Why Walkers Exist in Star Wars
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- čas přidán 23. 02. 2024
- Why should walking vehicles (or rolling vehicles for that matter) exist in the Star Wars world, which has robust hovering repulsorlift vehicles? I think George Lucas actually gave us the answer in the films.
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Building off the discussion of the space battle of Naboo, the fact that the Droid Control ship HAD those massive open hanger bays that Anakin could fly into makes perfect sense if we consider that the TF ships are clearly NOT purpose-built warships, but rather converted cargo-haulers that have simply had military-grade shields and weapons bolted onto them. Why wouldn't you want big, open, easy to access hanger bays on a ship meant for maximize cargo-loading efficiency?
Sorry, but I don't buy this. The Trade Federation clearly has access to the resources required to purchase/build dedicated ships. You only need to put your civilian ships on the front line with bolted on guns if that is your only choice. I'll tell you what I think it is: just plain old bad writing. As is the fact that Lucas has all but one of these ships withdraw by the time the Jedi return to Naboo. If the TF didn't conveniently withdraw 90% of their forces then no amount of spinning (a good trick though it is) would have made any difference.
@clearspira this is the same universe where cargo ships are consistently shown to be exceptional at anti fighter and anti capitol ship roles. It's one thing for Han to join the rebellion, but it's something else entirely to put the Falcon on the front lines, not to mention the Ghost, Anakins G9, Rendars Outrider, and several others. Not to mention the Mon Cala city ships, civilian ships that made up the bulk of the rebel fleet. It might not make sense to you, but it is established in universe fact.
To be fair the shields to hangar weren't active, if you watch ep 3 thr Invisible hand had its shields up
@clearspira Hang on; so a massive trade conglomerate with little to no experience in military operations and whose primary goal is the maximization of profit decides to skimp on building purpose-built warships and instead decides that just strapping big guns on their cargo ships will do just fine
And when they think they’ve successfully subjugated a seemingly weaker native population, they decide there’s no NEED to keep the whole fleet there and just one ship will do. Because there’s NO WAY these handful of people with their much smaller guns will EVER pose an actual threat to them.
I’m sorry, WHAT exactly about the Federations behavior is ‘unrealistic’? XD
@@DrewLSsix So let me get this straight: these ships that are ''so exceptional at anti-fighter and anti-capitol ship roles'' are so badly designed for combat that you can just fly in and blow them up from the inside? Sorry, but you are asking me to accept a glaring contradiction in the narrative. And when that happens, I stop looking for an in-universe answer and default to ''bad writing''.
The episode 2 incredible cross-sections (canon or not) explicitly states:
"AT-TES are effective at penetrating powerful energy shields. Walker movement uses simple surface traction, whereas the high-velocity exhausts that drive a speeder or starship are stifled by particle shields. Furthermore, flying craft can be damaged by energy discharges leaping from the ground at shield interfaces, but a walker's natural grounding provides invulnerability against this effect. AT-TEs are also well shielded against electromagnetic pulse weapons and ion cannon fire."
That’s super cool. I always kind of assumed that the shields worked like how they do in dune. Anything moving too fast is just stopped by the shield, given the speed that the battle droids enter the shield in ep 1, and that the Drioideka’s need to turn their shields off to roll up.
The cross section books often have some really good concepts and explanations. It's a shame the numbers are all over the place.
I suspect a good canonical explanation is that defensive shields, including the droidekas', all work the same...or are all variants of the same tech/principles.
I like Ec Henry's idea of thresholds. In my mind, the ratios between the shield itself, the object's kinetic energy (speed or mode of action), and finally that object's mass or weight all make the difference.
This might be why, a small grenade or energy blast, moving at a high rate of speed, bounces off a droidekas' shield.
And an object in contact with the ground can roll or walk through the same type of shield, at a rate of speed permitted by its own mass or weight.
And a repulsor craft bounces right off. As it's mass and weight ratios are altered by the repulsor system.
In my mind, Anakin was able to fly through the Federation Control ship hanger in the N-1 because it functions as a hanger, and would need to allow fighters to pass in and out. Same as obi1 and Anakin passing through the hanger on grievous's ship. Maybe entering an enemy's hanger was luck? That section of shield just happened to be off? Maybe hangers rely on defense turrets to prevent enemy infiltration?
Why not just use tracks like actual tanks do though
@@thesciencesphere4273Because legs are cool, duh
The true answer: if Lucas thought it looked cool, it went in the films.
From the Star Wars Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (literally on the first entry, which is for the AT-AT Walker): "while the empire had countless repulsor lift vehicles, drive systems could be foiled by gravity fluctuations, unusual planetary magnetic fields, and other special conditions; the empire needed a vehicle which could be used on any terrain on millions of different worlds."
Rise of Skywalker introduced the idea of "Anti-repulsor fields" on Star Destroyers. Seeing this makes it seem like less of a last-minute ass-pull.
@@raithnor6007Nothing can excuse a scene that ridiculous
@@raithnor6007rise of sjywalker also introduced the fact that ships can't tell which way is up
@@leonrussell9607and with trash like that, it's pretty easy to throw out anything sequel related lol
hangardoor shields are clearly set to smths like "let everything through except atmosphere"
In the lore they’re called magnetic containment fields
Well the droids dont need the atmosphere anyway
@@zzzxxc1 They could just be set to resist one exact pressure:
The difference between inside the ship and outside.
@Gabiman66 Yeah, but the Neimodians might want to walk through the cargo bays to check on things, and the maintenance might not all be done by droids. Later on in the war they did realize you could just have vultures droids ride on the outside of the Hull though.
@@RorikH the doors would propably completely shut in that moment🤷♂️
What I've always assumed is that energy shields interfere with antigravity technology, and if something were to attempt to hover through a shield, the repulsorlift would short out and the vehicle would drop like a brick - basically, what happened in that one mission in Halo: Reach when the helicopter tries to fly through that shield to get to the Covenant tower.
I'm not so sure the Trade Federation ship failing to seal off the hangar bay was an accident - they probably kept the door open so they could launch additional droid fighters as needed, while assuming that no human pilot would be insane enough to try and fly INTO the hangar. Doing that at high speed without being able to see what's in there until you're already inside is a very good way to crash, and the last thing a pilot wants to do is sacrifice his maneuverability like that. Anakin only got in there by accident, and managed not to crash because at that point, he was just redoing the podrace.
The Lucrehulks were modified cargo haulers designed to be open easily accessible hangers for going in an out an maneuvering easily...they may have also left the shield down after allowing Droid fighter wings to come an go..but you are correct that Anakin kinda got in there by accident
You're a better writer than Lucas. Though I would not assume that a pilot (or missile or drone--not sure how the trade federation would overlook drones) would not try to fly into the hangar, if for no other reason than to cause havoc, if I was currently starving the pilot's whole civilization in camps. People have undertaken suicide missions for less. However, it's true that it's hard to run carrier operations with the hangar doors closed--which is why you launch your sorties then close the doors--regardless, Anakin could have caught the trad feds with their doors open. That is a good point.
The real reason you're a better writer than Lucas and Henry, though--if, potentially, not as good a digital artist--is that you noticed the helicopters in Reach still have momentum after the covenant shields shut them down. This is possibly a flaw in Reach, too, as many helicopters can coast safely to the ground like those whirlybird seeds you might see falling from trees. Still, they keep moving forward for a bit in Reach even if they crash. It's to the point that that seems have been a part of the UNSC's plan, "Tip of the Spear".
Now, in a universe where repulsor disrupting shields have been a thing for a long time, there's no reason not to use a tank's considerable momentum to carry them through those shields intentionally.
