Deflector Shields: Difference between revisions
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{{trope|wppage=Force field (fiction)}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Cat:''' Why don't we raise the defensive shields?
'''Kryten:''' A superlative suggestion, sir, with just two minor flaws. One, we don't have any defensive shields. And two, [[Department of Redundancy Department|we don't have any defensive shields]]. Now I realize that technically speaking that's only one flaw, but [[So Good We Mentioned It Twice|I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice]].|''[[Red Dwarf]]''}}
Also called "[[Force Field]]s", these are invisible (or, if the budget allows it, barely-visible) energy barriers placed around objects to protect them from harm.
Most common around space ships, but also seen around bases and—very occasionally -- [[Barrier Warrior|individual people.]]
How much protection they offer is usually [[Tim Taylor Technology|proportional to their power]]. This also makes for yet another reason you are boned if the energy runs out. They may also be subject to [[Phlebotinum Overload]] if they get hit by too many [[Energy Weapons]].
An energy barrier can zap or repel anyone who touches it, or can simply behave like an impenetrable wall. It's often represented in the form of a [[Beehive Barrier]] or another [[Hard Light]] construct. In practice, this is somewhat less scientifically feasible than [[Energy Weapons]], but not by much, at least in the way it is usually
Unfortunately, the alternative is not much better; though many writers choose to omit energy fields these days, they neglect that, without some kind of continuously regenerating barrier, a ship traveling at relativistic speeds (say, more than half the speed of light) isn't going to get very far before micrometeors and particulate matter punch holes through its armor, however thick it is. There are feasible alternatives
Note: one possibility is to put a beryllium shield in front. Beryllium has a high melting point and a VERY high specific heat capacity. It takes well over 2/3 its mass in TNT just to go from near absolute zero to the melting point. That should be enough for the small constant impacts. For the bigger ones, a layering of dust particles a hundred kilometers or so in front can be used to eliminate large objects.
Note that if a shield deflects not just [[Frickin' Laser Beams|rays]] but massive objects, Newton's third law kicks in, as it requires the force stopping the projectile to be equally applied ''to the shield''
Other issues involve a shield's interaction with the same effects passing ''from inside''<ref>it would need to either be asymmetric or able to open "windows" for firing weapons and any non-inertialess propulsion, with all problems this entails</ref> and lower-grade effects.<ref>if it blocks lasers, there would need to somehow be a method to only block radiation above a certain energy level or it would block visible light</ref>
Shields may be handled as a single egg-shell or as several independent barriers covering different areas of the ship. The latter encourages certain maneuvers, such as making sure your shielded side is always facing the enemy.
Shields are popular in fiction because it allows the [[Cool Ship]] to participate in battles without the inconvenience of having to spend the rest of the episode making repairs to physical armour and systems. In older or lower-budget movies and TV, they also eliminate the need to show battle damage on the ship; e.g. having your Ensign call out "Shields down to twenty percent!" can be a lot cheaper than showing a gash blasted in your ship's armor. The downside is that creators often have to resort to [[Explosive Instrumentation]] to provide combat casualties on a shielded ship. In somewhat-harder science fiction, shields are useful to overcome the seemingly overwhelming attacker's
In [[Video Games]], deflector shields have a special use. They are effectively a way to justify [[Regenerating Health|regenerating hit points]], but only for a part of a unit's health. Shields get to regenerate, but if there is something beneath them, like armor, [[Regenerating Shield Static Health|the armor ''doesn't'' regenerate]]. Also, for many games where a target can take [[Subsystem Damage]], that won't start until you penetrate the
Note that, despite the name,
Important note: in all but the [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|softest science fiction]] settings, using a personal shield that keeps everything out will keep ''air'' out, suffocating you. Remember: "[[Dune|The slow blade penetrates the shield]]." Unless you're really lazy about calibrating the thing, then any [[Badass]] [[Who Dares?]] to challenge you will simply respond, "[[Stargate SG
Compare and contrast [[Containment Field]] and [[Reinforce Field]]. See also [[Some Kind of Force Field]].
{{examples}}
== Large-Scale Shields ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* The sole reason ''[[The Big O]]'' is still standing is due to Big O's impossibly sturdy arm plating which, over the course of the series, repels lasers, punches, swords, missiles, machine guns, and giant drills. The entire city gasps when his enemy, [[Big Bad]] Alex Rosewater's robot, turns out to have a personal force field; the viewer is subsequently treated to a good five-minute montage of Big O punching away uselessly from a variety of television sets.
* ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'': The ''Macross'' gained a force field early in its mission. Atypically, for most of its journey, the field could not cover the entire ship, so crewmembers had to move three small shields around the ship to intercept enemy fire. Later, an "omnidirectional barrier" was invented, which overloaded when hit by too much fire, destroying an unnamed large city in Ontario. ''Macross'' also uses focused pinpoint barriers to penetrate said shields, as a justification for space melee combat by kilometer tall [[Humongous Mecha]] punching each other.
** Of particular note is that when the Omnidirectional Barrier overloads, the energy goes outwards, leaving the ''Macross'' itself unharmed at the center. This is terrible when hovering above a city full of civilians, but pretty darned useful when hovering inside the command base of a 4 million ship enemy battle fleet.
* The title spaceship in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Gundam]]'' has several types. The most common one is the I-Field, which only protects against beam weapons, as all it does is make a cushion of particles that stops anything with less mass than the particles. They also made specialized versions to keep ships aloft in the air. Later, they developed the Beam Barrier/Beam Shield, which is basically a really wide [[Laser Blade]] that could be used against physical attacks as well.
** The Mercurius Mobile Suit and Virgo [[Mecha
** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam
*** Earlier, with ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray]]'', the Hyperion and Dreadnought Gundams have powerful barriers. The Hyperion could only use his for 5 minutes before his battery drained. Once its pilot gained the means to use infinite power, he ran with it.
** The Gundams from ''Gundam00'' also field beam shield technology but in a subversion. Their GN fields were based on the particle density with a field that holds the particles in place. The GN field's strength is based entirely on how densely packed the particles are to deflect the oncoming projectile. The effect of it is largely made to dissipate and deflect beam attacks but a sufficiently powerful attack can either force its way through or completely overwhelm the field itself. However there are specifically WEAPONS that were made to counter GN fields so while it protected against mostly everything, GN blades can still pierce through with minimum effort.
*** A bit subverted in that the field itself was later made to be weaponized as demonstrated by the [[Wave Motion Gun|Seravee]]. It allows the Seravee to store Particles externally and fire them without having to internally process the blast because the field can now contain the particles.
* ''[[Sonic X]]'' has Perfect Chaos create a spherical shield of water around itself when Eggman attacks in the Egg Carrier II that effortlessly stops the missile salvo he launched. The shield proves useless against Super Sonic, though.
* The energy shields in ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'' are specifically tailored for deflecting and containing Rynax-energy. They don't usually form much of an obstacle for the protagonist though.
* This is done in several different ways in ''[[Pokémon (
** In ''[[Pokémon
*** Deoxys's barrier shield doesn't work as Rayquaza uses [[Wave Motion Gun|Hyper Beam]] [http://www.serebii.net/movies/deoxys/pics21.shtml to enter La Rousse city].
