Sadly, there is not much overlap between "superheroes" and "logic", just like there is not much overlap between "superheroes" and "physics". That being said, the genre is not supposed to follow logic or physics--superhero stories are normally myths about demigods.
True, they are heroes, but they still live in a world of mere mortals, a mundane world. They wouldn't be super heroes if they weren't super compared to the norm. The mortals they catch mid air would still be harmed by the physics if they did it wrong.
And it is true it is all fiction, hence you have to suspend disbelief. But sometimes it's fun to have discussions like these. Especially since it could mean if you wrote your own stories (say, as a DM in a role-playing group), you could tidy up the flawed tropes that some writers overlook.
When you are dealing with sci-fi and fantasy and their sub-genres (like super hero stories), you can't help but have flawed stories. It's impossible. But regardless it is sure fun to nit-pick so long as you do it with people who want to hear it.
True, they are heroes, but they still live in a world of mere mortals, a mundane world. They wouldn't be super heroes if they weren't super compared to the norm. The mortals they catch mid air would still be harmed by the physics if they did it wrong.
For a while back in college, the group I was in tried GURPS Supers for a while (we had also played Marvel's superhero-based RPG). One evening, we got into a discussion about a brick (a super-strong character who also typically has high physical resistances) throwing a bad guy. We knew the height of the character so we figured average arm length, approximated how much force he could exert with an overhand throw based on maximum lift, and that gave us a fairly good guess on the angular acceleration the bad guy underwent. Long story short--he would not have survived the throw, even if he landed in water--the g-forces would have given him a severe concussion (at best) and at least one embolism (at worst).
Picking up a bus? If picked up in the wrong spot the bus will collapse under its own weight and possibly snap in two. Even if that did not happen the super's feet are probably buckling the street or they are sinking up to their knees in the grass.
I know what you mean about catching a falling person. Fly down, catch the person, grab their arm, then start flying upwards--this will probably pull the person's arm out of their shoulder socket, dismembering them....and then they are still falling.
This is why I view the recent trend of dissecting why something was "totally unrealistic" and "doesn't make any sense" in the recent Star Wars sequels as the absolute nonsense bad faith that it is. Because the people making these arguments know full well that NOTHING in Star Wars would work in space, starting with any of the explosions. There also wouldn't be any sound whatsoever. Yet all of a sudden people cared about scientific accuracy.
There used to be a time where people either enjoyed movies, or they didn't. But now either way we dissect them, disassemble the parts, and rearrange them for Youtube clips. Nothing can just EXIST anymore.
There used to be a time where people either enjoyed movies, or they didn't. But now either way we dissect them, disassemble the parts, and rearrange them for Youtube clips. Nothing can just EXIST anymore.
Yup. This is why we have suspension of disbelief. You can't expect a writer/production crew to do everything accurate, particularly in fantasy.
Though I think discussions like this are fun anyway, so long as you aren't an angry, ranting idiot who forgets this is all in good fun or expects things to be more accurate.
Though I think discussions like this are fun anyway, so long as you aren't an angry, ranting idiot who forgets this is all in good fun or expects things to be more accurate.
This. I find it fun to dissect science-fiction or fantasy or point out the flaws, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the source material to begin with! I'm also not going to tell somebody that they CAN'T enjoy the source material despite any logical inconsistencies that might exist.
There's a bit of difference complaining that something is "totally unrealistic" vs "... why didn't they do this in another part of the story if the ability existed?" The major two I know of in the recent Star Wars movies are 1) if a ship going into hyperdrive can destroy a Dreadnaught instantly... Why the heck haven't the Rebellion in movies 4-6 tried ramming Imperial Cruisers with, say, freighters? They're suiciding their fighters at those things anyways, might as well just light speed them.
2) Kylo Ren can... stop blaster shots with the Force. You know when this might've been useful? The Clone Wars come to mind...
Ahem. Anyways. Wrong genre. I'm always a bit frustrated that everyone with abilities either goes Superhero or Supervillain instead of what should be probably more common, "I'm gonna mess around as much as I can with this ability." Though I guess the very first Spiderman comic was this until he had his whole epiphany about great responsibility and all that...
2) Kylo Ren can... stop blaster shots with the Force. You know when this might've been useful? The Clone Wars come to mind...
