It didn't strike me as creepy so much as it did pragmatic improviser.

Why not use a kid's shoe if it's the right size for what you're doing? Would an adult shoe (not his) be creepy too?

He dies in Season 1. Locke has Boone do something dangerous -- cliimb a tree to look at a small plane that crashed there -- and Boone gets fatally hurt when the plane falls. Locke doesn't climb the tree himself because all of the sudden his legs seem to fail him. So, basically, Locke ignores the island warning him not to go up the tree (there were dreams earlier too) and gets Boone killed.

It was all very dramatic. Or boring. Or both.

Why not use a kid's shoe if it's the right size for what you're doing? Would an adult shoe (not his) be creepy too?

I don't know. Maybe slightly less. It seems to me from Locke's POV, the shoe would have to be shoe of a dead kid, because (I'm pretty sure it was a little girl's sneaker from the looks of it) there were no little kids other than Walt, as far as he knew. There were lots of adults around. Either way, it struck (or would strike) me as ghoulish, particularly as using the shoe didn't seem to be much more useful than scooping sand with his hand (or some other sort of debris).

Again, I know it doesn't have to be the shoe of a dead kid, but I don't see how else Locke could have seen it, at the time.

He dies in Season 1. Locke has Boone do something dangerous -- cliimb a tree to look at a small plane that crashed there -- and Boone gets fatally hurt when the plane falls. Locke doesn't climb the tree himself because all of the sudden his legs seem to fail him. So, basically, Locke ignores the island warning him not to go up the tree (there were dreams earlier too) and gets Boone killed.

It was all very dramatic. Or boring. Or both.

Hee. It's funny how my perception of Boone and Shannon have changed. I saw up through Hearts and Minds when S1 first aired. It was soon after that I stopped watching, but I knew dribs and drabs of the plot, because I didn't avoid the discussion. I hated Shannon the first time out. This time, maybe because I already knew her to be snickerbitch, I found her a lot more interesting, and at times, even somewhat sympathetic. Last time, I don't think Boone bothered me. This time, I find him much more creepy.

I'm going with Locke being pragmatic. He's using what they have to do what he wants. He may have even thanked the island for the shoe, and paused to silently thank the owner, and wish him well on his journey to the afterlife. Then he would use the shoe, because it was there and he might as well use it.

I wish someone would think of all the electronics and wiring and so on that could be salvaged from the cockpit.

Also? Even underwater for 40+ days, there might be more to be salvaged from the wreckage of the tail section.

I'm going with Locke being pragmatic. He's using what they have to do what he wants. He may have even thanked the island for the shoe, and paused to silently thank the owner, and wish him well on his journey to the afterlife. Then he would use the shoe, because it was there and he might as well use it.

I think it's more interesting if he's kept slightly creepy while being grateful to the island, etc., etc.

I wish someone would think of all the electronics and wiring and so on that could be salvaged from the cockpit.

You know what would have been very very creepifying? If they'd gone back just for that reason... and found that the cockpit section wasn't there any more. Just gone or at least unfindable. So much so that some would wonder if Kate et al were making up finding it, and what happened there....

Ah, lost opportunities.

You know what would have been very very creepifying?

As well as doublepostifying?

Huh. Don't know how that happened!