Deflector Shields: Difference between revisions

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("fan fic"->"fan works", potholes, fixed unnecessary redirect, fixed abbreviations, "comics"->"comic books", Captain America pothole, added example, added text, spelling, uncoupled work links from character names)
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{{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.
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=== Fan FicWorks ===
* Calvin's [[Cool Plane|box-plane]] in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'' has one of these.
 
 
=== Films -- AnimationFilm ===
* In ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'', the titular city has guardian golems which project an impenetrable protective shield over the city. This is why it sank mostly-intact into an air pocket rather than being trashed completely (though the outermost areas were out of luck, having been established after the shield system and were thus beyond its border). It was also called into service to protect the city from a volcanic eruption, and showed the ability to harden and crumble the magma that covered it.
 
 
=== Films -- Live-Action ===
* ''[[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...]]
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** 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).
* ''[[CoDominium|The Mote in God's Eye]]'' has one called the Langston Field, but Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle go into minute detail about how it works in a story collected in ''N-space''. This includes them claiming that they came up with how that technology worked and then wrote the story around those limitations.
** 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 heat—unless it absorbs too much energy, in which case it [[Phlebotinum Overload|collapses]], radiating all the stored energy inward ''and'' outward at once, destroying the shielded ship.
* 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.
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** 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.
* ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'' called this a "force wall".
* ''[[Farscape]]'': Energy barriers are rare in the Farscape [[The Verse|'verse]], but they do exist. Our heroes salvage one in "PK Tech Girl", though it breaks the very next time they use it.
** There are also the personal force shields they find in that freedom fighter base—they activate only when hit by blaster fire, but then will protect the wearer from pretty much anything, up to and including lava. Unfortunately, apart from one use in the next episode, the few that our heroes manage to salvage are never used again after "I Shrink Therefore I Am," presumably because [[Bounty Hunter|Axicor]] had them destroyed the moment he discovered them.
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** 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 ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S15/E06 The Invasion of Time|The Invasion of Time]]'', the planet Gallifrey was shown to have a large force field protecting it from being attacked.
 
