Talk:The Force

The Force and force fields

What are general opinions about the ability of Jedi to affect objects protected by force fields. Are there canon incidents of this happening? It seems that force fields have frustrated Jedi on multiple occasions in the prequel movies:

• The shielded Droideka's on the TradeFed flagship in TPM drove off Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon said the situation was a stand-off, since the droids' blasts couldn't get through the Jedi's defense, but the reflected blaster shots didn't penetrated the droids' shields. Why not just use the Force to disable these droids, as they did many other battle droids in the movie? The shield seems to be the only significant difference.
• Count Dooku used some kind of force field to restrain Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis.
• A ray shield trapped Anakin and Obi-Wan in ROTS. Using the Force to telekinetically disable the field emitter would seem to be the obvious solution, but it occurs to neither Jedi. Are they just stupid, or is there a reason they can't use the Force that way?

--Ted C 15:53, 4 March 2008 (EST)

I can't think of any events in the movies (or in the novels, offhand) where telekinesis was used through shielding. However, telepathy seems to work through shielding:

• Probably Luke to Leia at the end of ESB, as the Falcon likely still had shields active
• Vader could sense the Force with Luke even though he was piloting a shielded X-wing
• Corran Horn was able to get impressions of X-wing pilots he was flying against in combat in I, Jedi
• Battle Meditation wouldn't ever work in space combat if it couldn't affect pilots through shields

-- Mad 13:28, 6 March 2008 (EST)

A prison explicitly designed to hold Force-sensitives was introduced as early as Dark Empire (the "Leth Universal Energy Cage"). The device is stated as being able to interact with the Force in some way. It's notable that the cage employs other methods as well, such as a stun charge; the prison doesn't rely solely on this Force-dampening effect.

It's likely that the Force can't be directly tapped into by technological means, or we would have seen its applications on a broader scale. But as we know, the Force is an energy field. It may be that the cage simply seeks to put out as much "noise" as possible, in the hopes that some small portion of it will interfere sufficiently to prevent the prisoner from connecting with the Force.

We also know that Droidekas carry shields that would be deleterious for organics. They are heavy-duty, but also put out a lot of radiation. This, too, could translate into being a source of interference with the Force (not necessarily to the point of making Droidekas immune, but perhaps enough for the Jedi to hesitate or leave himself open to a body shot).

It would also help explain why Obi-Wan and Anakin could be held up by a forcefield, particularly given Grievous' presence and knowledge of Jedi weaknesses.

Starship shields, however, seem to be reactive by nature; they only seem to activate when blocking incoming energy. If the shields did not recognize currents of the Force as an attack, they might not be able to provide a defence. Alternatively, perhaps they're simply optimized to a higher degree than Droideka shields would be, reducing the amount of leakage and thus interference.

--Eleas 17:46, 4 August 2010 (UTC)