[O]nce you ignore the theological underpinning of xenia, it is in modern terms, call the Golden Rule. This idea of treating others as you would be treated has never really changed over time. The reasons that we try to hold people to that might have changed, but the idea itself hasn’t changed.
Xenia reflected in modernity.
His repentance would be purely internal. It would be purely for his own spiritual self. It wouldn’t necessarily affect anything outside of him, because the damage is done. Xenia is broken, maybe for all time.
The thing about hubris. It’s tragic because it’s irreversible, essentially. That’s where Christian theology looks at it in a different way, but in a practical sense it doesn’t necessarily change what’s happened and therefore, in storytelling terms, isn’t necessarily relevant.
To repent for his hubris necessary?
Amateur criticism feel they’ve identified the mechanism; they feel that invalidates it. That can be true of certain elements, and film grammar, film language, evolves with that. So when a trope becomes too familiar to an audience, then it has to be changed.
But we do, as filmmakers, avail ourselves of that common language. We build on that understanding. Our audience has seen many films, and they understand that language. And so you’re playing with that language. It’s the language of genre. It’s the language of audience sympathy. It’s the language of clarity, of narrative direction, and how you guide people through a story.
Art building on the common language.
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I love conversations when the artist opens up about the intentions alongside audiences’ interpretations of the work. Death of the Author
Commenters pointed out her reference to the Thucydides’s Trap: a major rising power has threatened to displace a major ruling power.