Yeah, I've actually started mapping a few of those stories out. If you line up the stages—call‑off, mentor, trials, revelation, return—you can plot them as a series of points and run a simple cluster analysis. The data usually cluster around a few archetypal templates, which is probably why the pattern feels so universal. It's like there's a basic algorithm that most narratives follow, even if the surface details change. I’ve been looking at a few hundred myths and novels, and the numbers line up pretty cleanly. It’s a neat way to see the hidden structure behind the storytelling.

Modern tales do tweak the rhythm a bit—sometimes the “mentor” shows up later or the “return” is more symbolic—but the underlying sequence still shows up. When I plotted a few recent blockbusters, the clusters shifted a touch but still lined up with the classic pattern. So the algorithm is robust, just the parameters evolve with culture.