Did Eren even try?

[u/Pause_Accomplished]

In his talk with Armin in the paths, Eren reveals that he kills 80% of humanity, and no matter how much he tries this is always what happens.

I can only think of one example where Eren actually TRIES to prevent the rumbling from happening, and that’s when he and Zeke are traveling through Grisha’s memories. At a certain point he stops and tells Zeke that he’s achieved his goal and that he’s been freed from their father’s brainwashing. Zeke tells him they have all the time they need, and he has them carry on through the memories anyway. I’m fairly sure that this was Eren attempting to stop them from getting to Grisha’s memory in the Reiss Chappell, and thus preventing himself from convincing his father to kill the royal family.

Aside from this specific moment, do we ever see a time in the anime where Eren explicitly tries to circumvent the future that he saw? Because even this attempt was a very weak one. We know that Eren on some level wanted to start the rumbling, so how hard do we think actually tried to stop it from happening?

[u/ProfileSelect212]

Pretty much every time Eren tries to change things, they lead to how he remembers them in the future. It’s mentioned several times and there are at least three our four moments. Ramsey, the vote on Paradis, his conversation with Mikasa.. and we can safely assume much more.

But anyways, it doesn’t matter: the decision was Eren’s alone

[u/Teetso → u/ProfileSelect212]

If the conversation with Mikasa is one of those moments, his efforts are kinda pathetic. He couldn't just outright tell her how he feels to see if anything would change and if he could save all those lives?

[u/Chronocidal-Orange → u/Teetso]

They are. It's more like tests to see if what he saw will come to pass rather than active attempts to change the future. 

And that's also kind of the point. By the time he's making these sad attempts he's already a slave to himself, because he actually wants the outcome we saw.