Darths & Droids IV: Not in Numerical Order

[b_jonas]

Speaking of which, unless the Irregulars put those fiftieth-comics somewhere else, I haven't read a new one for quite a while.

The Irregulars will probably not make any more. They find that the bonus strips aren't worth the time to create and they'd rather do other creative stuff. The 29 alternate universes that we have should be enough though.

[Rogar Demonblud]

They did leave open the possibility of doing another if they found something REALLY good. The fact it still hasn't happened leads me to conclude it won't. If I'm wrong, I'll be happy.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Annie's driving absolutely terrifies me whenever it comes up.
People like her are the reason cars have handholds.
So everyone else can grap them in blind terror.

Still amazing that Jim is the reasonable one out of game.

[Rogar Demonblud]

People like her are the reason the rest of us have airbags. Although if she tried driving that way out here she would have long since hit a patch of black ice, flipped into the ditch and bled out waiting for somebody else to come by.

[keybounce]

What sort of detection/sensor systems have we seen for Star Destroyers, either in Star Wars, or in Darths and Droids?

Trying to catch up on commentaries, and looking at the whole "Stealth in space" issue.

[Dire_Flumph]

What sort of detection/sensor systems have we seen for Star Destroyers, either in Star Wars, or in Darths and Droids?

Trying to catch up on commentaries, and looking at the whole "Stealth in space" issue.

Hmm, without knowing specifics, the sensors are generally accepted to be the globes on the top of the Star Destroyer bridge area. Needa mentions cloaking devices that apparently can evade Star Destroyer sensor systems, and apparently they can't detect ships connected to the hull as in Empire Strikes Back.

Episode VIII raises some serious questions about the detection capacity of Star Destroyers, but I don't want to dive into spoilers.

Otherwise I don't remember a lot of specifics in the movies.

Edit: Looked up the sequel era Destroyer cross-sections, they have the sensors as the towers located on top of the bridge area to the rear. The single globe up there is now labeled as the bridge deflector. Ah, consistency....

[keybounce]

With a little more thought, I'm thinking of episode 5 and 6, detecting the ships in space, or the base on the planet, or the shield generator on the planet / shield on/off status.

So it seems they've got good in-system detection technology?

[Dire_Flumph]

With a little more thought, I'm thinking of episode 5 and 6, detecting the ships in space, or the base on the planet, or the shield generator on the planet / shield on/off status.

So it seems they've got good in-system detection technology?

They don't play with a lot of specifics, but on the Rebels side, it's implied that sensors have a hard time differentiating asteroids from ships in-system. I got the impression that's why Ozzel was killed, that if they had jumped in farther out of direct sensor range, then the incoming fleet might have looked like a batch of space rocks.

It's hard to say how much intelligence the sensors were able to pick up on Hoth since much of the info they got on the shield systems, base location, etc was more likely to have been from the probe droid.

In Episode 4 it's pretty clear the sensors on the Death Star can't scan for life forms on the incoming Falcon (or maybe only at close range and by then they were in the smuggling compartments which blocked the scan?). But in Episode V Luke is able to tell that Dagobah has massive life form readings but no cities or obvious technology.

In 6 the Rebels sensors were able to be blocked thoroughly enough so that they couldn't detect a shield protecting a moon-sized object or a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers. Presumably that level of jamming interfered too much with their own ships to be worth maintaining as the Falcon was able to detect the shield dropping later.

[Kantaki]

But in Episode V Luke is able to tell that Dagobah has massive life form readings but no cities or obvious technology.

I mean, isn't Dagobah covered by a massive swamp/rainforest? You don't need much of a scanner to detect life forms there. Looking out of the window should be more than enough.

[Rogar Demonblud]

As with most sci-fi, 'sensors' is about all you'll get for how they know what's where. In a short film I saw a couple years ago, the makers took this to the ultimate point by having 'sensors' just be a guy with binoculars doing a visual search.

[theangelJean]

As with most sci-fi, 'sensors' is about all you'll get for how they know what's where. In a short film I saw a couple years ago, the makers took this to the ultimate point by having 'sensors' just be a guy with binoculars doing a visual search.

In this type of space opera, sure. In really hard sci-fi they'll specify if it becomes plot relevant, eg. the X-ray/UV sensors being down and having to rely on visuals/IR only, which can't pierce through water clouds, etc. Definitely not the case here.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Honestly, I'm surprised it took the Falcon this long to start acting up.

[Kantaki]

Honestly, I'm surprised it took the Falcon this long to start acting up.

I'm more surprised that it worked at all.

Really as cool as the Falcon reveal was when I watched the movie, it is and always was a rustbucket.
A very impressive one sure, but always a hair away from falling apart.
Spit, string and the will of the Force is all keeping that "ship" in one piece.
And duct tape. All the duct tape.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Duct tape is the physical manifestation of the Force, since it is what binds everything together.

[Rockphed]

Duct tape is the physical manifestation of the Force, since it is what binds everything together.

*Slow Clap* I bow to your word play.

[Gez]

Hmm, without knowing specifics, the sensors are generally accepted to be the globes on the top of the Star Destroyer bridge area.

Those globes are the shield generators, I can say that as a veteran of the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance game series. I blew up enemy star destroyers in every mission they appeared in (which did result in blowing up what was supposed to be the same star destroyer through consecutive missions) and the procedure was simple: first, attack the shield generators; then attack the engines (or, if you have ion cannons, disable the ship), then sit behind the ship and keep the fire button pressed with a rubber band while you go make yourself a nice cup of tea.

[Dire_Flumph]

Those globes are the shield generators, I can say that as a veteran of the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance game series. I blew up enemy star destroyers in every mission they appeared in (which did result in blowing up what was supposed to be the same star destroyer through consecutive missions) and the procedure was simple: first, attack the shield generators; then attack the engines (or, if you have ion cannons, disable the ship), then sit behind the ship and keep the fire button pressed with a rubber band while you go make yourself a nice cup of tea.

Imperial propaganda luring hapless rebel pilots into futilely shooting at the sensor globes through the shields!

[KillianHawkeye]

It was shown pretty clearly in Return of the Jedi that destroying the big globe towers causes a failure in the shields. That's exactly how a crashing A-Wing was able to disable the Super Star Destroyer.

[Aeson]

It was shown pretty clearly in Return of the Jedi that destroying the big globe towers causes a failure in the shields. That's exactly how a crashing A-Wing was able to disable the Super Star Destroyer.

Correlation does not imply causation. Did the destruction of the dome take down the shield, or did the shield's failure allow the globe to be destroyed?

Presumably, a shield generator protecting such an important location as the command deck would be as well protected against attack as is reasonably feasible as it's kind of important that it remains functional, thus the highly-exposed position of the domes atop the Star Destroyer command towers coupled with the obviously relatively minimal protection given to it (starfighter weapons were capable of destroying the globe) would make it quite strange for the globes to be shield generators - particularly shield generators protecting the bridge, and all the more so if the shield generators are for some reason incapable of protecting themselves. Additionally, while other ships in Star Wars are known to have shields, they do not obviously have similar globular structures, nor in most cases do their shield systems appear to be especially vulnerable to targeted attacks by starfighters given that a mere converted bulk freighter such as the Trade Federation's Droid Control Ship over Naboo was effectively immune to starfighter attack seemingly even without the massive and yet largely ineffective swarm of droid starfighters and also given the implicit lessons of the Clone Wars w.r.t. starfighter efficacy against capital ships (the more battleship-like Imperial Star Destroyers replaced the more carrier-like Venator-class Star Destroyers, this despite the most likely opponent changing from something that could reasonably field fleets of capital ships to something against which light combatants like starfighters could more reasonably be a serious threat). Beyond that, there is no known reason why a position such as was given to the domes atop the Star Destroyer command towers would be beneficial to a Star Wars shield generator (there is, of course, the counterpoint that there is no known reason why such a position would not be beneficial), but there is an obvious reason why a position with good fields of view would be desirable for a sensor system and at least one other Star Wars ship appears to have a sensor system in such a position: the large antenna atop the Millennium Falcon is generally assumed to be part of its sensor suite.

I personally would argue that it would make the most sense for that scene in Return of the Jedi to be viewed as: The shields fail, allowing the globe to be destroyed; the globe's destruction rocks the bridge, causing the Imperial crewman to check his console to confirm the shield casualty (as well as, perhaps, the extent of the shield failure, given that the report specifies the bridge deflector rather than something more general) immediately prior to reporting it; Admiral Piett begins taking steps to respond to the shield failure but an A-Wing crashes into the bridge before any effective defensive measures can be put into place.

An additional piece of circumstantial evidence in favor of the domes being sensor systems: A sensor system placed where the domes are which requires line-of-sight to the target has an obvious blind spot in the 'shadow' of the command tower. Where does the Millennium Falcon latch onto the Star Destroyer Avenger? In the 'shadow' of the command tower as seen by the domes.

