If Goku didn't marry Chi Chi

[soulnova]

We say Gohan is special because we have seen the story unfold like this. If the story was written again with Suno as his mother, it could be the same thing around and we wouldn't notice... is storytelling, not real-life genetics.

[supercat]

What makes Gohan, Gohan is who his parents are. You can't have him without having both Goku and Chi Chi. The combination of these two people is what made Gohan into a ridiculous power house. Something was clearly unique when Gohan was brought into the world because neither Chi Chi nor Bulma produced a kid like that again. All they produced were some strong kids because of their fathers having SSJ. Gohan was the only child to be so powerful he could be extremely above Goku and Vegeta if he actually trained. At best Goten and Trunks would rival their parents in power if they genuinely took their training seriously because Gohan is the only character considered to have talent far surpassing anyone else. So taking Chi Chi out of the equation is going to make a character Saiyan hybrid that isn't Gohan and more than likely follows Goten and Trunks rather than Gohan.

I think something went wrong when you tried quoting me earlier. Please fix it if you can.

We don't know the full extent of power that Trunks and Goten could have tapped into. While I'm not discrediting any of Gohan's genuine qualities, I feel his bursts of power were simply times where his deeply rooted potential was trying to outwardly manifest itself. The innate power that he was born with was only triggered by intense emotions, as he had not yet learned to harness his gift and keep his power consistent.

Goten and Trunks don't really get the same spotlight because a lot of their power was already outwardly shown without the need to have it emotionally triggered. Perhaps if Gohan was born under an SSJ father, he too would have had a nice portion of his power readily accessible like the other two boys.

Additionally, we don't hear about their potential because they simply weren't presented with the same opportunities as Gohan was. With the absence of Grand Elder and Elder Kai gauging and/or evaluating their power, we can only turn to inconclusive assumptions on where they potentially stand in comparison to Gohan.

Let's also not forget that Gohan was far more emotional than Trunks and Goten. I mean, there were a lot of environmental factors that probably contributed towards this, but it could also mean that Gohan's power had a larger correlation with his emotions than Goten and Trunks' power.

Regardless of being recipients of SSJ genes, the kids conveniently obtaining the legendary transformation seems pretty closely attributed to their potential in my opinion.