Personal Shields in Lightsaber Combat?

Jim Raynor · Post by **Jim Raynor** » 2003-01-02 07:28am

I got this idea from reading the thread about how lightsabers will do against a droideka's shields. Couldn't personal shields be used in a lightsaber fight like shields and swords have been used in real life? I personally like lightsaber combat the way it is, but does anyone else think this is a cool idea?

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-01-02 10:39am

Laws of physics says that personel shields against kinetic attacks are a bad idea. Maybe if it were something like the gungan personel shields.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2003-01-02 10:50am

HA! Then they would really be Jedi Knights!

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-01-02 11:09am

How about the personal shields from Dune? The slow lightsaber peentrates the shield....

Patrick Ogaard · Post by **Patrick Ogaard** » 2003-01-02 11:32am

The Droideka shields, if I'm remembering the relevant visual dictionary, generate sufficiently high levels of radiation that an organic being using one would quickly suffer nasty radiation poisoning.

A possible solution to that particular problem would be having the shielded person wear radiation-resistant armor, like that of a radtrooper, with the shielding gear mounted on the outside of the armor. In that case, the shielding system should be anchored to the largest pieces of the armor so that momentum transfers will result in pushes against the largest possible area. So equipped, a Jedi knight might well be able to wade into battle, smiting the godless with his mighty sabre of hallowed luminescence. The question there is, of course, why did none of the Jedi at Geonosis wear that kind of battle gear?

It would be interesting, though, if such shielded armor were developed during the Clone Wars, for use by Jedi assault troops. They would certainly be prime targets for heavy antipersonnel weapons.

Incidentally, I think that TPM actually may provide some canon visual evidence for how nasty momentum transfer can be, and also why the normal battlefield droideka do not use shields. The scene is the one in which Anakin uses his starfighter's guns to silence a number of droideka that were busily shooting Amidala and entourage to pieces. Each time Anakin fires, the attacked droid's shield snaps off without flashy visuals, and the droid itself reacts as if hit by a piledriver.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-01-02 02:38pm

Ender wrote:Laws of physics says that personel shields against kinetic attacks are a bad idea. Maybe if it were something like the gungan personel shields.

Yes however the jedi cannot put that massive an amount of KE into it. The best thing would however be a floating droid projector that counters the KE.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-01-02 02:46pm

In Black Fleet Crisis an imperial agent had a personal shield, also:

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-01-02 02:50pm

Black Fleet Crisis? Aside from the slave crewers aboard the Yevethan ships, were the Imps even in the Black Fleet Crisis? Or am I thinking of something else?

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-01-02 02:55pm

In The Courtship Of Princess Leia Isolder used a personal shield when he was under attatck from an assassin droid, apparently the problem with them is that a shield that small is unstable underfire and Isolder had to disgard it lest it blow up in his face.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-01-02 08:50pm

What about using one of those Gungan personal sheilds on one arm and the light saber in the other hand?

Captain Jack Frank · Post by **Captain Jack Frank** » 2003-01-02 08:54pm

I always though tthe problem with personal shields was the energy cells were too big.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-01-02 10:19pm

Tsyroc wrote:What about using one of those Gungan personal sheilds on one arm and the light saber in the other hand?

Lightsabers moves slowly, so not much of a help.

God Emperor · Post by **God Emperor** » 2003-01-02 10:27pm

In one book Luke battle against a force shield wareing opponet, he killed him. After the death he said to someone, I can't place the name, that they were hard to cut through but once you got through they were hard to stop.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2003-01-03 12:50am

Vader went up against an assassin using a surgically implanted force field in SW: Tales. Stauz arrived on Executor just after Hoth and the other Bounty Hunters left. After a short but fierce duel Vader was able to use his Telekenesis to switch the field off.

I would think that if I jedi knew how to operate a force shield he/she would also know how to turn it off using the force, and using the force to severe some power connections couldn't be good for it. A shield like a Knight would carry though makes little sense since it eliminates speed and agility and a Jedi could call down the force in the form of a gust of wind (Streen does it in the EU) or some sort of invisible battering ram (Qui Gonn knocked over several battle droids in TPM) and use that distraction against the enemy.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-01-03 12:56am

God Emperor wrote:In one book Luke battle against a force shield wareing opponet, he killed him. After the death he said to someone, I can't place the name, that they were hard to cut through but once you got through they were hard to stop.

That would be either book 2 or 3 of the Black Fleet Crisis. Although the guy was actually an elaborate illusion created by Luke's companion, Akanah.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-01-03 01:18am

Before The Storm

pg.233: The first man he had disarmed projected a personal shield, which blunted Luke's initial stroke. But the blow took the man to his knees all the same. The next stroke, with the power of the lightsaber married to the will of a Jedi Master, sliced through the shield and deep into the assailant's chest.

http://h4h.com/louis/pdd.html

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-03 02:46am

As I recall of the top of my head the gungan shields have a 'rim' around the edge that the shield seems to be projected from....this would render such a design fairly useless against melee combat if this part is not fully shielded.

As for using shields in combat with lightsabers, it is a relatively good idea....sword and shield combat is very different from single sword or dual sword combat. One of the key differences would be mitigated by a somewhat transparent energy based shield...often if using a shield to defend it reduces your visibility of your opponent and limits your ability to shift from defense to offense. While it could be useful, to my mind paired sabers would be better (so long as it isnt that awful sabre 'saber that Christopher Lee had....i was quite offended by his use of mostly west point style...arguably the most useless style of sword combat ever concieved.) and allow more flexebility, you can block and attack at once...trap your opponents blade and manouver him more easily.

Keevan.

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-01-03 12:38pm

Darth Fanboy, that story from Star Wars Tales is considered to be Infinities. Whereas it might reflect in some manner an incident which really happened, it cannot be taken at face value.

Secondly, the story explicitly shows Lord Vader aboard the Avenger, not the Executor.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-03 12:46pm

Actually it needs the Infinite Label for it to be considered the same...which is what Dark Horse did to prevent what is and isn't in the SW universe.

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-01-03 12:53pm

No. All Tales stories are considered Infinities, unless specificaly denoted otherwise.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-03 12:54pm

Uh unless DARK HORSE changed their stance...they said the REASON they created the infinites label was so that they could differentiate.

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-01-03 02:27pm

In order to allow unlimited freedom of storytelling, the Infinities label has been placed on the anthology series, Star Wars Tales. This means that not only can the stories occur anywhere in the Star Wars timeline, but stories can happen outside continuity. Basically, if an event appears in Tales, it may not have necessarily happened in the rest of the expanded universe. For some stories, the distinction is largely inconsequential. For others, it’s the only way they could exist (for example, there’s a Darth Vader vs. Darth Maul comic coming soon).

-- Mr Chris Cerasi, of LucasBooks, on the subject of continuity

Tales stories are Infinities by default. Mr Cerasi is not the only person to have said this; Mr Ben Harper, of Lucasfilm Ltd., was quoted in Star Wars Gamer #3 as saying, "The non-continuity books (at this point, the Dark Horse Star Wars Tales and Infinities: A New Hope comics) will soon be marked with a non-continuity symbol."

Publius

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-03 02:29pm

So they did change it...okay.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-01-03 04:10pm

Exonerate wrote:
Tsyroc wrote:What about using one of those Gungan personal sheilds on one arm and the light saber in the other hand?
Lightsabers moves slowly, so not much of a help.

This isn't dune

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-01-03 05:59pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:
Exonerate wrote:
Tsyroc wrote:What about using one of those Gungan personal sheilds on one arm and the light saber in the other hand?
Lightsabers moves slowly, so not much of a help.
This isn't dune

I think he's talking about the difficulty of wielding a lightsabre effectively with one hand.