SPN Meta: 4.16 Speculation overflow.
Short flaily rambling meta for 4.16
Continuing from the 4.16 reaction post point of:
-FAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!! Fate! Dean's the only one that can stop it now! Oh wow!
The thing is, he had to be the one to start it in order to be the one to stop it. If John had broken, John would be the one trying to stop it, and, and, um, well. Sam would not follow John's orders. Dean's going to be the only one able to stop all this because, as I've said a couple times before, he let his six-year-old anti-christ brother have the last of the Lucky Charms. I might just explode from the glee if that happens, because I've been thinking that was going to be the case since season one and OMG!! I think I posted it on the TWoP Wish list ages ago! Somewhere on TWoP anyway.
SO! Dean had to be the one to start it because he's the only one who can stop it. Everyone knows he's always been the only one to be able to get through to Sam. If it had been John, killing Sam might be the only way John could stop him. An empowered Sam (with a demon frigging nursing him with her blood OMG!! as a voice in his ear), confronted by John would almost certainly never give in. It'd make him more stubborn and more determined to do things his own way and eventually become too powerful to overcome, even by killing him.
Dean? Sam might listen to Dean. Sam might stop for Dean. And he's the only person on Earth Sam would do that for. So Dean had to, had to be the one to start this and break the first seal, so it could be stopped.
Also, John didn't break in Hell, possibly because he knew Dean had to be the one to go there and break. Maybe. There's still a question of how much he knew about Sam, really, but if he knew enough... OW. So then when John came back and saw Dean at the end of AHBL2... Could he see the big 'Sold to Crossroads Demon' sign on Dean's soul and knew that everything was set for Dean to go to Hell and break? Which would add a whole 'nother layer to that scene. In which case? Means that Dean is exactly the man John wanted him to be. Plus after Dean did the deal, John was down in Hell for a few more weeks Hell-time. They had to use it as a way to try to break him. And Holy CRAP, John had to be just destroyed inside, for as long as he's known about this all, whether before or after Hell. I think before. Oh crap and it goes back to the conversation at the hospital in IMToD too, in that case. I think Dean might take his renewed memories of his coma-time and watching John and start asking some questions about exactly what John knew.
(Additional random thought. The demons wanted John to be the one to break in Hell. He was also supposed to be the one to get the pendant. Hmmmmm... Needs moar brain. Bobby needs to be asked some hard questions about that damn thing.)
(Another additional random thought on another topic has been kidnapped by a plot-bunny. We'll see how that goes.)
If John still hadn't broken or hadn't gone to Hell at all and if Dean hadn't gone to Hell and broken, it would have been some other poor schmuck, dragged to Hell and broken, someone who had no chance at all of stopping whoever won Survivor: Cold Oaks, with words or weapons, angel assistance or not. Dean and Sam are a matched set. One to fill the role Hell wanted filled, and one to stop the Apocalypse. Like the frigging season tagline says: "Two brothers, one fate." They mean that. Any other combination of people would most likely enable Hell to accomplish the apocalypse.
Dean's the only one who can stop Sam. Stop him. Not necessarily kill him. And Sam may be the only one who could be stopped. Anyone who's looking for hope for how this series might end? There it is. In spades.
It'll be a long painful road to get to that though, and I'm certain it's gonna get so very much darker before the storm starts to clear, so buckle up, buttercup.
NO SPOILERS IN COMMENTS PLEASE!