Kylo is an Anomaly--all he sees is the code. Speaking of catching or stopping bullets...once upon a time I worked out how quickly (both in time and distance) a telekinetic could stop the forward momentum of a bullet; the formula required only two input variables: power of the telekinetic (converting their ability to lift an object into Newtons) and mass of the bullet. As we know from Babylon 5, though, telekinetics do not have to be powerful to be dangerous--it takes very little pressure to squeeze an artery closed, provided you know where in the body the artery is located.
There's a bit of difference complaining that something is "totally unrealistic" vs "... why didn't they do this in another part of the story if the ability existed?" The major two I know of in the recent Star Wars movies are 1) if a ship going into hyperdrive can destroy a Dreadnaught instantly... Why the heck haven't the Rebellion in movies 4-6 tried ramming Imperial Cruisers with, say, freighters? They're suiciding their fighters at those things anyways, might as well just light speed them.
2) Kylo Ren can... stop blaster shots with the Force. You know when this might've been useful? The Clone Wars come to mind...
I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect complete internal consistency across 42 years of story-telling. People complain when things are changed too much (Prequels) and when things arent changed enough (Sequel trilogy). There's no making everyone happy. I think this all squarely fits into the suspension of disbelief. I prefer to accept a one-off moment as being a cool scene with some neat CGI and move on.
This thread is of course for fun. I enjoy super hero stories even when I want to bang my head in the nearest wall whenever a super hero decides to completely destroy a train to save little Jimmy who is tied to the tracks instead of just removing little Jimmy from the tracks so saving the victim and not causing millions in damage, not to say everyone who got hurt when said hero decided to just stop a moving train...
Jedi are another story... Their powers seem to be quite different and individual. They have some common powers such as basic telekinesis but other powers may be unique to an individual. So a Jedi who is able to do something no other can is actually consistent in that universe.
Regarding real life, if I had superpowers I would hide them as much as I can or openly joke about having them so nobody would take it seriously. I have this weird strong desire not to become subject of scientific experience or being blackmailed either by the government or other organization into doing things I don't want to.
Regarding real life, if I had superpowers I would hide them as much as can or openly joke about having them so nobody would take it seriously. I have this weird strong desire not to become subject of scientific experience or being blackmailed either by the government or other organization into doing things I don't want to.
But what if your powers were SO great that no normal human organisation would be able to stop you? Think Dr. Manhattan vs the world, for example. As the only true superhero in a world of ordinary humans, there is literally nothing anybody could do if the Doc decided one day to go "OK, I'm God of the Earth now. Do as I say or be obliterated."
Regarding real life, if I had superpowers I would hide them as much as can or openly joke about having them so nobody would take it seriously. I have this weird strong desire not to become subject of scientific experience or being blackmailed either by the government or other organization into doing things I don't want to.
But what if your powers were SO great that no normal human organisation would be able to stop you? Think Dr. Manhattan vs the world, for example. As the only true superhero in a world of ordinary humans, there is literally nothing anybody could do if the Doc decided one day to go "OK, I'm God of the Earth now. Do as I say or be obliterated."
@Neverused "2) Kylo Ren can... stop blaster shots with the Force. You know when this might've been useful? The Clone Wars come to mind..."
Well, Vader did it in Empire. Maybe its a Dark Side exclusive power? Actually, I think Luke did something similar in the EU before his stint with the Dark Side...
@Zaxares@themazingness There's a difference between "dissecting because its fun" and "dissecting to tear somethign apart". I think @jjstraka34 is referring to the later.
Just googled it, it’s apparently a usage of Force Stasis, which is seen a few times in Kotor, and by Vader and Yoda in books or comics. The one in Empire Strikes Back is a deflection, not a stopping of. I’ll give it a pass, then. The more you know!
There's a bit of difference complaining that something is "totally unrealistic" vs "... why didn't they do this in another part of the story if the ability existed?" The major two I know of in the recent Star Wars movies are 1) if a ship going into hyperdrive can destroy a Dreadnaught instantly... Why the heck haven't the Rebellion in movies 4-6 tried ramming Imperial Cruisers with, say, freighters? They're suiciding their fighters at those things anyways, might as well just light speed them.
For the same reason no one flew airplanes before the Wright Brothers or used light bulbs before Edison. It hadn't been attempted before because it hadn't been conceived of before. It also requires someone willing to sacrifice their life to complete.
