I strongly disagree with this. The difference in the state of condition between Videl and Kuririn and Piccolo is that one of them still has the possibility of never returning back to normal. Videl is already well and good, and nothing will change that. With Piccolo and Kuririn however, their survival still heavily depends on their efforts to bring them back. There is no reason for Gohan to still being warmed up from his anger at Spopobitch but not after Kuririn and Piccolo are turned to stone.
Fine if you disagree. I am not forcing this interpretation on you, but it's something that might work to explain Gohan showcasing different forms.
Gohan knows Piccolo and Kuririn depends upon Dabra's defeat to be turned back to normal. But the fact that he knows that won't just make him go into a frenzy... the urgency of the situation isn't a requirement for Gohan to go into a frenzy, he has to feel the anger and then cut loose. He knows very well it but still can't cut loose... unlike in the Cell Games (where there was a mental barrier preventing him from cutting loose), here he was just not angry enough.
He felt angry enough over Videl's beatdown to the point of even turning into a ssj, but with Piccolo and Kuririn it was quickly suppressed to the point it didn't 'warmed him up', since Kaioshin quickly suggested it was a fixable situation. That's how I see it.
Consistent? I don't know what manga your reading, but the Boo arc was far from consistent when it came to detail.
I think Toriyama was rather watchful regarding artworks details in the Boo saga, like depicting Boo-Piccolo (with the kids) and Boo-Piccolo (with no kids) in rather different ways, consistently showing Gohan with the fully outlined eyes even 10 years after Boo's defeat, and so on. The inconsistency you presented comes more from panels in which Vegeta specially wasn't drawn with an electric aura, whereas in one of those panels he wasn't even in 1st plane. He wasn't kept without auras for an entire period and somehow regained those characteristics after, unlike Gohan, who hadn't sparks for a single time. Now, the moments Majin Vegeta still had sparks:
And that's enough... I even got tired of searching for the moments Vegeta had sparks oun his aura, which easily overshadow the "comparatively-few" moments he hadn't. So yeah,I think Toriyama was still being pretty consistent regarding aura-depiction, and a few panels of Vegeta with no sparks on his aura still doesn't compare to Gohan's situations.
I'll stick to EV's line of thinking. Drawn as a Super Saiyan, written as a Super Saiyan 2.
I agree with this line of thought. I just place more emphasis on what's drawn since it's more difficult to be an over-sight than compared to aspects of the story-telling, imo.
I also don't think there's a need to be going back and forth on this considering I am not stating "Gohan being a ssj1" is a fact and am merely adjusting my explanations to fit what we saw.
