Game of Thrones fans: Five Reasons to Get. Over. It.

OK, so first of all, I don't watch "Game of Thrones," so maybe all you "Game of Thrones" fans who are freaking the crap out over a character death have a valid reason. But my guess is no, you're just acting like a bunch of petulant fanboys and fangirls and you just need to Get. Over. It.

I've watched a lot of TV shows in my time, many of which have made decisions, such as killing characters, that I frankly thought sucked. Books too - there is one death in the Harry Potter books that absolutely kills me EVERY SINGLE TIME I READ THE BOOKS.

I could understand being a little bit upset if the writers, who I understand are following the book very closely, suddenly veered off in a weird direction and killed someone who lived in the book. But from what I understand, that isn't what happened. And even so, I could launch into a finger-shaking lecture about how books and TV and movies are different media and they don't flow the same so writers have to change things to make the story flow right. But this death apparently is a plot point in the novel too. If they would have changed it, it would have had a chain reaction effect that would have taken over the whole show oh no!!!!!!

But regardless of the circumstances, people just need to not have a giant freakout over things like a character death on a TV show. (I'm not saying not to cry at a character death or other dramatic part of a story, because I cry at almost everything. But I'm saying don't take to the Internet and whine about it and threaten not to watch the show anymore.) And here are five reasons why not to freak out!

1. They're not your characters. As much as you might love a character in a TV show (or a book or a movie or a video game), it's not up to you to dictate his or her fate. That is up to the writer. It's their character, and they can do whatever they want with them. If you want to dictate the fate of a character, write your own story.
2. Death is inevitable. People die in real life, so for any semblance of realism in fiction, people sometimes have to die. And sometimes it's the person you really like, because everyone you like in real life will die eventually.
   
3. Getting upset about a death means the writer is doing his or her job. If the writer sucked, you wouldn't care about the character, right? Since you do, it's obviously a well-written show. Even though you're upset about the death, be glad that someone has come up with something that affects you so deeply.
4. They're not real people. It should go without saying, but sometimes I wonder if people who get so upset over a character death really understand this point. I'm pretty sure some of them don't.
5. It's super lame. Seriously. If you're irrationally upset over the death of a character - if you cry for more than a couple of minutes after it happens, or you want to take to the internet and threaten never to watch the show again - you probably need a complete mental health evaluation. Or a hobby.