Build the tank with skids or let the hull be the skid. Have the driver cut the repulsors before they hit a shield and then skid in. Or let a computer do it. We've had bomb release computers that can open bay doors and release bombs at precise moments for decades in the real world. I think the old galaxy could manage that. "Just impacting on the surface" is enough when you're just trying to impact somewhere on the surface of a brigade sized 360 degree bubble.
We see in episode 3 there are big doors that shut when the energy field that keeps air in fails.
It's basically just opposing forces that don't play nice
We don't see what happens when they meet but we can assume it isn't pretty
Also Lucrehulks actually have several hanger entrances on the inner circle as well as the Vultures connect to the outside
But the main reason is probably that there was no way to know that the inside was so vulnerable given that most ships with a hanger don't have the vital stuff as easily accessible (them being modified Cargo Haulers makes sense because they added a lot of extra power stuff in it as well, to help power various things)
@@iivin4233 To do a skit it would be too fast. While slowly going through the shield, as it must to pass through, the anti grav would short out and with that little momentum just fall to the ground and be stuck in the shield. Now it could gain momentum when falling, but what happens when you get over the speed threshold while passing through the shield? I'd assume the vehicle...or person.....get's cut into pieces.
To support this I'd like to point out that the droids don't run or even quickly walk through the shield, they stop and then slowly step through it.
The slow blade penatrates the shield.
Yes indeed Gurney an remember folks Star Wars owes alot of its existence to Dune
I was about bring up how Star Wars shields follow the same rules as those of Dune.
@@TheVeritas1Not all of them, just the cool ones. :)
@@ShiftyMcGogglesLike NOT making both the shield user and the one firing a laser weapon at it blow up in a huge explosion. That's dumb even in a world without computers, because you can make an analog drone with a lasgun (literally the same technology as a hunter-seeker, just bigger) and shoot it at the shield from the distance. And nobody will know you have those, as it will also be utterly destroyed. Or just hire a fanatic/someone whose family you hold hostage/someone who is uneducated and doesn't know how shields work to shoot it and get blown up.
@@krzysztofczarnecki8238 The problem with using automated drones, or doing this to the shields, is that the explosion is indistinguishable from an atomic detonation... Which the great convention has a whole thing of 'if someone uses atomics, then all may use atomics against them, until they are no more.'.
So, you'd have to declare that you used that technique and hope everyone, including your enemy, believes you. That, and there's a thing about lasguns are only able to do that at a certain close distance, meaning the evidence of the one using it goes up with the shielded one.
That thumbnail made me realize that while we have seen an AT-TE go up against an AT-AT, we haven't seen an AAT vs. AT-AT.
The AAT probably wouldn't fair well, it would be an interesting exchange.
Thanks to the AT-TE vs AT-AT exchange, and the fact that we know the AT-TE's main weapon is as strong as the AAT's; by transient logic it is safe to assume you are correct. the AAT's trump card are the photon torpedo launchers in the lower hull which can kneecap the AT-AT, but they're so low that unless we're talking about a empty field the AT-AT is going to get the first and possibly several consecutive hits off before the AAT can get a fully clear line of fire.
@@typhoonoftempest Exactly.
I would say the AAT's biggest strength would be to strafe and out maneuver the AT-AT. Makes me wish we saw more field battles during the Rebellion, with Rebels using salvaged AATs.
Doesn't the first arc of the Star Wars 2015 run show us an AT-AT tanking shots from multiple AATs?
@@deadshot5007 Oh? 👀
An AAT stands quite literally no chance if it cant flank the AT-AT, as the AT-AT has waaayy heavier armor and armament, as well as longer range and higher field of vision. And we’ve only seen an AT-TE vs an *early* AT-AT, not the modernized one seen in ESB which is wayy more powerful
There’s also a couple more factors, repulsorlifts can be jammed. Repulsorlift countermeasures have existed for a while in the EU but they were directly mentioned in Rise of Skywalker. Additionally, weather seems to be a large factor as in the older Republic comics the Republic Army had to ditch their repulsor tanks on Jabiim due to the weather and had to switch to walkers, including prototype AT-ATs
Only what appears at the movies.
What the heck you typed exactly what I was going to...
This doesn't actually happen in the Republic comics, in the comic we see AATs and speeder bikes work fine on Jabiim. Empire at War gave Jabiim a passive repulsorlift jamming environmental effect, but it is not present in the comic at all.
Makes sense. Real world tech that floats, like hovercraft and airships are negatively affected by strong wind. A vehicle with no friction could very well be a double edged sword.
Another factor would be maintenance and survivablity. If a repulsorlift vehicle gets hit on it's lifts it isn't going any where, where as a walker (especially the 6 legged models like the AT-TE) may still be able to stumble around or at least manage to rotate themselves. Either is going to be unrelenting pain to try and fix in the field though.
Tracked vehicles on the other hand would be very easy to field repair, and also will be able to rotate with only one working track. Oh also they won't kill you if the legs/repulsorlifts are taken out while traveling at high speed. Honestly they should still be mostly using tracked vehicles, but I guess that wouldn't be sci-fi enough.
This reminds me of the lore for KOTOR how personal energy shields were so widely used for blaster protection that vibroblades and other melee weapons were standard issue simply because one shielded opponent could charge another and use their melee weapon to physically pass through the shields
AFAIK that’s basically why the UNSC used projectile weapons in Halo. Even if the shields can *stop* the bullets, that Kinect energy gotta go somewhere and the fully automatic weapons overload the shields soon enough. That or just dump all their energy into something that really doesn’t want a lot of kinetic energy applied to it.
@@joshuahadams Negative, they use kinetic projectiles because that's the most effective tech they've developed. If they had Covenant tech they might be using energy weapons. Energy weapons are more effective against shielding in Halo than kinetic ones. UNSC just didn't have the tech to support such a change in weaponry, that and until the Covenant showed up, shields weren't a thing.
Albeit the UNSCs' kinetic weaponry is actually properly made and understood by their forces,whilst the Covenant were not entirely sure with all of their tech,including the fact that they didn't know that they could just open the shields where the guns were instead of turning the whole shield off.
And since those weapons were very good at directly hitting a target,this added to the fact that despite gaining space superiority,the Covenant was easily outmatched on the ground until they could actually glass the surface.
I always liked that bit of world building in KOTOR as it illustrated that despite the Star Wars universe nominally looking like the same one the films are set in the technologies are clearly in very different states. Personal shields are an extreme rarity in the films to the point it becomes clear that blasters have won the arms race and made personal shields largely obsolete.
Damn, they took that right from Dune 😂
The Droid vs Gungan battle always makes me think of them battling on the Windows XP wallpaper
2:26 "Good thing you remembered the shield's deflection capability's directly proportional to the amount of kinetic energy directed at it." Samantha Carter, Stargate SG-1 😂
I always like seeing technological and tactical evolution in settings, and the idea that the Naboo invasion revealed several weaknesses in a largely repulsor vehicle-based doctrine that lead to several changes in how repulsor and walker vehicles were used, tactical innovations that came with trying to defend against both, and the calculated risks in favoring one over the other makes for a very realistic, interesting, and living setting. We see this constantly in real-world history, and putting it in fictional ones makes them all the richer.
Plus, it's a good excuse to keep rolling out new vehicle and weapon designs and battle set-pieces as the story develops over the course of several in-universe years to keep things fresh and interesting.
ofcaurse the problem here is that repulsor lift would offer so many massive advantages and the need to pass through a shield is such a limited time thing, its much more likely you would simply have repulsor vehicles with legs or wheels rather than pure walkers/wheel craft.
@@matthiuskoenig3378That's a very good point, and I can see repuslorlift vehicles having backup wheels in case of a failure of the repulsorlifts.