[The Glyphstone]

Alternatively, the Empire is bad at designing ships.

[Dire_Flumph]

Sorry, before an argument breaks out, I used the phrase "generally accepted" because there has been a lot of debate on whether the domes are sensor domes or deflector arrays. Depends on whether you think the destruction of one of the globes in Jedi was possible due to the bridge shields collapsing, or was the cause of the bridge shields collapsing. The latter shows up in a lot of 90's through 2000's reference material, like the games mentioned above (and even the recent Star Wars: Squadrons). However, original plans and interviews with the effects folks on the films refer to them as "radar domes".

Spoiler: Richard Edlund interview, CINEFEX #13, p.55, 3 February 1983

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We're also still working on the sequence where Mad Max crashes his A-wing into Vader's ship and causes the star destroyer to lose control and crash into the Deathstar. The penetration shot with the mushroom-cloud explosion we've had for some time, and we've got the shot where the ship's been hit and is starting to heel over. A very large explosion is coming out of the bridge area and it's causing several others to go as well; and one of the big radar domes up on top has been blown away, and that's spewing flames. It's pretty spectacular. Between that sort of closeup of the bridge section and the long-shot of the surface, we need two more cuts of the ship continuing to heel over and dropping towards the Deathstar like an arrow. We've shot a number of elements on those - explosions and things that have to be projected onto the miniatures - and so they're pretty much ready to go. Don Dow will be shooting those tomorrow.

More recent sources have labeled them as sensor domes for this reason, some splitting the difference by listing the globes themselves as the sensor arrays and the vanes on the globes as the bridge deflector arrays.

If you want to see someone put more analysis into this than any sane person would, I'd recommend giving Dr. Curtis Saxon's Technical Commentaries a read. Star Destroyer bridge article linked here.

[VoxRationis]

Presumably, a shield generator protecting such an important location as the command deck would be as well protected against attack as is reasonably feasible as it's kind of important that it remains functional, thus the highly-exposed position of the domes atop the Star Destroyer command towers coupled with the obviously relatively minimal protection given to it (starfighter weapons were capable of destroying the globe) would make it quite strange for the globes to be shield generators - particularly shield generators protecting the bridge, and all the more so if the shield generators are for some reason incapable of protecting themselves. Additionally, while other ships in Star Wars are known to have shields, they do not obviously have similar globular structures, nor in most cases do their shield systems appear to be especially vulnerable to targeted attacks by starfighters given that a mere converted bulk freighter such as the Trade Federation's Droid Control Ship over Naboo was effectively immune to starfighter attack seemingly even without the massive and yet largely ineffective swarm of droid starfighters and also given the implicit lessons of the Clone Wars w.r.t. starfighter efficacy against capital ships (the more battleship-like Imperial Star Destroyers replaced the more carrier-like Venator-class Star Destroyers, this despite the most likely opponent changing from something that could reasonably field fleets of capital ships to something against which light combatants like starfighters could more reasonably be a serious threat). Beyond that, there is no known reason why a position such as was given to the domes atop the Star Destroyer command towers would be beneficial to a Star Wars shield generator

I personally would argue that it would make the most sense for that scene in Return of the Jedi to be viewed as: The shields fail, allowing the globe to be destroyed; the globe's destruction rocks the bridge, causing the Imperial crewman to check his console to confirm the shield casualty (as well as, perhaps, the extent of the shield failure, given that the report specifies the bridge deflector rather than something more general) immediately prior to reporting it; Admiral Piett begins taking steps to respond to the shield failure but an A-Wing crashes into the bridge before any effective defensive measures can be put into place.

I'd point out that all three trilogies* illustrate that starfighters can ignore the shields of capital ships, passing through them (it appears that shields must be projected at some distance and are not "skintight") to attack them directly**, and that this, though difficult, consistently represents the primary means by which protagonist factions defeat capital ships. Why capital ships in the Star Wars universe are mostly battleship rather than mostly carrier in light of this is unclear. I might argue that Imperial Starfleet focuses less on fleet actions and more on independent cruises than its Republican predecessor and thus favors general-purpose ships at a given weight class. It's also worth noting that Imperial-class Star Destroyers may not have been designed with an enemy force capable of fielding competitive starfighters in mind. The Incredible Cross-Sections book (whose canon status I am admittedly unsure of at this point) notes that the Rebellion was already underway when the X-wing was developed. Perhaps the Empire considered smaller fighter screens suitable for use against small numbers of outmoded fighters such as the Rebellion could then field, and considered converted freighters and yachts belonging to various private factions to be the Rebel navy's main offensive arm. A New Hope speaks to that sort of doctrine in their discussion around the Death Star's defenses being designed against an attack fleet of ships.

