Logically, Goku never even saw his powered up form, and would compare him to the weaker Perfect one he actually knew. But this is Toriyama we're talking about here, he could totally have forgotten about those details.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
It was logically Perfect Cell, imo. Goku is who compared Dabura to Cell, after all, so it would make sense for him to use the version of Cell that he had personally fought as a measuring stick.
But even if it was SPC, the point still stands: Gohan must have been using SS2 against Dabura.
Except for nothing is pointing to him using it. The defining trait to show the two differences is never used after he shows it to Kibito. Akira did that purposefully, because every other instance of ssj2 had those sparks. Before, after, and during the times Gohan was using Super Saiyan and fighting.
Saying he must have been doesn't match up with what is shown on panels.
And Gohan was losing the battle against Dabura, slowly, but still losing.
__________________ If you try something stupid, and it works it ain't stupid.
If he wasn't using it, how could he have been holding his own?
All three of them could do SSJ2, which is why Vegeta threatened to finish Dabura himself, and why Goku was sure he could and begged him not to (Even if Goku and Vegeta never revealed SSJ2 to each other, but Vegeta suspected it, and Goku could have been checking on him from Otherworld)
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Except a Perfect Cell-level being(Dabura) would have ragdolled SS1 Gohan without much trouble. Therefore Gohan must have been using SS2 in order to stalemate Dabura for as long as he did.
You have to look beyond the lightning sparks and think about what's logical here.
If Dabura was also stricly Perfect Cell level, SSJ2 Gohan would not have struggled against him.
The way he ragdolled Cell without even trying at ssj2, his power would have had to been almost cut in half, not just been stronger as a kid.
And even then, right before he fights SPC with a beam struggle, he says he's lost half his ki anyway. For Gohan to be so weak that he needed ssj2 to fight Cell that badly would be terrible loss of power.
__________________ If you try something stupid, and it works it ain't stupid.
Smarter then his father in life, just as stupid in fighting.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Nah, I'm with you on this. I just wanted to call Gohan dumb.
But yes, he had absolutely no reason to hold back. Its not in his character.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Do you agree that Perfect Cell was stronger than SS1 Gohan during the Cell Games?
If you agree, then how can you think that SS1 Gohan from the Boo saga(who was explicitly weaker than he was during the Cell Games) could have possibly stalemated a Perfect Cell-level being?
Dabura came off as holding back to me, and I still doubt Gohan was "half as powerful" due to training before hand and still able to go SS2 on command. No doubt he was weaker but the whole thing seems ****ed from both ends.
Also how well Dabura did against SS Trunks in the Manga, and then took his rage SS2 attacks fairly well. This is after Trunks was swinging around the Z Sword like a normal sword, so he'd probably be equal to Gohan at least before the ritual. That and his comments make it seem like he was holding back. Though if Gohan wasn't that much weaker than his kid form and SS2 then that would work as well. Either way SS Trunks was stronger than SS Gohan by a large degree when he initially pulled the Z-Sword out, and Dabura was fighting him to a point where he seemed to have the upper hand.
M10 Gohan was stronger than his cell games counterpart, add this to the fact that the DC of the movie xters were far higher than the Canon counterparts....broly beats his ass
Yeah, Dabura easily had Gohan figured out, despite underestimating him a couple moments. He was most certainly holding back, at least compared to Buu where he went all out.
At any rate, Teen Gohan beats movie 8 Broly, but loses to M10.
I don't see why it should be impossible. Base Saiyans weren't established as being weaker than Frieza until BoG. Even movie 5 Base Goku was considered stronger than Frieza by Cooler.