With Supernatural. While Sam and Dean may not appear for years to come — at least outside of voice-overs — many fans are just excited to see hunters saving people and hunting things again.
Of course, that doesn't mean that fans won't miss the Winchester brothers. After all, they carried the show through 15 seasons and numerous apocalypses. Fans already miss the brothers, especially Dean. It's why they've been making so many memes that can sum up Dean Winchester perfectly.
Extremely Well-Respected
While Dean may not always be a celebrity in the world of Supernatural, among monsters and hunters, he's an absolute legend. Though Dean occasionally makes the worst decisions, he has also defeated countless monsters and even angels through the years.
His accomplishments alone make him incredible, but the fact that he kept hunting throughout his entire life made him all the more incredible in the eyes of hunters. Though he could have stopped at any time, he kept adding to his legend with every new adventure, and the world noticed.
Protective But Hypocritical
Dean was always perfectly willing to give everything if it meant keeping Sam safe. After all, as the older brother, he always saw it as his responsibility. Whenever John was away on a hunt, it was Dean's job to watch his younger brother, and that eventually warped his perspective of his entire life.
Of course, while Dean was always willing to sacrifice himself for Sam, he was rarely willing to let Sam do the same. Though he usually expected Sam to try to bring him back, he never expected him to sacrifice himself for it. After all, one of Dean's worst fears is losing his brother.
Incredibly Overprotective
That fear eventually escalated into Dean being ridiculously overprotective of Sam. While Sam is clearly a grown adult who can handle himself, Dean has never truly been able to separate his image of the younger, more dependent Sam from the reality.
It often leads to conflicts between the two, as Dean desperately tries to get his brother to step back from a dangerous situation, so that Dean can take the brunt of it. While it was a frustrating and unhealthy trait that clearly annoyed Sam, it is clear that Dean meant well at least.
Always Causing Problems
At the center of every apocalypse was Team Free Will: Dean, Sam, and Castiel. The three of them always managed to involve themselves in fights between Michael and Lucifer, a Leviathan takeover, and even a worldwide conflict caused by God's sister. While it was eventually revealed to have been orchestrated by Chuck, it was still ridiculous.
As much as Dean wanted to just be a normal hunter and live a normal life, he was always out of his comfort zone and thrown into more and more ridiculous scenarios. In the end, the best thing to ever happen to Dean was having a chance at a normal life with Lisa for the short time it lasted.
A Reluctant Dad
After meeting the son of Lucifer, Dean immediately decided that he wanted nothing to do with the boy. After all, Jack would almost certainly eventually find himself corrupted, and then he could set about destroying the world. Yet, despite appointing himself as the boy's eventual executioner, Dean came to love him as a son.
Jack clearly sought Dean's approval, and Dean found himself reluctantly bonding with him. The relationship was actually fairly touching, it was eventually strained, and it took a long while for the two of them to recover. It's part of the tragedy in that the two can never truly reunite.
Knows How To Handle Monsters
Until the end of the show, Dean never once encountered a monster that he couldn't beat. After all, he'd spent decades as a hunter, taking down the worst creatures in the world. By the end, even the monsters started viewing him as their very own Boogeyman.
While he eventually learned that not every monster happens to be evil, he still managed to terrify any minor monster that he came across. After all, after thousands of hunts, one minor vampire or girl on a phone wasn't exactly going to scare the greatest hunter of all time.
Questionable Logic
While the Winchester brothers were certainly great brothers, one thing that aged poorly about Dean was his willingness to break down any door on any occasion. After all, though he often viewed it as the homeowner potentially being in danger, most people aren't waiting by their door to answer after a single knock.
It's somewhat of a miracle that Dean never broke the door down in the face of a waiting homeowner, who was just trying to see who was knocking. While it's perfectly within Dean's character to do it, his brother really should have tried putting a stop to it at some point.
Undersells His Problems
Because Dean always viewed himself as Sam's protector, he had a habit of bottling up his emotions as much as humanly possible. That habit can best be seen when the two were engaged in an eternal dispute between angels and demons, while Dean was still desperately trying to hold himself together after escaping Hell.
Though Dean always eventually confessed his emotions during an emotional monologue in front of the Impala, he tended to keep himself quiet until he exploded. It's why the best Dean Winchester quotes come when he finally reveals his feelings to Sam after months of bottling them.
Driver Picks The Music
While Dean was usually happy to have Castiel with them, that didn't mean he wasn't also happy to force an Angel of the Lord to sit in the backseat. It showed just how little Dean cared about fancy titles or powers. If Castiel wanted to drive or sit shotgun, that was too bad for him, no matter how much Dean liked him.
Of course, it isn't entirely out of Dean's character either. Despite happily valuing Sam's presence and during hunts, Sam was also always expected to accept that the driver picks the music too. So, really, even his brother had to accept the relational rules of Impala living.
Has Gone Through It
While Dean rarely talks about it, he spent most of his life in Hell or in Purgatory, killing or torturing people, just because he had to. It had a major influence on him, as he came back from both realms with a new outlook and a greater taste for bloodshed.
Though usually a good person in spite of it all, Dean was certainly influenced by his time in Hell, and it clearly showed until his death. It was why it was such a surprise for him when he found himself in Heaven, safe and sound in spite of everything he'd done.
