Alan Rickman passed away at the age of 69 after a long battle with cancer, his family confirmed on Thursday. It’s a sad day, and his death was mourned by many on social media.

Rickman played a number of memorable roles throughout his career — in Sense and Sensibility, Dogma, Love Actually, Die Hard, even overcoming a terrible script in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was a legend in the theater, too, but to many in the younger generation his enduring legacy will be his role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise.

Snape — the dark, brooding, bitter, tortured soul that he is — is not an easy character to play, and in many ways, he was the central character throughout the books, even more than Harry Potter himself. Was Snape good or bad? Abusive or protective? Good or bad? Hero or villain? Those were the questions the persisted as the plot unfolded.

He was, of course, all those things.

Snape was a triple agent who drifted towards Voldemort after being bullied in his youth by James Potter. In doing so he alienates Harry Potter’s mother — his one true love — and subsequently secretly turns against Voldemort to protect Lily after she marries James Potter. He fails, and through his devastation commits himself to protecting Harry. Snape can never fully hide his disdain for her son, but ultimately, his love of Lily wins out.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” Snape tells Harry before succumbing to a pitiful, lonely death.

Fleshing that character out over the course of a seven-novel series is hard enough, but through a mastery of his craft, Rickman captivated us all. He captured both the light and the dark, and viewers were left so torn throughout that the debate over his legacy continues to rage.

Snape is the core of the Harry Potter franchise. Harry and Voldemort may be the protagonists and antagonists, but their characters are so firmly planted on opposing sides of the debate that it makes depicting them that much easier. Snape is truly complex: You need to love and hate him. Empathize and condem. Glorify and pity. Snape’s depth was what made the franchise tick, and if that character doesn’t land, everything else is undermined.

There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman's death. He was a magnificent actor & a wonderful man. — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 14, 2016

Snape is the magic that makes the Harry Potter series what it is, and it is Rickman that makes it so.

“I shall never reveal the best of you Severus,” Dumbledore tells Snape after he returns to the light.

Thankfully, we don’t have to hold Rickman to the same standard.