I thought that Ryo-oh-ki's energy weapons were from Tenchi Universe,
and she had to use the Light Hawk Wings to have any real offense in
the OAVs.
Nope. Remember in the scenes of Ryo-oh-ki attacking Jurai? She was
using the focused energy beam that is collected below her bottom spike. I
think that in 'Tenchi Universe' they toned down her combat ability, and gave
the power she had in the first OAV to Ken-oh-ki.
My best guess would be that she was simply too young when Kagato
appeared to do the kind of damage she'd later be capable of, and they used
Ryu-oh's Light Hawk Wings as an alternate weapon.
I was assuming that this was the case for Ran-oh-ki, too; being too
young to have developed his natural weaponry fully, his use of the obital
lasers was a way around that. After all, you said yourself that he's still
developing his systems, and this _was_ the first time he's been able to take
on ship form, just as the fight with the Soja was Ryo-oh-ki's first time as
a ship since her original body was destroyed.
So see, Brian's origional text is the only possible explanation for the
canon! Obviously the 'old' Ryo-oh-ki had chowed down on an interstellar
warship sometime in her life. The 'new' Ryo-oh-ki had been cruelly
prevented from consuming anything more offensive than Tenchi. Um,
Tenchi's carrots.
William