On the other hand, having a vehicle that is a both a good repulsorlift craft and a good walker or wheeled/tracked vehicle might start getting into complicated engineering. Not only is the vehicle designed to have a decent repulsorlift engine, it also has to have a decent alternate propulsion engine. This means the vehicle has two propulsion systems, units need to be supplied with parts and equipment for both systems, and the crews need to be trained on both. This quickly adds up in terms of cost, for design, testing, training, logistics, and operations.
If this were a hero vehicle or for a small amount of vehicles for elite soldiers, that might not be a problem. But for a (quasi) government equipping a massive army, even small cost increases per unit add up to very expensive levels (for a real world example, during WWII the US Army replaced the Thompson SMG with the M3 Grease Gun because the latter was much, much cheaper, and even afterward there were successive versions that were simpler and thus cheaper to make and train on en masse). Why have a repulsorlift craft that can also walk? Why not just make it with the one system and save a lot of time, resources, and effort?
There are also operational considerations. Repulsorlift craft are good at going over terrain wheels and legs would struggle with, while wheels and legs can still operate in areas where repulsorlift engines are degraded, and wheels are cheaper and simpler still. It really depends on the mission profile of the vehicle. A heavy repulsorlift tank can operate in multiple terrain types and has the benefit of being a proven technology, making it more like a fast attack heavy tank, whereas a heavy walker is more of a siege vehicle for assaulting well-fortified areas. Making a vehicle that is good for multiple mission profiles will either result in a very complex, extremely expensive vehicle, or one that is so heavily compromised that it's borderline useless.
In a total war like the Clone Wars where nations have to constantly churn out massive amounts of manpower and materiel to replace losses and overcome their enemies by weight of numbers, low cost and simplicity is often favored even at the expense of capability. "Good enough" is perfection at the strategic level.
That said, repulsorlift vehicles should still have backup wheels, otherwise it will be a pain to drag a damaged vehicle off the battlefield.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 Repulsors do have a different set of issues
Open areas they preform very well and even in some Urban places
However
Walkers, Wheeled and Tracked Vehicles are better in more forested or rocky terrain
It's easy to maneuver any of those vs a Repulsor lift through some areas
Plus also don't crash and explode into ash
6:34 THat's not entirely true, all ships have a particle shield close to the surface across most of the vehicle. We see the Trade Fed control ship antenna surviving multiple proton torpedo hits because of this. They're called Shift-shields in the ANH novel or older script, the Tantive IV's are disabled before an asteroid collision is faked to throw the Senate off the trail for a little longer (Which means the shields prevent collisions). Even in the film sort of implied by the Death Star briefing saying the thermal exhaust port is ONLY protected by a Ray Shield, implying the existence of a shield that stops solid objects, but was left off the thermal port either due to an oversight, or because the other type of shield would trap in the hot exhaust that it was meant to vent. the DS2's shield would have crushed the entire fighter force had Lando not realized they needed to pull up. Anakin went through the open hangar bay particle shield likely because it didn't come back up fast enough when another fighter wing left the hangar
They never seem to depressurize hangars. Hangar shields are always up to block the air, but always let ships through.
@@heliofaros1344We actually do see a hangar containment field go down in Revenge Of The Sith, and it's said to be preventing entry into the hangar, so they can be set to block anything else (with, if push comes to shove, a deployable physical metal door).
@@heliofaros1344 as already mentioned the hangar shield on the invisible hand blocks the entrance of the jedi in revenge of the sith, so its ability to let solid particles through seems to be variable.
@@heliofaros1344 That's not how it worked in the original trilogy. When the Falcon is being tractored aboard the Death Star, there is a line of radio chatter. "Clear bay 327, we are opening the magnetic field." The hangar was depressurised in order to get the Falcon inside, which is why we see stormtroopers filing in after. When Vader's shuttle arrives on the DS2, the military parade was shown to be missing right after landing. Both times we see long lines of officers and stormtroopers to greet a Lambda shuttle, they had to be assembled after the hangar containment field was closed and the air pumped back in.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 Thats possibly because its one way or the threshold for it is high but not high enough that obi wans inability to properly slow down wouldnt be a problem.
The repulsor lift and show don't tell point reminds me of another thing in Star Wars, people go "Well gravity doesn't exist up there in space.", which presumes all ships are in orbit, and is an assumption that would fundamentally change how Star Wars battles work. Yet we clearly know that even larger ships like Venators, corvettes, and now ISDs all use some sort of tech to fly relatively close to a planet, which is probably replusor tech. This is demonstrated not only in how combat is depicted more naval-like than something more Expanse-like, but in how crippled ISDs fall back to the planet or other gravity source.
IDK if you've seen Ahsoka but that exact thing is important to explaining something that seemed nonsensical on the first watch.
I think the key is that the “slow moving object” is also in constant contact with the ground. As the shield begins at its highest point and then forms a dome over the generator, an object “passing through” while in contact with the ground isn’t so much penetrating it as it is interrupting it from reaching the ground and effectively making a temporary breach. You can even see that the battle droids only experience significant resistance until their legs are through.
I always assume the Ray+particle shield combo works somewhat similar to how they are depicted in dune. The shield component that stops energy is actually "skin tight" to the ships hull, as it presents the smallest target profile possible in an engagement. However, the component that stops actual projects works by reacting to kinetic strikes, so they are only react when something strikes with sufficient force. The reason for this might have to do with exhaust leaving the ship, air and light exiting and entering the bubble for flight and navigation respectively, or whatever other purpose.
It also explains more or less how proton torpedoes work, in lore they are noted as being slow enough to be shot down, hence why they are fired near point blank, but they also have the characteristic red glow, which some sources paint as an energy field. So the way a proton torpedo works is it goes slow enough to the target that it's energy field allows it to bypass the shield. If they went faster, or didn't have that field on they'd just slam into the particle bubble.
This brings me to my final point, the projector also seems to have an influence. We've seen shield type technology be used for jail cells or bridges. It would seem that when the projector is outside of the object or has an connection point opposite to it it's possible to make a thicker barrier that impedes physical objects to pass through.
This would also mean that depictions of shields like in Squadrons or the Rebel fleet in TLJ aren't entirely accurate to how the average shield operates.
Yeah in most/if not all older Star Wars media bubble shields are not a thing in Star Wars. You could atleast argue that its a Mon Calamari thing but not a general thing.
I think the X-Wing novels also covered the esoteric nature of shielding.
i always just thought it was a electrical grounding effect.
like if you are in contact with the ground you can push through the surface tension.
also id like to point out the droidica couldn't use shields while rolling at speed and generators on Naboo had to be kept steady or they would .
honestly its a good way to keep ground forces from being obsolete in a space age.
In the eu repulsor lift jammers exist which is why non repulsor lift vehicles still exist
Plus hard to maintain
Repulsors very rarely NEED to be maintained, but certain parts require things most worlds, let alone cities, can't manufacture locally.
@@DIEGhostfishIf a boondock like Tattoine can have repulsor lift tech, it's clearly could be made anywhere.
@@yokaiou5848 Despite Luke's complaints, Tattooine is actually close to a decent hyperspace junction. Admittedly a junnction between a minor route and the slightly traveled ass-end of a major one. MOST parts of a repulsoflift can be fixed anywhere but a few need some rare resources.
I'd definitely challenge hard to maintain. We see hovering vehicles basically everywhere throughout star wars, even on fairly washed up planets that couldn't feasibly justify using a more expensive to maintain vehicle/device when a simple wheeled bike would do better.
It'd depend on the exact details of the technology, but it seems like we have every reason to believe that hovering is a fairly low-maintenance task, despite how complicated it may seem to us.
This is genius and makes me appreciate Episode 1 even more. I remember "knowing" this when the movie came out, how the tanks could not float through the shield wall but the walking droids could. But without your video I had completely forgotten about this and wouldn't know the answer now. I'm glad this is a very simple concept with an explanation within the movies and not something that requires crazy mental work to solve what could have been a plot hole.
