I really hope that August isn’t Pinocchio. How would the writers explain Pinocchio’s aging when none of the children from FTL aged? We see Pinocchio in the pilot, which is also right before the curse hits, as a little boy, at the council meeting and helping Gepetto build the wardrobe. Which indicates that Pinocchio was there in Snow’s castle when the curse hit. The only way I can see that Pinocchio escapes the curse, w/o Rumple’s help, is to have been turned back into wood and been made into a part of the wardrobe. Farfetched? That would mean, in my understanding of the curse, that Pinocchio remains wooden/part of the wardrobe in Storybrooke. The only other exlplanation I can think of is a deal with the EQ (as Rumple made) Gepetto makes re Pinocchio. I agree that he is just a kid in Storybrooke that we will meet later. One of Henry’s classmates perhaps?
As for August as Bael, I like that idea better. I just like Bael better than Pinocchio. Rumple created the curse initially and could have done something to save his son beforehand. Maybe time moves a lot slower in FTL. The opening monologue states that the EQ banished a bunch of story book characters to our world (not just fairy tale characters) so August could be just about anybody really but I really hope he’s not Pinocchio. But if he is… at least he’s a lot more interesting than the Disney movie version :). I like the Peter Pan theory. Both Peter Pan and August like adventures and both like stories. We’ll definitely find out soon!