I'd also point out that it's wholly plausible that a shield generator would A) not project the shield around itself, or at least not omnidirectionally (cf. Earth's magnetic field, which allows solar wind to intrude farther from some angles than others, and the Gungan army shield in I, which appears to be open at the top in like fashion), and B) need to be on the surface of the ship and outside any armor, since it has to project energy to the outside of the ship. Of course, you're absolutely right in that such extended positions don't appear to be the case for the shield generators of other ships in the setting, and examples of wholly spherical shields exist in the setting, so the "weak point" hypothesis isn't necessarily true, but shield generators do seem to receive hits fairly often, even without the rest of the ship being hit, so wherever they are, they aren't terribly well-protected.

Edit: Which isn't to say that I am firmly of the opinion that the domes are shield generators; I just wanted to offer some counters to arguments made in favor of their being sensors.

Spoiler: *

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Anakin v. Lucrehulk in I, Rebels v. Death Star in IV, Kylo Ren v. Raddus in VIII

**Though this does not necessarily equate to vulnerability, as bypassing shields does not bypass armor or the protection that sheer bulk affords; cf. Luke strafing the Death Star. Attacking weak spots, systems on the ship that are obliged to be exposed by dint of their function, seems to be necessary.

[Rockphed]

To add more fuel to the "how do star wars shields work" fire, consider that when talking about both the Falcon and X-wings they refer to "deflectors", not "shields", and Han says, "angle the rear deflector".

[hamishspence]

In TESB both "deflector" and "shield" were used by 3PO, and Han follows it up with "shield"


THREEPIO: Sir, we just lost the main rear deflector shield. One more direct hit on the back quarter and we're done for.
HAN: Turn her around. I said turn her around! I'm going to put all power in the front shield.

And even in ANH:

LUKE: What's that flashing?
HAN: We're losing our deflector shield! Go strap yourself in, I'm going to make the jump to light speed.

[Keltest]

Shields in Star Wars are typically, though not universally, portrayed as resisting energy weapons while allowing physical matter to pass through, which is why weapons like missiles and plasma torpedoes will work against shielded targets such as the death star exhaust port, and why bombers such as the y-wing exist when the X-wing is a more generally proficient fighter. However, its also possible to overwhelm a shield's capacity. Recall that Ackbar directed all ships to fire on the Super Star Destroyer before it went down. This may have breached its shields, or at least forced them down temporarily, allowing for the fighters to move in for a surgical strike against it.

[Aeson]

I'd point out that all three trilogies* illustrate that starfighters can ignore the shields of capital ships, passing through them (it appears that shields must be projected at some distance and are not "skintight") to attack them directly**,

Not really, no.
- Rebels vs Death Star I:
a. The starfighters experienced turbulence while "passing through [the Death Star's] magnetic field." Whether this is a shield or not is unclear; it is also at a much more significant distance from the Death Star than any other shield appears to be from any other known ship, with the possible exception of the shield projected from Endor to protect the Death Star II.
b. The exhaust port was specifically protected by "ray shield[ing]," which apparently protected it against laser cannons but not torpedoes.
- Anakin vs Lucrehulk:
a. The Lucrehulk appears to be launching fighters at the time at which Anakin is entering the hangar. Assuming shields prohibit the passage of objects such as starfighters, this would require that the shields are inactive in that region at that moment.
b. We see a more or less skintight 'shimmer' effect around Anakin's starfighter when it reactivates after crashing, suggesting that N1 starfighter shields, at least, are essentially skintight.

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy example

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- Kylo Ren vs Raddus: The sequel trilogy is garbage that has no respect even for the previous movies, therefore I don't give a damn about it or what it says about Star Wars technology.

