Star Wars Shield: A G-Canon Look

[Lucky]

Star Wars Shields

Fighters VS Capital Ships

PADME : We have a plan which should immobilize the Droid Army. We will send what pilots we have to knock out the Droid control ship which is orbiting the planet. If we can get past their rayshields, we can sever communication
and their droids will be helpless.


QUI-GON : A well-conceived plan. However, there's great risk. The weapons on your fighters may not penetrate the shields on the control ship.

BRAVO TWO : He flew into the hold, behind the deflector shield and blasted the main reactor...

BRAVO THREE : Amazing... They don't teach that in the academy.

WEDGE
Cut to the left! I'll take the leader! They're heading for the medical frigate.

Lando steers the Falcon through a complete flip, as his crew fires at the TIEs from the belly guns.

NAVIGATOR
Pressure's steady.

The copilot Nien Nunb chatters an observation.

LANDO
Only the fighters are attacking. I wonder what those Star Destroyers are waiting for.

1) Fighter grade weapons can be more then a match for cruiser shields in Star Wars, but not all fighters are armed with such weapons, but such weapons are not uncommon or else they would not teach such a feat was possible. Even the lowly T.I.E. Fighter is a threat to cruisers.

2) Fighters do not fly under/through cruiser shields, and Anikin seems to have needed to enter the ship to do such a thing.

Ray Shields

PADME : We have a plan which should immobilize the Droid Army. We will send what pilots we have to knock out the Droid control ship which is orbiting the planet. If we can get past their rayshields, we can sever communication
and their droids will be helpless.


QUI-GON : A well-conceived plan. However, there's great risk. The weapons on your fighters may not penetrate the shields on the control ship.

7 INT. ODD BALL'S FIGHTER COCKPIT-SPACE

ODD BALL: We're on your tail, General Kenobi. Set S-foils in attack position.

The protective ray shield lowers on the main hangar of the TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER, and six new DROID TRI-FIGHTERS emerge and join the DROID VULTURE FIGHTERS heading toward the Jedi. The JEDI STARFIGHTERS extend the stability foils on the ends of their wings.

OBI-WAN: Have you noticed the shields are still up?

ANAKIN: Oh?!? Sorry, Master.

ANAKIN streaks ahead of OBI-WAN's disintegrating Jedi Fighter and blasts the shield generator. It SPARKS and EXPLODES.

DODONNA: The approach will not be easy. You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station. A murmur of disbelief runs through the room.

DODONNA: Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction. The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes.

What the defining trait of Ray Shielding is, is unclear. It would seem some Ray Shields stop solid objects while others do not. This contradicts the EU's claim that Ray Shielding only stops energy weapons.


Deflector Shields

RIC OLIE : Powers back! That little droid did it. He bypassed the main power drive. Deflector shield up, at maximum.

JAR JAR's clumsiness works for him in the battle. He gets caught up in the wiring of a blasted DROID, dragging the torso around with him, the DROID's gun firing randomly, accidently blasting SEVERAL DROIDS in one process. OOM-9 decides to send in the WHEEL DROIDS and gives the signal. HUNDREDS OF WHEEL DROIDS roll out of the transports and head down toward the battle. They slowly roll through the deflector shields, then transform themselves once they get on the other side. The GUNGANS blast the WHEEL DROIDS with energy balls. The DESTROYER DROIDS blast many GUNGANS.

RIC OLIE : Their deflector shield is too strong. We'll never get through it.

BRAVO TWO : He flew into the hold, behind the deflector shield and blasted the main reactor...

BRAVO THREE : Amazing... They don't teach that in the academy.

HAN: It looks like an Imperial cruiser. Our passengers must be hotter than I thought. Try and hold them off. Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to light speed.

The ship is now constantly battered with laserfire as a red warning light begins to flash.

LUKE: What's that flashing?

HAN: We're losing our deflector shield. Go strap yourself in, I'm going to make the jump to light speed.

HAN:(to Chewie) We're coming up on the sentry ships. Hold 'em off! Angle the deflector shields while I charge up the main guns!

READ LEADER:(over headset) We're passing through their magnetic field.

INT. RED LEADER'S COCKPIT
RED LEADER: Hold tight!

