Yeah, same here. I didn't notice for years, but during 'United We Stand' while the beginning credits are rolling it comes up on screen 'Based on the novel by Vera Chapman', so when I finally did notice I spent the next few months trying to track down that tiny out-of-print book, and... I kind of despise it.

I mean, I was expecting stuff like the wisecracking two-headed dragons were probably not going to make an appearance, but I was totally NOT expecting CSA and major character death.

Plus, they totally screwed around with names and who is what character when it came to the adaptation, which I just find odd more than anything.

Kayley is actually Lynette, the younger less attractive sister of Leonie. The book starts with them having a double wedding with brothers Gareth and Gaheris. No, Lynette does not marry Gareth, who she actually has feelings for. She gets stuck with the younger less attractive Gaheris, who tells her on their wedding night 'yeah so I'm actually super not interested, I'mma peace out'.

So then she becomes a kind of ambassador for Arthur, eventually runs inter Ruber (her assaulter) again, gets thrown in a cell, manages to escape into some underground cave system, where she meets a blind man named Lucius. He's not blind from an accident, he's blind from spending too much time underground in caves. And it's also killing him, for some reason. They fall in love, she finds out he's dying, so she goes on a quest to find the Holy Grail, succeeds, brings it back to him, aaannd...

He can choose between being cured and growing old together, or having his eyesight restored and dying in a month.

He chooses death.

The end.

I cannot think of a single other book that pissed me off as much as that one did.

As a kid, I LOVED the movie Quest for Camelot. Still do, actually. Definitely in my top five fave cartoons.

It was 'based on' a book called The King's Damosel by Vera Chapman.

It is AWFUL. I am also SUPER fucking glad I didn't get a hand on that book until I was in my teens.

Okay granted, I haven't read it since high school so maybe it's not quite as bad as I remember, buuut... holy fuck they made a children's movie based off a book where the main character (CW SA) >! is raped by her mentor while she's still basically a child !< and then at the very end of the book, her true love decides he'd rather die in a month than spend the next few decades growing old with her.

Fucking awful.