Zephyr wrote:
Fair enough, there is indeed one slight instance of precedence for this kind of thing. One that Gohan was knocked unconscious immediately after, and not informed of the explicit details of. This is still THE big bad. THE final battle. And the de-facto "strongest guy around", his father, is throwing in the towel, and tagging in and passing the torch to Gohan. That's very different from the Raditz fight.
Hypothetically, if Gohan was outside of the pod, watched Goku and Raditz duking it out, only for Goku to just be all "okay Gohan, it's your turn to fight, you're the only one who can do anything because you're way stronger than I am!" after years of getting his skin saved by an always superior Goku at the last second, I doubt things would have gone down the same as they actually did against Raditz. Because the situations are different.~
I called you out on this, not because I'm trying to say its the same situation, but because you had stated something factually wrong.
Like I said, Gohan had already realized even after Raditz that he could surpass people he viewed as traditionally stronger and that were father figures to him, like for example Piccolo. That never hindered him whatsoever. And even if what Goku said affected him somewhat, that only justifies his hesitation during his brief fight with Cell, but not his complete lack of action when his friends and family are in danger.
Perhaps he thinks that now that he's incredibly stronger he might have the chance of causing more permanent destruction on accident? He's been in rage boost mode in base form plenty of times before, but he's never been in rage boost mode as a Super Saiyan. I think that is quite literally a reasonable fear, a reasonable unknown to be suspicious of. ~
But why...? Why is he suddenly fearing this and why and how can it even be considered a rational and reasonable fear when there's absolutely nothing implying that it might be more dangerous for other people now? There's no answer. Simply put, its a irrational fear with no real basis that just creates artificial drama.
So he didn't snap when people weren't dying, and did snap when someone did die? Seems reasonable. ~
No, because his friends and family mean way more to Gohan than #16. Seeing them being tortured and about to die should be way more infuriating and emotional for Gohan than seeing a robot that means nothing to him, that he has never talked to, that was designed to kill his father and actually wants to kill his father, getting destroyed.
I didn't see Gohan getting worked up when Cell reduced #16 to a talking head minutes earlier. In fact, as far as Gohan could tell, #16 had died at that moment, there's nothing implying that he knew that #16 was still alive. And does Gohan do anything then? Does he get significantly angry? Not really. So, why exactly is it different afterwards? Why is this able to make him snap but not his friends and family being in mortal danger and being tortured?
The only answer: added drama and convenience.
This is true. But Saiyan arc Gohan and Namek arc Gohan also weren't in a contrived setting where the villain is trying to get Gohan to lose his temper for the sake of entertainment, and is trying to force it. This is all while he's under extreme pressure and reasonably fearful of the unknown depths of his full power. Would they have acted very hesitantly the way Cell Games Gohan does? We don't know if Saiyan/Namek Gohan would have behaved the way Cell Games Gohan does in the Cell Games, because Saiyan/Namek Gohan were never in the Cell Games with all of these factors influencing them.
There's literally no reason to think Saiyan arc Gohan and Namek arc Gohan would act differently than they did when their friends and family were in danger. Heck, even Cell arc Gohan has no reason to act differently than Saiyan arc Gohan and Namek arc Gohan when his friends and family are in danger. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with Gohan being thrown off by the situation and by what Goku said, but once his friends and family are in danger and he literally doesn't act or try anything, that's when it becomes inconsistent and noticeably more influenced by the need of added drama and convenience than actual consistency and natural evolution of Gohan's character.
The main thing here is that there are so many factors here compounding together that were never simultaneously present together at any single moment in the past. There is no precedence for how Gohan would behave given all of these simultaneously compounding factors, because they've never coalesced like this before. If they had before, and he acted just fine then, then there would be a solid, irrefutable case for Gohan being OOC here. But they haven't, so there's not.
You are ignoring that Gohan had surpassed and realized he had surpassed people who are father figures to him before, that Gohan had been in situations where he was the only one who could do anything before and in situations of tremendous pressure that required him to take things into his own hands before and that Gohan had already enough power to destroy the planet several times over before, as well as the lack of any good reason for any change in his behavior.
Basically, you are arguing that since every single detail is not the very same, that its impossible for us to compare past situations and come up with a conclusion.
I completely disagree. Similar past situations are more than enough to come up with a conclusion in this case. The Cell games situation is not distinctive enough to explain why he wouldn't act or try to save his family and friends like he always has before.
Zephyr wrote:
This sentient piece of generally peaceful machinery who switched sides and is now on Gohan's team and shares his general indifference for fighting for fighting's sake getting crushed to death a couple of feet in front of him sent him over the edge after seeing his friends get beaten up and not killed. Correct.
Is that why when Cell wrecked #16 minutes earlier and, as far as Gohan could tell, killed him (since there's nothing implying that Gohan knew that #16 was still alive), Gohan didn't get significantly angry?
Zephyr wrote:
Why would anyone care about a like-minded comrade who actually did no wrong while on the opposite team being brutally killed in front of them?
Not enough care to get significantly angry when Cell presumably killed him minutes earlier, apparently.
