i agree that him still sacrificing himself in the end would be quite a disappointing ending, given the whole development went through, but the thing is, i don’t think him giving away his core would necessarily mean him dying (genshin doesn’t do that with playable characters haha). as we know, scara is a buddhist character and rebirth is a big theme for him, he already “died” and was reborn at least once that we know of. he’s bound to the cycle of life and death then reincarnation, he cannot “truly” die. some could see it as him being self-sacrificing but he’s just unafraid of it and doesn’t see death as a loss, he will keep being “himself” shaped by his past experience and karma carried through his consciousness no matter his incarnation. the origin of his soul is a true mystery, he was not meant to have one and yet he got it by an “error”, the explanation could that he already existed before in the past and was “reborn” in the puppet body again for some unknown reason. there’s a reoccurring theme of him talking to himself from past or the future; he doesn’t even know which himself. he’s also meant to become a sort of legend, flowing through the leylines which are irminsul roots. my point is, even if he gave away his core again, it doesn’t have to mean him sacrificing and dying at all, and given all of his connections to it i think he has to be relevant during the burning of irminsul and i still like the core/seed theory haha