I DEFINITELY feel that older fiction tends to be "predictable" to newer generations because it tends to be referenced, ripped-off, homaged, etc. over and over again.
A perfect example is when I show someone a film like Psycho or Halloween. Yeah, these flicks won't seem scary to newer generations, and will likely seem predictable, but it's because SO MANY movies that have come since have borrowed so heavily from them. I had a friend a couple of years ago tell me he finally watched the original A Nightmare On El St., and told me he couldn't see how anyone ever thought it was scary. I told him "well, when you wait forty freaking years to watch it, of course it won't be scary. At this point, you've seen Freddy on lunch boxes, toys, Halloween costumes, t-shirts, etc., and you've seen him pop up in rock and rap videos. That's not even mentioning parodies and blatant rip-offs. How can you find any kind of fearful element when you've had that kind of exposure to it before watching a single frame?". The same was true for me as a kid watching old Universal monster movies...there was no way I could find Dracula or the Wolf Man scary, since I'd been seeing kids in Ben Cooper costumes of them, and watched cartoon versions interacting with Scooby Doo and his gang.
Howard, especially his Conan work, has been referenced in just about every sword and sorcery story since, in one way or another. It's not a surprise that it would seem predictable to many who have watched things like Game of Thrones, Scorpion King, or even MOTU. Personally, I can read or watch an older work and keep these facts in mind, so I'm able to appreciate the historical significance, and enjoy the story within that context, but I know many can not.