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has two different versions, one for each of the major military factions. The MSV maser shields used by [[The Empire|Britannia]] appear on the [[Super Prototype|Lancelot]] as beam shields a'la ''[[Gundam]]'' before developing into full-on Deflector Shields and being applied to some [[Ace Custom
* In ''[[
* The alien invaders and the title robot in ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' use force fields that are an offshoot of their [[Artificial Gravity]] tech. They have rendered most types of weapons obsolete, with the exception of [[BFG
* In the second part of ''[[
** The NSX itself has its own, technological force field. However, the ship still sustains damage when the [[Giant Mook|giant San Yun]] smashes its fists into the barrier.
* One of the manifestations of the Lighthawk Wings in ''[[Tenchi Muyo
* The ''[[Vandread]]'' Jura's main power was its [[Beehive Barrier]] and could even protect an entire planet. The super Vandread used it as a personal shield as well.
* [[Sailor Moon
* ''[[Super Atragon]]'': The undersea-battleship ''Ra'' has one of these that stops even gigantic enemy cup-shaped things from crushing it.
* In ''[[
* Saki and Mai/Cure Bloom and Cure Egret of ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'' can create barriers - going so far as to create ones big enough to protect [[Pretty Cure All Stars|their fellow Cures]].
** Komachi/Cure Mint of ''[[Yes!
=== Fan
* Calvin's [[Cool Plane|box-plane]] in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes
===
* In ''[[Atlantis:
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', where, unhelpfully, ground-based shields can be bypassed by landing outside their protective radius and ''slowly walking under them''. Ship shields, while capable of stopping physical impacts, work in sections, so a shield loss in one area means that the other areas are still protected. While this appears useful, it's also unhelpful when your bridge shield goes down and an A-wing manages to slip through your defensive fire and smash through your front window, and before anybody can react, your ship then smashes into a giant armored battlestation, killing your massive Super Star Destroyer in an [[Disaster Dominoes|exceedingly embarrassing manner]].
** Just theoretically, you know. [[Blatant Lies|Not thinking of any specific event here...]]
** ''If'' an A-wing fighter managed to find an opening in your shields, all that would be required to deal with the threat would be to [[More Dakka|intensify forward firepower]] in a timely fashion.
*** Said battlestation's deflector shield was ''quite operational'' when the rebel fleet arrived, and vaporized any unlucky ship who collided with it.
** Ground-based shields, in ''Star Wars'', serve to prevent your force from having the living bejeesus vaporized out of them by orbital bombardment. That forces the enemy into a land engagement which you usually have a better chance of
*** Actually, even without the explanation it would make sense, after all, you wouldn't want to burn your shield out trying to repel ''the ground'' now would you? Well except on [[The Corellian Trilogy
**** this is pretty much the only weakness of droideka (the short, roundish droids with the blue shield bubbles) - they take tons of fire to get through the shields, but knock one over, say with the Force, and boom, they waste all their energy trying to block the ground or a wall.
*** The design of Coruscant's shields were two layers of energy/particle shields composed of hexagonal sections. At any given time both layers would have some number of open hexagons so the constant space traffic could continue while leaving the planet absurdly well protected. The efficacy of this system fluctuates [[Depending
*** ''[[Star Wars]]'' shields compare to the [
** Also of note is that shields in ''Star Wars'' just seem to, well, suck. In the original trilogy fighters, even ones that were heavily armored and shielded like the Y-Wing, would explode with one hit from any attack. The battle between the Imperial fleet and the Rebel fleet in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' had ships showing damage from every salvo. The only ship whose shields DID work (even when it was the only system that seemed to be working) was the ''Millennium Falcon'''s.
*** This is debatable, and most likely a function of the limits of the FX. All through the battles, particularly in Episode IV, you can see flashes all around the fighters when they are under fire, possibly indicating shots that had been blocked by shields. There's also at least three fighters in the original Death Star battle that take more than one hit to destroy. Red Leader takes one off-screen, takes another in the engine when the scene cuts back to him, and then is only destroyed by crashing into the Death Star. Wedge is hit and has to pull out. Luke takes a hit that blows up R2, but leaves his X-Wing intact.
* The invading alien armada from ''[[Independence Day]]'' have energy shields so potent they can shrug off [[Nuke
** A bit of [[Fridge Logic
* In the 1984 ''[[Dune]]'' movie, the entire complex at Arrakeen is protected by a single enormous wall-shaped Shield. Gotta wonder how vulnerable that made the complex to lasgun fire.
** This is addressed in the book: The resulting explosion would be too hard to tell apart from a nuclear one, which is forbidden.
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*** Going by the events of the movie, fail.
* Subverted in ''Star Wreck: In the Pirkining''; the "P-Fleet" ships have shields, but for some reason, they're completely useless in the "Babcom 5" universe.
* ''[[Harry Potter
* Most film versions of [[War of the Worlds]] have the alien tripods protected by energy shields, an update to the story that is necessary to protect them from modern weaponry.
=== Literature ===
* Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]'' had both personal and ship-sized force fields that were good against fast-moving objects, but could be penetrated by slow-moving ones, could be brought down with a sufficient overload, and which exploded violently if struck by a [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser]] (and so did the laser, so it wasn't a useful offensive effect unless the shooter was suicidal or used an automated gun).
** An interesting effect of the lasgun/shield interaction in ''Dune'' is that the explosive power is random, a weak lasgun and shield may produce a giant explosion while a strong lasgun and shield may only destroy themselves.
*** Used to great tactical advantage in the later books, where unmanned shield projectors were placed on the battlefield as booby traps.
** Anyway the whole point of having the shields work that way was so that [[Rule of Cool|we could still have swordfights in a laser-gun-technology society]]. Hence the special fighting style where thin blades are slowed just before contact.
*** It doesn't really make sense even then. People using personal shields are still vulnerable to momentum and Newton's Third Law, meaning that sufficiently powerful artillery rounds could toss them around like rag dolls (killing them in the process).
* ''[[
** Gets around the above-mentioned Newtonian problem by draining energy from anything incoming. Energy beams are weakened, and projectiles lose kinetic energy and slow down. (Note that this makes the Field a zone around the ship rather than a thin bubble or wall.) The Field absorbs the drained energy, then gradually radiates it outward as
* Appears in Neal Asher's ''Polity'' novels, where they are called "Hard Fields". Unlike most representations of Force Fields, hard fields do not protect against physical force without cost, but instead transfer all the force to the shield generator- hopefully located well away from whatever the field is protecting.
* ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' has featured a large variety of protective energy fields over the course of the series, quite a few of which were never really explained in detail, but the three 'classic' types used on Galactic ships for centuries are:
** your basic garden-variety 'conventional' shield, which effectively acts as an invisible
** 'high-energy' shields which differ from the above by, aside from having more stopping power, also extending into the fifth dimension, thereby preventing inconvenient teleporters or fusion bombs delivered by the ubiquitous transform cannons from simply popping into existence right ''inside'' your ship;
** and the paratron shield, which effectively displaces everything hitting it into hyperspace. Since hyperspace in this setting isn't a place where unprotected objects can exist for long, this generally means that such things either end up in a random alternate universe with usually no way back (if they're lucky) or cease to be altogether.
** As a final point, the series also features literal 'deflector fields'...which actually aren't this trope at all, but rather [[Cloaking Device
* Also from the mind of [[Larry Niven]]: his ''[[Known Space]]'' series features a "stasis field"
* In David Weber's ''[[
** There are also particle shields, which are just what they sound like: energy fields to deflect particles when traveling at relativistic speeds. Civilian grade particle shielding can protect a ship up to .6c, while military grade shielding protects up to .8c. These are generated by the drive systems, so missiles that go ballistic when their drives are out (they either burn out or idle for a while to extend range) can be destroyed by debris and dust if left to coast for too long.