This gives me flashbacks to the old Star Wars Technical Commentaries website from more than 20 years ago.
I like walkers my favourite is the AT-TE, it’s low to the ground and has 6 legs giving it better stability and has a 360 degree rotating turret with a powerful main cannon.
Henry here’s a thought for you try making your own walker design I’d be fascinated by what you’d come up with
I'd be interested as well, good idea
@@undraftedboomer5055 Henry does it with ships so why not walkers 😁👍
Another explanation for why repulsrs cannot go through shields could simply be that the high-energy shield disrupts the repulsor field, essentially grounding your repulsor. It also could be a matter of kinetic energy as well. A small, rolling thermal detonator or a walking droid might would not be carrying as much kinetic force as a tank, even if it was moving slowly.
Why not have several repulsor fields instead of just one?
The idea that walkers bypassed shields through the need for grounding is formally supported through the Incredible Cross-Section, so your theory is quite valid! I just never noticed the correlation with the film before though, so awesome work!
Fantastic video as always, EC! I noticed when you pointed out the droids with some effort walking through the shields. I have a small theory to put out there: that the defensive shields used in this battle could be penetrated by repulsorlift vehicles, but it would be much slower than a walker or tread vehicle. We see in different media that the AATs aren't exactly winning any land speed records, so it could be that they get stuck like a WWII tank in mud. Thus, while pushing through the shield, they're wide open and exposed to enemy fire. Starfighters wouldn't encounter this problem due to the inertia of flight carrying them through any stoppage, like a train would blast through a section of muddy tracks. Just some good for thought
Easily one of the best channels for Star Wars content. Much love, brother
Well back in the 90s the shields were cut in to two varieties.
Ray shielding.
Particle shielding.
They even say the Death Star's exhaust port is Ray Shielded, but not Particle shielded. Meaning missiles, and solid objects can pass through it. But lasers cannot. Ray shields and Particle shields were mostly forgotten when the prequels came out, and now they're basically entirely forgotten. The 90s EU had it better explained imo, but now it is all just flash and 'whatever works in the moment' since that is how Dave Filoni writes Star Wars specifically. He just does whatever works for the scene he's currently filming, then forgets his own canon in the next scene.
I was going to say the same thing, at least regarding the Death Star specifically stated as being "ray shielded".
Maybe a ray shield is made OF rays, not necessarily (only) against rays. At least that's what I always assumed.
Except that blaster weapons in Star Wars are mostly plasma weapons, meaning particle weapons. As are ion cannons.
@@axelhopfinger533 Look. Plasma as we know it in reality, has no bearing on how tech works in Star Wars. I'm describing how it was setup in the 90s. I didn't write this stuff, or make it up.
An excellent point. We're not dealing with just one type of shield technology, and inconsistencies in how shields operate have to account for that.
I was watching ElectroBOOM, and he'd probably say the walkers are grounded -- after he blows up a circuit near his face.
So a vehicle using repulsor lifts is not grounded, but walkers are.
The more I think about Star Wars worldbuilding the more impressive it becomes.
Blaster bolts and lightsabers have been a pretty wild ride for me recently where I concluded they both likely contain small amounts of antimatter that react with whatever they encounter. Thereby allowing lightsaber blades to be relatively cold until they touch something.
Oh and another mindblown moment was Naboo. It's such a weird planet... there's constantly plasma leaking up from the core and there's all these weird underwater caves which supposedly go down to the planet core but may just be hyperbole... what if Naboo's built around a space station or in some other way has an artificial core that's leaking plasma? And I have a pretty decent guess as to who may have built it all given Naboo mythology. Stuff like the plasma gates in the plasma refinery complex keeping Chaos locked away is just a little bit too reminiscent of Abeloth being locked away.
If the droideka shield logic mucks things up, ditch the clone wars altogether, its chalked full of retcons. Anyway great theory as usual EC.
To be fair could also just be a different kind of shield or we don't see how Repulsors react to it
Given how uh
Basically anything aside from a grenade is usually going to have something else with it to render the shield not an issue
I.e. rockets, vehicle equipped Laser Cannons and Rail Guns, or just running it over
It's meant to stop small arms fire which is usually what it would be facing
Droideka shield logic in parallel sources also states that the shield BOTTOM is set to basically ignore ethe floor - if you knock a droideka over the shield will overload because its side projectors arent set to ignore the floor.
Get what Im getting at? its likely that larger defensive shields do the same thing so they dont get burned out by trees, walls, and natural deformation of the ground - walkers take advantage of this it seems to bypass the shield by making the shield think they're "Floor"
The idea that ground based shields can tell what is terrain and what isn't makes sense when you think about it. Like, how can those portable shields know the exact dimensions of the bubble it will create? What if there is a rock or a cliff in the way? Why don't they dig into the ground itself? Hence something with ground contact being able get through the shields makes sense.
I really appreciate your explanations of how things in Star Wars work.
These explorations underline exactly why I love Star Wars. It is a universe that, at first glance, appears to have no internal consistency, but upon further inspection, with only minor intuition on the viewer's part, you can see that it is incredibly consistent when it wants to be. This is the type of stuff that gets lost, I feel, when discussing the Sequels. The Sequels appeared to have internal consistency, but upon closer inspection, the world they built was held up by little more than cameos and tacet acknowledgements. Beneath it all, there was no internal consistency at this same level because too many creative visions were all competing with each other's. There was no way that a smattering of different directors or a committee assembled to maintain continuity was never going to outclass a single mad genius with a dream. It's why I have always maintained a certain degree of love and respect for the Prequels, despite the lackluster dialogue.
Because they are super cool.
On a more serious note, great video very interesting observations
Here's a speculative explanation of Star Wars shields that I could come up with (the names are also made up, and serve only the ease of explanation):
There are multiple very basic types of shields for specific purposes. Commercially manufactured shield generators layer these single-purpose shields on top of each other with different levels of intensity based on what purpose the resulting combined shield needs to serve:
*1. "Bullet-proof" shields* stop fast moving objects that have mass, similarly how a body of water stops high-velocity bullets.
The shield wraps around objects in it's path (objects sticking through it), but it does not have time to get out of the way of very fast objects, which - because of this - will just end up crashing into it (and bouncing off if they aren't completely obliterated from the impact).
The higher the intensity of these shields, the slower the objects can be while still being stopped, as the higher intensity means slower "opening up" for passing-through objects.
The strength of the generator itself determines the upper limit of the inertia of the objects which this type of shield can hold back. If the intruding object is way too fast/heavy (or both) the generator fails to maintain the position of the shield which causes said shield to collapse. This effect is similar to how a plexiglass box filled with water ruptures when you shoot it: the water is the shield, and the back wall of the plexiglass box is the force from the generator holding the shield in place.
*2. Electromagnetic shields* are confined (confined to the thickness of the shield) electromagnetic fields that deflect plasma bolts (plasma has an electromagnetic field, and so is pushed/pulled by other electromagnetic field sources).
More powerful shields stop faster plasma bolts.
Electrical circuits don't like this one.
*3. "Anti-anti-gravity" shields* don't let anti-gravity "fields" (massive air-quotes on the word "fields" here) through. They fix the "curvature" of spacetime to a certain value. This shield breaks anti-gravity repulsors when they attempt to pass through it.
Higher intensity = resist against stronger repulsors (bigger distortions in spacetime).
*4. Thermal shields* are just contained heat. They cause laser beams to refract, so they can't cause (as much) damage.
*5. Plasma shields* are literally a layer of hot plasma. They double as electromagnetic and thermal shields. Higher intensity = hotter plasma.
it may be that Shields disable repulsor lifts, or it also may be that you need a certain amount of force to pass through such a shield which can only be provided by ground contact
... or, perhaps the repulsor-lifts, themselves, exert too much force to effectively pass through.
