Full Series Micro-series vs. TCW

Ah, the age-old debate of CW micro-series vs. TCW. Both series have their strengths and weaknesses, merits and demerits, pros and cons. I'll go over them before rendering judgment (TL;DR at bottom).

Clone Wars microseries:
Under the style of Genndy Tartakovsky, this series of shorts was renowned for fast-paced action sequences, broad, encompassing shots of numerous battles and environments, and minimal dialogue. Considering the PT films were criticized heavily for their wooden and clunky dialogue, keeping it to a minimum in CW was probably a good idea. Plus, most of the volumes covered battle scenes or duels where having characters speak extensively wouldn't make too much sense. What the microseries did a particularly good job at was giving us a sense of scale and putting the war itself at the forefront. It covered key battles and events such as the Battle of Muunilinst, Dantooine, Mon Calamari, and Hypori, along with Anakin's duel with Ventress at Yavin 4, the knighting of Anakin Skywalker and the the final gambit to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant. While not onscreen for very long, villains like Dooku and General Grievous were shown to be particularly threatening. The scenery was great in almost every planet the show chose to visit. These are the basic lists of positives.

Which brings us to the negatives. CW's style always seemed to make the heroes and villains, particularly the Jedi, to be overpowered. The volume most culpable of this was the Battle of Dantooine, where we witness Mace Windu single-handedly obliterate not only an army of droids (a good chunk of the time without his lightsaber) but also a seismic tank. Grievous was also shown to be largely OP in his systematic but nearly simultaneous dismantling of numerous Jedi opponents at Hypori. Also there were some rather cartoonish sequences, such as the gladiatorial battle on Rattatak where Ventress defeats multiple monstrous opponents to impress Count Dooku, and the whole jousting sequence between Kenobi's lancer troopers and Durge's IG lancer droids. Which brings me to Durge himself. I was never really impressed by the character, who seemed largely out of place in the SW universe. While a very cool concept on paper, when translated onscreen Durge's Gen'Dai physique and regenerative abilities just seemed very over-the-top. Creating a nearly indestructible opponent for CIS, one largely devoid of any personality (outside of irrationality brought on by a long lifespan and a hatred of clones due to suffering at the hands of Mandalorians, elaborated upon only in the EU) was one of the more 'meh' decisions of this series. Interaction between the two main heroes, Obi-Wan and Anakin, were as minimal as the dialogue as well. Finally, the Battle of Coruscant where Grievous personally arrives to kidnap the Chancellor and slay several Jedi Knights seemed, at least to me, vastly inferior to Luceno's depiction in Labyrinth of Evil (a must-read for fans of the CW, IMO). Just over-the-top at times, and why would Grievous not kill Shaak Ti after she was at his mercy?

All in all, I consider the events of the microseries to be under the lens of propaganda, an onscreen exaggeration of events that did take place, but not often in the manner shown.

The Clone Wars:
A much longer series spanning (at the moment) 108 episodes, covering a wide range of themes and events throughout the course of the war, and focusing much more heavily on character interaction than the microseries. Due to the higher number of episodes, TCW had the advantage of being able to tell longer stories and delve into not just the battles, but also wartime politics. It also tackled many plotlines focusing on multiple characters, ranging from the Big Three of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka to more minor characters from the films like R2-D2 and Padme Amidala. TCW also introduced more more OCs than did CW, many of whom were fascinating characters in their own right; Captain Rex, Satine Kryze, Pre Vizsla, Mother Talzin, Savage Opress, Bo-Katan, to name a few. The greater character development of TCW allowed us to get more into characters like Asajj Ventress, whom I felt really benefited from the additional exposure onto her own character, her hopes and fears, none of which were touched upon in the microseries, where she is shown to be little more than a Dark Jedi turned Sith assassin desiring vengeance on the Jedi. TCW expanded on her character while giving us a few nice references to the EU, like her training with Master Ky Narec and her turn to the Dark Side after witnessing her Master's death.

The relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan was further enhanced, giving us more reason to believe Obi-Wan's lines to Luke about his father being a real hero during the Clone Wars. TCW, I felt, did wonders for Anakin's character and made him much more relatable than the PT films. We also witness the deterioration of Anakin's trust in the Jedi Council after the Rako Hardeen arc and the Ahsoka Fugitive arc, both key plot points leading up to RotS. Even the development of Ahsoka's relationship with Anakin made sense, as the latter was known to have trouble letting go of attachments, and may have well contributed to the darker, brooding Anakin of RotS. We see Palpatine's scheme to discredit the Jedi and turn public opinion against them come gradually into fruition. The further characterization of the clones also served to humanize them, and make the viewers better relate to these otherwise largely faceless soldiers known only to obey orders without question (a fact that was itself questioned by numerous story arcs like The Deserter and Umbara). Other minor characters introduced very briefly in the films, such as the other Jedi, Boba Fett, Tarkin, and Darth Maul himself, have their moment to shine. In Maul's case, I felt his character greatly improved by giving him a more distinct personality and making him into a truly menacing arch-rival to Obi-Wan.

The quality of the animation in this series was very top-notch, heads and shoulders above CW. Despite questionable stylistic choices at times, TCW had perhaps the best CGI of any animated television series ever. This translated extremely well to the environments and the battle scenes, as well as the duels, particularly in Season 5. Visual eye-candy is a big part of Star Wars' appeal, and TCW does not disappoint.

Of course, TCW has its faults. Being able to tell so many stories was both a blessing and a curse. Due to the very brief nature of the stories it had to tell, the microseries did a good job of being very concise and not going on diversions from the overarching theme of war. TCW, on the other hand, could afford to go off on tangents, often to its own detriment. The droid arc of Season 5 comes foremost to mind, but other minor side stories and diversions often contributed little to the overarching plot of the Clone Wars. While it was great to see characters such as Cad Bane and Hondo Ohnaka in action, some of their plot-lines contributed little to the overall war, though they did serve the purpose of making the GFFA look bigger, which is a plus. Still, there were many stories, particularly the poorly executed political episodes of Season 3, that the series could have done without, or at least handled much more maturely. References to the OT and PT, while good when added judiciously, were sometimes introduced with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the head.

The CIS themselves were handled very poorly, as Dan Grievous pointed out. Dooku, in particular, was often reduced to little more than a mustache-twirling villain, sometimes doing things For the Evulz. A far cry from the political idealist we are told he was in AotC, or even compared to his portrayal in the extensive CW EU. Grievous was downright pathetic at times (owned by a handful of Gungans?), much less threatening. Then there was the questionable decision to revive Maul, saved only by the execution, which was admittedly brilliant. However, Maul's character served only to make Dooku and the CIS look worse in hindsight. Maul and his brother were far more threatening villains in TCW than Dooku and his henchmen, a big no-no in a series that emphasizes the greater war (or is supposed to).

Finally, we get to what is to many the biggest pet peeve of TCW: the trampling and subsequent demolition of swathes of established EU. Thanks to the decisions of Lucas and the writers, many characters' backstories and fates have seen changes, both large and small. These changes range from minor (Ryloth's rotation, Ventress being born on Dathomir as opposed to Rattatak) to very major (Barriss Offee becoming a Dark Jedi and turning against the Order). We've witnessed the onscreen deaths of characters like Even Piell and Adi Gallia that contradict the EU. While some of the changes certainly served to enhance the story (see Ventress), others did not (Adi Gallia could easily have been replaced by Eeth Koth, for instance). To many, this is a dealbreaker.


We finally get to the verdict. Apologies for this post being much longer than I originally anticipated, I was trying hard to be as thorough as possible in my reasoning, to the point where it can be a mini-thesis or dissertation. Due to expanding the stories of numerous characters and focusing on multiple themes besides the 'Wars' in Star Wars, I consider TCW to be the superior show. It tackles many disparate themes of war, politics, mythology of the Force itself, friendship, and love, all of which are inherent to the SW universe, sprinkling equal doses of humor and drama. The PT is tremendously strengthened after viewing TCW, and that alone may be enough to tilt the scales in its favor. To me, TCW is very much the Star Wars George Lucas always intended, and adds an extra dimension to all of the six films.

