Pinocchio… IS… Henry’s Book

[possum snoodle]

Wow, in a flash, this just came to me. Apologies, if anyone has gotten this thought before but I wanted to write this down as fresh as possible before I lost the moment:

PINOCCHIO IS THE BOOK.

Only one living being one could go in the enchanted wardrobe.

A book’s pages are made of what? Yup.

Geppetto agreed to make the wardrobe on a condition a way could be devised that would also save his son. Some have said he was turned into a drawer or a log and was placed inside the wardrobe with baby Emma. However, that seems dreadfully boring and un-fairy tale-like..

So, what if Pinocchio were turned into the book to not only save Pinocchio but also the very story of FTL. Now, the irony is, as the book, Pinocchio is “telling stories” (an old saying for telling lies) but in fact, his pages must never lie or be altered to cover the the truth that is the very story of FTL.

So, if August ends up NOT being Pinocchio, the book is screaming to be Pinocchio. August could then, be a manifestation of Pinocchio’s Conscience, if not some form of Pinocchio. He sure seems to be guiding Emma, like Jiminy Cricket did Pinocchio. Perhaps, though, August is somehow a decendent of Geppetto? Not sure. Recently, I’ve been convinced August might be The White Knight but other identities, including, Tin Woodsman and Writer of the Book, could work well, too.

Anyway, back to the book as Pinocchio:

I’m uncertain what the book’s cover is but maybe a closer inspection will reveal it is leather over wood panel and the embellishment designs may reflect something in common with Pinocchio’s garments.

Although, a bit too literal and cheesy, I just did a quick anagram of “Once Upon A Time” and got several interesting (and hilarious) alternatives. Then, I looked at an image of the book and saw the O , U & T were larger. OUT? Then, taking out the “OUT,” I got something of a nail on the head with “Ocean Em Pin” or “Ocean Me Pin” and this:

“I can open Em.“

Other anagrams revealed, “Once Mein Pa”, “Canine Poem” the words, “Aeon” and “Epic” and oodles of other combinations but not so point-blank as, “I can open Em.”

I’m going to cross-reference the costumes of Pinocchio and Geppetto in relation to the book’s cover design and the pages within. I know there is some embroidery on the book and on some costumes. If the book is Pinocchio, I think there will be more clues that tie the boy to the book.

What do you think or what does anyone else have on this idea?

[mujie]

O, U and T are capitals because that’s how titles are written!!!

We’re finding out who wrote the book next season, not this season.

But what do I know? I think August is Henry’s dad.

[possum snoodle]

@mujie wrote:

O, U and T are capitals because that’s how titles are written!!!

Well, that’s the obvious, isn’t it? Why not the letter “A”? It is “OUAT,” isn’t it? …Just sayin’ 😉
Honestly, if there really is something to it, I think it’s kinda cheesy and not the best choice to reveal a power of the book through scrambled up words. It’s a device that I’d think wouldn’t play well across language barriers. The FTL stories are a mix of English, French and German. The anagrams would probably come out differently and the messages or general idea wouldn’t convey across the board. I just thought the results in English were interesting. I’m not banking too much on it being the crucial moment in OUAT, say, when Henry points out to Emma how the enchantment over the book hid a message in the titles or that O-U-T stands for something like, “One Universal Tale.” Again, kinda cheesy but one never knows how the writers are going to spin it all.

@mujie wrote:

We’re finding out who wrote the book next season, not this season.

Now, I didn’t say Pinocchio wrote the book. I’m just suggesting he might be the physical book. That still leaves it open to the actual Author(s) AND the Artist(s) of the book’s contents. Interestingly, the Writer(s) of the book, might need access to Wonderland and any other Land the story eventually involves. Surely, the Illustrator(s) would want to sketch from real life. It’s worth consideration on how all the stories and illustrations were compiled, written, printed and what the book and its pages are made of, right? It must have taken some powerful magic to get it all done in such a short time, as the Curse rolled through FTL.

