[Xander]

Originally Posted by azul120

Unfortunately, they put the cart before the horse by deciding that Lelouch should die at the end before coming up with the lead-up, which instead ended up like one big chain of Diabolus ex Machina, and a whole lot of Informed Wrongness for Lelouch.

There is some Diabolus ex Machina at certain points, especially in R2, but Lelouch himself acknowledged right from the beginning of the show that many of his methods weren't morally correct even if the ends were supposed to be. This was actually shown, not just unilaterally told to the audience, in plenty of both direct and indirect ways, so speaking of a purely Informed Wrongness on his part can come dangerously close to whitewashing him.

Even if certain circumstances were initially triggered by Diabolus ex Machina, Lelouch usually still made a personal choice that affected the ensuing consequences. Britannia itself might be the greater evil, for obvious reasons, but Zero being the lesser one does not necessarily make him right from every angle. Lelouch realized this and knew that his record wasn't going to be getting any cleaner in the long run. While it wasn't Lelouch's preferred outcome, he did understand his own death was a possible price to pay in the process as a result of his sins, long before he became a broken man near the ending. In fact, that wasn't the only time he fell into despair and/or attempted to hurt or kill himself.

Schneizel manipulated the Black Knights into not even giving him a fair trial, which is understandably aggravating, but just because they fell for the half-truths or lies and underhanded tricks of someone worse does not mean Lelouch could never be considered wrong if they had, in fact, held a proper inquiry and examined his conduct in detail. The actual chain of events that led to his death wasn't perfect nor inevitable, but it can't be said that everything happened to him in a vacuum either.

Arguing that everything is subjective devalues all opinions/interpretations.

On the contrary, since I recognize that human beings of similar maturity and intelligence levels can nevertheless hold very different views about the ending. Do you?

Let's face it: Code Geass R2 was full of logical holes.

Yes, but not every complaint equals a logical hole. Especially when it comes to questions of values and ethics, which are highly subjective even in real life.

This isn't an equation where only one logically correct solution exists. Alternate interpretations are possible precisely because other forms of logic are at work.