Deflector Shields: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Cat:''' Why don't we raise the defensive shields?<br />

 

Also called "[[Force Field|Force Fields]]", these are invisible (or, if the budget allows it, barely-visible) energy barriers placed around objects to protect them from harm.

Note that, despite the name, [[Deflector Shields]] don't really need to ''deflect'' enemy attacks, in the sense that the attack will bounce off and possibly hit somebody else. It's more common for the attack to simply stop at the shield's edge, meaning that the attack has technically been ''diffused'' or ''absorbed''. (The term "deflector" comes from the proposed use of similar, weaker technology to deflect tiny incident particles of dust and debris while a spacecraft is flying at orbital speeds or faster. And ya gotta admit, "deflector shield" and "energy shield" sound [[Rule of Cool|cooler]] than "absorption shield".)

 

 

Compare and contrast [[Containment Field]] and [[Reinforce Field]]. See also [[Some Kind of Force Field]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

*** 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.

* ''[[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.

*** 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|Ace Customs]] and larger devices such as the [[Cool Airship]] ''Avalon'' ({{spoiler|and eventually the [[Kill Sat]] ''Damocles'' near series' end}}). [[La Résistance|The Black Knights]] develop the Guren Mk-II's radiant wave attack system into a shield called the Radiant Barrier and install it in their commander mecha and battleships in the second season. Worth special mention is the Shinkirou, protagonist Lelouch's [[Ace Custom]] machine: its Absolute Protection Territory uses an array of MSV maser shields that require on-the-fly coordination by the pilot, meaning that only someone incredibly intelligent can use it to its full potential (that being the strongest shield system in the ''Geass''-verse).

* 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|BFGs]] & melee weapons wielded by extremely strong combatants, the idea being that the only way to penetrate such a barrier is to focus more energy on a single point than the system can produce. Explosives don't work, as their energy is spread too thin & lasers are right out due to gravitational lensing.

** 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.

* 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.

* ''[[Super Atragon]]'': The undersea-battleship ''Ra'' has one of these that stops even gigantic enemy cup-shaped things from crushing it.

* 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]].

 

 

== Fan Fic ==

 

 

== Films -- Animation ==

 

 

*** 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 winning -- the scenario that took place in ''The Empire Strikes Back''. ''Star Wars'' canon has two kinds of shields -- "energy" shields (a.k.a. ray shields) to repel energy blasts, and "particle" shields to repel physical objects. Shields consume a massive amount of energy, though, so if you're shielding something the size of a planet, you generally can only have one. This makes perfect sense in canon, but [[All There in the Manual|a systematic failure to explain it at any point in the movies]] left entire audiences going "What the hell?" when droids casually strolled through the shield that had just repelled tank fire in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]''. The confusion, and the length of the above explanation, also explain why so many writers prefer to just make their shields magical barriers that just ''work''.

**** 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.

*** ''[[Star Wars]]'' shields compare to the [[wikipedia:Holtzman effect|Holtzman shield]].

** 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'Em|nuclear weapons]] without a scratch. Humanity ultimately wins out when a ridiculous plot device (in a movie crammed to the hilt with them) gives the heroes a way to deactivate them.

* 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.

*** 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.

* 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.

 

** 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 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.

** As a final point, the series also features literal 'deflector fields'...which actually aren't this trope at all, but rather [[Cloaking Device|Cloaking Devices]] working for the most part in the visible spectrum (they get their name from the way they 'deflect' light around who- or whatever wants to remain invisible). They're seen most often on the personal scale, but ''can'' in principle be used to hide larger objects as well; it's just not normally worth the bother because somebody actively looking for those will likely not rely on optical sensors alone anyway and the energy of the field itself is quite detectable.

* Also from the mind of [[Larry Niven]]: his ''[[Known Space]]'' series features a "stasis field" -- though not technically a "deflector", since it was a field in which no time passes -- that can be used for everything from creating a knife (his "variable-sword" is a monofilament cord encased in a stasis field) -- to shielding a ship or spacesuit (see ''World of Ptavvs''). Larry Niven himself once stated that it got to the point where he had to find reasons NOT to use a stasis field as a solution for everything.

** 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.

* Joe Haldeman's ''[[The Forever War]]'' has the "Stasis field." Only problem is that nothing inside can go faster than 16.3 m/s, rendering most projectile weapons useless, and any living thing not wearing special armor dies instantly when inside of it. Which means that inside of the field, it's a [[Sword Fight]].

** 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.

* 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'' -- enough to bounce away objects at typical meteor speed without turning them to fine dust. However, they have destructive mode as well, just set in deflection mode as more resource saving and obviously safer for shuttles.

