Blast shield

Annihilatordroid — BLX-5 with blast shield.

A blast shield was a sheet of dura-armor shaped to preference and fitted with grips for grasping. It was capable of deflecting fire, blaster energy, and more. The shield, however, was rather heavy and unwieldy.

Smaller blast shields were also equipped to helmets to prevent flak and other debris from blinding the wearer during combat. Helmets with opaque blast shields were commonly used in conjunction with training remotes as part of Jedi training for the purposes of honing their skills at deflecting blaster bolts using a lightsaber.^[1] Luke Skywalker wore a helmet with the blast shield lowered in order to deepen his connection to the Force during his lightsaber training.^[2]

The helmet itself was one of the surviving prototypes of a failed specialized blast shield helmet for the Ividal Sector Forces' Z-95 starfighters, developed during the Attack on Ongary IX during the Clone Wars for protection against the flash of burrowing plasma charges. It had been accidentally left behind on the Millennium Falcon by Jorn Kulish, a disgruntled former member of the Sector Forces' Foxfire Squadron, back when the freighter was known as the Stellar Envoy.^[3]