* Force fields exist in the Eric Nylund novel ''A Game of Universe'', but they don't seem to be widely used: they've got something better. This is a Magitek universe, so starships have "protective circles": [[Geometric Magic]] instead of shields. They still work the same, with the protective circle being drained by attacks and having to be recharged (somehow) over time.
* In the ''Tomorrow War'' (rather [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|"hard"]] 'verse) by Alexander Zorich, shields are useful against [[Frickin' Laser Beams|rays]], but not kinetic weapons, which of course makes latter [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better|just better]]. Attempts to strap shields on a aerospace fighter the first time was one of the first book's plot lines, mainly on account of trying to make it work in an
* The ''Bolos'' series gives the title [[Tank Goodness|supertanks]] 'Battlescreens'. Being military sci-fi, their effects are quite important and are gone into at length: they stop physical impacts cold, destroying the projectiles, but can only weaken energy weapons, drawing off some of the beam power to top up the Bolo's own energy reserves. Various minor details suggest they are actually extremely powerful magnetic fields.
* Shields in David Weber's ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' trilogy can block things traveling in hyperspace (like hypermissiles), but hyperspace consists of multiple "bands" that the overall shield strength (a huge energy drain) must be distributed among. Imperial shields consist of one or two solid layers that encompass the ship; if a layer pops, though, the entire ship becomes completely vulnerable. The Achuultani use a number of interlocking and overlapping discs, trading overall strength for redundancy.
* Joe Haldeman's ''[[The Forever War]]'' has the "Stasis field." Only problem is that nothing inside can go faster than 16.3
** See also the double-layer spacedust repelling field the ships use to enable them to move at relativistic speeds without having to worry about running into much.
* If memory serves, the "Heart of Gold" out of the ''[[The
* Verner Vinge's ''[[
* In the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series The Amazing Bubbles absorbs energy and stores it in her body as fat. She can then release it through bubbles at extremely high velocities. This power makes her [[Nigh Invulnerable]], even to the extent of {{spoiler|absorbing a nuclear blast, though she ends up comatose and massively overweight for a long time as a result.}}
* In ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' at least big colony ships has shields elastic and -- ''large''
* Spacecraft in [[
** In fact it was the [[Big Bad]]'s ''own'' machine gun, which had been upset from its tripod and was spewing bullets all over the room, but Kinnison's armour was proof against it and the [[Big Bad]]'s was not.
** An important point of difference from TV shows such as ''[[
* ''[[Necroscope]]'': never being ones to think small, Russia attempts to blanket the entire (then) [[Soviet Superscience|Soviet Union]] with one of these. Sadly all it does is [[Phlebotinum Overload|create an inter-dimensional superhighway]] to the source world of Vampirism. [[Epic Fail|Oops]]!
*
* In [[
* In ''[[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]]'', a personal one is used at the end of the first episode to defend against Jack’s death ray. It’s “about the size of a fold-up highway map and the color of Windex.”
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has lots of shields and force fields. On ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', we even get to watch these get invented. ''Enterprise'' (NX-01) herself did not have shields (except in a [[Flash Forward]]), but appears to have had some kind of "navigational deflector" to avoid being pierced by space dust. According to Treknobabble, the solidity of holograms in the [[Trek Verse]] is the result of their being surrounded by a highly specialized force field. The abundance of [[Tim Taylor Technology]] coupled with the availability of force fields has led some to theorize that, in fact, ''all'' Federation technology is [[Reinforce Field|held together by tiny force fields]].
** NX-01 ''Enterprise'' instead had "polarized hull plating" which, though it was routinely charged before a battle, proved almost useless against advanced energy weapons. One wonders just how flimsy their hull would be ''without'' its hull plating polarized.
** And as to the speculation, it's arguably supported by canon. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYrkdyW2Cw Watch] ''[[Star Trek
** The navigational deflector has been a canonical part of ''Trek'' since ''[[Star Trek:
** The novel ''Federation'' features a wonderful interplay of cloaking, shields, antimatter containment fields, and Captain Picard that results in Picard taking out a Romulan ship by flying the ''Enterprise'' through it, sustaining almost no damage, and watching as the Romulans [[Critical Existence Failure|suddenly stop being there]].
** Almost every ship also has a structural integrity field, which holds the ships's structure together, necessitated by the size of some of the larger ships and also to minimise structural stress from acceleration and damage. This, however, qualifies not as a Deflector Shield but as a [[Reinforce Field]].
** There's also an additional field on top of that called an [[Inertial Dampening|inertial damper]] - which essentially prevents the crew from turning into blood splotches on wall upon rapid acceleration and deceleration. whenever the [[Star Trek Shake]] is employed, this is because the inertial dampening systems are capable of compensating for the ship's movements, but not always for the massive excess energy imparted by weapons fire or impacts.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** There are also the personal force shields they find in that freedom fighter
* ''[[Stargate SG
* Averted in
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': The aliens from ''[[Made for TV Movie|Thirdspace]]'' have those. {{spoiler|They had them on ships and on the gate. To go through the gate from one side, the protagonists concentrated fire on the other side.}}
** While it wasn't stated onscreen, background materials reveal that among the younger races, only the Abbai have deflector shields. Abbai technology isn't really anything special in most regards, but their entire military mindset is based on defense rather than offense, so they're ahead of the curve in this regard.
* In the ''[[
=== Video Games ===
* An unlockable ship subsystem in ''[[
* ''[[Independence War]]'' ships have a given number of Linear Displacement Array (LDA) shields that can each track one target within a limited direction (the usual arrangement is one shield on top and one on the bottom; the rear is uncovered [[Justified Trope|because they would interfere with the engines]]) and need some time to recharge after taking a hit. They don't block missiles or other physical objects, though there is an aggressor shield variant in ''Independence War 2'' that can be used for ramming attacks. Because of these limitations, you can't really rely on them instead of dodging every shot that comes your way, but a few blocked PBC projectiles may very well make the difference between life and death.
* In ''[[
** Also lampshaded when the commander of a Terran battlecruiser (a powerful yet unshielded warship) says: "Shields up, weapons online!"
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'': Heavy-duty force fields, of both [[Precursors|Prothean]] and geth {{spoiler|vis-a-vis Reaper}} origin, pop up throughout the game. An amusing interlude occurs when you first find Liara, who has managed to get herself locked inside a Prothean force-field bubble while trying to avoid a small army of geth and krogan mercenaries.
** Starship-scaled Kinetic Barriers are far more common applications of the large-scale version. They allow deflection of debris and mass accelerator rounds, but only up to a certain point. As their name also implies, they're ''kinetic'' barriers; laser-based weaponry can bypass them completely but has yet to be developed beyond defensive weaponry.
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** In the [[Expanded Universe]], deactivating a certain part of a Covenant ship's shields is handy for infiltrating said ship. For example, a common boarding strategy is to blast the shields, then blast the newly exposed ship, destroying that section's shield generator. The Spartans then fly in through the shield hole, and find an opening.
*** This is for like moon-sized ships though. Most ships are small enough that one shield-battery will suffice. Even those however can usually only be overpowered by the EMP of a nuke... poor humanity.
