Basako wrote:My thoughts about Gohan: He got to be the strongest non fused being in the Boo arc thanks to the power unlocking. Ultimate is not a transformation, it's base. We know this because the elder specificaly said transforming to SS states wouldn't make a difference, if the ultimate had been another transformation, he wouldn't have said that. As he stopped training for years, he lost the power, so he had to rely on the SS transformations again. Now looks like he has gained the ultimate level again, maybe more, he basically reunlocked his power one more time.
My thoughts about Piccolo: We had him somewhere between SS and SS2 in the Cell arc and in the Boo arc probably too. In the last chapter we see him handling SS2 Gohan, even if he wasn't in his full, that's not a minor thing. Piccolo continued training and the fight against Frost probably motivated him to increase his level. I think he is definitely above the SS2 level now.
Not according to
Super. I've posted this before, but no one seems to listen.
Geekdom101 weighs in on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy9Q7SzyyA4
Basically, it's an attempt to reconcile things. The anime hasn't actually contradicted anything that the original manga said, it's just that fans read into the dialogue and made assumptions about the intent, which seems to have been cleared up now. Elder Kai never makes it clear what Gohan's Ultimate state is beyond being his fully unlocked potential. That could've mean any number of things back then, but
Super has clarified that Gohan slacking on his training meant he couldn't tap into his full power, his Ultimate state, and had to rely on Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 to increase his power in battle.
Going by what the anime presents now, a better way of putting Elder Kai's statement is that going Super Saiyan would be useless for Gohan because he'd be doing so from his base form, but it would be less powerful and more straining than going Ultimate.
To summarize, going Ultimate is a means of tapping into potential power, similar to Super Saiyan forms, but is far more effective and requires training and being a warrior in heart to maintain the ability to tap into that power.