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Sea Hurtchin - TV Tropes

  • ️Fri Nov 02 2018

Sea Hurtchin (trope)

Ouchin'.

Take a look at an urchin. Those little critters are balls of spines that seem to do nothing but stay in place, just waiting to be stepped on like caltrops and deal the hurt to anyone touching them. For extra injuries, urchin spines are actually quite brittle and tend to break when stepped on, remaining embedded in the swimmer's skin. And some of them are even venomous! In other words, they are the living embodiment of the Spikes of Doom — painful, dangerous and, well, spiky.

As such, when an accident-prone character takes a vacation to the beach, expect them to inadvertently walk on one, cue the Agony of the Feet.

They are also quite common as underwater obstacles in Under the Sea settings, usually as immobile versions of the Painful Pointy Pufferfish. Standing motionless on the walls, they are quite effective at complicating the navigation during a level, made worse by the fact that their spikes shield them from most of the dangers, making them quite the dangerous creature.

In visual media such as cartoons or video games, it's not uncommon for sea urchins to be visually simplified into near-perfect spheres with faces and a studding of large, conical spikes, going from being regular if spiky animals to more or less living caltrops.

A Sub-Trope of Spikes of Doom and Spike Balls of Doom. See also Clingy Aquatic Life.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

  • The Doraemon short, "Underwater Hiking", has Nobita going on an underwater hiking adventure with assorted gagdets, but the first thing that happens the moment he jumps into the sea is an urchin on his rump.
  • In One Piece first tv special, "Luffy Falls! Adventure in the Uncharted Ocean's Navel", the Strawhats face three sea monsters who guard a mysterious treasure. One of these monsters is a Giant Sea Urchin with long spikes who chases Luffy through narrow corridors.

Films — Animated 

  • In Monsters University, the first round of the Scare Games consists of a simulated run through a child's bedroom, with urchins in place of the (supposedly) toxic items the monsters would have to avoid. Touching one causes violent swelling.

    Squishy: (swollen like a balloon) I can't feel my anything.

  • In Surf's Up, Cody accidentally steps on a sea urchin after his big wipeout, which leads lifeguard Lani to take him to her uncle Geek (actually surfing legend Big Z) for treatment. Unfortunately for Cody, the best antidote to a fire urchin sting is penguin urine. As a bonus, there is also an interview clip of the sea urchin disputing that he was merely stepped on.

    Ivan (Fire Urchin): Stepped on me? Stepped on me? Are you kidding? This guy was dancing on me! I mean, just look at this. [points at spikes] Broken, broken, gone, gone, broken, broken, broken...

Films — Live-Action 

  • In Jackie Chan's First Strike, Jackie has a fight with thugs at an aquarium where there is a tank full of "toxic sea creatures" that cause numbness wherever they sting. Jackie ends up dunking a particularly tough bad guy right into the tank — he emerges looking like a human pincushion before passing out from the toxins.
  • The Mermaid revolves around an accident-prone mermaid trying to assassinate a property tycoon whose project is destroying her home. One of her "weapons" used for trying to kill him is a handful of urchins, but she gets them embedded into her own face after missing a throw and having it bouncing back.
  • See Spot Run: When chaos strikes at the pet shop, Gordon falls rear-first into a tank of sea urchins that sting him and give him paralysis.
  • In Thunderball, Domino steps at some point on an urchin spine – poisonous and painful at the same time. Taking her ashore, Bond bites the spine out.

Literature 

  • In Blood Fever, Jana Carnifex, Ugo's sister, attempts to kill Bond and Amy while they are Skinny Dipping. Bond tricks her, however, by jumping off the rock, while Victor distracts her. She slips and falls into a bed of sea urchins, where she finally dies from the pain and poison. As Bond and Amy wade to the surface, Amy suddenly steps on a sea urchin. Bond knows exactly how to remove it.
  • One Geronimo Stilton book has the eponymous character getting pricked by a sea urchin left on a hotel bed by his nephew Benjamin, who intended to show it to him.

Live-Action TV 

  • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: In one episode, a creepy security guard blackmails Paula into going to an aquarium with him to see the touching pond. There, he demands that she put her hand on a sea urchin, facing him as she does so he can see her reaction. It's framed as though he'll be getting a sexual thrill out of seeing her in pain, but after she awkwardly describes the sensation as 'spiky', he cheers and then excitedly runs off to see the next exhibit, showing he actually just wanted to share the experience.

Tabletop Games 

  • Dungeons & Dragons had aggressive urchins that can shoot their spines in some early editions, coming in several different variants including a land version.

