I've shit on the Saiyan Arc before for turning Dragon Ball into something completely different from how it first began. But god damn the fight against Vegeta is just pure fucking fun.
There are a lot of little things here that Toriyama either doesn't explain outright or gets overshadowed by later developments in the series without being touched back on. This things are still quite good, and show Toriyama actually gave a bigger shit than I thought, or otherwise subconsciously wrote something tighter than he should be able to. What I mean is I can use "headcanon" to explain Gohan's spontaneous tail regeneration as a zenkai boost even if it isn't explicitly treated as such. Likewise, Vegeta makes the claim that the strongest Saiyan warriors have the ability to create a false moon out of ki, but of course we learn later that the strongest Saiyans can just turn blond, negating the need to dick around with the Great Ape form, suggesting (again, headcanon) that Saiyans wasted so much time attempting to perfect the Great Ape transformation (including Vegeta's ability to retain his sanity despite apparently limited attempts at transforming) in defiance of the Super Saiyan "myth." Neat little bit of worldbuilding. We also get Vegeta supercharging his ki post-zenkai(?) to create an explosion from his aura, kinda foretelling his Majin form's self-destruct. The difference, I guess, is that his exploding aura does NOT kill him (or even damage him at all), pre-emptively justifying the similar case of Android 17 surviving his own "self-destruction" in Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power arc. It is kinda wack that Dragon Ball Super made it so Roshi's always been strong, yet pusses out of the fight against Nappa and Vegeta where Yajirobe managed to pull his weight (pun mildly intended, fat boy was the MVP here).
Actually, that's the funny thing. Not only is this the last time Yajirobe was worth something, he actually almost steals the show. It's weird to think there was a time when Yajirobe was actually stronger than Goku, way back when. It's a shame the set-up for the Planet Namek arc will eventually allow for Yamcha, Chaozu, and Tenshinhan to lose much of their own worth (aside from Ten's Kikoho spam on Cell, I guess).
Good shit. The King Piccolo Arc is still my favorite, but I'm a lot easier on the Saiyan Arc now. The introduction of Raditz and the alien shit that comes with him is still a tough pill to swallow, and there's thus a very clear line between "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z," but whatever. I'm hyped for Freeza. I just hope VIZ will do the Full Color Cell Arc soon.