Aaron: Sinnoh's Bug Elite Four and His Lost Wurmple

Aaron opens Sinnoh's Elite Four, and he opens it with bugs. The first of the four Trainers the League pits against the player, he champions a type most people file under early-game fare. The anime adds the wound that explains everything else: a starter Pokémon he himself left behind, and that came back.

Contents

• First in line, Bug-type specialist
• A demonstration, autographs, and a workout
• The Wurmple he abandoned
• In the manga, a quiet reader and a codebreaker
• Trading cards and a TV nod
• Aaron at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

First in line, Bug-type specialist

His profile fits in two lines and leaves no room for doubt: Aaron is the first member of the Sinnoh League's Elite Four, and he specializes in Bug-type Pokémon. That makes him the one who greets the Trainer who comes to challenge the League, right at the start.

This Elite Four isn't fixed once and for all. In Platinum, once the Stark Mountain challenge is done, the Elite Four revamps its teams: Aaron fields the same five Pokémon — Yanmega, Scizor, Heracross, Vespiquen, and Drapion — but some fifteen levels higher.

His profile also credits him with two earlier careers, Gym Leader first, and Bug Catcher before that. The mobile game recruited him in May 2022, in his standard outfit and paired with a Vespiquen; the ambition it gives him there is simple: to reach a level of perfection as a Trainer worthy of the strength and beauty he sees in his Bug Pokémon.

A demonstration, autographs, and a workout

The anime introduces him straight away as a local star. He shows off in public what his Pokémon can do, then signs autographs for his fans — and that's how Ash and his friends end up in his orbit.

When he learns that the group knows the Trainer he is due to face a week later, he offers to take them to his training ground. There, he puts himself through his own physical training every day, reasoning that there's no reason his Pokémon should be the only ones putting in the effort.

The big match itself is over quickly. Against Cynthia, his strongest Pokémon can't go the distance, and the episode "Aiding the Enemy!" leaves him no illusions about what separates him from the top of the League.

The Wurmple he abandoned

As a child, Aaron climbs a tree and finds he can't get back down: his fear of heights keeps him stuck at the top. A Wurmple gets him out of that tight spot, and that Pokémon goes on to become his first partner.

What follows is less flattering. After a loss, he blames the Wurmple for being too weak and leaves it behind; when he thinks better of it and goes back, the Pokémon is gone. That mistake is the origin of the rule he has held himself to ever since: never again give up on one of his own.

Team Rocket takes advantage of his visit to steal his entire team, and he charges after them without a second thought. A Solar Beam fired by a Beautifly frees his Pokémon: the Bug-type turns out to be the Wurmple from his childhood, evolved and back, now judging itself strong enough to take its place at his side again.

🐛 His bugs have their own section: browse the Pokémon figures.

In the manga, a quiet reader and a codebreaker

His first manga appearance is anything but heroic. He walks into a Pokémon Center with his Stunky at the same time as Red and waits, reading a book; the latter's Clefairy knocks his Pokémon off the healing machine and makes its condition worse, which sends him off in a bad mood.

The Platinum arc gives him a far more serious role. The Pokémon Association enlists him, Lucian and Bertha, to decipher Charon's notes, a document stolen by a Lickilicky.

The trio eventually cracks its contents and hands the result to Diamond and Pearl, to stop Charon from capturing Sinnoh's Legendary Pokémon. Another manga, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, shows him briefly in chapter 37, seated in the stands alongside his two colleagues to watch the battle between Hareta and Koya.

Trading cards and a TV nod

Aaron entered the Trading Card Game with the Platinum—Rising Rivals expansion, released in France on November 6, 2009. His Pokémon arrived at the same time, in the same expansion.

A detail in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 pays tribute to him without ever naming him. One of the shows broadcast on the in-game TV is titled "The Diary of a Poké Romantic", and it airs as part of Best of Sinnoh TV.

In this program, a character says he was a Bug Catcher, then a Gym Leader, before closing his Gym to try to join the Elite Four. That career path matches the one on Aaron's profile point for point, so much so that the reference is considered likely.

Aaron at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What type does Aaron specialize in?
  The Bug type. He is the first member of the Sinnoh League's Elite Four, and therefore the first opponent any Trainer who comes to challenge the League has to face.
• What is Aaron's starter Pokémon?
  A Wurmple he met as a child: the Pokémon helped him down from a tree where his fear of heights had left him stuck, and it became his first partner.
• Why does Aaron refuse to abandon a Pokémon?
  Because he did it once. After a loss, he left his Wurmple behind, accusing it of being too weak, and the Pokémon was gone when he came back for it.
• Does Aaron beat Cynthia in the anime?
  No. Their match is lost before it starts: even his most powerful Pokémon are no match for those of the Sinnoh League's top Trainer.
• What does Aaron do in the manga?
  In the Platinum arc, the Pokémon Association enlists him, along with Lucian and Bertha, to decipher notes stolen from Charon, in order to stop Charon from capturing Sinnoh's Legendary Pokémon.

In short

Aaron isn't the Elite Four member you remember for his team, but the one you remember for his mistake. A starter Pokémon abandoned for being weak, then coming back on its own once it had grown strong: the whole character fits inside that loop, including his habit of training his own body instead of just watching his bugs do the work. The Bug type has no more stubborn defender.