INT. LUKE'S X-WING FIGHTER - COCKPIT
Luke adjusts his controls as he concentrates on the approaching Death Star. The ship begins to be buffeted slightly.

RED LEADER:(over headset) Switch your deflectors on.

INT. ANOTHER COCKPIT
RED LEADER:(over headset) Double front!

Gold Leader races down the enormous trench that leads to the exhaust port. Laserbolts blast toward him in increasing numbers, occasionally exploding near the ship causing it to bounce about.

GOLD LEADER: Switch power to front deflector screens.

GOLD FIVE: Stabilize your read deflectors. Watch for enemy fighters.

1)Deflector Shields may be a catch all for shields. They are certainly used to describe Ray Shields.

2) The X-Wings did not turn their shields on until they reached the Death Star in Episode 4. This would seem to exclude the possibility of the shields being used to enhance aerodynamics.

3) You can walk through some deflector shields.

4)You can adjust deflector shields for better protection. This is called angling the deflector.

5) You need not run your shields at full power.

6) Shields can become unstable.



Possible technical description of Shields

INT. THEED - POWER GENERATOR ELECTRIC BEAM - HALLWAY

The electric rays cycle as QUI-GON sits meditating. The wall of the deadly rays turn away, and OBI-WAN starts running toward QUI GON and the DARK LORD. When the wall between QUI-GON and DARTH MAUL opens, QUI-GON is in a split second fighting the DARK LORD with a ferocity not seen before. They move into the area at the end of the corridor called the melting pit, a small area that is mostly made up of a deep hole. The electron ray gates begin to close. OBI-WAN tries to make it to the melting pit but is caught one gate short. He slides to a stop just before he hits the deadly electron field.

QUI-GON and DARTH MAUL battle around the melting pit as a frustrated OBI-WAN watches.

DARTH MAUL cathces QUI-GON off guard. The SITH makes a quick move, bashes his lightsaber handle into QUI-GON's chin, and runs him through. QUI-GON slumps to the floor in a heap.

If Ray Shields are constructed from "Rays" as the script describes here then that would explain the name and the variability in capability, and why fighters would not wish to pass through them.

Oddly enough, "Electrostatic ForceFields" and Plasma technologies are one of those 10 years dow the road technologies like most Star Wars technologies.

[Mr. Oragahn]

2) The X-Wings did not turn their shields on until they reached the Death Star in Episode 4. This would seem to exclude the possibility of the shields being used to enhance aerodynamics.

Quite irrelevant in space.
If they had used them to leave Yavin, nothing can be known about pilots switching them off during their cycling of the gas giant or not.

4)You can adjust deflector shields for better protection. This is called angling the deflector.

Probably a colloquial term, perhaps in reference to a specific defense tech widely used once ago, or still used in some places. It could also be in reference to the possibility that putting shields in a given direction instead of another is an action which actually has the generator to rotate(the the angle) in order to point the defense field in a given direction.
I wouldn't put too much reading into that without having at least two or three more solid instances.

Besides, unless it's a complete coincidence (that would always repeat itself, therefore an oxymoron or a rule), we saw that deflectors don't deflect bolts but always stop them and make them explode or spread.
When deflecting systems are observed, their deflective property is a constant and quite clear:

- Gungan portable shields: bolts are reflected, some even carry that static property as to be deflected off the ground if the angle is open enough.
- The waste colletor's magnetic seal: the bolt keeps ricocheting, and could be related to a change in the static enveloppe of the bolt, according to certain models about bolt composition.
- B1 droids' blasters against the much stronger shields of the Naboo N-1.
- Finally, against lightsabres.

We see droideka shields always spread the energy of bolts thrown back at them by two Jedi in TPM.
We see a similar effect in ROTS when the shield of a Trade Federation battleship spreads blue waves of energy (although it could be a completely different weapon which property tends to have it behave that way, with or without any shield to defeat).

[Lucky]

2) The X-Wings did not turn their shields on until they reached the Death Star in Episode 4. This would seem to exclude the possibility of the shields being used to enhance aerodynamics.

Quite irrelevant in space.
If they had used them to leave Yavin, nothing can be known about pilots switching them off during their cycling of the gas giant or not.

It is hardly irrelevant. It shows that X-Wings do not use their shield to enhance aerodynamics, and it shows that shields aren't always on. It limits the maximum speed of the fighters.

