@boiga:
But what does he actually retain from the Ryuma of legend in his current incarnation? He lacks all of the memories, techniques, drive to succeed and moral fiber of the one shot Ryuma. All he has in his favor are Ryuma's physical strength and perhaps the muscle memory trained in using that giant katana of his. This gives him the capability to maximize the potential in all of Brooke's techniques, but I think it is safe to assume that Brooke's techniques are not those of a Mihawk level fighter. … lso, perhaps most importantly the current Ryuma has no Memories to draw on when the going gets tough. Every time zoro or Brooke reach their limit, they can remember laboon or kuina and surpass their own abilities. THe fact that Ryuma can not do this may prove the tipping point at the deciding moment to come during the Zoro/Ryuma rematch.
Good points.
And assuming that Ryuma's been in Moria's/Hogback's service for a while now, all impulse to rebel, and all residue of memories from his previous life would probably be gone by now.
I was basing my assumptions of Ryuma's strength mostly on muscle memory ("the body's wisdom" as they refer to it in my martial arts books : the way that a body can perform an action without thinking about it only after years of performing it with utmost attention).
And while Brook's techniques and skill obviously aren't at Mihawk's level, there is one thing that makes me think a lot of the skill on display is Ryuma's:
We haven't seen Brook do a cannon move yet, and he doesn't seem to have the muscle for it either, he's too bony (bad skull joke!)
This was the first thing that we saw Ryuma do, and with such finesse that he was able to cleanly slice through wood and metal, as well as launch Team Usopp a few feet forward unharmed. So my assumption was that the cannon came from Ryuma's muscle memory – that his body remembers how to do that move, even if his mind doesn't, and that it was an instinctual action.
This talk of what a zombie remembers and what a zombie forgets makes me wonder if perhaps the "they will all eventually forget their former lives and stop rebelling" aspect of zombie-dom can be somehow reversed ... for instance, if Zoro does something that is nearly identical to either something that Ryuma once did, or something that Ryuma's foe once did, could that somehow cause a deja-vous that could re-wire Ryuma's spirit and wake him up from his current state? It almost seems as if it's possible, because when Ryuma first gets a whiff of Zoro's demon aura, he (Ryuma) says things that seem to suggest a partial awakening from a long sleep:
From Stephen's translation:
Ryuma: Quite, I'm sure. You do seem so very STRONG...
I feel some queer, unrecognizable emotion welling with me.
Almost like I've just stared down some enormous creature…
A strange, exciting feeling…!! My body is about to burst into dance!
That highlighted part almost makes it sound as if Ryuma is equating Zoro with the dragon ...
Well, regardless, it's time for me to go reread "Monsters" again -- I have a feeling that there will be other parallels, too!