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Code Geass takes place in an alternate future when the American Revolution never happened.
Napoleon wins the Napoleonic wars and defeats Britain, which causes the British elite to flee to their colonial holdings in America. Whilst there they cling to the ideals of nobility and hierarchy, creating the great Britannian Empire. They embrace a eugenic ideal to produce the most cunning rulers. Every generation the Emperor has many children by many wives, they are encouraged to fight on the battlefield and backstab each other for the throne. This produces a superior aristocracy.
People from conquered nations are treated as third class citizens, although they can gain honorary status by demonstrating fealty to the throne. Gradually such nations can be integrated into the empire and their status raised.
Britannia is brutal in victory, preferring to make grandiose statements that demonstrate the difference between them and their defeated opponent. They are quite ruthless against rebellious populations. But on the other side of the coin, education, advanced technology, and military protection are freely given. The rewards for kneeling to the throne are great.
Britannia's greatest strength lies in singular key individuals; those of superior mind and breeding within the aristocracy -- they are given broad authority and the freedom to excel and obedient populations to extend the reach of their hand. But by the same token, this is their greatest fragility, just as a bridge can collapse if a few key struts are removed.
Code Geass could have been an intrigue showcasing how one person can collapse a system by strategically changing a few minds. However the authors didn't have the sophistication to write such an advanced plotline, and the audience didn't have the patience for it either. Alternatively, a story of rebellion didn't require magical powers, they seem almost superfluous on a battlefield with mobile gunsuits. Removing them from the story could have made for a tactical military adventure. Instead what we got was a hodgepodge of ideas slapped against the wall like yesterday's soup, which clings to old shonen tropes. The worst subplots involves a typical shonen battles between Geass users where the MC is a flawless Houdini with the brain of Sherlock Holmes.
It is a series of missed potential which relies mostly on waifus to keep its engine running all these years.