* ''[[
** The series as a whole has the standard deflector shield technology that you can research for your starships, but also lets you build artificial magnetic fields for irradiated planets. Of course you can later upgrade those into full-blown planetary deflector shields.
** In ''Master of Orion 2'' ship design allows devices buffing shield properties, like "Hard Shields" (resists shield-piercing weapons and nebulae, increases level), "Shield Capacitors" (increases recharge rate between combat turns), and "Multiphased Shields" (50% greater shield strength). The shields are segmented into 4 arcs and each turn they regenerate an amount based on the strongest arc, though enveloping weapons hit all four at once. There's also "Personal Shield" technology that gives major bonus in ground combat and boarding.
** [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Exotic technologies]] include "Damper Field", which replaces standard deflector shields with an energy field that reduces any incoming damage by 75% and has 50% chance to kill teleporting boarders. "Reflector Field" is compatible both with shields and Damper Field and gives a chance to reflect weapons fire back at the shooter.
* The ''[[Wild
* ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' explains ship-based deflector shields has shunting energy to a theoretical dimension based on imaginary numbers.
* Shields feature prominently in ''[[
* In the old video game ''[[Scorched Earth]]'', you have choice between barriers absorbing incoming fire without explosions and bouncy one; the latter deflects missiles away from your tank, but slowly falling ones may still get you - sometimes the shield bubble even ends up filled with napalm. There's also the antigravitic umbrella, which blows munitions falling from above off course, but isn't any good against shots to a side.
* Magical force fields protect Ganondorf's castle in ''[[The Legend of Zelda
** The trope started with ''[[Zelda II:
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* Similarly, ''[[
** ''[[
*** Actually the paling was up in that particular event, it's simply that even a paling can't provide adequate protection from a city-sized battlecruiser falling on it.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Type
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** ''[[
* A common feature in the universe of ''[[Beyond Good
* Deflector shields, both ship-mounted and man (animal?) portable versions, occur frequently throughout the ''[[Star Fox (
** In ''[[
*** Also, floating robots commonly have shields. The ones in Dragon Rock require you to use an Earthwalker horn to disable the generators, and the one in the Krazoa Palace has the unusual disabling method of shooting colored gems through color-changing flames.
* Sections of ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' are sealed off with force fields, especially when it comes to the research stations and the Phazon Mines. Most disabling is accomplished by scanning somewhere, but one goes down when a Phazon Elite ''punches'' it.
** Some fields are used to reinforce the glass walls of the Metroid cages. This allows the Pirates to study the Metroid while still being protected from the monstrous life-sucking jellyfish alien. Once you cut the power, however, they start breaking through the glass to attack both you and the Pirates. This happens in ''all three Prime games''.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Wing Commander (
* ''[[
* In ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', most ships have this, with absence being the exception.
* In ''[[Free Space]]'', the Terran and Vasudan ships initially have no deflector shields, and the shielded Shivan fighters are nigh-invulnerable to their weapons. Fortunately, observation of Shivan technology allows the good guys to develop both shields and more effective weapons in short order.
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** The Shivan Destroyer Lucifer takes this [[Up to Eleven]]. Not only is it the only Destroyer-class warship ever to be equipped with shields, but it's also completely invulnerable against all forms of weaponry.
* In ''[[Air Rivals]]'', all player-piloted craft have a passive version that basically just gives more [[Hit Points]]. There is also a class-specific version that temporarily blocks all damage from missiles, bombs, and rockets.
* In ''[[
* In the turn-based strategy game ''Mission Force: Cyberstorm,'' both [[Humongous Mecha|HERCs]] and [[Mecha
* The Enclave apparently has access to "Photonic Resonance Barriers" in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', which they use to {{spoiler|block Project Purity and obstruct Liberty Prime during the final mission.}} "Probability of mission hindrance: '''ZERO PERCENT!'''"
* Shields are a major branch of research in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''; ships with a "shield" section get a rechargeable bonus to their health. The Liir and Morrigi are experts in their use, while Hivers and Zuul usually have less than 20% chance of getting even the most basic of shielding.
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* In ''[[Star Wars]]: Galactic Battlegrounds'', some units come with shielding. Essentially, this doubles their health, and the shields (unlike, in most cases, the actual health) regenerate.
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has deflector shields as standard equipment on all small ships. The difference between taking shield damage and hull damage, apart from a loud "[[Most Annoying Sound|CLANNNNNNNGGGGG!]]", is that taking hull damage also hurts your weapons and equipment, eventually destroying them.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' has many, the main ones being Telekinesis Field, which is hard to explain (Basically, it uses the pilot's [[Psychic Powers]] to create it), and the Gravity Wall, which erects panels of "hard gravity pockets" which either stops an attack in its tracks, or just takes the edge off of it.
** Ironically, one of the few beam weapons in the Gundam universe that is canonically designed to bypass beam shielding entirely does not exhibit such behavior in SRW.
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** According to the UFO-paedia, the Sectopod is equipped with an energy shield that is resistant to plasma weapons, and since it is usually encountered lategame when plasma weapons replace laser weapons, this can be a problem.
** The Grav Shield base facility from UFO Defense and its Terror from the Deep counterpart, the Bombardment Shield. When a UFO attacks a base, the Grav Shield pushes the UFO away to allow the defense arrays to fire a second time.
* ''[[Galactic Civilizations
* ''[[
* Most vehicles in ''[[Battlefield 2142]]'' are equipped with a shield that can destroy rockets and missiles. The shield has to be toggled on manually, lasts for a second or two, and then is inactive as it recharges. It probably doesn't protect vehicles from EMP weapons.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** According to the [[All in The Manual|manual]], during the testing of the Sentinels, one of them accidentally sliced through a frigate with its shield, destroying it. Unfortunately, the game [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|doesn't allow]] you to do that.
** The ''Homeworld'' series also features the defense field frigate, which projects a protective energy field for short amounts of time. Its usefulness is debatable though, as it requires a fair bit of micromanagement to actually shield other ships from enemy fire.
* The eponymous [[Perimeter]] is a dome-like force field players can raise over parts of their bases (or whole bases). It's virtually impenetrable to attacks and incinerates everything that trying to pass through but has a very high energy cost. It also has a unique ability to steal enemy buildings - erect a field-generator close to them, raise the field - vois la!
* In the ''[[X (
* A strategic aspect in the original ''[[Star Raiders (
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei
* ''[[Space Colony]]'' has the Space Defence Shield, which protects against meteor showers and volcanic debris.
* ''[[Project Eden]]'' and ''[[Descent]]'' (1,2 and 3) have shields, but no separate health or armor, meaning the character/player dies when the shield fails.
* In ''[[War Front Turning Point]]'', one of the Allies' response to [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]] and [[Soviet Superscience]] are force field tanks.
* ''[[Starflight]]'' allows the player to manually raise or lower shields, if installed. The reason you don't leave shields raised all the time is that doing so may be seen as a hostile gesture, just like having your weapons constantly armed.
* ''Stars!'' has shields that recover only between battles <ref>unless you choose [http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Regenerating_Shields Regenerating Shields] trait, in which case they regenerate 10% of the total each round, and has 40% greater full capacity, but armor components are halved</ref>. Shield generators are very light, but far weaker than armor of comparable [[Tech Level]] - of course, often slots are shield-only or armor-only anyway. Beam weapons have lesser range, but are light (allowing greater mobility), always hit and have greater damage - which shields absorb point by point. Conversely, missiles are long-ranged, miss a lot, but shields absorb only 1/2 of their damage (plus 1/8 of damage from ''missed'' ones).
