Saga Shields?

"Energy Shields" might simply be a ray shield and a particle shield combined.

 

Correct - and DSII's shield required a massive generator located on a planet it orbited, which would also explain why DSI didn't have one - it was finished and had to be mobile, so the option wasn't there (although passing through a 'magnetic shield' is mentioned by one of the Rebel pilots at the start of the Battle of Yavin, probably a ray shield of some sort).

 

Makes sense. BTW I'm loving your signature!

 

I just looked up shields on Wookiepedia, and there are two types of shields. Ray shields, which deflect energy attacks, such as lasers, etc. and particle shields which deflect solid objects, such as asteroids, torpedoes, etc.
Here is the article:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Deflector_shield

 

Energy shields also exist, though. There's one in ROTJ protecting the second Death Star, for one, and the technology is also used sparingly in the EU.

 

I'm thinking "energy shield" might just be a blanket term to describe an indiscriminate type of shield. Kinda like how "blaster" can refer to anything from a blaster pistol to a turbolaser.

 

So what is the large shield used by the Gungans in TPM? By this definition it would be a ray shield since the droids can walk through it and thus the other categories are apparently ruled out. But what about the "ray shields" on the Invisible Hand in ROTS? If you could just walk through them the characters wouldn't have been trapped.

 

Different models of shields, I guess. By the time of the Imperial era, such models had become more standardized.

 

Maybe it's designed to affect biological systems? Thus- a human who walks into a Gungan shield will get nasty shocks etc- but a droid can safely walk through.

 

Somehow I doubt George Lucas read the Wookiepedia article on shields when he wrote that scene.

 

Just seems like the use and abilities of the shields are used as a plot device and don't really have a real explanation.