Aaron (Character)

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Aaron is a main character and a survivor of the outbreak in *Should I Fear? Should I Fearless?*. Aaron is a recruiter for the community of the Alexandria Safe-Zone. His good-natured and charitable personality mixed with his survival skills and good judge of character made him a valuable asset to recruiting new members for the community. He went along with his boyfriend Eric Raleigh, who both met before the apocalypse and fell in love. Aaron was responsible for bringing Jaxx Stanley into Alexandria and has developed a close bond with him due to both of them being homosexual and being able to understand each other. He was also responsible for bringing Rick Grimes' group into Alexandria and is in the process of developing a close bond with Daryl Dixon due to both of them being outsiders, as he and Eric are still victims of homophobia within the community.

## Overview

### Personality

Aaron is described as "an affable, good-natured, adventurous guy. Despite feeling like a bit of an outsider for most of his life, he's passionate about people and the good they can do. He doesn't think twice about putting himself in danger if he believes something positive can come from it."

Aaron had been mistreated and ostracized most of his life, mostly due to him being openly gay and the reaction of people's homophobia, including abuse from his own mother. Despite this, Aaron consistently saw the good in these people even though they were being offensive. He has a good judge of character and sees the best in everyone. Aaron is very altruistic and always wanted to help people, causing him to join a NGO and give supplies to those living in the Niger River Delta.

Alongside his charitable personality, Aaron also has a sense of humor and optimism. He aims to keep people at ease with him. Sometimes his humor goes over people's heads, but he still aims for people to see the brighter side of things as he does. Aaron was supportive of Daryl's status as an outsider and supportive of Jaxx's sexuality and his relationship with Sam Anderson. One of the things he enjoys doing is photography and collecting memorabilia from the places he had visited. After the apocalypse, he began collecting license plates from each state to create a mural on a wall in his house.

Aaron extremely loves and cares for Eric, his boyfriend; as well as Jaxx and Sam. All four had been outsiders at some point, treated with bigotry, and are the only people who understood each other. Aaron and Eric work together in recruiting outsiders for Alexandria as well as collecting license plates for their collection. Aaron is willing to tolerate many things, but one thing he can't tolerate is Eric, Jaxx, and even Sam being threatened or harmed in any way. He will even result to violence, something he is usually against, if it meant defending Eric, Jaxx, and Sam, including putting himself in danger.

After Aaron brought Rick Grimes's group into Alexandria, he and Eric have began to grow a close-bond to one of the group members, Daryl Dixon. Aaron saw that, like himself and Eric, Daryl was an outsider to both his own group and Alexandria and that people fear him even though they do not know him. Because of Eric's near-death experience, Aaron had him retire and gave the position to Daryl so that Eric could stay safe and that Daryl could get out more and be himself. Aaron's affection gave Daryl purpose and was willing to sacrifice himself for Aaron's safety so that he could be safe if nothing else.

## Pre-Apocalypse

### Washington, D.C.

Aaron is openly gay and, as a child, was abused by his mother in that he was forced to go through conversion therapy, such as eating foods he did not like to "make him more manly", but Aaron described her as a "very confused woman" who tried her hardest to make him tougher. These foods became abuse triggers for him and rendered him unable to eat them as an adult, where he is no longer able to eat applesauce, salmon patties, and onions.

In his adult life, he lived in Washington, D.C., as a politico. He started working in the political circuit but felt that he could do his best work abroad in a hands-on approach that would utilize his skill set. He then joined a non-government organization where he was tasked with giving supplies and food to people in need in the Niger River Delta and Liberia and often encountered dangerous people in the process. He constantly had to argue and make negotiations with African drug lords and violent scavengers while in his field.

Through working in the NGO, he met Eric Raleigh. Aaron and Eric soon became best friends and worked well together in Africa, with Eric knowing how to handle the nature and terrain due to being raised in the Appalachian region. The two developed a deep-trust and eventually fell in love. They became partners and lived together in D.C., but became victims of homophobia by people who, according to Aaron, were well-meaning but otherwise offensive and bigoted.

## Post-Apocalypse

Aaron and Eric were living together in Washington, D.C., when the outbreak went global. Due to being in D.C. at the time as well as working in the political circuit, Aaron and Eric were directed by the military to evacuate to a safe-zone in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburban area. Ohio Congresswoman Deanna Monroe and her family had also been evacuated there, being told that the military would return for them. The military, however, never arrived. Aaron and Eric remained with the Monroe family and several others who had elected to remain within the area, as they saw promise with the supposed "safe-zone".

