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Deflector Shields: Difference between revisions
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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'' -- and if it has negligible mass, this means ''directly to the shield generator'', bypassing armor and everything. So if the shield is not ''very'' thick and/or does not distribute load over a ''very'' large area, its not a missile-stopper: any massive object moving at a modest (on an orbital scale) speed will pass through the shield if their interaction is limited to the safe level or crush the shield emitters and ''then'' pass through if it isn't. So bonus points if the shield either mostly disintegrates incoming projectiles [http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#Kinetic_Kill_Weapons~Effects so that armor deals only with dust] (i.e. acts as a rechargeable sort of [http://hitf.jsc.nasa.gov/hitfpub/shielddev/basicconcepts.html Whipple Shield]) or it's ''not'' a main defense against missiles and that pesky iron-nickel gravel, or both. Usually in these cases [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]]. Unless, of course, the shield is [[Handwaved]] to stop kinetic energy as well.
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>.
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Compare and contrast [[Containment Field]] and [[Reinforce Field]]. See also [[Some Kind of Force Field]].
{{examples
=== Large-scale Shields ===
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* ''[[Gao Gai Gar]]'' has the "Protect Shade," which not just blocks a beam weapon, but actually bends it into a pentagram before flinging it back at the attacker.
* ''[[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 Mooks|Mobile Dolls]] from ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' had Planet Defensors, [[Attack Drone|Attack Drones]] that generate a forcefield capable of blocking most ranged weapons. Their only weaknesses seem to be [[Frickin' Laser Beams|lasers]] and melee attacks, but this is usually offset by the Virgos' powerful beam cannons, their working in teams, and the rarity of weaponized lasers in the setting.
** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', the Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Legend Gundams feature arm-mounted beam shield generators.
*** 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.
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* In the second part of ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth (Manga)|Magic Knight Rayearth]]'', Clef casts a titanic magical barrier around the Palace of Cephiro, which drains even the Master Mage nearly unto death. It's even worse for him when the invading [[Cool Ship|NSX]] fires its twin [[Wave Motion Gun|Laguna Cannons]] into it.
** 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! (Anime)|Tenchi Muyo]]!'' is as a defensive shield for a ship. This is provided either by the tree providing the ship's power, or very special individuals.
* 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 (Manga)|Sailor Saturn]]'s "Silence Wall" attack is an example.
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* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico (Anime)|Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', there's the Distortion Field, which is powerful enough to deflect beam attacks head on. The only thing that is seen penetrating the barriers are special blades sharp enough to pierce it and a special lance that is actually powerful enough to ''pry it open''!
* 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 Precure 5]]'' can also do this and ends up weaponizing it when she gets a "[[Mid
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** 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|fridge logic]]: The shields failed to activate when Steve Hille's release its parachute and it collide on one of their fighters.
* 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.
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== 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.
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** 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 atmosphere -- apparently, it was "solid" enough to mess up aerodynamics, but not enough to be used as a [[Hard Light]] element.
* 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.
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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.
* ''[[
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|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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== Western Animation ==
* In [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony]], 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.
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** 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]].
** 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| '''Kuu Fei:''' Asuna's barrier break and my combo are super effective against mages [[Verbal Tic|~arune~]].}}
* ''[[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 On the Tin|Barrier Wind]]'', a shield strong enough to withstand nearly any assault... [[The Worf Effect|as long as she's prepared for the attack]].
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* 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 (Video Game)|Flashback]]'' is a [[One
* ''[[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 ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', the Medic can, through healing his allies, acquire energy to power an 'Ubercharge', an 8-second glowing shell of indestructability for himself and his patient.
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* Creating energy shields, either as flat planes or enclosed domes/spheres, is one of Gwen's most-used powers on ''[[Ben 10 Alien Force (Animation)|Ben 10 Alien Force]]''.
* ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|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 (Animation)|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.
{{reflist}}
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