I’m new to this thread, and I’m not sure if this belongs here, but I just had this idea about how Ben’s redemption works thematically. At first I was a little confused as to why they chose to revisit Kylo’s confrontation with Han (who had already failed to bring him back to the light) instead of having him meet the ghost of Anakin (the person he idolized most). I was also slightly confused when I read the Rise of Skywalker novelization and saw how much it downplayed what Leia was doing when she died: I had assumed from the movie that she had died of force-exhaustion after using all of her strength to contact Ben, but the book says that she had been using the force to prolong her life (after being injured on the Raddus), then simply decided to stop, causing Ben to sense her death. This would mean that Leia had nothing to do with Han’s appearance and that it really was just a memory/hallucination. If true, this would actually make a lot of sense, because the Last Jedi comic ends by saying not that Kylo is irredeemable, but that the only person capable of saving him is himself. Based on what he says to Luke in TLJ, Kylo clearly expects other people to try to persuade him away from the dark side. He even seems really surprised when Rey leaves him on Kef-Bir instead of offering her hand. Perhaps Kylo Ren’s evil is like a more extreme version of when a child acts out because they want attention. So rather than sending a telepathic message, Leia is communicating something symbolic: nobody is going to come “save” Ben from the dark side; he has to decide to do the right thing. I actually like that a lot more than my original interpretation.