Goku vs Vegeta is the most iconic fictional fight ever for me. The silent staredown, Vegeta trying to keep up with x3kaioken, Goku's flying kick, the shot of Goku's kaioken kamehameha and Goku's wild eyes as he fires it.
The most shocking scene for me was when Kid Buu abruptly destroyed the Earth. I was like "what the fuck?!" Coming from Western media it was already a surprise when Goku lost the tournaments and when Gohan got his neck broken, but I still never expected they could fail to stop the Earth's destruction. Being my first anime, there were lots of violent scenes and deaths that felt boundary-pushing at the time, which now don't feel like such a big deal since I've seen so many other anime. Dragon Ball can probably go underappreciated nowadays, because so many other shows have built upon what it introduced. I wonder how it is for newer anime fans, many of whom I imagine started with shows like One Piece and Demon Slayer and who might not find Dragon Ball so ground-breaking.
Goku defeating King Piccolo was amazing. Of course it was a sad and hopeless part of the series, with major character deaths, but Goku continuing to fight even in that hopeless situation is why it was so amazing. Defeated multiple times and even with all his training he ends up having only one arm remaining, but he had the tenacity and resourcefulness to try one last attack. Yeh it's an anime cliche to deliver a big attack after being beaten up, but even today it's a quite extreme example of it and he truly delivered the most powerful attack possible while at his most injured. It's also unique because being driven into that corner due to his injuries is what made him resort to a more powerful attack. In a show like One Piece Luffy or Zoro will use their most powerful attack to finish the battle, but the invention of the attack isn't borne out of being on the brink of defeat, whereas Goku wouldn't have come up with the idea to launch himself at King Piccolo if he hadn't already been crippled. When the mind has no way out, it can become incredibly resourceful and this scene mirrors that. Or not...maybe I'm giving it too much credit.
I can't think about farming or delivering milk without remembering Goku and Krillin's training. That was a really fun part of the show. And Krillin playing a personal role in Gohan's life years later is nice. I'm actually glad Toriyama had some characters settling down into some level of normalcy, like Gohan becoming a professor and Krillin starting a family (or even how Bulma and Chi Chi act more maturely than their younger selves), rather than everyone being like Goku, Vegeta and Tien.
I loved the sense of adventure in Dragon Ball. Going underwater was the best part for that, with the pirate robot and General Blue. And just seeing fighters enjoying fighting for the love of martial arts. Not because they hate each other or because someone wants to destroy the Earth. Fuck.