to make sure nobody cheats - death maybe...
d. Last night on the recap show, the pop-ups were real careful NOT to say anything about this character. That usually means the producers don't want us to know for sure, and would rather us all talk about it on here! LOL!

I'm still of the belief that it's someone new... I'm going to the forum to see if there is a poll to take...

I like prodigyman1970's theory but for two things: Aaron not being on the island and not being old enough.
When Locke was shot and left in the Dharma pit he saw Walt, who was "taller and older" than he should have been and also not on the island.
In spite of those two reasons why it could be Aaron I do agree that it's more likely to be Jacob.

I didn't consider it could be an older Aaron since he's not on the island. A watcher maybe, unLocke was surprised when Sawyer could see him. Why did un-Locke return to say "who?" when Sawyer asked where he went?

I think that Jacob vs. Man in Black are just another example of faith vs. facts. Jacob basically asks of everyone to just have faith in the island, while the MIB offers and gives Sawyer answers (or so he says) in the same episode (whoa!). Which is right - faith or facts? And are they mutually exclusive,

Whoever said the blond child can't be Aaron because he'd only be three years old... "Lost" isn't exactly on a realistic timeline, and doesn't exactly adhere to any specific place or time. I have given up on decided "rules" for this show.

What if this character is neither Jacob or Aaron, but rather someone new?

My take is this is a watcher, or judge over the GAME the white and black characters are playing. I think that since Jacob wanted Sayid taken to the temple he intended to take over his dead body, much like MIB took over Locke's body. That may or may not work out though since the water seems tainted now...

I also am not convinced that black = evil and white = good. If you look at the game of Backgammon or Chess, they are just colors.

What if this "Jacob" character is really the evil being here? He may have trapped the MIB dude into an eternal GAME of man's free will. It seems to have rules, and the MIB guy is pretty tired of the game. I mean, the "OTHERS" that seem to worship Jacob are not nice people, so why should he be nice too?

SO - to get off the island MIB needs a LIVE body (perhaps Sawyer's will do) to actually take over and literally walk off the island. It has to be given willingly.

Just my random thoughts on it...

What about the fact that whats her face took the ashes of Jacob with her from the fire? what is she going to do with them? one question i want answered is who took over chritians body? and what was with the horse Kate saw? among a billion other questions i have.

The boy is Sawyer.

ill bet all my money on it being both... i bet you aaron is jacob. or they are related... but since LOST has been amazing at casting people that actually look like they are of the same family... and when the littlet prince of the jungle is walking away shaking his head at UnLocke... he looks a crap load like claire... does he not?

Another reason for it to be Jacob is the way they focused on his bare left foot -- they've shown Jacob that way at least twice that I've seen -- at the beach when we first see him, and also in the cave when we see him weaving the tapestry.

Can't rememeber if the clothes match what Jacob was wearing on the beach the first time we see him.

I think that with this being the final season, anytime a question has a simple answer and a complex answer, the simple one is the better choice. I believe that the writers gave us everything they need for us not to have to make a leap of faith to know that was Jacob.
- Jacob can't be seen by everyone except a select few.
- Richard did not see the boy.
- UnLocke did see the boy.
- Sawyer did see the boy.
- The boy told UnLocke you can't kill him so he knows whatever rules they have in place.

In addition I believe the flashback/Jacob touch scenes serve the purpose of telling us that those people can't be killed by UnLocke (or at least not directly).

We also know that UnLocke is on the bad guy side, as evidenced by him throwing away the white stone from the scale, purely for us viewers to no longer be confused.

Evidence supporting the boy not being Aaron:
- He wasn't on the Ajira flight (he was given to his grandmother)
- The timeline is 2007 where Aaron would still only be about 3 years old and the show has not shown us any reason to expect Aaron would have aged off island and then been transported back in time as a youth. Although it could have happened, at this point I'd say it's fairly improbable.

Could be Jacob, especially because they made a point of showing us again unLocke kicking Jacob into the fire. I hadn't thought about it until then--Ben didn't technically kill Jacob. He wounded him, but it was unLocke who ultimately killed him when he kicked him into the fire. I think he may have gotten ahead of himself, and broke the rules.

crap i don't know why did i even mentioned jack in my last comment :P

yeah Jacob or Aaron

or maybe Jacob is Aaron

young jacob
but then again
why not Aaron he is blonde...
it couldn't be jack since he's got dark hair

My immediate thought was young Jacob, too. But then he said "You can't kill HIM" and I thought that blew it out of the water. But maybe he was talking about Sawyer...

Also, Sawyer is "a candidate," so maybe that's why he could see the boy when Richard couldn't? Sawyer saw Kate's horse too. (But then, so did Kate, who apparently isn't a candidate, so never mind...)

I thought when I saw him that it was Jacob. Whether it is a vision or reincarnation, I'm not sure. He just has Jacob's eyes.