Most reasons for the "I'm Baelfire" masquerade that I can think of are of a predominatly Doylist nature, since August's actions create a few nice moment of suspense for the audience. Furthermore pretending to be Bae struck me as very much in tune with the general concept of Pinocchio as liar. But otherwise? The only explanation that comes to my mind is that August was trying to use this as a short cut in oder to find out how much Rumple actually remembers.
As for Neal/August/Emma in "Talahasse": I don't quite understand or sympathise with August's motives here, either. He displays a complete disregard to Emma's situation, her feelings and her right to make her own choices. However, I usually tend to blame Neal more than August. When Neal met and later abandoned Emma, he already had several centuries of (Neverland-prolonged) life experience under his belt, while August was just an aimlessly drifting young man his mid early twenties. Telling August to leave him and Emma alone would have been easy for Neal.
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As for Neal/August/Emma in "Talahasse": I don't quite understand or sympathise with August's motives here, either. He displays a complete disregard to Emma's situation, her feelings and her right to make her own choices. However, I usually tend to blame Neal more than August. When Neal met and later abandoned Emma, he already had several centuries of (Neverland-prolonged) life experience under his belt, while August was just an aimlessly drifting young man his mid early twenties. Telling August to leave him and Emma alone would have been easy for Neal.