Video Games 

  • Adventure Island: A recurring enemy is an urchin that floats back and forth in underwater levels.
  • Ariel The Little Mermaid: Although neither Ariel nor King Triton have feet, being merpeople and all, among the game's enemies are pink sea urchins that fly towards the player character to hurt them.
  • Beard Blade: Giant urchins appears in underwater levels, where they can damage you on contact. They're also invulnerable to any attacks and you'll need to swim around without touching them.
  • Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales: In the Sega Master System and Game Gear versions, there's a level called "The Faces of Sylvester: The River of Paint", where Speedy rows an inflatable raft across a river. In the river are floating sea urchins. If one of them hits Speedy, they will pop his raft, causing him to sink into the river and instantly lose a life.
  • Donkey Kong:
    • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! introduces the Lurchin enemies, sea urchins that can open up to reveal the creature's grotesque, angry face. They, of course, are harmful on contact and can only be defeated by Enguarde (only when their shells are open) or the Nibbla (which can eat them but will be pretty pissed off about it). Their leader Barbos also appears as a boss.
    • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Giant purple Sea Urchins appear as obstacles in several underwater levels, both as immobile threats and floating around in a set movement pattern. Only Cranky Kong's cane stands a chance against them.
  • Fallen London:
    • Sunless Sea:
      • Aigul is an undersea port built in a giant Lorn-Fluke (read: city-sized alien urchin). Everything within it is pierced with its spines, and navigating within it is rather hazardous if the flavor text is anything to go by.
      • Smaller Lorn-Flukes (still twice the size of your ship, mind you) appear as enemies around the Zee and try to ram you with their spines. That isn't even the scariest thing they can do: they're are able to wield Correspondence, which acts like some kind of Brown Note and will heavily damage your ship.
    • Sunless Skies: Unfortunately for the Sunless Sea veterans, the Flukes didn't stay in the Unterzee. The ones that moved to the High Wilderness are called Scorn-Flukes, and if anything are even worse than in the previous game, charging your locomotive in the middle of open space with all their urchin-like bulk and speaking Correspondence even more fluently. There's also whatever sort of eldritch Fluke that you can find in the mists near Worlebury-juxta-Mare; it can't hurt you, but it's so big and horrible-looking your terror will skyrocket in its presence.
  • Hey! Pikmin: Large Splurchins are rotund, purple and, according to the S.S Dolphin, mindless urchins that can be found floating in underwater levels. Those creatures will impede Olimar's way and harm everything that touches them.
  • Kirby: Gordos, some of the regular baddies, give very strong vibes of this trope. The completely invincible enemies are urchin-like monsters (though their spikes are arranged on a perfectly circular pattern leaving their faces and their backs smooth) which can be found not only in water but on land as well.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: There are sea urchins that block paths in Toronbo Shores. While they deal damage to Link on mere contact, you first receive your shield so you can push them away, harmlessly. After getting past a few you reach the sword and they just become the equivalent of prickly bushes.
  • Octogeddon: Ursula the Urchin is an animal buddy which can fire a flurry of spikes all around her, damaging every enemy they strike.
  • Oriental Legend have a Giant Sea Urchin boss in the Heavenly River stage, who floats around trying to sting you as well as shooting its spikes from a distance and summoning smaller urchins to drop on you.
  • Peng Wars: Hurtchin is a sea urchin enemy and the first enemy to have the Spiky ability, so melee Pengs that attack it will suffer a counter-attack. Later on, Crystal Hurtchin has spines made of ice, freezing Pengs that make contact.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield: Pincurchin is a cute urchin Pokémon with a round black body and long, conical spines with which it can deal electric shocks. Even when broken, its spines still emit electricity for three hours.
  • Sonic Shuffle: In the "Ring Tide" mini-game, sea urchins wash up on the shore, and the players must avoid running into them while trying to collect rings and forcejewels, as they lose rings if they run into the sea urchins.
  • Super Mario World introduced the purple Urchins to the Super Mario bestiary. Do not let their goofy appearance fool you, their spikes do hurt. In their Super Mario Galaxy appearance, they are mobile and can even extend their spikes a little if Mario gets too close from them.
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl introduced the Unira (the sea urchin baddies from Clu Clu Land) as items. When thrown, they will fix themselves at their landing spot and extend their spines. Any foe coming in contact with these will be damaged and dealt knockback.
  • Wario: Master of Disguise also features an urchin enemy called Lurchin. it is described as a pitiful creature that hurts everyone it touches, no matter how hard it tries not to. It spends each night sobbing from nearly unbearable loneliness.
  • Wii Play: Motion: In the minigame Treasure Twirl, many urchins are attached to the walls to hamper the mobility of the Miis. Like any other enemy, touching them will deplete your Oxygen Meter and make you drop a treasure chest if you carrying at least one.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Urchons are urchin-like enemies which are usually territorial and will aggro if you get too close. Their spikes double as a layer of armor that blocks most physical attacks, and also keeps them sturdy enough to make them immune to the Break status effect. They do, however, have a battle move which causes them to inflict Break on themselves. So, with few exceptions, you must wait for the Urchon to give you an opening by Breaking itself in order to Topple it and make it vulnerable to your best attacks.
    • Tiger! Tiger!, an old-school arcade Game Within a Game, also has Urchons as one of the enemies. These Urchons are completely invulnerable and must simply be avoided, as touching them is an instant Game Over. Fortunately, they neither move nor attack, merely sitting there as obstacles to swim around.

Web Animation 

Western Animation 

  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • In "Nature Pants", after SpongeBob gets zapped by jellyfish, he tries to call it a night by resting in a cave, all while bearing the cold with only a kelp blanket to barely cover him. All of a sudden, he gets a painfully itchy feeling, and it turns out that he's covered by poison sea urchins.
    • In "Eek, An Urchin!", urchins get inside the Krusty Krab, which are treated as a major infestation.
  • The Patrick Star Show: One of the new characters in this spin-off is Ouchie, Patrick's pet urchin. As the name implies, every time Patrick touches Ouchie is quite painful, not that Patrick minds.

Real Life 

  • The Ancient Greek writer Demetrius of Scepsis recounted a Spartan being invited to a banquet where seafood was served, and ate an urchin whole by putting it in his mouth and biting down (without looking at how other, less Proud Warrior Race-types were eating them). He then said that he wasn't about to pussy out by spitting it up, but he sure as hell wouldn't eat another one.