But that's even more unbelievable: that means that throughout the development of the technology of the hyperdrive, there were never any collisions or any stress tests to figure out what happens when something hits something else in hyperspace. Murphy's law definitely applies here: if pilots weren't warned to not try to go to hyperdrive with other ships nearby, someone would have eventually, and created some gigantic explosion and loss of life.
There's space for new technology and ideas, like a tracker that works through hyperspace, and then there's things that utterly defy common sense. For the record, I also have a problem with the utter lack of stationary planetary defenses or air control in every single movie outside of Rogue One: there's no way governments are going to be fine with not controlling imports/exports, or with the possibility of a single TIE fighter just coming in from hyperspace and killing thousands of people with no possible response from the surface.
But that's even more unbelievable: that means that throughout the development of the technology of the hyperdrive, there were never any collisions or any stress tests to figure out what happens when something hits something else in hyperspace. Murphy's law definitely applies here: if pilots weren't warned to not try to go to hyperdrive with other ships nearby, someone would have eventually, and created some gigantic explosion and loss of life.
There's space for new technology and ideas, like a tracker that works through hyperspace, and then there's things that utterly defy common sense. For the record, I also have a problem with the utter lack of stationary planetary defenses or air control in every single movie outside of Rogue One: there's no way governments are going to be fine with not controlling imports/exports, or with the possibility of a single TIE fighter just coming in from hyperspace and killing thousands of people with no possible response from the surface.
In RoS, they at one point reference the "Holdo Maneuver", to which a character responds "That was 1 in a thousand" or something to that effect.
If we can accept that Han Solo's navigation of an Asteroid Field had supposedly worse odds than 10,000 to 1, we can probably accept something like the Holdo Maneuver.
On your other point - There's only so much creative real estate to work with. The new movies (and old movies) were all pretty long already, and I (for one) am fine with them not spending time explaining where all the orbital defense cannons are and the role of customs agents in the SW universe.
Afterall. We're dealing with space magic, planet killing weapons, talking bears and the thought that apparently technology hasnt meaningfully advanced in thousands and thousands of years. Your willing suspension of disbelief is necessary - as tends to be the case in almost all Science Fiction of Fantasy (Why didnt the Giant Eagles just fly the Ring to Mt Doom?)
You still wouldn't be able to beat boredom. Being the strongest sucks. Just ask Saitama!
A fair rebuttal, and I think if you were the only true immortal in a universe of mortals, you would indeed succumb to ennui eventually. Still... I think we've only scratched the surface of what somebody with Dr Manhattan's powers could do. I think it's perfectly feasible that he could create a race of semi-immortals to keep him company, for instance. (It's what I would do. Any human who pleases me greatly by adhering to my teachings is "blessed" and becomes one of my Chosen, gaining virtual immortality by becoming immune to diseases and natural aging, and gaining phenomenal regenerative capabilities. They CAN be killed by violence, but it would be exceedingly difficult. Of course, this gift only exists for as long as I deem the recipient worthy. As it was given by me, so can I rescind it. :P)
In his position, I'd probably try to turn Earth into a physical paradise, eliminating pollution, bringing the human population back into balance with the rest of Earth's species, advancing technological and scientific knowledge, and eventually uplifting humans into the stars via space travel. Such an endeavour would probably keep me occupied for centuries, if not millennia, and maybe longer if the Universe continues expanding forever. (And in which case, I'd probably set out at one point to discover what, if anything, lies beyond our Universe.)
There's willing suspension of disbelief and then there's shattering it. For example, if the odds were so bad, why the heck is General Hux worried when she started the maneuver? This can all be fixed, by the way, with a very few edits (stolen from some YouTube comment on the topic): have the scanners that can detect hyperspace also make them vulnerable to hyperspace ramming attacks. Have Finn and Rose discover this fact from their otherwise pointless mission, and then have the admiral use this fact to realize that she can ram them in hyperspace. Boom. 3 things fixed: there's a specific set of circumstances that won't be repeatable for the Holdo maneuver, the Resistance has a counter to the hyperspace trackers, and Finn and Rose actually have relevancy in the narrative and not a complete waste of like 20 minutes of film.
Also, showing and not telling is totally a thing that can and should be used in worldbuilding. They don't have to explain where the defenses are to have, say, a shot of a cannon or ray gun in the background, or if they're flying a ship near a fully inhabited planet, having them be contacted and asking for a callsign or number or registration or something. They don't even have to show the conversation, just the hail is enough to infer the rest of the conversation.