Eventually, walls were built around the area and a community was formed. The community now had Deanna as its established leader. She believed that who people were before their lives had been changed by the outbreak mattered in sustaining the community. Because of Aaron and Eric's work in the NGO, their charitable nature, and ability to travel in dangerous terrain, it made them assets in the recruiting program designed to bring in more survivors. Aaron and Eric were tasked with finding survivors and monitoring them for several days to see if they were eligible for the community. Aaron would then approach the survivors with the news, with Eric being his guard, and bringing the survivors back to the safe-zone for "auditioning" in front of Deanna. Though when they watched Jaxx Stanley, both approached so that the teen would trust in their word of the community.

In their spare time, Aaron and Eric began a hobby of collecting license plates from abandoned cars from each state, making a mural of all fifty states in their home, though Aaron lost all of his license plates when he encountered Rick's group. They also collected other vintage items to decorate in their home. In order to convince survivors to join the safe-zone, Aaron took up photography and took pictures of the community as evidence. Back at the safe-zone, despite rescuing a majority of the members there, the community still treated Aaron and Eric as outsiders because of their intolerance towards Aaron being openly gay, causing Aaron to avoid any gatherings and events of the community for fear of public ostracism in front of Deanna.

At one point, Aaron and Eric recruited a man named Davidson, who was the leader of a small group, but the group could not reside peacefully in the community. Deanna exiled them and had Aaron, a supply runner named Nicholas, and her son Aiden drive them out. The recruiting for larger groups was suspended, focusing now on lone survivors. This occurred for several months until Deanna realized that in order for the community and its members to survive, they would need more people who have been out there longer to teach them how to handle the new world. Aaron started to look for larger groups along with Eric. At one point, Aaron encountered two people who sought to kill him, forcing him to kill them. It is unknown if Eric had been there to help him.

Aaron observed Rick Grimes and his group as they traveled to Washington, D.C., in hopes of finding other survivors. Aaron left bottles of water for them on their path as a test, but the group declined to drink from it, fearing it may be poisoned. When a storm emerges, Daryl Dixon informed the group of a barn he'd seen earlier and lead the group there to safety, and this quick-thinking act to keep his people alive convinced Aaron that they needed to be brought back to Alexandria. The following morning, upon seeing that the group had survived the storm and the walker attack, Aaron told Eric to remain nearby and watch in case anything happened to him.

## Killed Victims

This list shows the victims Aaron has killed:

* Buttons *(Out of Mercy)*
* 2 unnamed people
* Numerous counts of walkers.

## Appearances

The list below shows the story episodes that Aaron has appeared in:

### Should I Fear? Should I Fear*less*?

* It All Starts Here... (*Flashback*)
* The Party Vol.1
* An Anderson Meltdown Pt.2 (*Mentioned only*)
* Nervous Nelly (*Mentioned only*)
* Just A Greene Away...
* The Party Vol.2 Pt.1
* The Party Vol.2 Pt.2
* Buttons and Cookies
* If You Try, You Can Conquer
* Now
* Descendants (*Ghost version*)
* Snapping Leads To Slapping

## Trivia

* Robert Kirkman hinted on a *Talking Dead* special in November 2014 that the second half of Season 5 "will contain a very prominent gay character from the comics", likely referring to Aaron. Ross Marquand was later confirmed in January 2015 by TVLine to be playing the character.
* Before Ross Marquand received the role of Aaron, he auditioned for the role of Gareth. Because of his comedic roots, the casting director thought Ross would be better suited for Aaron because of the character's humorous personality and had him return shortly after auditioning for Gareth to audition for Aaron.
	+ The casting call for Aaron used the code name **Logan**.
* Ross Marquand confirmed that Aaron and Eric were in a relationship before the apocalypse: They met through work in their NGO and lived together in D.C., becoming one of the original members of the Safe-Zone.
* Aaron is the second openly male homosexual in the series and the second openly homosexual character. The first being Jaxx Stanley.
* It could be considered that Aaron is the second politician in the show following Deanna Monroe, a former U.S. Congresswoman, considering how he was a politico in D.C., but he left before he had an official title. This was because he believed he could better use his altruistic personality in a hands-on approach in the peace corps rather than becoming a politician.
* Ross Marquand revealed that Aaron is a fan of **The Smiths**, his favorite song specifically being "Hand in Glove", which in the lyrics alludes to lead singer Morrisey's sexuality and the homophobia that gay couples encounter when being public.
* Aaron considers Jaxx a younger brother, and Jaxx considers Aaron a "brother from another mother".
* Aaron misses telephones and being able to use. He has a hope that one day the phone in his house will ring and someone will be on the other end, just wanting to talk.

## Note

* **All information is subject to change. As well as information will be added and removed.**