AT-AT, and the endless issue of armour or shield

[Mr. Oragahn]

First, an animation of a rebel energy projectile hitting the right rear leg of an imperial quadripod:



Secondly, the interpretation.

We can see that after the impacts occur, there is some kind of energy wave running up the leg for a couple of meters, on the external side, some kind of dissipation, which happens to slide over an invisible layer located at a certain distance from the leg, like if it was surrounded by a hull hugging shield.

The bolt aspect itself is quite reminescent of a ion bolt. We know that those things tend to splash over a hull or a shield.

Of course, it does not mesh well with the dialogue, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

[GStone]

Maybe it's some kind of hull polarization.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Possibly. Ion strikes seem to follow hazardous paths once they've hit their target, and it wouldn't be surprising that we see an energy surge climb along the leg.

My main concern is with the seemingly gap between the energy "fizzle" and the leg.

It really looks like when Anakin activates the shields on his N-1.
There does not seem to be any reason why this blue energy wave would extend so far from the hull.

[GStone]

Reactive shielding then. Sensors pick up the incoming energy and the shield is activated, protecting that part of them and shuts off till it detects more energy coming at it. But, shields would have been mentioned by Luke and he wouldn't say 'that's armor's too strong for blasters'. He'd say the shields were too strong. If it was energy absorbing armor, ships would last longer than they do.

[Mike DiCenso]

That's not necessarily the case, be it armor or shields, since presumably the TLs on the much larger starships have firepower orders of magnitude greater than an AT-AT could. Also, the glow from the shot here could still be armor as some of the glow does appear to follow the shape of the target leg, and we do not see any of the "airglow" bubble effect of Anakin's N-1 starfighter, or the larger shield bubble glow of ST ship shields.

An NX-class-like polarized armor is also not entirely out of the question, and would easily fit what we see here, as well as match up with Luke's aforementioned dialog.
-Mike

[Jedi Master Spock]

At the same time, the way it starts off bright and bluish and then "cools" down through yellow, orange, and red as it dims suggests superheated vapor to me.

Although someone, IIRC, said they've seen the same thing in TL flak bursts.

[Mike DiCenso]

At the same time, the way it starts off bright and bluish and then "cools" down through yellow, orange, and red as it dims suggests superheated vapor to me.

Although someone, IIRC, said they've seen the same thing in TL flak bursts.

That would probably be me, since I pointed out in another thead that the flack bursts in TESB, even when not hitting an asteroid make little red blobs, while the Type-I ISDs in ANH have simpler white flash flack bursts.
-Mike