I'm a mess and here's why
Of course this just wrecks me. A decade later, this anime still cuts me up. This time tho, it's happy tears that trickle down my face as I ugly cry into my pillow at 4am.
I love the use of silence in this scene so much. CC taking a moment to process what Lelouch just said (as do us, the audience), and everything that he meant behind it, and how she goes through such a myriad of emotions that ultimately ends up with the fulfillment of Lelouch's promise to her -- her true smile.
She almost doesn't believe it. She, who has been alone for centuries that she buried her loneliness in indifference; who drifts from place to place, era to era, people to people with nothing constant in her life; whose sole companion was loneliness itself, has found someone who doesn't want to let her go. It's even more impactful as Lelouch has the choice to stay with Nunally and Suzaku and to be reunited with everyone and live out his life in peace (and anonimity, but with their wealth he can stay at a secluded villa somewhere where they can live peacefully together, and other ways to get around that), but still he chooses CC, chooses a life with her even if it meant they leave everything behind. This moment, without words, is such a nostalgic callback to the time when Lelouch told her she was not alone, to that other time when his geass command to her was to stay by his side, and to his promise to give her her true smile. This final scene was executed so perfectly, from the reminder about Lelouch's poor stamina (lol) to their familiar banter to CC dropping hints of her real feelings to Lelouch taking half of her name, essentially affirming that they are two halves of one. Forever tethered to each other.
Also,
Now Lelouch has all the time to tell her.