Also:
- The Phantom Menace, battle over Naboo: The Lucrehulk's shield stops the torpedoes launched by N1 starfighters.
- The Phantom Menace, ground battle on Naboo: The Gungan shield appears to resist the passage of the battle droids, as they lean into it and then stumble slightly as they pass through it. This does however appear to be a different type of shield from that typically used on starships, as it creates a visible dome similar to the shield around the droidekas and similar to the trap which catches Anakin and Obi-Wan on Invisible Hand in Revenge of the Sith, whereas starship shields are generally invisible.
- Revenge of the Sith, opening scene: The shield protecting the hangar of Invisible Hand apparently needs to be taken down before Anakin and Obi-Wan can enter the hangar.
- Return of the Jedi, Rebel fleet arrives at Death Star II: The shield is assumed to be active, therefore the Rebel fleet breaks off from its approach on the Death Star. If at least the Rebel starfighters can pass through the shield, there is no particular reason why the starfighter assault could not have begun at this moment in time; it's not like the rest of the fleet would particularly be in a worse supporting position outside of the shield than it was while engaged with a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers. This again may be a different type of shield from that normally used on starships, however, as it's projected from a nearby moon rather than by the Death Star itself.

In other words, I find your argument that all three trilogies support the idea that shields do not prohibit the passage of physical objects rather unconvincing.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The reason the setting leans heavily towards battleships is that Lucas is recreating a lot of the feel of the serials from the 1930s, when the battleship was queen and airplanes much less effective. One of the problems I had with the ST was the fact they were still leaning heavily on Star Destroyers instead of fleet carriers a generation after snubs mopped the floor with Victory, Imperial, Imperial II and Super class Star Destroyers, plus the two Death Stars.

[Rockphed]

The reason the setting leans heavily towards battleships is that Lucas is recreating a lot of the feel of the serials from the 1930s, when the battleship was queen and airplanes much less effective. One of the problems I had with the ST was the fact they were still leaning heavily on Star Destroyers instead of fleet carriers a generation after snubs mopped the floor with Victory, Imperial, Imperial II and Super class Star Destroyers, plus the two Death Stars.

Spoiler: Mandalorian

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One of the things I like about The Mandalorian is that while various heavy ships can easily take out a light vessel, all of the big ships have a reason for existing beyond their simple force projection. They are bulk transports or command vessels, not ships of the line. The few times we see New Republic patrols they are using x-wings, both from a "a squadron of x-wings can take down just about anything the imperial remnants or pirates can put together" and from "x-wing patrols can actually cover the trade routes in ways that capital ships never could".

[VoxRationis]

Not really, no.
- Rebels vs Death Star I:
a. The starfighters experienced turbulence while "passing through [the Death Star's] magnetic field." Whether this is a shield or not is unclear; it is also at a much more significant distance from the Death Star than any other shield appears to be from any other known ship, with the possible exception of the shield projected from Endor to protect the Death Star II.
b. The exhaust port was specifically protected by "ray shield[ing]," which apparently protected it against laser cannons but not torpedoes.

They're definitely through the primary defensive shields of the Death Star I by the time the battle commences, unless we are to take it that the station has no shields, or that they are so weak that the cannons of Luke's X-wing can penetrate them and cause notable damage to the surface layers (even if ultimately insignificant because of the sheer size of the Death Star). As for the ray shielding, that's pretty clearly a defense of the port itself and is probably similar to the shields used on hangars; it's not broadly relevant to the discussion of the main Death Star shields, and the way it works suggests that "bars energy blasts but admits projectiles" is true of at least some shields in Star Wars.

- Anakin vs Lucrehulk:
a. The Lucrehulk appears to be launching fighters at the time at which Anakin is entering the hangar. Assuming shields prohibit the passage of objects such as starfighters, this would require that the shields are inactive in that region at that moment.
b. We see a more or less skintight 'shimmer' effect around Anakin's starfighter when it reactivates after crashing, suggesting that N1 starfighter shields, at least, are essentially skintight.
- The Phantom Menace, battle over Naboo: The Lucrehulk's shield stops the torpedoes launched by N1 starfighters.
- The Phantom Menace, ground battle on Naboo: The Gungan shield appears to resist the passage of the battle droids, as they lean into it and then stumble slightly as they pass through it. This does however appear to be a different type of shield from that typically used on starships, as it creates a visible dome similar to the shield around the droidekas and similar to the trap which catches Anakin and Obi-Wan on Invisible Hand in Revenge of the Sith, whereas starship shields are generally invisible.

Well, you can't assume that shields prohibit the passage of starfighters because that's the topic being debated here.

Regarding the N1 starfighter shields and the Gungan ones, you have a point, though the Gungan one, as you note, is not the same sort of shield as ISDs have, and I think it could be argued that the N1 isn't, either.