Hey EC Henry, just wanted to tell you your newest STO ship redesigns are great as usual. You really know how to make a ship look good yet functional. Good job! 👍
"The slow blade penetrates the shield."
I have an elegant answer for you that you might enjoy:
The creatures and vehicles that are in contact with the ground are electrically grounded. Perhaps the energy shield's deflection capability is not only based on kinetic energy (you must move slow), but also electrical energy. A fast moving grounded object engages its ability to stop the kinetic passage, but a slow moving one shorts circuits the shields by grounding the shield in the local area so that it can't maintain its structure. The shield deforms around the individuals attempting to pass through as though they were simply a bolder on the ground.
...except for that whole thing about AT-ATs are delivered to the planet via repulsor drive landing ships.
Far outside of the range of the shield.
It's interesting how every blue moon I see another EC Henry video, he says what he needs to say in a clear voice and easy to understand language, and though it may be short, and a simple topic, I finish the video fulfilled.
In and out, easy peasy. No problem. Just another relaxing video on youtube. It's worth being subscribed.
I always get excited every time I see a new video from you! I truly love your content!
Just stumbled across your channel, and it's nothing but Bangers. Keep it up.
Here's my take with my basic rudimentary physics knowledge. Shields essentially apply a reactive force against whatever contacts them equal to the force being applied. This is plenty of repelling force to deal with projectiles and repulsorlift vehicles, but walkers and infantry have an edge: They get to take advantage of friction against the ground to mitigate the repelling force of the shield. It requires more energy to move something against a rough, natural surface than it does to move something across a frictionless surface and all that.
Walkers and Infantry have to move through the shield *slowly* though, because that shield is still effectively a brick wall on initial contact.
I'm a huge fan of the hard sci fi feel you bring to starwars. Keep kicking butt, dude!!!!
Of course, then the question is how large is the Hoth shield- I mean, we don't see the Snowspeeders getting worried about flying too far out, and the AT-ATs were still a ways from Echo Base...
I would assume that when the AT-ATs where spotted on that sector that the shield was somewhat lowered to allow the snowspeeders to fly out and engage. I mean do remember that before the first rebel transport evacuated that Leia did say that the shield would be down for a short moment to allow them to pass through, so that they don't get orbital bombarded. So I would assume it's not a matter of how big the shield coverage is but more if they managed to manipulate the energy outputs to allow small openings for limited time for ships and speeders to pass through.
@@ZackarySchejbalCODBO2RGM2 Yeah, but that's turning it off and on again, not "dimming" it. From what we've seen with planetary shields, they are more domed or spherical (depending on if its a local shield or a full planet style). It seems the shield was pretty dang large- I mean, it's unlikely the blasters/turbolaser would pass thru the shield, and we saw plenty of those flying around (with the speeders).
@@Sephiroth144 Dimming? Turn on and off? Same idea I was getting to. Just enough to let the ships through and not get bombarded.
@@ZackarySchejbalCODBO2RGM2 Of course, saying "Prepare to *open* shield" doesn't really help; it is a part of the shield opening (like the shield gate over Scarif- which seems unlikely... of course, Scarif was a full planetary shield, AFAIK) or turning it off for a short time while the transports and ion blasts shoot out? (Personally, I always thought it was "turning the whole thing off for a few moments before turning it back on again)
Keep in mind that a) repulsorlift vehicles, like hovercraft, have an issue with lateral stability--you can shove them to the side, which you can't easily do with a wheeled or legged vehicle. b) You could indeed attempt to move a tank slowly through a deflector shield...at which point if becomes a *lovely* slow-moving *target* for opposing fire. and c) Some shields apparently have a granularity level as well..stopping objects over a certain size, while smaller ones aren't or are only buffeted/slowed down. Witness the shields of the first Deathstar, which blocked capital ships, but snub fighters could get through with a bit of turbulence.
(And on a side note..SW has ray shields which block energy weapons, and particle shields, which block objects. The whole point of the exhaust vent attack was that it was *ray* shielded, but not *particle* shielded, due to it's function. That's why the torpedoes.)
I never miss a single one of your videos. EC Henry, you are the goat.
Don’t forget that the examples of repulsorlift inhibitors used by the empire in “Empire at War!”. The shields might produce a similar affect within their radius which could be ignored by a walking vehicle due to it being grounded dissipating built up ionic energy that would otherwise disable the craft. Hanger shields have repeatedly been shown to run on a separate circuit and have to be lowered for ships to enter or exit the hanger. Anakin had to destroy the generator in the third movie to fly into the hanger and likewise when it was lowered in the cartoon when the shield was lowered for the twilight to land but the droids used the opening to destroy the hanger. I love all the little details that get added to the lore.
I never thought about it. I love that you did. ❤
It seems to me just the latest evolution in a long-running arms race between the effective strength of military shielding technology and the effective strength of available weaponry.
The Trade Federation bombarded the Gungan shields from a distance in hopes that they could put enough firepower on the shields to collapse them - allowing them to simply bombard an enemy from outside the range of the Gungans' weapons. They would have preferred to just rain destruction down upon the Gungan army, but when their attack fails to penetrate the shield they then send in their B1 battle droids - they were hoping to avoid the expense of destroyed battle droids, but were ready to send them in once alternatives proved fruitless.
It's not that walkers are some new discovery, but more that weapons technology no longer substantially outpaces shielding technology, making an attacker deal with the shield staying up (at least at first) rather than simply overwhelming it with sufficient force.
Unrelated:
My headcanon is that, while wheeled vehicles can pass through shielding, the forces experienced in crossing the shield make it easy for a vehicle to lose control and possibly collide with something. A walker provides greater stability at that point of entry, which may be worth accepting the weaknesses of a walker platform.
Something to keep in mind, every faction can do shields differently.
Also: These shields can probably be configured in certain ways. Maybe like a trip-wire dome type deal that can quickly calculate "FAST! STOP!" or "SLOW! FINE."
Plus, for hover vic.s, it could be assumed that as the vic passes through the dome passes through the entire vic, frying components.
I 99% agree with this video, with one other factor thrown in: Economy
The starwars universe is enormous, and advanced technologies do exist, but most artificially processed/produced materials are still quite basic: brick, concrete, steel, plastic. So industry for the manufacture of these basic materials would be unfathomable aswell. Probably swallowing whole moons to turn into bricks to build houses. I imagine steel (or whatever scifi equivalent) would be crazy cheap compared to the components and installation (probably all proprietary aswell) of installing military equipment with anti-grav modules.
Hence, at Naboo, the invasion of the CIS was carried out by a specialist, well equipped strike force - kind of like sending in marines or commandos or something. Being the first battle of the clone wars, you would want to know your first move is going to be successful, rapid and without any hiccups, landing you with the quick upper hand.
And what's more, because it was their first army/first battle, both sides had time to trickle funds unto some nice kit over many many years prior.
However, by the battle of geonosis, when (no doubt) both sides military production had escallated dramatically, and presumably, much of the nice, expensive equipment from early engagements was destroyed, damaged enough to retire, or numbered so few as to make that fleet worth retiring, the war had developed into a 'produce as many troops and tanks as possible with what money and time we have' strategy by both sides, each trying to win by sheer overwhelming force.
Similarly, the walkers during the reign of the Empire were manufactured with a similar mentality: we need to make a lot of units to subdue these territories, and we need them all NOW (under a post-war, strained economy)
Oh, the ground-contact confusion makes sense as an explanation, and would every case brought up.
The Expanded Universe established that there were different types of Shields. Ray Shields were designed to specifically stop energy weapons (Lasers, Turbolasers, etc.), but were useless against physical objects. For that you needed Particle Shields. Meanwhile the shields at the entrances to hangar bays were known as Magnetic Containment fields, or MagCon fields, and were only meant to hold in a standard atmosphere so you didn't have to constantly depressurize/repressurize your hangars when launching/retrieving craft.
