First off, I want to say goodbye. That seems like the proper thing to say. Secondly, cancer sucks. It sucked before it took Severus Snape and Ziggy Stardust, but this just seems to be salt on the wound.

This loss hits home. With all the bad in the world right now, taking David Bowie seemed to be just insulting. It hurts. He rocked the world with his androgynous style, his lightning bolt for Aladdin Sane, his huge hair in Labyrinth.

He was the precedent for every alternative artist that came after him and was the epitome of style and class. Even in classic David Bowie style, he went out with a bang with the release of Blackstar just days before his death.

“Love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night/and love dares you to change our ways of/caring about ourselves,” said Bowie in the 1981 song “Under Pressure.”

So goodbye to Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, to Jareth, the man who sold the world. We will remember you the way you were: caring, stylish, and groundbreaking. Thank you.

Not three days later did we lose another great. If I thought losing David Bowie was too much, what awaited for me in the days to come was to be debilitating. The world lost Alan Rickman next.

I personally grew up with him, loving to hate Severus Snape. And it wasn’t Christmas until I saw Hans Gruber fall off Nakatomi Tower.

Rickman was a different type of class than Bowie. While he almost always played a stern villain, off screen he loved to laugh and joke. That’s what I loved about him: he wasn’t his characters. He was full of love, he was full of happiness, and he was always smiling.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after Albus Dumbledoor said to Snape, “Even after all this time?” and he replied with, “Always.”

So goodbye to Severus Snape, Hans Gruber, to the Sheriff of Notingham, Judge Turpin. Thank you for being the villain on screen and the love of many off.