nintendoman58, do not worry if you're enjoying gundam seed , it's perfectly normal ..the characters are fine, the story holds itself and the animation was quite alright ( very good at some points )
However , it's very unfair to compare this show to code geass , first because seed pre-date geass by a LONG shot , second because their leads and supports are in total différent leagues.Seed , if it wasn't obvious by those first 12 eps deals a lot more with the characters and their motivations towards the unexpected and where it lead them.
Third , when you compare the two , geass was more like a madman toying with people to create an utopia...even the goals are different.