** The main advantage of shields is ''stacking'' from the whole token (all ships of the same type in a fleet), thus if ship type has shield and ''if there are enough of them'', it takes twice as much to destroy the first one even with missiles. When there are few ships, shields are inferior to armor, which in turn usually is inferior to mounting more weapons (if the slot allows). This have obvious strategical implications: e.g. 1x shield + 2x torpedo destroyers are cheaper and ''stronger'' than their 3x torpedo counterpart... but ''only if you keep them in big enough packs'': e.g. with TL 0 shield against TL 0 torpedo (but hull and armor at Construction TL 3) it takes 18 ships to fully use this advantage - neither you nor enemy are likely to have such fleets before a better design <ref>which won't stack with them</ref> is available; with shields on the same TL 3 (in Energy) it's 12, and with everything at TL 6, it's only 9 ships. Later in the game both shields get better and fleets grow, so missiles become the main weapon again, despite introduction of both missile jammers and "shield sappers" that inflict even greater damage, but only to shields (and fire before other weapons, of course).
=== Web Comics ===
* In ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'', [[Hive Mind|Mars']] "vector technology" functions like this (as well as being able to hold unconnected objects into a rigid frame).
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has "unifield shields" that use [[Artificial Gravity]] to distort the paths of incoming attacks. Warships invariably use "breacher missiles" that emit a gravity pulse to try and push back. The author [[The Rant|expounds at length in a]] [[Foot Note]] about how shields would realistically be best portrayed,<ref>since they are designed to obstruct energy attacks of all forms, including visible laser light, they should technically obstruct the view of the ships they enclose entirely, leaving battles fought between blobs of darkness where the stars are obscured</ref> [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-12-14 and how he portrays them with a distinct amount of artistic license.] He's also suggested that, if he doesn't have time, he would portray them realistically...
* The current ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob|Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' story involves [[Gadgeteer Genius|Galatea]] [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20100413.html inventing a force field] powerful enough to deflect [[Wave Motion Gun|borfomite beams.]]
* In ''[[
* ''[[Drive (
=== Web Original ===
* Averted in ''[[Orion's Arm]]''. Although some in-universe fictional stories refer to clarketech deflector shields which work like this, the jury is out on whether such things actually exist in-universe. Most relativistic interstellar ships are covered in a thick layer of rock in front to deflect debris when traveling at high speeds.
** There are deflector shields but they're active systems that use a powerful laser to ionize particles in front of the ship and then magnetic fields to deflect the ions.
* Mostly averted in ''[[Tech Infantry]]'', although all starships have standard electromagnetic deflector shields that protect them from micrometeorites and induced cosmic rays when traveling at a substantial percentage of light speed. Some of the larger warships have gravity-based shields created by their gravitic drives, but these are of limited utility, as it's hard to shoot out through a zone of such intense gravity that it can bend weapon beams away or crush incoming missiles.
=== Western Animation ===
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'', the entire city of [[Shining City|Canterlot]] has a massive magical protective dome.
* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', the ghost shields are used to surround buildings or machines on numerous occasions, but only works against ghosts. Danny, as a half-ghost, has a special advantage against ghost shields in that he can pass them while in human form.
** Which doesn't ''quite'' make sense when you consider that he still registers as "ghost" on various equipment whether he's in human form or not... and that he can seemingly use almost all his ghost powers (minus flying) while in human form also.
* In ''[[
* The upgraded Technodrome in ''[[Turtles Forever]]'' has a deflector shield that easily absorbs all the firepower that the military hits it with.
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', Sumdac Tower has a force-field that can be activated if the building is under attack, though it only comes up a few times throughout the series. While it ''is'' the 22nd century, and Professor Sumdac ''did'' have Megatron's head in his lab for a while, this is still pretty impressive. The Elite Guard ship can also create one.
=== Real Life ===
* The British Ministry of Defence [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7487740/Star-Trek-style-force-field-armour-being-developed-by-military-scientists.html is seriously pursuing the development of real deflector shields for tanks]. The tanks' armour would contain super-capacitors that store large amounts of electrical energy, and then release it in a brief, powerful blast when an incoming projectile approaches. The incredibly powerful, localized EM pulse would physically deflect the projectile. The capacitor would then rapidly recharge to prepare for another attack. Projectiles as large as rocket-propelled grenades and small missiles could be protected against in this way. The only difference from ''[[Star Trek]]''—style forcefields is that these deflectors would work in pulses, rather than running continuously. And they probably wouldn't do much against [[Death Ray]]s...
* It has become apparent that DARPA employs ''[[Command & Conquer|Red Alert]]'' fans. You know the Iron Curtain force field from that game? [http://gizmodo.com/5417079/darpas-iron-curtain-detects-explodes-rpgs-from-a-moving-humvee They've made it a reality].
** ''However, Red Alert'' had it right: the Soviets invented the system in the 70s, and even fielded it in Afghanistan (with disastrous results - it worked ''too well'', protecting the vehicle, but consistently blowing up shit and people all around it). Recently, the Russian army got its hands on version 2.0 (well, more like "dash-M", but that seems to be Russian military speak for 2.0 these days).
* Will always come up eventually during playtime for children, going something like this:
{{quote|
Child 2: [[Deflector Shield|Force field]]!
Child 1: [[Calvin Ball|No force fields]]! }}
=== Anime and Manga ===
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|one of Father's powers after eating God is to create a spherical barrier around himself which can instantly transmute anything that touches it.}}
* Yomi of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has a barrier that deflects, and in some forms absorbs demonic energy, {{spoiler|although Yusuke gets around this by finally realizing to turn off the demonic transformation and use
** And technically Sensui's Holy Chi, which {{spoiler|morphs into armor after he enters the Demon Plane.}}
* The Mages of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' have Barrier spells which surround their body and absorb incoming attacks. Shield spells also exist, which cover only one side but could deflect attacks that would pierce barriers. There's also "Field" spells that dissipate magic energy within them, as well as magically hardened armor in their Barrier Jackets. Figuring out the right combination of percentage of each at any second during a battle requires an inhuman amount of mathematics and quick thinking. Nanoha spent most of her elementary school time in a [[Journey to
** And there's AMF. [[Anti
*** Or the really, really powerful ones can just [[Wave Motion Gun]] their way through with brute magical force. Even if the antimagic field is a uniquely powerful one capable of holding off dozens of mages at a time, built onto an anti-planetary spaceship. Especially if the resident villanous [[Smug Snake]] is hiding on the other side of the ship (with assorted blast doors and [[Elite Mooks]] blocking the way also) while making you fight your adopted daughter. Can you say [[Dungeon Bypass]]? One of Nanoha's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|greatest moments]].
* Various characters in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' can do this using their [[Ki Attacks|Ki]].
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* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]!'', magic shields are depicted as a basic preemptive in combat. Naturally it's sustained by the user's will. That also unfortunately means that (because most force-emitting spells are energy based) psysical type spells require the barrier to be lowered before the spell is activated, that in itself requiring further chanting atop the obligatory barrier-breaker spell arming the already-activating spell.
** Later in the series, mysterious boy-like character (Filius Zect?) was revealed to essentially be the previous group Ala Rubra's [[Barrier Warrior]].