 
=== Video Games ===
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* ''[[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 ''[[Supreme Commander]]'', where they were originally reverse-engineered from an alien race by the Aeon, then stolen and copied by the UEF and Cybran Nation. All three factions have powerful stationary shield generators that project a spherical shield around their area, but the Aeon take things a step further with a number of units sporting personal shield generators that conform over the unit. The UEF also gets in on the personal shield idea with their siege bot and Fatboy-class [[Military Mashup Machine]], then adding in a naval-based shield generator in ''Forged Alliance''. The sneaky Cybrans only use shields in stationary defensive installations.
* 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 off course munitions falling from above off course, but notisn't any good against shots to a side.
* Magical force fields protect Ganondorf's castle in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''. The only way to get by them is by destroying their [[No Ontological Inertia|corresponding core]].
** The trope started with ''[[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'', in which the final temple was sealed by a magic barrier that wouldn't lower until you had cleared all the other temples.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' also has energy barriers, generated by twilight realm beasts. In certain battles, they prevent you from leaving the [[Mini Boss]] arena until you defeat all the creatures attacking you. Sometimes they make it impossible to actually defeat them all at once, requiring that you defeat the out-of-the-way one before taking on the remaining two.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' also had an energy barrier protecting the door to the lair of Agahnim ([[Epileptic Trees|either Ganondorf in disguise, or a part of him, or just The Dragon]]), for which the [[Sword of Plot Advancement|Master Sword]] was needed to break.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'', the pathway leading to Ganon's tower was blocked by an invisible wall of energy that could only be broken by the fully restored Master Sword.
* Similarly, ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' has Exdeath's Castle protected by barrier towers. Using slightly more common sense than usual, you only need to shut off one of them to shut down the barrier, not all.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]''{{'}}s cities are protected by a "Paling," a [[Magick]] force field projected by a massive crystal in the center of town, that lets travelers pass through but keeps hostile creatures (or attacks) outside. Once the Paling falls, the city becomes vulnerable to assault and invasion—or the stray airship that was just shot out of the sky.
*** 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-0]]'' is continuing to up the ante, this time with a shield that protects an entire ''country''. Naturally, the barrier generator (a crystal, of course) shatters, kicking off the main plot.
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** In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', the Northern Crater is engulfed by an energy dome that repels any attempt to break in (the [[Global Airship|Highwind]] even bounces off violently if you fly into it). It's brought down by a [[Metaphysical Fuel|titanic shot of Mako]] from the transplanted [[Wave Motion Gun|Sister Ray]].
** ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'''s Sin can protect itself with a gigantic spherical force field, which is effective enough to repel, overload, and destroy the Al-Bhed [[Wave Motion Gun]]s and then [[Sphere of Destruction|expand to disintegrate anything in the vicinity]]. Strangely enough, Sin fails to use this shield when [[High Altitude Battle|engaging the party and their airship]]—though it may have been holding back willingly at that point.
* A common feature in the universe of ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and& Evil]].'' There are both large Deflector Shields, designed to protect buildings from airborne attacks from the [[Alien Invasion]], and smaller, personal shields used by both good and evil soldiers to prevent you from damaging them.
* Deflector shields, both ship-mounted and man (animal?) portable versions, occur frequently throughout the ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]'' game series.
** In ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'', there are two mazes involving force fields, which basically behave like near-invisible walls (there's a little sparkle to them). One is found in a room after you activate the Quake Pad in the center, and the force field makes up the inner walls of the maze. Your challenge is to get to the exit before time runs out. Another maze also has regular walls, but force fields block your way to the end when you activate the Quake Pad. You have to turn off each one at a switch or by shooting a Blast Board, and most switches are blocked somehow. Again, a timed challenge.
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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]]|Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords]]'' and its expansion packs allow you to research and equip your ships with shields. However, while shields are great at protecting against various laser and particle beam weapons they provide ''very'' little protection against missiles or mass drivers and have a diminishing return on protection against anything other than beam weapons (The actual formula in game uses the square root of the shield power when hit by missiles or projectiles). You need countermeasures to protect against missiles and armor to protect against projectiles.
* ''[[Star Control]]'' has temporary force fields for Yeehat ships (They drain a LOT of energy and go down quick, so you have to time it right), and an energy absorption field (which prevents damage) as the special ability for another race's ship. A third type of ship is surrounded by three smaller ships which are connected by a series of lasers which destroy any oncoming projectiles.
* 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.
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* A strategic aspect in the original ''[[Star Raiders (video game)|Star Raiders]]''. Although a single hit when the shields were down would instantly kill the player, daredevil pilots would engage the Zylons with damaged (flickering) or destroyed shields ''anyway'' just to avoid a time-consuming trip to a starbase.
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]]'', all of the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team [[Cool Ship]]s—the ''Red Sprite'', the ''Elve'', the ''Blue Jet'', and the ''Gigantic''—are equipped with a so-called "plasma shield." It's never made clear whether it's a shield ''composed of'' plasma or one that protects ''from'' plasma (seeing how the Schwarzwelt is, itself, surrounded by a plasma wall that disintegrates whatever it touches,) but not only is it explicitly enabled every time the ''Red Sprite'' jumps between dimensions within the Schwarzwelt, but presumably it's what keeps demons from tearing the ship to pieces while the Strike Team commandos are on a mission.
* ''[[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 ===
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* ''[[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 ''[[Drowtales]]'' the [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive//20060208c12p022.JPG Sarghress] have developed this technique to compensate for being indvidually fairly weak [[Barrier Warrior|barrier warriors]]. Done with a more powerful individual [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive//20060217c12p025.JPG here]. Although powerful, even she has to upgrade from [[Barrier Warrior|personal barrier]] to deflector shield with the help of the two mana specialists behind her (white cloaks) to deflect a cannon ball.
* ''[[Drive (webcomic)|Drive]]'': Mostly averted, but armada ships do have an energy field which vaporizes small debris.
 
 
=== Web Original ===
* Averted in ''[[Orion's Arm]]''. Although some in-universe fictional stories refer to clarketech delflectordeflector 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 ===
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* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' Season 4, the ''Skidbladnir'' and ''Navskids'' are protected by deflector shields.
* 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''However, Red Alert'' had it right: the Soviets invented the system in the 70s, and even fielded it in Afghanistan (w/with disastrous results - it worked ''too well'', protecting the vehicle, but consistently blowing up shit'n' 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 1: [Makes a missile sound effect and a boom, imitating it hitting the other child's [[Toys|toy]] tank/plane/etc]
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== Personal Shields ==
=== 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 HUMAN''human'' Reiki. I guess Yomi didn't figure humans to be enough of a threat.}} Also Luka/Ruka in the Dark Tournament arc, when {{spoiler|after some foul play by a team owner, she poses as a nurse and traps Hiei and the Masked Fighter behind a powerful, painful-to-the-touch barrier; her main mistake is that the barrier works with her nurse masquerade by HEALING the people inside it, who at this point want to throttle her. It most notably heals Hiei's arm that was damaged in the first round, so she actually tips the entire tournament in the Urameshi team's favor by this accident. She almost dies when Hiei tries to bust out, and wisely leaves the force-field for hire business soon after.}}
** 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 the Center of the Mind|DreamScape]] just for training how to figure the equations required for this and massive, massive [[Beam Spam]].
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* 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.}}
 
