»It all seems to point towards....«

Maybe i'm looking at the trillogy and animatrix episodes to simply but the machines never wanted this war and 'enslaving' humans for a power source was purely for survival. I get the feeling that 'The One' was a product of the machines wanting humans to 'wake up' and realise that machines are not bad and have a right to exist as a species. Neo is number 6 and this time humans take the 'right' path because of his compasion and love for Trinity, whereas the previous 5 never felt a love this strongly and failed the 'test' so to speak. Because of Neo the machines realise humanity has evolved to the point where man and machine will co-exist peacefuly and therefore free them if they choose to leave the Matrix.

My big questing is...was Smith part of the machines 'plan' or because of his encounter with Neo and becoming stronger and therefore a threat to the machines, did Smith inadvertantly help Neo succeed where the other 5 had failed because The one wasn't just fighting the Matrix but fighting something that could destroy everything, even the machines?

smith was umpluged so he was a free program that couldnt just be deleted even tho he didnt have a purpose, and yes, smith could take over the matrix if not for neo

In this version of the matrix Smith became unpluged because of his 'tangle' with Neo in the first film. In the previous five versions Smith probably stayed within his programing. I'm theorising that because Smith became a threat to the machines, Neo showed the machines a form of compassion by offering to destroy Smith and therefore succeeding where the other five failed. He showed the machines he was willing to fight to save them and in turn saving humanity.