TL;DR: While the microseries was short and sweet, making the most of its limited timeframe with good concision, TCW's expansive scope and focus on the characters and their relationships during the war gives us further insights into the mythology and events of the Star Wars universe that George Lucas intended. Hence, I view TCW as the superior series.

 

The micro-series is far superior, because, frankly, it gets that this is the Clone Wars. Hear that, Filoni, Lucas? Clone Wars. Not "R2 and 3PO go on a magic pixie adventure". Not "poisoned tea investigation". Not "two-bit loser villains who make no impact on galactic history".

What we should be seeing is the epic war between the Republic and the CIS, consuming the galaxy in a clash between automatons of flesh and automatons of steel. Billions of deaths, worlds shattered, massive fleets clashing in the black void. We should see the nitty-gritty of the war, and, even more importantly, that there is no right side! The Republic is bloated, corrupt, imperialistic, and generally horrible to any planet unable to bribe a sufficient amount of Senators. The CIS war effort is headed by a cybernetic psycho with genocidal ambitions, and is funded by some of the most horribly greedy and corrupt cartels in the galaxy. It should be very clear why so many planets have abandoned the Republic for Dooku's promise of a brighter future.

The CIS, furthermore, should not be some random collection of cackling villains, moronic robots, and one token good teammate who gets offed in her own debut episode. The Republic, as I said, sucks, and is generally a horrible form of government. There should be plenty of people who are really just fighting to escape from corruption and stagnation that the Republic represents. But, in TCW, every "good" character immediately falls into line with the Republic, no questions asked. For example, the Onderon arc. Onderon had to have some sort of grievance with the Republic, that allowed Mina to take it to the CIS cause. But we never see any of that. Everyone immediately agrees with the pro-Republic insurgents, and not one Onderonian besides the king himself seems to be on the CIS side. All of his men desert him or are droids. Filoni and co. have a chance to do what the micro-series couldn't by showing complexity and actual shades of grey, but choose not to in the name of some of the most nonsensical stories ever set in the Star Wars universe.

And, of course, the biggest thing I can see, is that the micro-series had incredibly threatening and effective CIS villains. They were powerful, they were scary, and they would kick your ass seven ways to Sunday if you weren't careful. Grievous' Jedi slaughterfest on Hypori is, of course, the most obvious example, though there are several more. Not here. Here, Grievous is randomly a coward who can barely defeat any Jedi for no good reason, Ventress racks up failure after failure until getting disposed of, and the rest of the one-shots (possibly excluding Admiral Tranch) were just a bunch of cackling Saturday morning cartoon villains who fired space napalm at random pacifist villages for no damned reason. And they always lose. Hell, I can only think of once when the CIS was shown winning a clear an overwhelming victory over the Republic, when Grievous attacked Obi-Won's fleet in Bound for Rescue. In other episodes, most notoriously Shadow Warrior, they are defeated and humiliated by the most pathetic of opponents. Bloody hell, they couldn't even win on Umbara, a world already under their control and in a defensible position, when the friggin enemy general was trying to lose! How did these people threaten anything again?

CW versus TCW? No contest. Even in its really short amount of time, CW just blew TCW out of the water.

 

CW did a better job of portraying the CIS as formidable, but in no way, shape, or form did it remotely portray the CIS as a sympathetic cause. TCW didn't exactly succeed in that endeavor either, but it still has "Heroes on Both Sides."And I may be forgetting, but when did the CIS win in the CW microseries?

 

I remember the Microseries treating the CIS like big bads myself. The CIS has never been portrayed real positively on screen. from the scenes on Geonosis in AOTC the CIS leaders and Dooku especially had the bad guy stamp on their foreheads. They were always treated like 'the bad guys' rather than a sympathetic group wanting to get away from the corruption and all else hell in the Republic. That portrayal made it all the easier for TCW to dumb them down into SW equivalents of Lord Zedd, Goldar, the putties, and the monsters of the day which I admit was always the show's biggest weakness. Really I think the CIS would be hard to make sympathetic since they seem to be alot like some big cooperation talked California into wanting to separate from the rest of the USA. It really is only Heroes on Both Sides that ever really explore the CIS side of things and shed some light.

