Discussion Main / LastEpisodeNewCharacter

There's a few examples with essentially guest-status characters that HAPPEN to be in the last episode, but without anything that makes them particularly more notable than other guest characters that also appeared in single episodes that happened NOT to be the finale. In particular, some examples are given where the character is introduced and then dies before the end of the episode, so it's not like they would've been in the next episode anyway.

Another way to put this: The spirit of the trope as described seems to be that the new character is introduced in a way where they might CONTINUE to be part of the series if the so-called last episode turned out not to be the last one after all. That's what makes the trope an actual trope as opposed to "final episodes have one-off characters just like other episodes" which is People Sit In Chairs.

So should the description explicit state this requirement as part of its criteria and remove the Trope Decay examples, or allow it to be more literally applied to ANY character that appears in the last episode? I vote for the former: "New Character" should be taken to mean a new character FOR THE SERIES/FRANCHISE, not just when finales happen to have a few one-off guest characters.