What do the Perfect File books say about Trunks/Goten? SSJ2?

[Saiyan-Professor]

Yeah, but that does not add up to all the blood sweat and tears Vegeta gave to become stronger and hell I will admit that Kakarrot worked just as hard and I almost dislike him as much as Son Gohan. Yet at the end of the day, he received Super Saiyan 3 but Vegeta was stuck with only Super Saiyan 2 while everyone’s favorite lazy sorry excuse for a Saiyan golden boy received the “Ultimate” power-up. Justice was served when Dragonball GT aired and Son Gohan lost the power up and he was just as sorry as one of the humans.

Personally I think Gohan's quick gains in strength prove that half-breed Saiyajin really are special. Usually you'd look at humans and Saiyajin and think, wow, those Saiyajin are amazing. But mix the two together and the human blood actually adds something special that the Saiyajin are lacking. I like that.

Is it fair that Gohan didn't have to work as hard? Well, Dragon Ball isn't exactly fair, so probably not. But at least he put in a lot of work when he had to. And even if his ultimate power up only required him to sit still for several hours, he went through it for the right reasons...and really, all it did was release all the power he already had, didn't it? Goku went through a similar process when he drank the super ultra holy water (?) before fighting Piccolo Daimo.

Goten and Trunks though...it was way too easy with them. Even if they did train since they were very young, their strength was just insane. The real explanation is just that they'd be left out of all the fights if they weren't, I suppose.

Given Son Gohan’s laziness, I doubt that he would have ever accessed that power on his own. In addition, the Old Kaiôshin said that the ritual would access more than what Saichoro’s technique did with Son Gohan and Kuririn during the Namek Saga (not in those exact words). Furthermore, I believe that half-breeds are not as special as many like to make them out to be. It appears that that can access more power a lot faster then full-bloods but they seem to be limited to only attaining Super Saiyan 2 in an unfused state. Dragonball GT seemed to imply that only full-blood Saiyans could achieve Super Saiyan 4.

[Bussani]

Given Son Gohan’s laziness, I doubt that he would have ever accessed that power on his own. In addition, the Old Kaiôshin said that the ritual would access more than what Saichoro’s technique did with Son Gohan and Kuririn during the Namek Saga (not in those exact words). Furthermore, I believe that half-breeds are not as special as many like to make them out to be. It appears that that can access more power a lot faster then full-bloods but they seem to be limited to only attaining Super Saiyan 2 in an unfused state. Dragonball GT seemed to imply that only full-blood Saiyans could achieve Super Saiyan 4.

Well, I agree. What makes the half breeds special is their potential rate of growth. They gain power a lot quicker, but they're not as dedicated to fighting as pure blooded Saiyajin, or as you put it, they get lazy. It balances them out, story wise.

I'm not sure about Super Saiyajin 4, but I don't know if there's anything stopping them from reaching the other levels without fusing. I mean, Vegeta never reached beyond SSJ2 either, but that's not proof that he couldn't. There's no good evidence either way for the half breeds.

Rou Kaioshin's power up was definitely very different to Saichoro's one. Isn't it something like Saichoro's one brought out all the hidden power they weren't using, but could have been using at the time? While Rou Kaioshin's reworked the whole body and your ki in order to bring out everything, kinda like turning you into a permanent, unwasteful SSJ3.

[Haseowolf]

I believe that's how that worked. He basically ran a defrag on Gohan's ki.

And absence of proof is not proof of absence. Just because we are never shown Goten or Trunks achieving SSj2 doesn't mean they can NEVER get there. It all comes down to how easy the character had it in life.