Saddens me that Gohan doesn't get to surpass his father. Oh well! Knowledge is power<3
That's Gohan's fault, he put his studies and his girlfriend above training. Yeah that sounds like he did the right thing, I'm just going by the DBZ logic. Goku never stopped training, that's why he gets better. He takes a humbling as best as he could, and comes back stronger. Gohan doesn't, and that could be the half human in him. Since Goku and Vegeta are the only pure Saiyans on Earth, their penchant for training and bettering themselves is what sets them apart from their capable offspring.
Man that sounded nerdy. I never really thought about SS2 vs. Ascended Super Saiyan. In fact, I totally forgot about the latter term. DragonBall Wikia names Ascended Super Saiyan as a moniker for SS2 though. I was thinking about Gohan's transformation as a teen, where he'd not go blonde, but stay in his original appearance, but the power boost is there. Right? He gained it for his fight against Buu. As for Vegeta and Trunks, they reached SS2 and were bulkier, I think that's when it was just called "Ascended Super Saiyan." Then in the Buu saga, Goku showed off to fat Buu the differences in the Saiyan stages, before capping off with SS3. There, SS2 was represented as spikier hair and lightning bolts surrounding the Saiyan. Also sharper eyes. The appearance Gohan gained in his fight against Cell, but it wasn't called SS2, rather "Ascended Super Saiyan."
Again, that sounded nerdy. I like the conversation though.