** But it's of little use against [[Anti
{{quote|
* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' has the spell ''Cresta'', which projects a clear spherical barrier around the caster. Furthermore, [[Blow You Away|Fuu]] could use her Wind magic to cast ''[[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Soul Eater]]'': Shinigami uses skull-shaped shields to defend against Asura, and at one point attempt to crush him into the ground. Kid gets a smaller version through Brew, which he uses to defend against Mosquito's attacks. Stein has a
** Also Black*Star and Tsubaki have Shield Star.
* Light Shields in ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' are usually used only by individual people.
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* In [[Naruto]] the Hyuuga have the Kaiten (Rotation).
** Pain/Nagato has two similar abilities, one destroys any jutsu by spinning energy and the other is a gravity blast.
* Komachi/Cure Mint gains the Emerald Saucer when she gets her power upgrade in ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5
* Witches create personal shields in ''[[Strike Witches]]''. This becomes an important plot point when {{spoiler|Mio can no longer create them due to her aging as a witch.}}
=== Comic Books ===
* Sue Storm from the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' was originally just invisible, but she quickly gained the ability to produce force fields as well, making her ''extremely'' powerful.
* Brainiac 5 of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]] compensates for not ''technically'' having any offensive powers by having an impenetrable personal force field which he invented for himself. The [[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|animated version]] doesn't have one, but as he's a transforming robot he probably needs it less.
** In the original, '60s comic Legion, Brainiac 5 didn't so much create the force field belt as recreate the force field technology used by his "ancestor", the original Brainiac. Said shield was so powerful that even [[Superman]] couldn't punch through it, making Brainiac one of the first villains to be effectively capable of going toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel.
** Vril Dox, or Brainiac 2, also has a force field belt, albeit a much less advanced one.
* Deflector shields are one of the many ''many'' things a [[Green Lantern Ring]] can create.
* Songbird from the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' can create pink solid-sound energy constructs and often use them to shield herself and others.
* [[Depending
* Jean Grey of the [[X-Men]] commonly use telekinetic force fields to protect herself and her teammates. Presumably other telekinetic mutants are capable of this, as well. Magneto is capable of creating powerful force fields using his powers of magnetism that are strong enough to protect him against attacks from multiple superheroes, nuclear weapons, and allows him to survive in the depths of space.
* [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] can create "dimension disruptions" with Mjolnir to protect himself or his allies.
* [[Nick Fury]]'s tech division experimented with personal energy fields during the late sixties, ''always'' with [[Oh Crap|near-disastrous results]] for the volunteers involved. Oddly enough, most of [[Fun
* During a time when his iconic shield was lost in the Atlantic, [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] was provided with a photonic energy shield by Sharon Carter. Said shield, in addition to being an energy facsimile of his regular shield, could even be converted into various other forms, which included: a bo staff, sword, and even a larger force-shield. Unfortunately, the photonic shield didn't have the ricocheting ability that the regular shield had.
=== Fan Works ===
* Alex "Terawatt" Mack from ''[[The Secret Return of Alex Mack]]'' and its spin-off [[Shared Universe]] ''[[The Teraverse]]'' employs her TK in this way, literally deflecting anything that might hit her. As she grows in skill and power it eventually reaches levels where [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished|doesn't even get dirty in muddy, knock-down, drag-out fights]]. Her [[DC Universe]] counterpart Stormburst eventually learns how to do the same thing as well.
===
* Violet Parr's power in ''[[The Incredibles]]'' was invisibility and projecting force fields just like Susan Storm, but then, the Incredibles were in ''many'' ways deliberate [[Expy|expies]] of the Fantastic Four.
* [[David Lynch]]'s film adaptation of ''[[Dune]]'' goes against convention by depicting personal shields as boxy rather than bubble-like.
=== Literature ===
* One of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series books has a man trading his personal shield—resistant even to ray gun fire—to one of the guards in exchange for a private viewing of the generator facilities on a planet. Oh, the shield works, all right, but only for one day.
** Not being stupid, he brought two, ''and'' a gun that can shoot through it.
* Asimov seems to be fond of this idea: In ''David Starr, Space Ranger'', [[Lucky Starr]] acquires a personal force field generator, later called a "glimmer shield" because of its peculiar optic properties. It helps save the day in a couple of the later novels. {{spoiler|Lucky's glimmer shield is one of a kind, though: it is given to him by hyperadvanced Martians, and it is stated that that kind of technology is past the ability of human society at that point.}}
* In Christopher Hinz' three volume ''[[Paratwa Saga]]'', there is a form of this called a crescent web. It protects the ventral and dorsal areas while leaving the sides vulnerable so the arms can move (usually to aim a weapon).
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* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', shields are a common defense used by many wizards. Harry Dresden carries a "shield bracelet," which is a magical focus that allows him to finely control his magical power to generate shields in a variety of shapes. His initial shield only produced a barrier against kinetic attacks, to defend against things like bullets, but after a [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] villain took advantage of that with flamethrowers, he developed a different focus that could defend against nearly anything, including magical attacks. In a couple of cases, he's actually used the [[Barrier Warrior|barriers as a weapon]], by using them to deflect incoming fire or altering the barrier to reflect light, creating a mirror to startle opponents.
* As with large-scale shields, practically everyday military and secret agent tech in ''[[Perry Rhodan]]''. Personal shields of assorted types tend to stop pretty much anything (exceptions are rare), but can be overwhelmed by sustained fire from suitably heavy weapons readily enough.
* Another fantasy example is from the Death Gate Cycle, where the Patryns tattoo magical runes all over their bodies for magical protection. However, these aren't perfect
* In ''Way of the Pilgrim'' by [[Gordon R. Dickson]] the personal force-shield of any Aalag soldier would allow him to hold out indefinitely against any weapons humanity could throw at him. Even nukes. The ship-board version is presumably even more robust.
* In the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' books, Golden Boy is protected by a "biological force field" that appears whenever he's in imminent danger of harm (whether or not he's consciously aware of that danger). The force field glows yellow, hence the name Golden Boy.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' has ''Protego'', which seems to have two variants: [[Tennis Boss|deflecting an opponent's spell back at them]], and a deployable shield which can apparently stop both physical objects and spells.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': A number of force fields turned up, most spectacularly around individual Daleks in the new series.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': A few races have personal force fields. When SG-1 ambushes Apophis, he single-handedly [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb-stomps]] them, since they haven't figured out how to bypass it. They end up using darts (and once, a thrown knife), although these don't always work either. (see it's Large-Scale entry above)
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' gives us a personal force field quickly snapped up by Doctor and Egotistical Nerd, Rodney McKay. Instead of being a bubble, the force field is just slightly above the user's skin and clothes, which causes a number of problems. A) You can't take it off by hitting the off switch, as it's under the force field, B) you can't eat, and C) you can't drink. Luckily, the Ancients are smart enough to include a mental failsafe for when you ''really'' want it to turn off.
* ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'': Sky Tate's genetic mutation gives him the ability to erect force fields with his mind.
** Similarly, Dillon's suit power in ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' is a five-second deflective shield.
** More generally, the Megazords are typically said to have deflector shields in addition to to the armor, with the Rangers occasionally commenting on shield status after taking a big hit.
* The Borg from ''[[
** One species from ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' has personal shields that appears to be thin strips on their arms. They moves their arms into the way of phaser shots in order to block it.
