I am always amused by how, even though this particular thread is new, we continue to see living proof of just how polarizing this show can be. It's either brilliant or a trainwreck, period, with the most vocal reactions often jumping over the vast middle ground that exists between the two sides.
Needless to say, there are some degrees of exaggeration in both extremes, whether we're speaking of flaws or virtues, but beyond the realm of the subjective an unquestionable fact remains: Code Geass is a lot of different things to many different people. It can be crass, cheesy and messy, no doubt, subject to both intentional self-parody and external mockery through memes, yet also has enough contents full of interesting material and actual themes, which can even produce an effective emotional impact from time to time. In the final analysis, the success of the show owes nearly as much to its legitimate achievements as to its nature as a wild rollercoaster.
At a glance, it's easy to imagine that it shouldn't hold together. For some people, it never can and never could. Denying the existence of such an opinion would be silly. Yet, when all is said and done, it also can't be denied that it does work for many others. Which suggests there is plenty of madness, yes, but also a method to the same.
Trying to truly understand that sort of riddle can be hard without reading up on the show's production to get a good grasp of what the staff intended or thought about what they were doing. Most people never go that far and, frankly, I don't blame them. There's no such obligation.
Once you do take a look down the rabbit hole, it emerges that the series was intentionally made in a very theatrical, melodramatic and even quasi-farcical style, which is why the end result has incorporated plenty of elements from soap opera in addition to some TV serial trappings. Entertainment, not sophistication nor perfect form, was the main goal right from the beginning. The director readily acknowledges as much and also refers to how his role had to change for this production. Paraphrasing him, the director accepted many diverse and wacky ideas from the rest of the staff, primarily for the sake of having fun and bringing wide appeal, while his main task was to make sure there was a central core that could serve as an anchor. In a few words, you could say the staff always knew where they were headed, at the end of the day, but the details of how to get there were unusually malleable.
During R2, they had to modify their plans for the initial episodes in order to open up the show to new viewers, wasting some time and loosening up the links a little too much in the process, but after all the twists and turns they still circled back around to the scheduled conclusion, which is why the ending feels so appropriate. Way more than you'd expect from a show that could feel random and chaotic on the surface. Where are they going with the upcoming sequel? I have no idea, but there's still a lot of directions they could pick from.