[359]

I think that what Mr.Oragahn was getting at is that we do not know if they turned their shields on for launch and then back off for flight around Yavin.

[Lucky]

I think that what Mr.Oragahn was getting at is that we do not know if they turned their shields on for launch and then back off for flight around Yavin.

Why should we think the Rebel fighters had shields turned on in the moon's atmosphere?

Why would the Rebels turn off their shields after reaching orbit?

[Mr. Oragahn]

1. If there's a trace of atmosphere around the Death Star, then if shields improve aerodynamics, activating them would not only serve for defense but also for better maneuvering.
2. If that is a property of shields, they could likely use it to leave planets as well, such as Yavin IV. But we couldn't know if they ever used them that way.
3. The reason they'd deactivate them is because it uses power.

[Lucky]

1. If there's a trace of atmosphere around the Death Star, then if shields improve aerodynamics, activating them would not only serve for defense but also for better maneuvering.

And yet this wasn't done at takeoff?

2. If that is a property of shields, they could likely use it to leave planets as well, such as Yavin IV. But we couldn't know if they ever used them that way.

Shields interact with air, and that means that they will effect the flight characteristics.

There is no evidence that the X-Wings had their shields turned on at takeoff as far as I know.

3. The reason they'd deactivate them is because it uses power.

So when you would be expecting attack you turn off your defensive systems to save a few ounces of gas? We are talking about interplanetary ships here, and the N-1s never turned their shields off.

[359]

So when you would be expecting attack you turn off your defensive systems to save a few ounces of gas? We are talking about interplanetary ships here, and the N-1s never turned their shields off.

Or perhaps they could turn them off in order to divert more power to their engines so they can get there faster while they aren't needed.

[Lucky]

Or perhaps they could turn them off in order to divert more power to their engines so they can get there faster while they aren't needed.

Accelerate to attack speed. They where going faster when they had their shields on, and the N-01s had shields on at all times as did Jedi Fighters as i recall.

If shield drain so much power then having no shields would be the best choice, and T.I.E. should be unstopable. Speed is life in a dog fight.

[watchdog]

I would like to point out that in ANH while stuck in the garbage compactor, we see that a magnetic seal will deflect blaster bolts quite effectively. I dont know if this is with all magnetic fields or if there was something special about the seal in the compactor, it's what I think of whenever I hear someone refer to the Death Star having shields. Red Leader called it a magnetic field as the X-wings passed through it (and really I always thought that was the normal magnetic field a large planetary body will have naturally).
The only other place I can think of off hand where we see blaster-bolts bouncing off like that (other than with a lightsaber-but thats another can of worms) is with Anakin's Naboo fighter when he gets the shields back up.

[Lucky]

I would like to point out that in ANH while stuck in the garbage compactor, we see that a magnetic seal will deflect blaster bolts quite effectively. I dont know if this is with all magnetic fields or if there was something special about the seal in the compactor, it's what I think of whenever I hear someone refer to the Death Star having shields. Red Leader called it a magnetic field as the X-wings passed through it (and really I always thought that was the normal magnetic field a large planetary body will have naturally).
The only other place I can think of off hand where we see blaster-bolts bouncing off like that (other than with a lightsaber-but thats another can of worms) is with Anakin's Naboo fighter when he gets the shields back up.

The problem is the implications of simple magnetic fields deflecting blaster bolts so easily. If it was so simple then we would see Storm Troopers wearing electromagnets, and blaster bolts just bouncing off of them. The magnetic seal on the trash compactor has to be more then just magnetic fields to make sense.

The dura-snow and dura-grass may have something to do with "magnetic fields" caused by the shields.

Actually

RED LEADER: Watch yourself! There's a lot of fire coming from the right side of that deflection tower.

The first Death Star might have had shields, but they didn't cover everything.

EXT. LUKE'S X-WING TRAVELING

A shot hurls from Luke's guns. Laserbolts streak toward the
onrushing Death Star surface. Several small radar emplacements
erupt in flame. Laserfire erupts from a protruding tower on
the surface.

Rather puts the idea of a shield covering an entire planet into question.

[Praeothmin]

They may call it a "Magnetic Field/Shield" even though magnetism is only part of it...