** In one episode of ''The Next Generation'', Worf Jury-rigged himself a personal force field... using a comm-badge. This hasn't made it to Starfleet R&D
*** Because it was a weak magnetic barrier designed to deflect holo-bullets, not real bullets or energy weapons.
*** And also because [[Reed Richards Is Useless]].
*** By the point of ''[[
* Willow from ''[[
* ''[[
=== Tabletop Games ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'': Like everything else in 40K, personal force fields are available in a wide variety of sizes and craziness. The Imperium, Tau and Eldar use force fields of varied effects, rarity and effectiveness to protect their higher ranking troops and Orks build "Kustom Force Fields" which they carry into battle to protect troops. [[Humongous Mecha|Titans]] have Void Shields, although that's stretching the definition of 'personal', while all large spacecraft have void shields or an equivalent, with the occasional possible exception of orks.
** The accompanying literature mentions "Gellar fields", which are used by Imperial ships to protect themselves while travelling through [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]] (an alternate dimension which allows travel over great distances, but which also happens to essentially be the 40K version of Hell), in order to prevent their ships getting infested with/torn apart by malevolent (or in some cases just plain bored) daemons/damned souls. It's never well mentioned how other races such as the Tyranids, the Orks and the Eldar manage to prevent this kind of occurrence, although the fact that the Eldar essentially built ''roads'' through the Warp might have something to do with their particular race's habit of escaping death by daemon. Orks tend either not to care, [[Blood Knight|and find a daemonic invasion entertaining]], or to use a [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]] psychic effect to repel them.
** Actually it does mention that Ork ships use huge "TEEF!" as decoration on their ships to make them look like bigger demons, to scare away lesser demons, this appears to work either because demons don't find Orks to be appetising, clap your hands technology or due to large numbers of orks together causing a psychic gestalt. The fact that Imperials often seem to believe the Gargoyles and statues of imperial saints do much the same thing to enhance the protection of the Gellar field is amusing.
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*** Shimmershields (Eldar) project a wide-area energy field (sufficient to cover an entire squad) that interferes with melee attacks. Shimmershields offer no protection against ranged attacks, implying that they are only effective against slow-moving weapons.<ref>Given Eldar mastery of [[Artificial Gravity|gravitic technology]], Shimmershields may be generating an effect that locally reduces the effective mass of any object within it with a velocity above a fairly low threshold. This would reduce the effectiveness of melee weapons, which tend to rely on mass to do damage, but would leave fast-moving projectiles, which get the majority of their energy from velocity, largely unaffected.</ref>
*** Shield Generators (Tau) appear to function similarly to Imperial Refractor Fields, projecting a spherical energy field around the wearer that glows and crackles as it spreads the energy of an incoming attack across its entire surface.
* ''[[Dungeons
** Also an item called Bracers of Armor. They come in eight different strengths and while considerably more expensive than normal armor of the same protective quality they serve the same role without inhibiting mobility in any way. They are also considerably lighter, weighing only [[American Customary Measurements|one pound]].
** [[Mind Over Matter|Telekinetic]] power "Kinetic Control" absorbs impacts ''while storing the energy'' so user can be battered and shot without any harm, then deliver all this abuse or part of it to some poor sod or piece of furniture instantly with a touch. If not discharged, it kicks even worse upon deactivation, though.
* Similar to the ''D&D'' example above, ''[[Exalted]]'' has discreet Essence armor, an artifact in the form of a matched set of bracers and anklets that projects an Essence shield around the wearer in combat situations. Aside from being lighter and easier to conceal (hence the "discreet"; the flavor text indicates it was originally made for diplomats, spies, and others who would want to be armored without looking like they were) than normal armor, it's explicitly compatible with [[Supernatural Martial Arts]], which normally prohibit the use of armor.
* Some science fiction games (including sufficiently-advanced versions of ''GURPS'') had a forcefield-based shield..and by 'shield' I mean 'flat protective thingy strapped to your arm'.
* ''[[GURPS]]'' has a force screens in ''Ultra-Tech'' and spells like "Utter Dome" in ''Magic''. There is also a skill which requires both Telekinesis and ESP which allows the user to wrap himself in a personal force field.
* ''[[Fading Suns]]'' has loosely ''Dune''-inspired shields that don't kick in unless an attack does a specified minimum amount of damage. Nobles use them when dueling, the trick is to strike hard enough to hurt your opponent but not so hard their shield activates. Fortunately energy weapons just have a chance of "bleeding through" the shield.
* ''[[
* ''[[Stars Without Number]]'' got personal defences of this sort, mechanically they are counted as normal armor, and where available at all<ref>they are all [[Tech Level|TL5]], "common" industry is TL4, allowing cheap fusion power, basic [[Artificial Gravity]]/Repulsor/[[Tractor Beam]]s and interstellar travel — and most colonies [[After the End|struggled hard to restore or retain]] even these capabilities</ref>, in order of improving protection the mass-produced types are Force Pavis — a forcefield, well, ''shield'', i.e. single hand-held emitter (10k Cr), Deflector Array — a grid of forcefield generators that can be worn under clothes (30k Cr) and Field Emitter Panoply — beefed-up relative of the latter, with the field glowing constantly while active, immune to handheld TL3<ref>i.e. late ⅩⅩ-early ⅩⅩⅠ century</ref> weapons up to grenades and also very good against radiation (40k Cr).
** There's deflection field for vehicles, and even on TL4, but they only somewhat deflect projectiles, there are no universal damper fields, even for tanks.
** There are no defences of this sort at all scaled up to spaceship size, or at least, none ever were common enough to warrant a mention even as rare artifact equipment (there was one mention of "omen shields" used on late warships of the long-dead human empire, but those probably were of different nature). Considering that a small starship with basic equipment (up to short-range interstellar travel capability, though not practical without upgrades) such as strike fighter or interplanetary shuttle costs 200k Cr, and up-armoring one of these costs 25k Cr, it's not hard to guess why.
=== Video Games ===
* Robo Manus in the Battletoads Arcade game had one of these. The last level is a shoot'em up of sorts, and you have to fight him by [[Boom! Headshot!|shooting him in the head]]. Eventually you will crush through his cranial armor leaving his brain exposed, making him creating a deflector shield with whatever energy he finds, so your job is to shoot him until he is unable to keep the shield running.
* The "kinetic barriers" from ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Capable of deflecting small, fast-moving objects (i.e., bullets) but will yield to slower-moving objects ("so the subject can sit down without knocking away their chair"-gametext). These are the game's equivalent to "second chance armor" in the sense that it offers total protection from enemy fire, but only until the barrier's very small amount of power is exhausted and the shield cuts out.
** Interestingly enough, the shields' ability to only deflect certain shapes of objects traveling at certain speeds is used heavily in-game to create bullets that fly at different speeds or are shaped differently than the standard to cut through kinetic barriers more effectively.
* There are three grades of personal shield in the ''[[Crusader:
* "Shielding" is one of the many [[Psychic Powers]] available in ''[[
* ''[[Star Ocean]] 2'' has several boss fights that are deliberately unwinnable (some of them require you to just survive for 60 seconds). Besides the ones that are against foes that are supposed to be "just too strong", the initial fights against the Ten Wise Men show them encased in some sort of energy field, the technobabble for which escapes me. The heroes have to search out a particular metal with which to fashion weapons allowing them to hurt them.
* Deflector shields, both ship-mounted and man (animal?) portable versions, occur frequently throughout the ''[[Star Fox (
* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'': All the incarnations of the Power Suit include energy shielding; deflecting enemy attacks requires energy from the suit's [[Heart Container|onboard tanks]].
