I'm grouping this with R1, as I see them as essentially 1 series (nothing is resolved in the first season). The main problems I had with this series were the weak character motivations as well as the huge number of contrivances and plot "dead ends", where something seems to be developing only to be pushed aside as the story continues. I think the main problem was that this series tried to do too many things at once, and as a result was extremely hard to follow with an analytic approach. I often had to rewatch episodes in an attempt to understand the underlying conflict and relationships between the characters, especially with the individual character motivations all over the place. I think this probably comes from the huge-ass character list and the fact that there was not enough time to develop most of these characters in any meaningful way
Furthermore, the pacing of the series was honestly terrible, with the main focus of the series set up by the first season only receiving 1 episode of resolution, with almost no explanation given. What really was the ragnorok connection and it's connection to C.C. and the geass power?
Essentially, it took a huge amount of effort to go along with the unbelievable actions of the characters with a disproportionate payoff at the end (explanation and resolution). In my opinion, a series shouldn't require you to know information in future episodes to even be able to create a frame of reference in which the character's actions make sense.
However, I won't deny that this series was extremely fun and exciting to watch anyways (if I ignore all the questions and small plotholes throughout the series). I think the highlights of this series were the plot twists (my favorite two moments were the juxtaposition of the two S.A.Z of Nippon episodes involving both the massacre and the exile), and the interesting usages of Lelouch's geass in his his tricks and manipulations of people. Although I was disappointed by the resolution of many of the plotlines, I think the ending was the perfect resolution to the series as a whole. I would still recommend this series to most people as long as they don't try to analyze and make connections between everything while watching as I tried to do (even now I'm trying to stop myself from continuing the review and analysis of the decisions of the characters because I know I will just ruin the series for myself).