Back to super hero stories, there's definitely sci-fi or fantasy aspects: take MCU's Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, so on and so forth. The thing is, they did a far better job of making a world where I don't have to suspend disbelief. People are acting more rationally to super powered threats through the Sekovia accords. Asgard isn't interfering with Earth because to them, it's just another one of the 9 worlds. They even included a short scene with the past Sorcerer Supreme in Endgame to explain why time travel couldn't be used to just fix everything. I can't think of anything that forces suspension of disbelief in the MCU once you accept that super powers exist: the universe is consistent with itself.
But that's even more unbelievable: that means that throughout the development of the technology of the hyperdrive, there were never any collisions or any stress tests to figure out what happens when something hits something else in hyperspace. Murphy's law definitely applies here: if pilots weren't warned to not try to go to hyperdrive with other ships nearby, someone would have eventually, and created some gigantic explosion and loss of life.
There's space for new technology and ideas, like a tracker that works through hyperspace, and then there's things that utterly defy common sense. For the record, I also have a problem with the utter lack of stationary planetary defenses or air control in every single movie outside of Rogue One: there's no way governments are going to be fine with not controlling imports/exports, or with the possibility of a single TIE fighter just coming in from hyperspace and killing thousands of people with no possible response from the surface.
The lack of planetary defenses are common in sci fi. Looks like space faring species are completely blind to the needs of planetary defense relying solely on their fleets for defense... Star Trek only had planetary defenses after Deep Space 9...
There's a good reason for setting up space defenses rather than planetary based ones - planets find it difficult to dodge. Even pretty small projectiles sent in at relativistic speeds can cause huge damage to planets and defenses against those based in near-space are not likely to work well.
As that's such an obvious danger, authors wishing to set up a plausible universe will normally add some sort of constraint on the use of hyper-space to prevent that being used for that sort of bombardment. I do though remember that was a possibility in EE Doc Smith's Lensman universe - fortunately only the good guys realized that though .
(Why didnt the Giant Eagles just fly the Ring to Mt Doom?)
They needed to stay out of the gaze of the giant eye to prevent their detection. Nothing would prevent the orc army from shooting the eagles from the sky having the hobbits plunge to their death in the process.
They needed to stay out of the gaze of the giant eye to prevent their detection. Nothing would prevent the orc army from shooting the eagles from the sky having the hobbits plunge to their death in the process.
GIANT EAGLE used SAND ATTACK on GIANT EYE!
GIANT EYE's accuracy stat decreased by one stage.
GIANT EYE blinked.
GIANT EAGLE fled using its SMOKE BALL!
Still, seeing the hobbits plunge to their deaths would probably be the most entertaining scene in the whole story. Shame it wasn't included.
Well... eagles can fly at very high altitudes, and I'm not sure that any bow could fire an arrow that high with enough force to cause damage. Maybe I'm wrong, though, it happened once before.
Not to mention the eagles aren't just some race bred for air travel: they're their own sentient, sapient race that rarely involve themselves in the affairs of men and elves. They probably COULD, but they wouldn't. The Ring wasn't their mess to make, it's not their mess to clean up. It'd be a plothole if the Fellowship itself contained an Eagle, but they're sadly restricted to the ground (or on top of snow in one case.)
Also, who cares about bows shooting them? Nazgul and their flying mounts would like to have a word...
For a more realistic take on planetary defense, there's always Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow. They actually realize that they can't protect themselves in all directions in space, so they launch everything to try to end the Buggers first. And even then, I'm pretty sure they have small fighter squadrons trained around Earth in case they're attacked in the meantime.
Just googled it, it’s apparently a usage of Force Stasis, which is seen a few times in Kotor, and by Vader and Yoda in books or comics. The one in Empire Strikes Back is a deflection, not a stopping of. I’ll give it a pass, then. The more you know!
IS it a defelction though? We don't see the bolt redirect anywhere, it just stops and immiediately fizzles out in Vader's hand.
Comments
True, they are heroes, but they still live in a world of mere mortals, a mundane world. They wouldn't be super heroes if they weren't super compared to the norm. The mortals they catch mid air would still be harmed by the physics if they did it wrong.
And it is true it is all fiction, hence you have to suspend disbelief. But sometimes it's fun to have discussions like these. Especially since it could mean if you wrote your own stories (say, as a DM in a role-playing group), you could tidy up the flawed tropes that some writers overlook.
