I am never saddened over the news of the death of any celebrities, actor/actress/musician alike.
Robin Williams? Michael Jackson? ...
I can't even think of anyone else at the moment, that's how important these things are to me.

I don't know them, they don't know me. I can't feel empathy for these things.
I might think it is such a loss to lose these talented individuals, but that's about it.

However, Alan Rickman's death was different to me.

I am an avid Harry Potter fan. I started reading Philosopher's stone after watching about 3 Harry Potter movies.
Contrary to what other hardcore Harry Potter book fans think, although Harry Potter books are much superior to the movies in every single way, I do not think they ruined the books with the bad movie depictions.
Come on, there is limited screen time, you cannot expect nor compare the both.

Okay, I digress.
The point is when I saw the news, I felt so utterly shock and was actually saddened by it.
Then, I realised why.

When reading the books, Daniel Radcliffe doesn't appear in my head when I am reading about Harry. Emma Watson's face doesn't surface when Hermione is mentioned.

Only a handful of the actors consistently materialises in my brain when the characters are mentioned in the book.
Snape, Voldermort, Professor Mcdonald... I think that's about it.

The actors and actress of these characters did such a great and magnificient job, that to me, they ARE the character.

Although Snape already died in the book, but Alan Rickman's death somehow means that even in reality, in the muggle world of ours, Snape cease to exist.
And that's terribly tragic.

Heck to be completely honest, with how bad I am with names, I don't even know Snape is Alan Rickman. I only recognised the face and the headline that can with it.

It doesn't matter what his real name is to me. He did such a brilliant job in the movie,
he is essentially Snape to me.

R.I.P Snape a.k.a Alan Rickman