@mujie wrote:

But what do I know? I think August is Henry’s dad.

-and what do ANY of us know?! I agree, August as Henry’s father, is a possibility but wouldn’t Emma remember him? It was only ten years ago and Emma’s pretty sharp on so many other details of her past. Why suddenly, would she develop mass amnesia about Henry’s father.

[the wiz]

Back on the thread August is not Pinocchio- https://oncepodcast.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=564&hilit=hot+button&start=20#p4725
I wrote:

I’ve been wrestling with WHY Emma does not recognize August on sight ever since he started acting so fatherly toward Henry. I’ve come up with three theories thus far:

1. Emma has gotten in the face of so many dead-beat dads in her most recent line of work that she no longer remembers the face of the fireman back when she worked as a waitress.
2. Emma has slept around with so many guys the one who got her pregnant is merely “one more notch in her bed post”. August could only stir up some visceral recollections for her if she got in bed with him again. Visual recognition won’t work for her.
3. Emma has a major hot button called “abandonment issues”. It’s human nature to go blank and dissociate any encounter that pushes our hot buttons. August’s abandonment of Emma and her baby would have been so painful that she would have blotted it out of her mind to restore her composure.

I like my 3rd theory much more than the other two. Emma’s abandonment issues have been worked in other episodes making them seem more central to the character arcs and plot movement.

[mujie]

Oh yeah, I saw that. I agree with it. And I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought August was Henry’s dad. I couldn’t find it (then again, I didn’t look very hard).

You could be right about Pinnocchio, actually. The wardrobe was the only thing that could protect people from the curse, so it would make sense that it’s the only thing that can remember. (Now I’m going with the theory that Pinnocchio became the wardrobe!) But the Mad Hatter remembered. So does that mean Pinnocchio’s plan backfired and the tree really could only hold one?

[the wiz]

The way Jefferson remembers is part of his particular aspect of the curse. It’s not an exception to the “only thing that can remember” in my opinion. In the Hat Trick episode, Jefferson said:

It’s hard enough to live in a land where you don’t belong, but knowing it? Holding conflicting realities in your head? It will drive you mad.

[clockwatcher]

This is an interesting theory.
IF this is true, August could definitely still be connected.
Maybe this is how it happened:
Gepetto wanted to save his son, Pinocchio, from the curse, but only one person could go through the wardrobe, and that person was Emma. So, Pinn was somehow changed into the storybook. then, the 7-year-old boy who found Emma (I’m going to say this was August) found the book with her. He kept the book, and had previously been to SB, before we saw him a few weeks ago. This must have happened a few years ago in the show. He found a way to get the book to MM, knowing she’d give it to Henry, thus beginning the mission of helping Emma believe.

[mujie]

@the wiz wrote:

The way Jefferson remembers is part of his particular aspect of the curse. It’s not an exception to the “only thing that can remember” in my opinion. In the Hat Trick episode, Jefferson said:

It’s hard enough to live in a land where you don’t belong, but knowing it? Holding conflicting realities in your head? It will drive you mad.

So if it’s part of the curse… The book is still cursed.

[the wiz]

Clockwatcher wrote: Maybe this is how it happened:
Gepetto wanted to save his son, Pinocchio, from the curse, but only one person could go through the wardrobe, and that person was Emma. So, Pinn was somehow changed into the storybook. then, the 7-year-old boy who found Emma (I’m going to say this was August) found the book with her. He kept the book, and had previously been to SB, before we saw him a few weeks ago. This must have happened a few years ago in the show. He found a way to get the book to MM, knowing she’d give it to Henry, thus beginning the mission of helping Emma believe.

Nice! It would be so cool if there was a scene before the end of Season One where August runs across Mary Margaret and then two starting talking like they have known each other for years 😀

[Slurpeez]

Perhaps August Wayne Booth is the narrator of the book, as in the unreliable narrator that the literary Wayne Booth wrote about. He could also be Pinocchio, who was a little less than reliable in the original fairy-tale.

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

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