So, if we are supposed to read Heaven’s system for judging souls as good/bad as being relatively fair — which is still an if, given the Exterminations, Adam, Pentious, etc. — then I think the metrics it implicitly uses are really interesting.
Because given Pentious’s story, I think it’s very likely that there’s both an objective and subjective metric — both the deeds someone does on Earth and their own self-perception weigh in on whether they go to Heaven or Hell.
What Pentious did with his life wasn’t great, I know. He was a bit of a peeping tom, and then he didn’t even try to turn in a dangerous criminal he had intel on. But I also don’t know if that in itself should be a recipe for eternal damnation — meaning we’re either not supposed to think the system is fair, or we’re something else is at play.
I think likely that it’s guilt and self-loathing can also factor in to whether a soul goes to Heaven or Hell.
Sir Pentious, or Pendleton, was clearly wracked with guilt about the fact he didn’t help that woman, didn’t even go to the police when he realized the identity of Jack the Ripper.
And it goes deeper! We know from existing lore that Sinners often manifest bodies that they’re uncomfortable with. (Angel canonically hates his own feet, if I’m not mistaken?) Sir Pentious, with his thousand eyes, cannot stop seeing everything around him — he literally tells Emily that he can’t stop seeing everything around him. When he flares out his little snake hood, it even looks like Jack the Ripper’s silhouette. Pentious’s guilt and sins manifested in his body.
To be clear: I think that past a certain point, guilt or lack thereof is irrelevant. The Vees, for example — I doubt any of them feel a shred of guilt for their own behavior, and they’re still down in Hell. Maybe they just knew they were doing morally wrong shit and didn’t care, but the end effect is the same.
On the other end though, a person who might deserve Hell can end up in Heaven if they’re sufficiently convinced that’s what they’ve earned. If they’re that assured of their own goodness and superiority.
It explains why Adam and Lute would be in Heaven — not necessarily because they were good, but because they didn’t do anything extremely horrible in life, and believed in their own righteousness enough to drag their own souls past the pearly gates.
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