Enduring, for Better or Worse

Jaleel White as a talking mutant chicken with an axe for a beak? Some elements are better to forget.

I can think of few stories as persistent as King Arthur and his knights. In a way, it is the perfect example of how popular culture engages with and alters a story a over time. One need only look at how many different adaptations and interpretations there have been between the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the modern day. There are so many adaptations of the basic stories that it's impossible to name them all, and then there are all the twists: sequels where Arthur awakens from his death-sleep in the modern world, Avalon High in which the characters are all teenage reincarnations of Arthur and his court, prequels about the life and adventures of Merlin, anime/manga that include on... uniquely altered versions of Arthur and Merlin, numerous films ranging from the hilarious Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the quasi-historical 2004 film based on the "Arthur as Roman commander" element to the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot which gave us the abomination shown above.

For better or for worse, some stories loom large in popular culture long after their initial impact. They endure because people keep finding new ways to make that story hold meaning they can identify with and make it their own.