I still don’t see how Pinocchio escaped the curse unless he became part of the wardrobe. The wardrobe only took one, Emma, so if Pinocchio went through with her, he couldn’t have been human. He would have had to have reverted to wood. Its the only logic I can think of (granted these are Lost writers). How is Gepetto able to save Pinocchio from the curse otherwise? Does he have some kind of magic? Made a deal with Rumple? The EQ? As for Gepetto not having any children, that would be the loss of his happy ending. All Gepetto ever wanted was a child, in the original story, and when Pinocchio becomes a real boy that is the happy ending.
If Pinocchio is an inanimate object (such as that cuckoo clock) we could well have seen him in Mr. Gold’s pawn shop. As an orphan child, not necessarily, as they did with Hansel and Gretel. I like the idea of a wooden inanimate object. What a twist! A cricket from FTL turns back into a man, a boy turns back into wood.
August as Bae would mean that Rumple saved him somehow. A lot of explaining, yes but I still prefer it to him being Pinocchio. Especially after seeing the promo :). I know, wishful thinking, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’s not Pinocchio. I like the idea of Peter Pan too. A boy who never wants to grow up who likes hearing stories in FTL growing up to write/tell stories in our world. This curse gives you what you don’t want/an unhappy ending.