hunenka:

Something
just occurred to me that makes Dean’s story even more tragic.

Prior to
season 4, Dean’s self-confidence and self-worth was practically nonexistent. But then an angel rescues him from Hell and tells him that he’s
wrong to believe he doesn’t deserve to be saved. Dean is told that God himself has
commanded it, that there’s work for Dean.

Dean is of course
suspicious, but we can see that he’s really trying to believe this, trying to
believe that he has a purpose now, that there’s something he can do to help.
Even as he’s realizing that the angels are mostly dicks and that they’re
playing a dirty game, he still has that “we need you”, “you can defeat Lilith
and stop Lucifer” thing to hold on to. There are people (okay, angels) telling
him that he, Dean Winchester, is important, that he can do something good for the world.

Which,
considering how low he’s feeling in season 4 (depression and self-loathing
because of torturing souls and breaking the first seal, fear for Sam and
sometimes fear of Sam, uncertainty
and confusion etc.), must be one of the few things helping him stay afloat, so
to say. Because he matters. His life means something.

And then he
learns that it’s not really him – his personality, his expertise, his skills
and abilities – that the angels are after. That his big, heroic task lies in losing
himself, giving his body over to someone else who will do all the saving. It
has nothing to do with who he is, it doesn’t matter if he’s a good person, if
he’s worth saving or not. He simply had to be saved from Hell because he’s in
the right bloodline to become Michael’s vessel. So he, as an individual, doesn’t
really mean anything after all.