Ray Shields
Shielding as a concept is far from new to Star Wars—they’re all over the starship sequences in the original trilogy—but we didn’t really see them. They were represented by the flashes of dissipating blaster fire, whereas in Phantom Menace, we actually get to see shielding in action in a really interesting visual way—from the spherical bubbles that protect the Droidekas as they unleash volleys at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, to the massive domes protecting the Gungan army from artillery fire, making shielding a tangible, visual thing we get to see is a really neat aesthetic choice (and again, paired with some really nifty sound design! This movie sounds so good!!!).