** Also, the Parasite Queen has a shifting force field. Sometimes it gives you a nice opening, and other times it spins to make it highly unlikely that shots will penetrate.
* In the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' games, Princess Zelda fights with magic rather than weaponry, outside of her Final Smash; one of her spells is called Nayru's Love, which tosses up a short-lived protective barrier around her that deflects attacks.
** And then there's the Team [[Star Fox (
* The title character from ''[[The Guardian Legend]]'' is protected by a personal force field, which only materializes briefly when she gets attacked. When her life meter drops to zero, the shield can no longer protect her, and she will get destroyed if attacked again.
* [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Personal_energy_shield "Personal energy shields"] in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe. They're canonically inconvenient, expensive, and not used often, to explain why the characters [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|don't carry them all the time]], but personal shields are featured much more prominently in the video games, where just about every protagonist seems to have one. Examples include ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' and ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Knight]]''.
* The [[Player Character]] in ''[[Flashback (
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' has personal deflector shield pickups, though they do not regenerate except in the old-fashioned way: by picking up another shield. They can make thrown weapons like the Combat Knives bounce off, and any weapon that would normally be a [[One
** There's the [[Turtle Sim]] in the Combat Simulator mode, which spawns with a shield stronger than any human player can get, but also moves much more slowly.
* In ''[[
** The Engineer's Wrangler creates a shield around his sentry.
* Early editions of the ''[[
* ''[[X-COM]]: Apocalypse'' has shields for both vehicles and individuals.
* ''[[Halo]]'' has Spartans, Elites, and Brutes with energy shields over their armor, as well as round hand-mounted shields carried by Jackals, and two deployable varieties (the [[Beehive Barrier|Bubble Shield]] and Deployable Cover). All varieties except the Bubble Shield can be worn down, especially by plasma fire, or temporarily disabled by charged Plasma Pistol shots.
* ''[[Section 8 (video game)]]'' has shields which operate as an regenerating extra layer of health. However, these also are bypassed at close range, allowing for direct damage to armour, which needs to be repaired. Since the game allows the player to customize these attributes (among others), careful consideration must be made to whether one will be doing a lot of close combat or not.
* Appeared in ''Jak 3'' in the form of one of Jak's Light Eco powers; appeared in Jak X in the form of a Red Eco pickup; appeared in TLF in the form of a Green Eco [[Beehive Barrier]].
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has the "Force Field" buff set, which is a straight use of this trope, however, there are also many other protective powers, such as [[Make Me Wanna Shout|sound waves]] (whu...?), [[An Ice Person|ice]] (hey wait...) and [[Incendiary Exponent|FIRE]] (AAAAGH!?). There's also a personal armor set called Energy Aura which is technically this.
* [[Kirby]], in his Mirror form, gets a ''[[Attack Reflector|Reflector Shield]]''.
* [[MOTHER 1
* One of the powers available to the protagonist in ''[[Advent Rising]]'' is the "negate" power, which manifests as either a
* The Assassin in ''[[Monday Night Combat]]'' has a deflector shield in the form of a smoke bomb, yes, a smoke bomb.
* Mage-type Shades in ''[[
* The "Shield" spell in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' makes the target invincible for a period of time.
* ''[[Vindictus]]'' mage character Evie has magical shields as her main source of defense. These block all magical and physical attacks; but only seem to extend as far as the surface of her skin, since clothing and armour can still be damaged (underwear can't be damaged, but that seems to be mainly due to the devs aiming for a PG-13 audience).
** As of the "Labyrinth" expansion, Evie
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', several different kinds of personal force shields are available to player characters depending on their class. Since the visual effect looks like a vaguely glowing ellipse around the character, they're often referred to as "bubbles."
** Paladins, most famously, have ''Divine Shield'', which makes the paladin completely immune to all damage for 8 seconds. They also have a spell called ''Hand of Protection'' which they can cast on their fellow party members, which makes them immune to physical damage for 8 seconds (but does not prevent magic damage).
** Priests can cast ''Power Word: Shield'' on themselves and others, which absorbs a certain number of damage points before collapsing.
** Warlocks who have summoned a Voidwalker can "sacrifice" that Voidwalker, which throws a protective barrier around the Warlock. Like the priest's shield, this barrier absorbs a certain amount of damage and then fails.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** Made even cooler when the Fire shield makes most fire-based attacks pass right through, the Lightning shield doubles as a ring magnet, and the Water shield lets you breathe underwater indefinitely...until the time limit runs out, of course.
** These three shields returned in ''[[
* Your tank in ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' can upgrade its energy shields up to three times. Getting hit will decrease the shield level by one. However, there are many attacks in the game that will destroy you regardless of shielding.
** The "Reflex Aircraft" enemies have an energy shield around them, this one has the added bonus of spraying indestructible purple shots everywhere should your regular attack damage it. However, their shields are useless against your special weapons.
* Archer of ''[[Fate/stay
* ''[[
* The ''[[Unreal]]'' series has frequently used energy shields as a form of armor - the original, ''Unreal Tournament'', and ''UT3'' have them as the best form of protection, though rarer than normal body armor, while in ''Unreal 2'', the ''Championship'' subseries and ''UT2003/2004'' they are the only form of protection. The latter three also feature the Shield Gun, which is always on-hand and can be used near-indefinitely, but is less effective than actual armor.
* In ''[[Evolva]]'', one of the skills you can get allows you to use it. It makes you invulnerable during the time is turned on, except against lava (you'll still catch fire as normally, although you won't lose health until the shield wears off) and sea water.
* In the ''[[
* The original ''[[
=== Web Comics ===
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'' potentially all fae, depending on their skill and strength in mana. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111204082011/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive//20070731c0p018.jpg Seen in the last panel here].
=== Web
* In the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', not only do some mutant powers (like some Enegizers or PK supermen) have them, but other mutant powers (the devisers) may be able to make personal, portable force fields.
=== Western Animation ===
* Eric the Cavalier in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' cartoon has an invulnerable magic shield; he usually has to physically deflect threats with it, but occasionally for things like a rockslide it'll generate an actual force field.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': One of Danny's many ghost power is a shield. It usually comes in two varieties, a wider, weaker one or a smaller, deflective one.
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': Kim has a supersuit with a built-in shield. Other shields are shown occasionally, including one used to stop Ron, who has been villain powered to destroy anything by touching it, from destroying things with his hands.
* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', the Guardians are shimmering forcefield spheres which are used by XANA to imprison a hero on Lyoko. Odd can also create a personal shield starting with Season 2.
* In ''[[Barbie and the Diamond Castle]]'', the stones that Liana and Alexa wear around their necks create a visible barrier that shields them from the [[Vain Sorceress|villain]]'s [[Magic Music|evil spells]]. Later, they're able to use the instruments in the [[MacGuffin Location|titular castle]] to create a similar barrier that not only guards them, but reflects the spells back on the villain.
* Creating energy shields, either as flat planes or enclosed domes/spheres, is one of Gwen's most-used powers on ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force]]''.
* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' has a villain called Repeller, who could use his impenetrable force field both offensively and defensively like Sue Storm, with enough force to break titanium. He was defeated when Batman lured him into a wind tunnel, the extremely loud noise caused him to pass out.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'': Twilight Sparkle can conjure these with her magic. They're quite powerful, too: She can block [[Reality Warper|Discord]]'s power. Her brother, Shining Armor, can also do it - it's his special talent.
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[[Category:Tropes in Shining Armor]]
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