So I had this thought a while ago that there isn't actually an external system that judges whether a soul ascends to Heaven or falls to Hell. That the souls who went to Hell did so because they were weighed down by powerful feelings of regret. Most Sinners do act like unrepentant assholes, but that's after acclimating to the hellhole they've been condemned to and, for the most part, the human souls in Hell seem to be on board with the idea that they deserve to be there. Even if their regrets might not be enough to make them change, even if their regrets are misplaced, even the worst people on their deathbeds probably think about that one thing they could have done differently that might have changed everything. And then they wake up in Hell and think, 'Welp, Hell is forever, no point in changing now.' This explanation to me would make sense of why Heaven doesn't actually know the criteria, yet the folks we see in Hell generally seem to belong there with an odd few exceptions.
On the other hand, generally decent people who honestly tried their best in life may have a few regrets at their moments of death, but probably not such severe regrets to judge themselves worthy of damnation. Again, this to me explains why Heaven seems to have mostly decent people... and Adam. I'm sure someone as self-righteous as him, who views even the slaughter of his own descendants as his divine right, would truly believe he deserved to end up in Heaven.
But my favorite character kind of throws a wrench in this theory. Alastor absolutely believes he deserves hell, but he doesn't seem to have any regrets (outside maybe selling his soul). I don't have any expectation that he regrets any of the evil acts he's committed. But if any part of the sympathetic backstories his fans (me included) have come up with turn out to be true, maybe the theory could still hold. For example, maybe his regret was letting his mother down in some way, or that he didn't resort to violence sooner to protect her.
Also, Sir Pentious is such a sweetie, but please Speaker, give the man his one phone call.
