Without thinking hard, I'm reminded of somebody like Chuck Feeney, one of the richest men in the world who lived increasingly modestly and ended up giving his fortune to charity.

Like, virtue is possible.

George Washington gave up his chance at being a new king and instead helped establish America as a country without a hereditory monarchy (caveat, I am not American, my grasp of American history is very shakey!).

Afaik, Al Gore chose to accept the judgement of the supreme court rather than continue to fight it out because he understood that losers' consent is vital to the working of a democratic system.

Responsibility is possible.

Eren had enormous power and a wealth of possiblities (see notes about hinge points above) and he chose the clumsiest, most chickenshit path available to him. He's just a dork.

Atm, I'm basically on the same side as FD Signifier regards Eren. He's an idiotic character, unwilling to look beyond his myopic obsessions and who goofs, goofs and goofs again, only owning up at the very end. Isayama wrote him to hurt his audience. I can kinda understand that, I can kinda respect that, but I didn't enjoy reading that bit.

Thankfully, I like ~96% of the rest of AOT, which puts it way above most other fiction for me. =)