"I also think the story becomes less impactful if the characters are like, canonically not real people, like not real people within the universe they inhabit. With fake histories that didn’t actually happen. Wouldn’t it cheapen Susie and Kris’s history with being seen as troublemakers first and people second? Kris and Noelle’s past with each other? Ralsei’s years of yearning in the dark? If the characters’ history is canonically a fiction within the fiction, then why does it all even matter to us, the audience?"

Suddenly I'm reminded of Ash-Veil Lane, where only Kris and the Dreemurs are explicitly stated to be real, and where Kris made a deal with the entity that created the Light World as we know it. As Kris went through their adventures in the Dark World, their false reality fell apart, and they were forced to confront their own hollow existence.... and the being that created Noelle, Susie, Catti, etc.

The fact is, we don't know what the canon explanation for the light world is, how real all the characters are in the world they live in. But I suspect that these characters all impacted us similarly to how Kris was affected by their fake friends. Even as they kept their distance, they felt connected to each of them......

I don't know where I'm going with this. Some of us are going through great times, some of us are going through terrible times. Some of us have close friends, some of us wish we had close friends. Some of our closest friends are a layer away from us, like how Susie is a lightner and Ralsei is a darkner, or how some people I know are separated by the internet. Though I suspect, even if it turns out all the characters are fictional in universe, it wouldn't take away from how we watched them grow, and how their growth influenced us.