Noah wrote:I don't know if I agree that #16 was a weak trigger for Gohan to release his hidden powers, I mean I'm on the team that thinks he was OOC on the Cell Games, so #16 was basically telling him things that I suppose he already know, but the scene is so damn emotional: he is fighting against himself there, seeing his friends suffer and not knowing what do to help them, shows that he doesn't have any control about the said hidden powers, #16 words and his merciless death by Cell was needed it for it. I don't know, I think I'll sit on the fence on this one.
This is along my lines of thought about this scene. Well, everything but Gohan being out-of-character during the Cell games anyway.
With #16's words and end, Gohan may have experienced a degree of emotional whiplash. Final words of reassurance about protecting the world, followed immediately by "death" up close -- it woke him up that everyone else could meet that fate as well. Gohan had already been swelling watching everyone being beat, #16's head was the last straw. Gohan had no direct connection to Cell, and he had also not been impressed by Cell's fighting ability (in comparison to his own). Gohan couldn't just simply manufacture an emotion when the feeling to free his fighting spirit completely wasn't there entirely, or what that even meant to him. Keep in mind, that Gohan may have been under the impression that he would be mostly a spectator at this event, as I'm sure that Goku never ran it by him that he would be relying primarily on his power (Wait, what?...
I'm fighting Cell?).
It really was Gohan battling himself, and it played out so well because of all of the time that we got to see Gohan as he was growing up. While the events of this scene played out in a satisfying way to
me, I can understand why it may fall under someone's own interpretation. And that's what makes it one of the highest points of the entire DB story. For it to make sense, we have to take into consideration all of Gohan's story all the way through to this moment. It's writing that goes a little more beneath the surface in comparison to the DB norm (although I couldn't say if that was the intention of Toriyama). There is no hand-holding, as some may have preferred being given every answer to anything that happens in this story. #16 not being in Gohan's usual circle gives this scene more weight than if Gohan had just snapped at the sight of what was going on with the others, imo. A different perspective and a way of communicating that was provided.
About Gohan being OoC, he had been training with his dad in isolation for a year. We can deduce that during that time, that Gohan had grown up in more ways than one. The desperate impulse into reacting on the front lines wasn't there this time around (as it was on Namek when he was 5 or 6). Many others, including his dad, were around and the odds were in their favor. Plus, Gohan felt that Cell's power was not so impressive that it would be impossible to beat him. I don't know about the manga, but I feel that the anime did a great job with Gohan building up to the Cell Games. I like that the answers to some things are not clear-cut as in most other parts of the story. We have to see from Gohan's POV.
Also, I don't know if some impressions about this scene -- or this arc -- are coming from the dub's take. The original presentation nailed it so well, imo.
This discussion about Gohan and #16's role could've been its own thread, but I wouldn't have much more to say than what I already have here. With Goku and Freeza, we can all come to the same conclusion with what the narrative was going for. With Gohan and Cell, it gets a bit more complicated.