=== ComicsComic Books ===
 
=== Comics ===
* 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.
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* Songbird from the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' can create pink solid-sound energy constructs and often use them to shield herself and others.
* [[Depending on the Writer|One of many]] explanations for Superman's [[Nigh Invulnerability]] is that he somehow has an invisible force field just above his skin. This also handily explains all the spandex. If he wore regular clothes, they'd just get shredded when he fights. This goes double for Kon-El Superboy, who uses Tactile Telekinesis to deflect anything that comes his way.
** This was explicitly the defense of Starbrand of Marvel's [[New Universe]], but he can control how far out it extends or turn it off, which meant he didn't have any problem getting his hair cut, or need a special costume.
* 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 with Acronyms|S.H.I.E.L.D.'s]] opponents seemed to have perfected the technology without any casualties whatsoever.
* 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.
 
=== FilmsFan -- AnimationWorks ===
* 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.
 
=== Film ===
* 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.
 
 
=== Films -- Live-Action ===
* [[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''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 ''[[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 ===
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* The Borg from ''[[Star Trek]]'' have personal shields, which also can adapt.
** 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 WHY''why''?
*** 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]].
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* Willow from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has an ability to make such shields.
* ''[[Charmed]]''. Baby Wyatt had extremely powerful shields that not only protected him from harm, but did so for Piper as well while he was still in the womb. It wasn't quite as effective against [[Energy Absorption|power-sucking]] demons, though. A smattering of other characters also possessed the ability to create shields, whether through inherent magic or through artifacts.
 
 
=== Tabletop Games ===
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* 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.
* ''[[BattleTech]]'' has the Blue Shield Particle Field Damper system, which is a personal shield for [[Humongous Mecha]]. However, the shield only has one purpose - reducing the impact of [[Lightning Gun|particle projectile cannon blasts]]. The Blue Shield only reduces their damage by half, and it's completely useless at protecting against other weapons. It also causes dust to cling onto the mech, [[Awesome but Impractical|completely blinding the pilot after a few minutes of operation]]. Being a [[Lost Technology|recent innovation based on lost technology]], it's also rarely seen.
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* [[Kirby]], in his Mirror form, gets a ''[[Attack Reflector|Reflector Shield]]''.
* [[MOTHER 1|In]] [[EarthBound|every]] [[Mother 3|Mother]] game, there is at least one Franklin Badge, which reflects lightning-based attacks for whoever is carrying one. {{spoiler|In [[Mother 3]], this ends up being a bad idea.}}.
* One of the powers available to the protagonist in ''[[Advent Rising]]'' is the "negate" power, which manifests as either a carryablecarriable or placeable rectangular force shield or a player-encompassing bubble that blocks all attacks for as long as the protagonist has the energy to sustain it. Alas, this isn't all that long.
* 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 ''[[NieR]]'' can project a [[Sphere of Power]] around themselves or their allies that make them impervious to damage, or at least negate a very large fraction of it. Nier himself can call upon Weiss' Dark Wall spell, which can cast an invincible [[Instant Runes|rune-inscribed wall]] of limited duration in front of him—but ''only'' directly in front of him, and it's fixed in place once cast.
* 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 aquiredacquired a skill that creates a large, crystal-shaped shield that offers complete invulnerability for a short time. Casting time is instant, but casting cost is high. Unlike most personal shields (and her normal magical shield), the character is fully immobilized inside (curled up in a ball); although the shield itself can be knocked around by enemies.
* 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).
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* 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 night]]'' can summon one of these. Kind of a strange example, in that it's theoretically an actual physical shield that a warrior might carry—but it's a legendary weapon that can deflect anything and he can summon it as a magical ability, so it works out to be more like Deflector Shields.
* ''[[The Perils of Akumos]]'' lets you manufacture your own from the game's precious minerals.
* 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.
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* In the ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' series, the Power Armor and Elite Power Armor units you fight usually use energy shields.
* The original ''[[Syndicate]]'' had these as a researchable item, which enemy Agents could also be found with. In the reboot various mooks have ones that are [[Immune to Bullets]]; you must [[Electronic Telepathy|Breach]] them to bring them down first before the mooks can be damaged.
 
 
=== Web Comics ===
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'' potentially all fae, depending on their skill and strength in mana. [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive//20070731c0p018.jpg Seen in the last panel here].
 
 
=== Web Original ===
* 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.
* One of ''[[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|titletitular 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|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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