- Revenge of the Sith, opening scene: The shield protecting the hangar of Invisible Hand apparently needs to be taken down before Anakin and Obi-Wan can enter the hangar.
- Return of the Jedi, Rebel fleet arrives at Death Star II: The shield is assumed to be active, therefore the Rebel fleet breaks off from its approach on the Death Star. If at least the Rebel starfighters can pass through the shield, there is no particular reason why the starfighter assault could not have begun at this moment in time; it's not like the rest of the fleet would particularly be in a worse supporting position outside of the shield than it was while engaged with a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers. This again may be a different type of shield from that normally used on starships, however, as it's projected from a nearby moon rather than by the Death Star itself.

In other words, I find your argument that all three trilogies support the idea that shields do not prohibit the passage of physical objects rather unconvincing.

Well, you refused to engage with one of the trilogies, and I mean, that's fair. The writers of the ST clearly have a different take on the mechanics of the Star Wars universe than the writers of the OT and PT, and there are a lot of valid criticisms of those movies in terms of other matters as well.* Nonetheless, you can't claim that my arguments regarding the ST are inadequate if you won't discuss the trilogy at all. (Would you discuss Solo and/or R1?)

As another counterargument, take TESB during the asteroid sequence, leading up to the whole Falcon garbage trick. A Star Destroyer has its bridge completely blown away by asteroids and isn't capable of doing anything to stop it. I think it's safe to say that Star Destroyer shields, at the least, do not deflect asteroids. Then, later, Han takes the Falcon on a frontal assault against a Star Destroyer, ultimately landing on it. If shields prohibited smaller craft from approaching, this maneuver would be actually suicidal, as opposed to merely high-risk. This is plainly a combat scenario and the Imperials are expecting armed resistance (even if they weren't expecting the Falcon to charge them). The shields have to be up, and therefore the Falcon passed through them at some point, since it goes from well outside possible shield projection radius to physically touching the Star Destroyer.

You make a lot of good points, however, in bringing up examples where shields definitively do prevent material passage. I have also laid out instances where they do not. We see a fair amount of variation in the mechanics of shields in Star Wars:

• Sometimes they are visible (mostly PT) and sometimes they are not;
• Sometimes they are globular, and sometimes they are apparently "angled" in an active manner (as Rockphed noted);
• Sometimes they work against material objects, and sometimes they do not;
• Sometimes they occur at some distance from the object they protect, and sometimes they are close-fitting.

That really leaves us with a Watsonian and a Doylist explanation for this variation. Perhaps it is that both diachronically as the stories progressed and synchronically between different writers, the concepts for how shields worked changed, creating unintentional inconsistencies. Certainly, in universe, there are different types of shields with different mechanics, though the cases where this is explicitly so are insufficient to explain all the observed discrepancies.

Nonetheless, we have seen sufficient cases where attack by starfighters can bypass shields, particularly and most definitively in the case of shields used by Imperial Starfleet, that I maintain that it is a significant means of attack and something fleet doctrine should account for. Moreover, my more specific point that attack by starfighters is the primary means by which protagonist factions engage is definitely true in I, IV, VII, and VIII, partially true in VI and IX, and irrelevant in II and V. The only case where we see protagonist factions explicitly doing most of their offensive damage by virtue of bombardment is in the Battle of Coruscant in III, ironically with the "mostly-carrier" Venator class.

*For example, I'd advance the opinion that the soundtracks are generally weaker, a few notable exceptions aside, in the sequels, because themes and motifs are rarely given the space to develop properly; they frenetically hop from theme to theme so as to precisely fit the quick cuts of the cinematography.

[Dire_Flumph]

Well, you refused to engage with one of the trilogies, and I mean, that's fair. The writers of the ST clearly have a different take on the mechanics of the Star Wars universe than the writers of the OT and PT, and there are a lot of valid criticisms of those movies in terms of other matters as well.* Nonetheless, you can't claim that my arguments regarding the ST are inadequate if you won't discuss the trilogy at all. (Would you discuss Solo and/or R1?)

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy and Shields

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Well, when approaching Starkiller Base in VII, Han has to bypass the shields using Hyperspace. Later the shield needs to be dropped to allow the Resistance to attack.

In VIII, DJ needs to slice the shields on the Supremacy to land.

In Rogue One, obviously that impenetrable shield covering Scarif Base is a major plot point.


But...

In VIII, Poe has no trouble blasting the surface cannons on the Fulminatrix. Ditto the same in VII, but at least there he had just left the hangar.

Shields on the Final Order Destroyers in IX don't seem to prevent Jaana and Finn's Landing Craft from Deploying.


I don't recall any issues with shields either way in Solo.

You could make arguments for why things were different here rather than there, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of consistency.