It's a natural progression. It puts some real existential horror into the whole idea. Like, what happens to them after an individual tale? Does each time someone "watches the story" create a branching timeline? Are these figments of people who really exist/existed, or are these shadows of people who never lived until now?

Unf. Yes.

(Yeah, I noticed immediately. But I'm a pig and my eyes default to men's rears, so *shrug*)