I like the Wizard of Oz theory. Never saying who he truly was at first, Ragina not knowing him but feeling like he was familiar just like Dorothy waking up from her dream, “and you, and you, and you were there, but you couldn’t have been, could you?” The license plate from Kansas, trying to make Emma believe in magic like the wizard faking magic behind the curtain. “I AM THE GREAT and powerful…wizard of Oz.” (ashamed look). The wizard also wanted to help people and August is Un StoryBrooke to help Emma, or so he says.
Wizard of Oz until price wrong. 🙂