So, the Imperial Walkers have shields, right?

There's an IMDB debate about whether they have deflector shields, or just extremely heavy armour. I'm in the shield camp, since you can clearly see laser blasts colliding with the shields around the hull of the walkers. Not to mention, the Walker trips, and suddenly it has two or three chinks in the armour that weren't there before? I always assumed that the shield generators went offline with the crash, exposing the walkers to the speeder's big guns; otherwise, the speeders could have just dive-bombed them, blasting away at the neck and top of the cabin.

It's also interesting that, when the speeders show up, you can see "shield blasts" going off near some of the Rebel turrets, meaning that even the gun turrets have some type of light deflectors, just not heavy enough to repulse the big guns of the AT-AT.

I don't know what the EU says about it, but in the film, they obviously have some type of shields. I mean, look at how easily a single rocket took out an AT-TE on Geonosis. The Empire would have learned that a big, slow, lumbering walker, packed with infantry, needs something other than thick skin.

 

Luke does say, "That armor's too strong for blasters!"

Perhaps they only have shields in sensitive areas (e.g. cockpit, small thermal exhaust ports).

 

They had no shields. The only weak spot on the AT-AT was in the "neck" area. It relys on it's tough armor for protection......I checked this through the New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels By W. Hayden Blackman...I realize this is EU, so take it or leave it, at your discretion....

 

Agreed, no shields. And if they do, they are crappy shields that switch off when the Walker falls over.

 

That's what I mean. The walker collapses, suddenly it's head is vulnerable to two bursts, and the whole thing goes up? Just moments before, a speeder flew over an AT-AT's head (the one commanded by Veers), and shot it several times point blank, with no results? And what do you make of all the "flak" bursts going off around the walker's legs? They look just like the deflector shield blasts we see around the Falcon and the snowspeeders.

 

Basing this solely on the movie, I'm leaning towards they did have shields, despite what the EU/Luke says. This has never made sense to me. Film-wise, everything leans towards sheilds. They've taken shots that would have normally at least scarred them. The blast shot to the leg is a prime example. The only thing that would lead us towards a different conclusion was simply Luke's "That armor's too strong for blasters. Rogue Group..." dialogue.

I'm too lazy to do it, but I'd like to see screen caps of the blasts to the walker after it was down.

 

Luke's statement that the armor is too strong for blasters implies that the armor is what is making the blasters ineffective, not shields. To me, this implies no shields.

 

What I'm getting at is what if he made a ... ummm.. speako (spoken form of a typo )? He could have meant sheilds instead of armor. Or perhaps he was saying amror in more of a general sense, meaning the combinination of structural plating and sheilds.

 

I dunno, considering that starships have such powerful shields, it only makes sense to put them on a ground vehicle, especially one that's as large of a target as the AT-AT.

 

I've always assumed they had no shields, just heavy armor. If they had shields, wouldn't that have prevented Luke from grappling underneath one and slicing open a panel?

 

I definately lean towards sheilds. But how do sheilds work? Do they stop 100% of a blaster's fire or do they just stop most of it, soften the blow so to speak. In that case what Luke says would still be correct, if blasters can penetrate sheilds to some degree then the armour would do the rest.

 

Butt's got a point about the lack of battle scarring on the walkers. Clearly there were maintenance people running alongside the walkers constantly re-siding the legs as the speeders shot at them.

 

We see in the PT that shields can deflect energy weapons, but solid matter can pass through, slowly. This would protect the AT-AT from missles and rockets. Otherwise, one or two Rebels with RPG-type weapons could kill the drivers and commander, disabling the entire vehicle. This also explains why Luke was able to pass through. Also remember the Falcon being hit by Death Star obstructions and asteroids, even though she had very strong shields.

 

AT-AT's had no shields, just heavy armor.

 

No shields. The Essential Guides and Incredible Cross Sections make that very clear

 

So what's with the shield blasts all around them? And why did it's armour suddenly "break" when it fell?

 

The bursts around the walker were tiny bits of armor being burned off. If the Rebels shot at one long enough, the armor would have like be pierced. It would just take a long time (see the Shadows of the Empire game for N64).

As for why the walker was suddenly vulnerable after it fell, there's a couple reasons:

1) The snowspeeders couldn't shoot that spot from the correct angle while it was upright.
2) The impact with the ground could have weakened several spots of its armor.

 

Actually they hit the weak spot in the walker's "neck". That's what made it explode.

 

So, when the Millennium Falcon is being bombarded by TIE fighters and Star Destroyers, the brilliant flashes we're seeing are actually little bits of its hull come off? And Luke's snowspeeder is "shedding" metal all over the place as the AT-ATs are firing at them? It doesn't make any sense. You'll also notice that a snowspeeder fires directly into the viewport of Veers' walker, no effect. Please don't tell me they have "laserproof glass". As for the weak neck, why wouldn't the speeders just divebomb straight down and pulverize the neck?

 

The Falcon has shields. Those bursts of light we see are the shields taking damage.

Walkers and snowspeeders have no shields. Therefore, the bursts of light are bits of hull getting burned off.

And yes, the walkers have laserproof glass. It's called transparisteel, and although it's transparent, it has the same physical properties as the rest of the walker's armor.


The snowspeeders couldn't hit that spot on the walker while it was upright because the head and the body protected it. When it fell, the walker's head was tilted and exposed the weak spot.

 

lol, when it toppled forward, less of it's neck would be exposed to fire from above. Tilt your head all the way back, feel the back of your neck, and you'll see what I'm talking about. As for the shields, the flashes look exactly like the Falcon's deflectors. The snowspeeders are coming straight at the walkers, and you can clearly see the flashes around the ship as the forward deflectors do what they can against the AT-ATs guns (which isn't much). You can also see flashes around the Rebel turrets, meaning that they have smaller shields, also. Either that, or the AT-AT is just hitting lots of small insects in the atmosphere.

As for the transparisteel... I think I'm gonna be sick.

 

No shields. The neck area is exposed after toppling, allowing the speeders to score a hit.

 

There are no shields. The tow cables would have bounced off the shields and they wouldn't have been able to topple them.

 

Transparisteel is a well-established material in Star Wars. It's been used throughout the movies and the EU.