I read a quote somewhere that “creativity is the art of hiding your influences.” The scene in The Hobbit where Bilbo steals the goblet from Smaug is yoinked straight out of Beowulf. There’s a good reason Germanic mythology sounds so Tolkienesque to someone who first read LOTR. I don’t think there’s any shame in that. Nihil sub sole novum.

My own worldbuilding can be summed up as “That sounds cool, but it would be even cooler with mechs.”