When you are dealing with sci-fi and fantasy and their sub-genres (like super hero stories), you can't help but have flawed stories. It's impossible. But regardless it is sure fun to nit-pick so long as you do it with people who want to hear it.
"The genre is called fantasy,
It's suppose to be unrealistic you myopic manatee!"
I enjoy using that verse way too much.
For a while back in college, the group I was in tried GURPS Supers for a while (we had also played Marvel's superhero-based RPG). One evening, we got into a discussion about a brick (a super-strong character who also typically has high physical resistances) throwing a bad guy. We knew the height of the character so we figured average arm length, approximated how much force he could exert with an overhand throw based on maximum lift, and that gave us a fairly good guess on the angular acceleration the bad guy underwent. Long story short--he would not have survived the throw, even if he landed in water--the g-forces would have given him a severe concussion (at best) and at least one embolism (at worst).
Picking up a bus? If picked up in the wrong spot the bus will collapse under its own weight and possibly snap in two. Even if that did not happen the super's feet are probably buckling the street or they are sinking up to their knees in the grass.
I know what you mean about catching a falling person. Fly down, catch the person, grab their arm, then start flying upwards--this will probably pull the person's arm out of their shoulder socket, dismembering them....and then they are still falling.
There used to be a time where people either enjoyed movies, or they didn't. But now either way we dissect them, disassemble the parts, and rearrange them for Youtube clips. Nothing can just EXIST anymore.
Yup. This is why we have suspension of disbelief. You can't expect a writer/production crew to do everything accurate, particularly in fantasy.
Though I think discussions like this are fun anyway, so long as you aren't an angry, ranting idiot who forgets this is all in good fun or expects things to be more accurate.
This.
2) Kylo Ren can... stop blaster shots with the Force. You know when this might've been useful? The Clone Wars come to mind...
Ahem. Anyways. Wrong genre. I'm always a bit frustrated that everyone with abilities either goes Superhero or Supervillain instead of what should be probably more common, "I'm gonna mess around as much as I can with this ability." Though I guess the very first Spiderman comic was this until he had his whole epiphany about great responsibility and all that...
Kylo is an Anomaly--all he sees is the code. Speaking of catching or stopping bullets...once upon a time I worked out how quickly (both in time and distance) a telekinetic could stop the forward momentum of a bullet; the formula required only two input variables: power of the telekinetic (converting their ability to lift an object into Newtons) and mass of the bullet. As we know from Babylon 5, though, telekinetics do not have to be powerful to be dangerous--it takes very little pressure to squeeze an artery closed, provided you know where in the body the artery is located.
I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect complete internal consistency across 42 years of story-telling. People complain when things are changed too much (Prequels) and when things arent changed enough (Sequel trilogy). There's no making everyone happy. I think this all squarely fits into the suspension of disbelief. I prefer to accept a one-off moment as being a cool scene with some neat CGI and move on.
Jedi are another story... Their powers seem to be quite different and individual. They have some common powers such as basic telekinesis but other powers may be unique to an individual. So a Jedi who is able to do something no other can is actually consistent in that universe.
Regarding real life, if I had superpowers I would hide them as much as I can or openly joke about having them so nobody would take it seriously. I have this weird strong desire not to become subject of scientific experience or being blackmailed either by the government or other organization into doing things I don't want to.
But what if your powers were SO great that no normal human organisation would be able to stop you? Think Dr. Manhattan vs the world, for example. As the only true superhero in a world of ordinary humans, there is literally nothing anybody could do if the Doc decided one day to go "OK, I'm God of the Earth now. Do as I say or be obliterated."
HBO disagrees
Well, Vader did it in Empire. Maybe its a Dark Side exclusive power? Actually, I think Luke did something similar in the EU before his stint with the Dark Side...
@Zaxares @themazingness There's a difference between "dissecting because its fun" and "dissecting to tear somethign apart". I think @jjstraka34 is referring to the later.
You still wouldn't be able to beat boredom. Being the strongest sucks. Just ask Saitama!
For the same reason no one flew airplanes before the Wright Brothers or used light bulbs before Edison. It hadn't been attempted before because it hadn't been conceived of before. It also requires someone willing to sacrifice their life to complete.
