Posted Mar 16, 2012 @ 9:28 AM
Originally, I was intrigued by the idea that August was somehow related to the Grimms, instead of actually being a character. That theory was based purely on his name, with Wayne Booth having written "The Rhetoric Of Fiction" and then also the fact that the Brothers Grimm had a BFF named August. But now I suspect that was just the clever way they chose his name, but I reckon his actual character is Pinocchio (and the boy who found Emma, because the ages match up too conveniently IMO).
They've made a point of August saying he always tells the truth, then he totally lied about the lemurs in Nepal, (that glaring glitch had to be deliberate, right?), which means he also lied to Emma when he said he doesn't tell lies, and telling lies was a key factor of Pinocchio's story.
Though something from that lemur speech may be a truthful hint, because Pinocchio would run off on adventures, and August was saying how he runs off on adventures. In one of the OUAT podcasts, someone mentioned that Fables-verse Pinocchio has an incurable case of wanderlust.
But what really intrigues me is that thus far we haven't seen hints of a Storybrooke version of Pinocchio. Other family members who were together in Fairytale are still together in Storybrooke, (with the exception of Snow/Charming and by extension of that, Abigail/Frederick). Granny and Red are together in both worlds, as are Hansel and Gretel, even Jack Sprat and his wife who popped up with their cameo in the Dreamy ep. Yet back in the pilot we had Marco saying of children, "I'd give anything for one. My wife and I, we tried for many years, but it was not meant to be." If Geppetto and Pinocchio were together right before the curse hit, why are they not still together in Storybrooke? Pinocchio's gotta be somewhere, right? And if we've thus far seen no sign of him in Storybrooke, then he could have been living outside it for these 28 years. Maybe that's even why Regina is suspicious of him, (beyond the automatic suspicion because no one ever comes to town), because she knows that there was a boy missing when she did the headcount after everyone got transported, so now she's wondering if this newcomer could be him.
August obviously has something to do with the writing of the book, considering he was messing around with it and claims to be a writer. If he was Pinocchio, perhaps the book is simply his own re-telling of stories from his old homeland. If he was 7 years old when the curse hit, he'd have known people in that land, and he'd have known their stories, (unlike Emma who has no recollection of Fairytale because she was 2mins old when she left). Wouldn't the book had to have been written by someone who was actually there, considering these versions of the stories went all the way up until Emma being born and how she escaped? Pinocchio would totally know all about that story.
Maybe the travels that August was telling Ruby about has been his way of trying to find where in our world all the Fairytale folks ended up, (assuming Geppetto gave him the heads up before sending him away, and told him to look for them).
Of course, there's still the question of how Pinocchio would have escaped to our world because the tree could only protect one. I've seen some speculation that perhaps puppet Pinocchio was made from a branch of the tree, but I dunno that that would necessarily transport him. I wouldn't be surprised if Geppetto made a deal with Rumple to help his son escape the curse. Or perhaps it was even something built into the curse that someone apart from Emma had to be transported with knowledge of all that happened, because if no one wrote the book and got it to Henry, then Emma wouldn't find her way to Storybrooke. If so, perhaps Mr Gold has been keeping an eye on August ever since they all arrived in our world, and has somehow manipulated him throughout his life, (as though August was a puppet, hmmmm), to lead everything and everyone to this moment in time.
Maybe the stuff August was doing with the book was editing some stories. Ever since Henry said he hasn't figured out who Mr Gold is, I've wondered if Rumple isn't in the book, because if Henry had read about him, you'd think it'd be pretty obvious who he was right? Maybe if August was Pinocchio re-telling stories from his world, he hadn't known about Rumple because Geppetto tried to keep that from him, the way parents stop their kids from watching the news to shield them from the evils of the world. But now that he's older and wiser, August/Pinocchio does know about Rumple, so was adding him into the book so Henry can figure it out and tell Emma to help her break the curse. Perhaps.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble on, (tends to happen with shows like this, speculating on one crackpot theory leads to more and more), but, yeah, basically: #TeamPinocchio Can't wait to see August's ep so I can see how wrong everything in this post is. ;-)
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