So consider that a 14 year old parentless Baelfire enters this world much like Pinnochio. What possibility is there that he too ends up in the foster care system? What chance is there as well that he too might have ended up in a little trouble like Emma or Pinnochio/August, may have even met one or both if he indeed landed in this time and a particular place as one of them. 😉
Of course he might have been luckier and found great parents or even been adopted and had a home… who knows at this point? But if he landed in the right time and place circumstances/ and some subtle FTL “magic” was involved. I am sure if he were to meet Emma he would for some unexplained reason been drawn to her. And what if she was his true love, but he refused to stay with her because he was looking for his father. These writers tend to like parallelisms and foreshadowing of this sort. Would be interesting if Rumple put something in the curse that would have drawn Bae to Emma.