*sees post about John having been a neglectful parent*
Me: 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
*sees post is Dean-centric, features Dean-parentification, and thus misses a gigantic chunk of the reality of John's neglect while construing romanticized/woobifying ideas of its effects on Sam and, more to the point, on Dean*
I think another important part of Sam's arc is his relationship to John. To know what John was like, we just need to look at Season 4 Sam - bereft of the love of his life and desperate to save his family from a looming demonic threat, no matter the personal cost. Season 1 Sam starts off rejecting the path of his father, only to find himself embracing it again and again. Dean fights to find out who is he outside of the man his father wanted him to be; Sam fights to not be the man his father was.
(original meta under discussion)
This is an interesting idea, anon, and I'm not sure that I've spent enough time considering John's character to offer my own opinion with any real amount of conviction. Still, I’ll give it a shot!
I can certainly see the similarities between early seasons Sam and John in terms of their focus on revenge; Dean himself makes that comparison towards the end of S1.
Dean: Well, you and Dad are a lot more alike than I thought, you know that? You both can’t wait to sacrifice yourself for this thing. But you know what? I’m gonna be the one to bury you. You’re selfish, you know that? You don’t care about anything but revenge. (1x22)
HOWEVER, what's important there is that Sam doesn't do what Dean expects him to do or what that comparison suggests that he will ('you don't care about anything but revenge'). Sam refuses to shoot John and kill the demon, and right at the end of the episode, when Sam is racing to get Dean and John to the hospital, we get this scene:
John: I’m surprised at you, Sammy. Why didn’t you kill it? I thought we saw eye-to-eye on this? Killing this demon comes first – before me, before everything.
Sam looks in the rear view mirror at Dean.
Sam: No, sir. Not before everything.
Yes, there's a difference in that John is trying to sacrifice HIMSELF and he is asking Sam to sacrifice somebody else - the actions aren't equivalent, it would be like asking John to sacrifice Sam or Dean in the cause of his revenge - but still I think it's evident that Sam has been listening to what Dean says to him earlier and is consciously making the choice (as he does when Dean recognises that John has been possessed) to stand with his brother over his father. (Again, though, we do ultimately see John abandon his chance to destroy Azazel in order to save Dean’s life - so perhaps he and Sam are both less absolute than your question suggests.)
That said, I can definitely see your point about the parallels with S4 Sam and John. Like John, Sam has lost someone for whom he cares deeply and like John he is persuaded into a self-destructive quest for revenge. Of course, though, there's an important difference in that unlike John, Sam isn't responsible for two small children. Yes, Dean is affected by Sam's actions in S4 but he's a grown man. John's revenge quest is not just self-destructive, it directly impacts Sam and Dean's childhoods and it has a negative effect on their development. It's not possible to know what Sam would do in a situation directly parallel to that in which John finds himself after Mary's death. (Just imagine, Ruby turning up suddenly 'oh by the way Sam, turns out this meatsuit was more fertile than we expected, looking forward to raising our little antichrist with you under Lucifer's reign in hell'...) Sam hasn't historically had much of a chance to demonstrate his capabilities as a caretaker. I guess we see him with Adam, training him as a hunter (against Dean's inclinations), but again Adam is an adult so it's not quite the same. My feeling is that Sam would be more sensitive to the children's needs than to take them around with him on his quest - but of course, the reasons why he would do that are largely born out of his own childhood. It's circular.
So I guess I’m saying that I only partially agree with your POV. Apart from what I discuss above, I don't think I'd go as far as you in saying that Sam falls into the path of his father 'again and again'. In my perception, the events of S4 had such a severe impact on Sam that he has never acted in quite the same way after that. His quests since then have tended to be less about vengeance and more about atonement; equally self-destructive, perhaps, but driven by something quite different.