** 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.

* ''[[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 the [[Issac Asimov]] short story "Breeds There a Man...?'' features a somewhat more realistic take on it - the shield reflects light instead of being transparent.

* 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 ==

** 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.

** 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.

* ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'' called this a "force wall".

** 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.

* Averted in the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' where there are no energy shields, just cold hard steel. Which somehow can survive ''multiple direct contact hits from nuclear weapons''. Whatever a Battlestar is made of, it ''ain't'' steel.

* ''[[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.}}

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[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 ''[[Starcraft]]'', anything built by the Protoss comes with a deflective shield that wears off after absorbing a certain amount of damage; although these shields slowly regenerate over time, the player can use Shield Batteries for a quick recharge. The Terrans also have a special skill, the Defensive Matrix, that surrounds a unit in a mostly impenetrable shield (the unit still takes a little bit of damage).

** 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.

* The ''[[Wild Arms]]'' RPG series features the golem Asgard who seems to specialize in deflector shields. Notably, its shields completely disintegrate anything that touches them when they're on. In the original game, the characters realized that this meant that the golem who supposedly had the Ultimate Defense also had the Ultimate Offense and used the golem to break through another force field around the enemies' base. Later games simply took it for granted that Asgard would be attacking with moves like Barrier Fist and whatnot, and ''[[Wild Arms XF]]'' gave Asgard the ability Barrier Storm, which instantly killed anyone standing next to it by doing more damage than your maximum HP.

* ''[[Star Ocean Till the End of Time]]'' explains ship-based deflector shields has shunting energy to a theoretical dimension based on imaginary numbers.

* In the old video game ''[[Scorched Earth]]'', in addition to normal energy shields, you could use a literal Deflector Shield which would deflect missiles off course from your tank.

*** 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.

*** 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''.

* ''[[Eve Online]]'' has these on all ships. The Caldari and some Minmatar ships, rely on shields as their primary means of defense (as opposed to the Gallente and Amarr, who rely chiefly on armor plating).

* In ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', most ships have this, with absence being the exception.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* ''[[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.

** 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]] 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.

* 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!

* [[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.

 

== Web Comics ==

* 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.]]

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* 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.

* 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 ==

* It has become apparent that DARPA employs ''[[Command and 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 (w/disastrous results - it worked too well, protecting the vehicle, but consistently blowing up shit'n'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).

* 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 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.}}

** And there's AMF. [[Anti-Magic]] Field. Dissipates ''every spell'' cast inside it or entering it. Practically makes [[Squishy Wizard|every mage inside it a sitting duck]]. Only the [[Person of Mass Destruction|really strong ones]] can keep their power inside it, and even they had to improvise to keep their effectiveness.

*** 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]].

** But it's of little use against [[Anti-Magic|Asuna]], as first [[Noble Demon|Evangeline]], then [[Big Bad|Fate]], then [[Divided We Fall|Takane and Gandolfini]] found out:

{{quote| '''Kuu Fei:''' Asuna's barrier break and my combo are super effective against mages [[Verbal Tic|~arune~]].}}

* ''[[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 technique -- experimental spirit body -- which creates a human-shaped shield around himself. Used only once, but it's an example of soul wavelength being used to block attacks. Such is the versatility of souls in the series, it'd be unsurprising if the idea gets used again.

** Also Black*Star and Tsubaki have Shield Star.

* 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.

* 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.}}

 

== Comics ==

* Sue Storm from the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' was originally [[Invisible Woman Effect|just invisible]], but she quickly gained the ability to produce force fields as well, making her ''extremely'' powerful.

** 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.

** 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.

* During a time when his iconic shield was lost in the Atlantic, [[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.

 

* 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 shields -- in the second book, when faced against a giant monster, the main character's magical shield broke under the giant's assault with a tree trunk. The explanation being that the powerful blows caused cracks to form between the sigla that comprise the magical barrier, thus weakening and ultimately obliterating the shield.

* 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 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.

** 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?

*** 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]].

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** 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.

*** 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.

** 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.

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has a force screens in ''Ultra-Tech'' and spells like "Utter Dome" in ''Magic''.

* ''[[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.

 

 

* 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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

* 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]]''.

* ''[[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-Hit Kill]] exhausts the shield entirely without doing any health damage, giving the wearer a half-second greater lifespan, possibly more.

** 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.

** The Engineer's Wrangler creates a shield around his sentry.

* ''[[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.

* 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]]''.

* One of the powers available to the protagonist in ''[[Advent Rising]]'' is the "negate" power, which manifests as either a carryable 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* One of [[Danny Phantom|Danny's]] many ghost power is a shield. It usually comes in two varieties, a wider, weaker one or a smaller, deflective one.

 

{{reflist}}