There's space for new technology and ideas, like a tracker that works through hyperspace, and then there's things that utterly defy common sense. For the record, I also have a problem with the utter lack of stationary planetary defenses or air control in every single movie outside of Rogue One: there's no way governments are going to be fine with not controlling imports/exports, or with the possibility of a single TIE fighter just coming in from hyperspace and killing thousands of people with no possible response from the surface.
In RoS, they at one point reference the "Holdo Maneuver", to which a character responds "That was 1 in a thousand" or something to that effect.
If we can accept that Han Solo's navigation of an Asteroid Field had supposedly worse odds than 10,000 to 1, we can probably accept something like the Holdo Maneuver.
On your other point - There's only so much creative real estate to work with. The new movies (and old movies) were all pretty long already, and I (for one) am fine with them not spending time explaining where all the orbital defense cannons are and the role of customs agents in the SW universe.
Afterall. We're dealing with space magic, planet killing weapons, talking bears and the thought that apparently technology hasnt meaningfully advanced in thousands and thousands of years. Your willing suspension of disbelief is necessary - as tends to be the case in almost all Science Fiction of Fantasy (Why didnt the Giant Eagles just fly the Ring to Mt Doom?)
A fair rebuttal, and I think if you were the only true immortal in a universe of mortals, you would indeed succumb to ennui eventually. Still... I think we've only scratched the surface of what somebody with Dr Manhattan's powers could do. I think it's perfectly feasible that he could create a race of semi-immortals to keep him company, for instance. (It's what I would do. Any human who pleases me greatly by adhering to my teachings is "blessed" and becomes one of my Chosen, gaining virtual immortality by becoming immune to diseases and natural aging, and gaining phenomenal regenerative capabilities. They CAN be killed by violence, but it would be exceedingly difficult. Of course, this gift only exists for as long as I deem the recipient worthy. As it was given by me, so can I rescind it. :P)
In his position, I'd probably try to turn Earth into a physical paradise, eliminating pollution, bringing the human population back into balance with the rest of Earth's species, advancing technological and scientific knowledge, and eventually uplifting humans into the stars via space travel. Such an endeavour would probably keep me occupied for centuries, if not millennia, and maybe longer if the Universe continues expanding forever. (And in which case, I'd probably set out at one point to discover what, if anything, lies beyond our Universe.)
Also, showing and not telling is totally a thing that can and should be used in worldbuilding. They don't have to explain where the defenses are to have, say, a shot of a cannon or ray gun in the background, or if they're flying a ship near a fully inhabited planet, having them be contacted and asking for a callsign or number or registration or something. They don't even have to show the conversation, just the hail is enough to infer the rest of the conversation.
Back to super hero stories, there's definitely sci-fi or fantasy aspects: take MCU's Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, so on and so forth. The thing is, they did a far better job of making a world where I don't have to suspend disbelief. People are acting more rationally to super powered threats through the Sekovia accords. Asgard isn't interfering with Earth because to them, it's just another one of the 9 worlds. They even included a short scene with the past Sorcerer Supreme in Endgame to explain why time travel couldn't be used to just fix everything. I can't think of anything that forces suspension of disbelief in the MCU once you accept that super powers exist: the universe is consistent with itself.
The lack of planetary defenses are common in sci fi. Looks like space faring species are completely blind to the needs of planetary defense relying solely on their fleets for defense... Star Trek only had planetary defenses after Deep Space 9...
As that's such an obvious danger, authors wishing to set up a plausible universe will normally add some sort of constraint on the use of hyper-space to prevent that being used for that sort of bombardment. I do though remember that was a possibility in EE Doc Smith's Lensman universe - fortunately only the good guys realized that though
They needed to stay out of the gaze of the giant eye to prevent their detection. Nothing would prevent the orc army from shooting the eagles from the sky having the hobbits plunge to their death in the process.
GIANT EYE's accuracy stat decreased by one stage.
GIANT EYE blinked.
GIANT EAGLE fled using its SMOKE BALL!
Still, seeing the hobbits plunge to their deaths would probably be the most entertaining scene in the whole story. Shame it wasn't included.
Also, who cares about bows shooting them? Nazgul and their flying mounts would like to have a word...
For a more realistic take on planetary defense, there's always Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow. They actually realize that they can't protect themselves in all directions in space, so they launch everything to try to end the Buggers first. And even then, I'm pretty sure they have small fighter squadrons trained around Earth in case they're attacked in the meantime.
IS it a defelction though? We don't see the bolt redirect anywhere, it just stops and immiediately fizzles out in Vader's hand.