Two other points. First, in the Phantom Menace clip, you can see that droid starfighters are launching at the moment Anakin flies in, so it seems that the shields were momentarily dropped for their passage, not that he magically bypassed them. Second, I think the whole thing with bypassing the droideka shields from the Clone Wars series was a retcon. Prior to that I think the shields were completely impervious (to a point), one-way shields (nothing could get through to the droid, but it could shoot out), as they had to drop the shield in order to move.
As I read it, the shield on Hoth was a single stand planetary defense shield. These do not protect the entire planet but are more like a giant energy umbrella. Coruscant is protected by hundreds of these set at specific distances in a grid pattern around the planet. Together, they form a bubble all the way around the planet, but individually they only cover a few square miles. Ghost Squadron disabled one generator to open a small whole in Coruscant's defenses which allowed the Rebels to attack the planet. The Empire couldn't bombard the Rebel base from orbit, but could land troops outside the shield and then 'walk' under the shields 'umbrella' to attack the generator. You are correct, however, in that it was never intended to hold off an imperial assault, just to slow them down and allow an orderly evacuation without being bombarded from space.
Seeing a new video from EC Henry makes me happy!
1. Payload capacity on a star destroyer is at a premium, and since the Empire needs assault vehicles that can work everywhere, they only carry walker vehicles, despite them being sub-optimal in certain circumstance.
2. The hover-type of vehicles have trouble over steep terrain.
3. Steep terrain with anti-tank mines is the most defendable, but are also more difficult to set up, and the steep terrain denies the defenders the option of using the hover-type vehicles.
4. The rebels set up their Hoth base in such a way that, if/when the Empire were to discover it and try to destroy it, the assault tactics would be predictable, since the base would have been intentionally designed - location carefully chosen - for there to be one "correct" way for the Empire to do it.
The main advantages of walkers become less important, and the disadvantages, mines, and the rebel speeder's greater maneuverability were what helped the rebels delay as long as they did. We should have seen a few walkers destroyed by stepping on mines, but it probably wouldn't have looked good give the stop motion animation at the time. Funneling the Empire into the rebel's "kill box" helps explain why we see fixed gun emplacements as well as infantry in trenches. When you know the Empire is going to get in as just a matter of time, you're going to make it a lot easier for yourself to set up a dense mine field if you know it only needs to be set up in an easily accessible, limited area.
Why didn't the Empire walk around the mine field? Presumably, because it would have meant going over mountainous terrain, which would take more time, which is what the rebels were only ever trying to accomplish with the base defense. Throwing your guys into a meat grinder because you are impatient, and you never really cared about them in the first place, is exactly the kind of thing I would expect Darth Vader to do.
Two types of deflector shields in Star Wars:
Ray shields, which are used to absord radiation and raw energy and particle shields which are used to stop solid objects.
The exhause port of the desth star was ray shieleded, meaning it was protected from laser attack, and because of the 1 in a million shot that would be needed to lad a projectile based weapons down the exhaust port, the Emipre didnt think to particle shield it as well.
The Gungan shields were likely also a form of ray shielding given how easily the B1 battle droids could waltz right through. Same the with Droideka shileds.
I really love your distinction of "George Lucas Star Wars". I'll have to use that one.
I would think something about the repulsorlift repulsing something would be stopped by the shield; that is to say, the shield would interrupt the repulsion somehow, and thusly, repulsorlift vehicles can't pass through shields.
You make a valid argument for non-repulsar lift ground vehicles actually being needed, but not so much walkers specifically actually being needed... So those wheeled vehicles should have been fine, and I consider wheeled vehicles far superior to walkers.
Oh, and Star Trek has BOTH shield bubbles AND tight shields... the shield bubbles are the normal shields... but the tight shields are the deflector shields... the primary hull specifically has that... this is most noticeable in the Wrath of Khan, where they show the bubble shield going up around the ship on the defense console, and then the deflector shields on the hull lighting up separately.
Funny thing. Starfighters can slip underneath the shields of capital ships to fire ordinance such as concussion missiles or proton torpedoes and one of the Muunificent's important features was that its shields hugged the hull to prevent that.
I think the threshold theory is most accurate, especially since the hole about speed can be filled in when we recognize that all movement is a form of kinetic energy, meaning it could be a threshold of any type of energy, and the energy required to lift a vehicle is too high for it to penetrate the shield at any speed
One nice little tidbit from Star Wars: Force Commander as to why walkers are still relevant is they can operate on high gravity planets without issue where repulsorlift vehicles are really slow or non-operational.
You could also see it from a physic/electric pov.
A shield could discharge a lot of energy/electricity. Which, without a constant contact with the ground could be extremely dangerous. Walkers, touching the ground simply discharge the energy to said ground, thus keeping the crew safe. Like a Faraday cage.
A good example is how staying in your car during a thunder storm is safer than standing outside
6:55 - Quick correction on Star Trek: shields are actually skin-tight, officially, according to the TNG Technical Manual - it's simply only sometimes seen on-screen. Visuals vary due to CGI capabilities/budget, and TNG itself always showed bubbles, contradicting the manual. Further confusion even among fans arises because shield geometry IS configurable, so other shapes are possible, and thus bubbles are also definitely possible and used. After all, it's hard to imagine extending shields over other ships not being done with bubbles - at least for the extending part. :)
I think that shield disperse or displace energy, sometimes into the object that contacts it, and have specific types that can be focused on, ray shields preventing physical(kinetic) energy from passing through and energy shields for electrical based energy, energy bolts and repulsor fields.
So through ground contact an object that's passed through a shield is grounded and allows the otherwise harmful dispersion of energy into the ground. Repulsor vehicles, not being grounded, contain the feedback energy which would prevent the vehicle from passing through or disabling it outright.
Also some planets with high magnetic gravity or technology prevent repulsor vehicles from getting up or slow them down dramatically. Also the enemy would find a way to destroy repulsor vehicles effectively, so walkers are used as answer for it. In War, sometimes it's good to have a mix of walkers and repulsorlift vehicles to negate the weaknesses and using their strengh as advantage
My general thought on this was that base shields mess up the repulsorlift technology needed to stay afloat. So a hover tank would stop moving and fall to the ground if it tried to go through, while a ship would risk plummeting from the sky. I suppose you could theoretically park the ship over the top of the shield, turn off your engines, fall through and then try to reactivate them, but if the effect negates them for even 1 minute, you're dead.
Concerning the tanks on Naboo, I think repulsorlifts generate a field which is incompatible with deflector shields.
At the Second Death Star, it was either like a wall, or the fighters could not survive without the support of their cruisers, which would not be able to penetrate the shield due to their size. Alternatively, the fighters' own shields may have posed some problem when passing through this particular variety of shield.
It's just rule of cool. We learned that absurdly big, slow and overcomplicated war machines are just expensive targets for artillery and planes, back in WWII.
Imagine how much these things weigh and all this pressure is concentrated in 2 or 4 relatively small spots, just awful for any terrain except solid rock, which destroys the only possible argument for this type of construction
What's interesting is that the shield-pass thing can be seen in TLJ as well. Kylo Ren and his figher escort easily bypass the shield that is somewhat loose on the hull, and waylay the ship in specific areas.
This is seen in the original trilogy as well, whenever during the battle of Endor, when fighters such as the A-Wing directly destroy the shield generators of the Star Destroyers.
