So what happened to Famex? · 9:23pm Nov 4th, 2022
Let me get this out right now; I cancelled Famex because of Starlight Glimmer.
I've had an interesting relationship with Starlight's character development. At first she was just a weak villain with an even weaker redemption, Then came Season 6, which vastly improved her character. Throughout the entire season, she only relapsed once in Every Little Thing She Does. The first couple of episodes in Season 7 would've perfectly wrapped up her character arc, where she relapsed to a lesser degree on Trixie in All Bottled up. This would've been the state The Lost Changeling series would go with, pretty much only three Season 7 episodes being canon: Celestial Advice, All Bottled Up, and Triple Threat.
As Seasons 7 and 8 went on, it was apparent the writers didn't put much care into making her experience stick. With episodes like A Royal Problem, To Change a Changeling, Uncommon Bond, School Daze, A Matter of Principals, and Road to Friendship, there clearly was no self-control for the way Starlight acted.
This was the entire reason I cancelled Famex, because I ended up falling into that same pitfall:
-Childhood friend has nothing in common with you? Age regression go!
-Stubborn changeling? Release Blue's raticate onto the hive.
-Annoying draconequus? Murder that sire!
-Information from REM prone to be forgotten? Trap a griffon in her own body.
-Royal sisters arguing? Swap their cutie marks and duties.
-School shut down? Disregard the EEA guidebook.
I have found a good solution to this problem. When Starlight screws up, don't make it so she blows everything out of proportion at the slightest inconvenience. Learning not to do that should only happen once or twice. Instead figure out a new personal problem for her to solve. In Danger in the Dust, instead of an overmeasured response, she simply invited a complete stranger, so it was something the mane 6 could call her out on without having to regress her first.
As a result, now a writer can't simply stunt the ponies around Starlight for her to do something wrong, that something now always having to be something new for her to learn not to do.
At least now, I look forward to writing for Starlight now that I figured out how to write her well.
what is famex?
5702593
Famex is a scrapped work in the The Lost Changeling series. The storyline would've been that Starlight got the idea of using a griffon to talk to Aita's mother to see who named him, which ended up going awry when Carina got stuck controlling the body of this griffon. The name "Famex" is a portmanteau of family and exploration, the same way urbex is one of urban and exploration.
I scrapped Famex because it fell into the same trap that episodes like To Change a Changeling, Road to Friendship, and A Matter of Principals. Since then, I've figured out how to properly write for Starlight, and in turn Starlight has gotten more narrative focus recently.
5702621
Thanks!
5702697
You're welcome.