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I love this sort of discussion, because it blends issues like character interpretation, fictional metaphysics, literary merit, real-world implications, the "faith vs. works" question, what we mean by redemption, and the notion of redemption vs. salvation (or enlightenment). https://twitter.com/ElleOnWords/status/1339972485794639873
My personal take has changed over the years. I used to be unimpressed by Vader's final choice--surely saving your own child is a pretty low bar for moral righteousness!
But I've come to see it as Vader being psychologically unable / unwilling to be reached by anyone BUT his own child. His tendency toward deep (often unhealthy!) emotional attachment drove him to Sith-dom, but also saves him.
Vader is willfully blind to all other acts of courage and amazing virtue--everything the rebels do. But when he sees his son commit to the way of the Jedi, he can't ignore the reminder of all he's lost and he decides to set things right.
He can't set things right, of course. He can do only one thing. But he realigns his spirit with life and the Force, and when he dies it accepts him. Thus, he gets to be a ghost! Hurray! The Force isn't interested in reward or punishment... just a person's present state of being.
But! That's just my reading: A deathbed conversion--not the cynical kind, but the genuine last-second epiphany of a dying soul. Is it what Lucas intended? What useful lessons does it impart? How much of it comes from narrative convenience--the need to make a definitive ending?
And if this is a salvation narrative, rather than a redemption one, where do the two converge and divide?
SPECIAL BONUS COMPARATIVE RELIGION SECTION: I've framed all this in a pretty Christian way, but Buddhism--and I think of Star Wars as largely picking and choosing between Christian and Buddhist religious influences--has its own tradition of deathbed enlightenment.
I don't have any immediate citations, but a quick Google turns up a recent book called "Right Thoughts at the Last Moment: Buddhism and Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan." Probably a good starting place!
Which is to say: I may be using fairly Christian language, but that's for my own convenience (I suspect I'd need to do more reading to really be comfortable arguing the Buddhist framing). There are other relevant sources, especially considering Lucas's influences.
