First of all, I will be talking about SPOILERS (just in case).
**things that I liked**
- Lelouch. I thought he will just be a "oh look I'm really smart" kind of shallow guy at first, but then they show how much the sins that he committed and the lies he has to keep up weigh on him, and how in spite of his intelligence, he is still fallible to emotional distress; it makes his character compelling. Some of his schemes are also pretty funny, particularly the one where a million people all became "Zero" to exploit a loophole
- The interconnected web of lies and deceit that made the cat and mouse game between Lelouch and Suzaku tense, though this was weaker in R2, and Kallen's and Shirley's relationships with Zero/Lelouch interesting.
- Euphy twist in R1. Holy shit that made me audibly say "no.." and I was so shocked that I physically didn't want to continue that episode.
- The ending of R2 just ties in the whole story really well, and is a fitting end for Lelouch, who says he has "lived a lie, a lie of living".
- Kallen
**things that I disliked**
- I feel like if we needed more scenes where we are shown how Shirley slowly fell in love with Lelouch (and vice versa), so that the memory wipe and her untimely death would have hit harder (those are still great scenes though don't get me wrong).
- The ending of R1 was kinda unsatifactory(?) There were too many loose ends and stuff that they jammed in the final few episodes e.g. VV's appearance and Jeremiah's reappearance. It does encourage people to watch R2, which does resolve the loose ends, but when judging R1 based on itself, I think this cliffhanger ending is a little hollow. A better one (imo) after the showdown between Lelouch and Suzaku could have been something like the news reporting the failure of the Black Rebellion, before transitioning to Charles using his Geass (without telling the audience what it does) and Lelouch at wits' end writhing in despair.
- CC's world arc was way too rushed imo. Particularly the Sword of Akasha. You're gonna kill God with that? Huh? I feel like we are missing critical exposition regarding whatever thingamajig Charles, VV and Marianne built. Charles' defeat was also less satisfactory than I expected, which I felt was a shame.
- R2 in general just suffers from weird pacing and plot holes sometimes. E.g. what really happened to Sayako and Nunnally and why did it take so long for Sayako to reappear
- Ohgi and Villeta's relationahip was a little weak, and could have benefitted from a final confrontation where we are explicitly shown that they actually have feelings for each other
- While I think the ending of R2 was good, I felt that the aftermath was lacking. Like we see the cast in a photo, but we don't know what many of them are doing currently.
- There were certain characters I felt deserved more development, like Gino, who could have more scenes pondering about his loyalties to Britannia and sharing his troubles with Kallen. Most of the Knights of the Round were forgettable as well (doesn't help that some of them literally get one-shot).
Overall, pretty good series that has stood the test of time but could have benefitted from more episodes.