Finally, this can be seen to greater effect in Star Wars: Squadrons - which is canon in every imaginable way, and the gameplay quite wonderfully reflects the rules of the world as demonstrated onscreen. Starfighters can pass the shields of capital ships to lay on the hurt on capital ships (and, frankly, it was much harder to do this to an MC-75 than it was an ISD-II. I'm sure you know, "The Vander Sloop" was a famous maneuver in the game where you approached the shield generator of the ISD-II from the rearmost notch in the sides of the hull).
For aerospace vehicles, it could also be that flying slowly to get through a shield would expose them to enemy fire-there’s a reason pilots say “speed is life”
2:53 Episode 4 "Only a precise hit will set up a
chain reaction. The shaft is ray-
shielded, so you'll have to use proton
torpedoes." I always thought for some reason they put a frequency device in the torpedo to allow it to go through the Shield or the ray shield only blocks energy weapons lasers.
There was another battle in Clone Wars season 1 where the separatists were testing a new weapon on one of their tanks that could destroy life but leave droids intact. Anakin and his group stole separatist shield generators to protect the village but the separatist droids walk through The Shield and destroyed the generator. Clone wars umbara arc the Clone Troopers use umbara Fighters to flyi in the separatist capital ship and Fire missiles to destroy the core but it's ray shield protected so one of them lands and takes the missile by walking and pushing the missile through the ray shield and it hits the corn and explodes.
Another thing about repulsa and walkers is if you want to trample the ground and Crush things. So in episode 1 we see the separatist vehicle is knocking down stuff but when it approaches Qui-Gon he just ducks underneath one to avoid being hit. In episode 5 and 6 with imperial Walkers they can Crush and trample vehicles or trees. Your video is based on what we see on screen in some video games that do the episode one battle on the Plains - weapons don't go through the Shield but you can walk or drive a tank through the Shield and fire at The Shield generators. In some episode 2 tie in video games the Republic did have that repulsive tank.
here’s a hypothesis:
in order to pass through the shield; perhaps you must be grounded and in contact with the physical ground. Maybe the shield is designed to completely disintegrate anything that is freely floating, such as a projectile, aircraft, or repulser-powered tank. just a thought.
Really great video! I would also mention that I think it might just basically be tactical suicide to slowly hover your ships or hover tanks through a ground based shield in-universe, especially in the middle of active combat, as the speed that it takes for an object to get through the shield i.e droid walking speed. I imagine an AAT couldn't fire as soon as it got the tip of its barrel through the shield since the laser cannon bolt would still presumably have to travel down the barrel and for all we know the shield might generate inside the barrel, which I think is a fair assumption considering the shield doesn't dissipate beneath droids when they step through it for example. It'd probably make an AAT extremely easy picking for it to hover through a shield.
As for that concept related to spacecraft, I feel like a fair bit could be explained by the probable most likely use of a shield on a starship, which would be primarily to stop near speed of light munitions and extreme speed celestial objects like space debris travelling at thousands of kilometers per minute, which could possibly be enough to stop an enemy fighter in mid-combat from slowing enough to slip through since even at a few hundred kph, since in a similar vein they'd practically be a sitting duck?
Idk, I love thinking about these things and I'm sure there's still plenty of stuff that contradicts my theories?
Even in the Empire at war RTS game we learn you can have Repusler lift jamming equipment that would completely stall any hover tanks but has no effect on walkers or wheeled/tracked vehicles, so there is that as well.
I tend to ignore the 2008 clone wars material, but this definitely expands on shield-related strategy in Star Wars. Originally, the technology came about because certain parties liked to deorbit asteroids onto planets.
There are also several TYPES of shields, as mentioned, though split down the middle in function for the two most important types.
Ray shields, which block energy attacks such as blasterfire, and Particle Shields, which stop physical objects.
Almost all Star Wars ships use one or both of these types of shields. The Neimoidians, being businessmen, not soldiers, would not casually know the difference, having installed a truly monstrous quantity of ray shielding to keep their Lucrehulks safe from pirates- and particle shields seem to need to be specially designed to stop anything faster and bigger than any potential particulates that may strike the craft, hence why asteroid fields are so dangerous for capital ships in Star Wars.
Ray shielding is.. hit or miss in how it describes it's exact function. I assume the ones on Naboo that interceded in the Maul duel were containment fields for the Plasma mining the Naboo engaged in- and are consistent with the types used for containing prisoners like those used in the KOTOR games.
You are giving them a lot more credit than is due. But fun thought experiment anyway. LOL
It could also be something to do with fields. Big shields are obviously designed primarily to defend from laser or energy-based weaponry, and maybe repulsor fields fit into this somehow. If the field extends beyond the hull of the vehicle, then the shield could repel or even overload and shut down the repulsor entirely.
And as far as capital ship shields not repelling starfighters, I think this makes perfect sense. In the heat of battle you don't want to have to drop your shields for any amount of time at any point to let starfighters out of your hangers, it would leave you massively exposed. Much better to shield from energy weapons and use actual armour to shrug off torpedoes and other physical weapons.
Also to say the lack of hover vehicles on certain worlds have a meaning. Im unsure if it was shown in a TV show or movie but, the logic is that hover vehicles needs a stable ground to operate (flat ground).
Lets compare the 3 versions against a "pothole". A wheel can go into it and with enough force just get out of it. A walker can either go into it and just step out or just go over it entirely. A Repulser lift needs to "touch" the ground at all times. So when a speeder going super fast "hits" a pothole. The range from the ground increases and needs to be decreased to be able to function or stay stable. In which the (lets say front) of the vehicle tips downward, and this could cause it to crash straight into the ground or just make the vehicle loose control.
Now take the idea and put it during a war on Geo or During Hoth.
Almost every moment during the battle of Geo explosive rounds were going everywhere and hitting the ground causing potholes. Any hover based vehicle would either crash or tip down and could be unable to hit a target accurately
On Hoth the empire couldn't use any speeders due to the major amount of trenches (large potholes) in the way of their objective. As well as the Terrain being very easy to change causing more potholes.
Not every planet is like Geo or Hoth. Which is why the Droids used Hover vehicles due to the smooth terrain and flat lands.
Their is probably some other terms i could use and or this could be inaccurate to the lore. But from my knowledge this is logical.
Gonna have a guess at:
The energy signatures of the larger shields may interact with the repulsor’s sensors (what is and isn’t a hard surface) causing them to short circuit. This wouldn’t affect star fighters as they don’t need the repulsors in space.
Shields around hangars would probably have to be more fine tuned, allowing repulsors to operate, but preventing fast moving objects from passing through (hence having to destroy the shields before landing so they don’t slow down enough to be sitting ducks in ep3)
Droideka shields wouldn’t have to be very discerning, as they wouldn’t be powerful enough to short circuit repulsors, and don’t need to be able to let things like air through
In at least some early work (radio dramas, From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, scrips, etc.) proton torpedos were referred to as "photon torpedoes". I'm not a Star Wars scholar or anything but I believe that's accurate. I've always figured this had something to do with the ability for the xwing's torpedoes to be able to penetrate the exhaust port's shield. Then again, in the radio drama, The boys are specifically told that the vent is ray shielded (energy) so they would have to use photon torpedoes. It was like Lucas intended for there to be different kinds of shields from the beginning, but didn't really have the finer points worked out yet.
I stan the practicality of the AT-AT to a space faring, military expansionist empire. Remember you have LOADS of planets with many types of terrain. **Flat** is going to be common.
It's not your "main battle tank" no. It's explicitly an **assault** and **invasion** vehicle and it excels at it. The AT-TE is more Main Battle Tank. The AT-AT has more in common with a Higgins Boat then an Abrams. It *Carries Troops to the fight while under fire*.
Can take massive pummeling from static defenses and can shoot over the top of cover at defenders.
Terrain features like most rivers can't stop it. Most forests that aren't sci-fi super trees would get knocked over.
