I think we really need to examine and check some of our attitudes in this thread. Especially you,
Penguintruth. Saying things like -
Penguintruth wrote:Ahahahaha, please. You continue to humiliate yourself.
- Is not and has NEVER been an acceptable way to address your peers in this community, regardless of whether you think they deserve your respect or not, or how much of a constant Debbie Downer they may be in practically every thread they enter
(*cough cough*). The same applies to everyone else. Discuss things civilly and pleasantly here, or eventually you'll find yourself having lost the ability to discuss things here at all.
As far as the topic of discussion goes, while I agree that Gohan's behavior in the Cell Games was odd, I don't believe it was necessarily out of character, or at least isn't understandable. Like others have pointed out, the big difference between Gohan's circumstances here and in other past instances is that he was being put on the spot. When he acts in battle, it's usually of his own volition or in the heat of the moment. But in this case, Goku has pretty much tossed Gohan out there and said, "okay Gohan, we're all depending on you, go kill Cell." Gohan figures out that Goku wants him to power up by getting mad, but that's not really the kind of thing you can do at will. It took Cell abusing everyone and 16's words of encouragment for it to happen.
And you know what? It's not the only time something like that has happened. When Gohan is put forth and expected to fight by someone else, he tends to fail in the clutch. It happened before with Piccolo and Kuririn's plan against Nappa, and it happened later when Goku, again, encouraged Gohan to get mad and defeat Dabra.