...I can't quite remember who it was that said it, but this, uh, person, once said that there are only 17 different types of stories out there, and we - as in various storytellers - are simply repackaging/recycling them over and over again with the aid of ever-changing sensibilities of the times and the advancement of technologies/techniques.
More and more, it's pretty hard to argue against this line of thinking - for example, I've been delving into the murky world of free fan translations of Japanese, Chinese and Korean web novels and it becomes readily apparent the lack of fresh ideas and the staggering amount of copy/paste in many of the contents therein. Hell, in the translation circles, it's even treated as an in-joke, even.
Oops, totally off topic. My bad. I shall end my pointless meanderings here...