Unless your attacking San Fransisco, most terrain around a city will be flat enough for it. *No one tried tying up it's legs until one Protagonist Space Wizard tried it* in a one-off fight that BY COINCIDENCE had defense craft equipped with tow cables.
It has one job. Walk forward, drop off troops safely. It's the ultimate mechanized infantry invasion platform that doubles as heavy artillery fire support. Remember: Hoth was a LOSS.
Personal contemplation:
Shields might be both a force and a particle at the same time. So might repulsion be. Repulsion interferes with specific strengths of shields, usually those meant for defense against weapons, which is why repulsion-based vehicles can't pass through them. Hangar-based shields might be a lot weaker, allowing for repulsion to pass through them (granted they move fast enough).
On planets and planetoids, it might be possible to use gravity and electro-magnetic forces present on the planet to direct the shield to the ground in an umbrella-like "bubble". In space, this would be much more difficult to maintain, so ships use structures meant to redirect the shield around the hull, spread around the hull.
I haven't read any of the Star Wars lore, so I might be way off the mark here, but it's just how I'd justify it myself
It was an interesting video, thanks for making it 👍
I know its not cannon anymore but in the game Empire at War and its expansion Forces of Corruption had some explanation why both ground contact and repulsorlift vehicles are still in inventory. Some worlds had a strong magnetic field that caused repulsorlift vehicles such as the T-2B Hover tank to be stuck in position. It would require deployment of tracked or wheeled vehicles or if in inventory, walkers.
I think you can look at how Vulture Droids are deployed at the Battle of Coruscant as a response to the Trade Federation’s failure at Naboo. On Naboo the Trade Federation must have left an opening in the shields around the hanger bay so that they could continue to deploy Vulture Droids. In Revenge of the Sith the Invisible Hand’s hanger is fully shielded because it’s fighter complement can deploy directly from the hull.
Thanks for the video! George Lucas was good a “showing, not telling” when it comes to world building.
There are three main types of shield in Star Wars - Particle, Ray, and Magnetic Containment (or MagCon). In simple, and not always accurately followed, terms Particle shields block physical objects, Ray shields block energy, and MagCons aren't defensive at all and are instead used to hold in atmosphere for open hangar bays, or keep ejected pilots alive for as long as possible.
Particle shielding blocks *all* physical objects - Torpedoes, missiles, starfighters, debris, etc. Ray shielding, by contrast, is best used to defend against energy specifically. This *does* provide defense against kinetic energy but is less effective than particle shields at it. All forms of shielding is also very, *very* lethal to exposed flesh-and-blood beings, with even low-level personal MagCons being noted to cause tingling sensations in the user. This is also why, in contrast to video games like Dark Forces and Republic Commando, personal shields aren't really a thing for ground troops.
Most starships in Star Wars are equipped with hybrid particle/ray shielding for defensive purposes, but hangar bays are a notable gap in that defense because those shields *have* to be dropped to allow craft to enter and exit the hangar bay. Typically this gap isn't a problem, but every so often someone can get lucky.
Within atmosphere, and especially on ground, shields are a trickier subject. Shields of all types increase drag for flying craft, for instance, and vehicles vary on what type they use. Typically though, particle shielding is extremely inefficient on ground because of its very characteristics - Since it "blocks" all physical objects, and since shields are generated in a spherical shape, particle shields would dig into the ground and force itself to complete the sphere. This not only *massively* taxes the power generator for the shields, but is also extremely bad for a variety of other reasons. As such, ray shielding is the standard.
As established, ray shielding is able to block *energy* fairly efficiently, and is still plenty dangerous to unprotected biologicals. However, its inherent inability to be as effective against kinetic energy (particularly low-speed kinetic) as particle shielding means that it is fairly easy to simply move through it, especially with droids or enclosed vehicles. That being said, they *are* effective defense against *fast moving* vehicles, which is why the Empire didn't have air support on Hoth, and why the shield had to be dropped to allow both the Ion Cannon's shots and the Rebel transports and escort fighters to get through.
Now, when it comes to *repulsorcraft* specifically, there are differing viewpoints. For one, video games such as Empire at War does have repulsorcraft (and unprotected infantry) moving through base shields without any apparent issues beyond being slowed down, although that game is well known for having all projectile weapons ignore shields in general. On the other hand, some lore does reference shielding interfering with the operation of repulsorlifts (including MagCon, which does lead to headaches for starfighter pilots and their mechanics). It would be reasonable to assume that, assuming minimum speed isn't a possible issue, the simplest and most logical answer would be that ray shielding interferes with repulsorlifts, possibly up to shorting them out entirely and causing the vehicles to crash to the ground completely immobile.
Another thing to consider RE: Battle of Naboo specifically - It is possible that the droid commander in charge (canonically OOM-9 from Galactic Battlegrounds, which if that is taken into consideration it definitely justifies this line of speculation) chose to use infantry to break the Gungan defensive lines first before risking sending in the tanks, just in case the Gungans had anything that could easily destroy them (assuming the tanks *could* move slowly enough to get through the shield and their repulsorlifts wouldn't short-circuit). The Gungans were a completely unknown force who had just demonstrated the capacity to deploy large-scale mobile ray shielding strong enough to withstand a barrage of fire from those AATs, after all. It's also worth noting that the Droidekas were also kept in reserve until after the shields were down and the Gungan lines were broken despite their immense firepower and their own ray shielding, likely for similar reasons. Easier and cheaper to just send in waves of cheap OOMs to test the Gungans' capabilities, break their lines, and destroy the shield generators before sending in the expensive tanks and Droidekas.
There is particle shielding, which stops material objects, and ray shielding, which stops energy weapons.
Fantastic video, Henry. I would love to see a video on your Imperial Gunship that you recently showed off on Instagram. It looks very cool.
“The slow blade penetrates the shield” - Gurney Halleck, Dune. George Lucas brings life to Picasso's prophetic words, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
I just love your channel!
I personally prefer the explanation that only objects connected to the ground can pass through shields, it's consistent with all the examples, and avoids introducing all the implications of slow-movement-shields from Dune. Dune is cool, but Star Wars is not and should not be Dune.
Although now that I think about it, perhaps both elements are present, both ground connection and slow movement. I can't recall ever seeing anything pass quickly through a (ground based) shield in Star Wars. Either that or the droidekas' shields are specifically adjusted to repel fast moving objects since they are more likely to fight at close ranges, and thus would be more vulnerable to an enemy (who would be almost certainly be touching the ground) simply reaching a weapon through the shield.
I like to think of it as being a matter of traction where walkers and such in constant contact with the ground have that pushback needed to pass through the shields whereas repulsorlift vehicles don't have that pushback as there's no friction from the ground to aid in passing through, even the droids in the battle of naboo had a bit of difficulty getting through the shield where it looked like they had to push through it
Maintenance is also a significant concern. While walkers are theoretically high-maintenance, I can't imagine a repulsorlift being easier to fix. Plus, when a walker malfunctions in the field, provided it's not being interfered with, it'll just stop. Repulsorcraft will drop, potentially causing more damage to expensive military craft.
So a walker is basically a more efficient way to traverse the battlefield. Takes less work to maintain, is more reliable in chaotic situations, and can still traverse terrain better than treads or wheels.
The Death Star II shield was a step above the Hoth shield where the shield had to be deactivated entirely for ships to enter or they would be incinerated on impact. During the Battle of Endor all the ships had to dangerously and evasively pull up to avoid crashing into the shield. This could also be because it was unfinished and need to be protected but nevertheless very strong.
something that might also bring light to this was a line in Rise of Skywalker. When the ground resistance lands on the destroyer, the commander says "Jam their speeders". While it's a new concept to be said in the movies, perhaps it's related to how shields n whatnot work on starships? perhaps jamming speeders involves making a small shield around the area, disabling anti-grav