Kaythur

Kaythur is the family ship between Kay and Arthur Pendragon from the The Sword in the Stone fandom.

Canon
Kay is one of the oldest characters in Arthurian myth, before it was even established as such. In the earliest text, Kay (or Cai) was promised to be absurdly strong before his birth by his father, but was slain by a son of Menestyr, who was himself killed by a vengeful Arthur. Cai was said to be one of Arthur's finest warriors in the earliest texts, only later additions made him more sour and stupid.

According to the poem Pa Gur, which is believed to be the very first one to mention Cai by name, Arthur held Cai in very high regard, believing his death to be unattainable.

The Once and Future King
The book series illustrates how Arthur was brought into Sir Ector's care by Merlin, who raised Arthur alongside his biological son Kay. For the majority of the story, Kay is raised to be a proper knight, but none of the people at the Castle Sauvage intentionally mistreat Arthur, as much as they just expect less of him than they do of Kay. He winds up riddled with the childhood nickname "the Wart", used so much that even Kay doesn't call him anything else.

This all turns on its head once Arthur is lost in the woods during a trip with his family, initially scared, Arthur finds the company of King Pellinore and later takes shelter in the hut of an old man named Merlyn. Merlyn is already familiar with Arthur, leading to the boy befriending him and taking him to Castle Sauvage to work as his teacher. Kay is at first dismissive of Merlyn, but seeing Arthur receive exclusive lessons from what turns out to be a powerful wizard, Kay quickly becomes jealous of Arthur.

On their next encounter, Kay beats Arthur up because of his new feelings of inadequacy, with Arthur shrugging it off as normal behaviour for him. Kay quickly opens up about how miserable he is watching Arthur be special while he is suffering a normal training to be a knight. Arthur feels sorry for Kay and rushes to Merlyn to try and convince him to let Kay join the lessons that have Merlyn transform Arthur into various parts of the animal kingdom. Merlyn stiffly refuses, saying that those lessons are intended for Arthur specifically and that he couldn't give Kay those same lessons even if he tried.

But Arthur's insistence allowed Merlyn a compromise and he thinks of something to address Kay's feelings. The next day, he urges Arthur and Kay to come out to an empty field in the woods and casts a teleporting spell on the both of them. They land in a different type of forrest and are soon picked up by a man who calls himself John. They then find out that this none other than the Little John of legend, who quickly takes them to Robin Wood and his maid Marian. They are very kind to the two boys and immediately include them in their plan to ambush the wicked Morgan le Fay. During their ambush, Kay actually manages to kill a griffin with the help of Robin and Marian, after the deed is done, Arthur and Kay have grown closer together and make an effort to understand each other.

When Kay is ready to be knighted at the end of the first book, he realises that he forgot his sword for the tournament at the inn they were sleeping at last night. When Arthur is tasked to retrieve it, the inn is closed, even the workers are too occupied with the tournament. Luckily, Arthur finds a crummy old sword stuck in an anvil and casually pulls it out, bringing it to Kay. But when he delivers a sword, not Kay's, Kay is at first angry with him, but realizes that the sword he is holding must be Excalibur. When his father asked about it, Kay lies about himself pulling Excalibur out of the anvil. But when they return to the scene, Kay tells the truth about Arthur being the one who actually pulled the sword. When Arthur proves it by pulling it out again after multiple adults fail to do so, Sir Ector and Kay bow to Arthur as their new king, leaving the poor boy hopelessly confused.

Eventually, Arthur settles into his role as King, a few years later, he and Kay found what would later be known as the Knights of the Round Table. Kay ends up being loyal to Arthur for the rest of his life.

The Sword in the Stone (1963)
Unlike the book the movie is named after, most of Kay's redeeming qualities are removed or downplayed and he is mainly playing a secondary role to his father Sir Ector. Ector is far more anti-magic in the movie than he was in the book, directly antagonizing Merlin and making Arthur's life living hell for no other reason than favoritism, sentiments which Kay seems to echo and relish in. Only at the end does Kay show a shred of kindness and respect to Arthur when he bows to him as his new king, but in this version, his father has to tell him to do it.

Fanon
Even those who haven't read the book were disappointed by Kay's portrayal in the film. Many Disney fans wish that the movie at least gave Kay some of the redeeming qualities he had in the novel, perhaps by actually having Kay join Arthur on his lessons with Merlin this time around, logically the appearance of Robin Hood was off the table with his own movie being worked on at the time.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION