It keeps baffling me that "the Republic is overwhelmed!!!" remains so common a take. That notion always struck me as weird. Personally, I'd paint the CIS assault on Coruscant as vaguely analogous to Lee's invasion of the North. More specifically: resembling a scenario where he'd actually achieve his goal of directly threatening DC
I suppose, at least for me, I see it as an inverted Civil War. We have a very Industrialized "South" in the CIS that not only represents the lionshare of the financial and manufacturing concerns but who can mass produce their soldiers on an assembly line versus a "North" in the Republic utterly deficient in that regard.
Everything kind of snowballs from there. The Republic has an army, the Clones, built over a decade that is, essentially, a finite resource in comparison to the CIS's army. A draft is of course an option but one that carried the chance for political blowback.
I also went with the idea that a notable fraction of the Core are recent immigrants from the Rim and beyond who were imported to do the jobs the Core won't do (at least for substandard wages)
The dish washers, the nannies and janitors etc. Individuals whose loyalty may align with the CIS if push came to shove.
Add to this mix Jedi have little experiance in commanding armies while the CIS, drawing from a population living in a more lawless area, can likely find generals who've fought in skirmishes with pirates and the odd planetary war and I don't think it is too far fetched the Republic would suffer to the breaking point.
I picture the invasion of Corscuant being part of this multi-prong attack across the breadth of the Republic so that even if they did rally and repulse the CIS it would only be at the expense of other battles and a grinding , ever growing butcher bill.
I particularly like that the flow of battle and the fight on the ship are inter-woven. Also: Dooku's portrayal here is an upgrade.
Yes, I wanted to better connect the fleet battle to Obiwan and Anakin's action. A nice throwback, I feel, to old pulp serials with the two heroes turning back impossible odds.
Honestly it feels a shame to kill Dooku, Lee is an awesome actor, but I tried to give what little time he has some weight and iniative beyond being Sidious's catspaw.
Having Anakin kill him because he wants to, rather than because he's directly egged on, helps solidify Anakin's journey towards the self-serving dark
It also nicely echoes Vader's death in ROTJ and Anakin going berserk in the Tusken Raider camp in AOTC.
Grievous not being a coward, but a sensible leader, is good. It keeps some pressure on, even after Dooku is killed.
Agreed plus I thought he was so cool and hated how lame the film made him after his introduction in the cartoon.
Ideally I would like to include reference to that fight, maybe holorecordings playing for the jedi council as Anakin suggest assassinating him, to help build him as a credible threat and make Obiwan facing him solo that more terrifying.