TCW is about the Clone Wars era rather than repetitive battles between droids and clones. It tells the story of Anakin Skywalker's journey through the Clone Wars and the characters who surrounded him. It tells some of their side stories. Yes, there was some unnecessary fluff in the droid episodes. However even they did a bit of work to explore the clones themselves. It did the superior job in exploring more of mythology of the Clone Wars itself. The clones themselves and what was behind the curtains on this orchestration of a war.

Really the beginning of the 2nd volume of the Microseries showing a montage of CIS victories is about on par with most of the TCW CIS victories being glossed over in the stupid Newsreels.

 

In CW, I felt that they were actually really fighting a war.

 

CW from 2003 hands down. It tied AOTC and ROTS very nicely. TCW made a mess with everything.

 

TCW, and one of the reasons for that is because of the huge amounts of power characters had, which doesn't connect well with what is portrayed in the films.

If Mace Windu really was that powerful, he should have been able to take on basically all the Separatists in the arena by himself.

 

I enjoy TCW more although CW has some amazing moments
Anakin’s Jedi Trial: PERFECT and extremely sad. It’s very chilling that the force outright told Anakin he would become Darth Vader. And that Anakin would still go dark side.
Anakin vs Ventress: An amazing battle that had the unexpected result of Anakin turning to the dark side mid battle.
Greivous vs. Shaak Ti: This battle cemented for me Shaak Ti’s status as my favorite council member.
Also it made Anakin and Padme’s relationship adorable, whereas it’s slightly more dysfunctional in TCW.

TWC took advantage of much needed character development. It also explored minor non-force sensitive characters that in my opinion have more important stories to tell than the Jedi and Sith. And many of the settings are amazing.

Dooku in TCW: I don’t really buy Dooku’s characterization as political idealist or that the Separatists are anything more than pawns to him. I mean, he’s a Sith, how nice can he be? He knows that his master is supporting the Republic. I think his objective was identical to Sidious, to destroy the Jedi, and he was in on all the plans.

Adi Gallia in TCW: I also wasn’t expecting Adi Gallias death, it made me very upset, which further emphasized how horrible Maul was. I thought that was well done. If it was a less liked character, the impact wouldn’t have been so powerful.

 

Apples to oranges. Although I like the artistic presence of Genndy's style in it the Microseries and Samurai Jack which was unique. It was always a show I'd put next to something like Danny Phantom. TCW's cinematic 3D animation raises the bar, IMO. If we call TCW a cartoon then its a more traditional action cartoon, IMO. I would compare TCW more to Sym-Biotic Titan when it comes to one of Genndy's show which is his take on the traditional action cartoon.

 

You could compare TCW to Dexter's Laboratory. It had experiments that went wrong and a protagonist with an annoying sister. :b

 

LOL. But Dee Dee was funny and so were Dexter's experiences (and so was Mercy Mission IMO). No! Dexter's Lab is superior to about any of the crackbaby cartoon crap on either CN or Nick though.

 

I voted for the 2003 microseries. As others have said, they are very different, and I generally like them about the same (meaning more than EU but less than the movies). My only real reason for voting for the microseries is that it's always fun to watch and it always stays moving towards its plot endpoint. TCW had some amazing visuals, but many episodes are just not fun to watch, and the series was kind of meandering in some vaguely forward motion towards some possible future plot endpoint.

 

YES, thank you.

My biggest disappointment with TCW (well, 2nd biggest, I suppose, only after the EU steamrolling) is that it became a complete wasted opportunity to explore some really interesting and compelling ideas, ideas that could even be simplified for younger audiences, too. Yes, there were a few sparse hints here and there, but by the by, the CIS and its leaders were essentially construed as bombastic, incompetent individuals who often performed actions just because "they are the against the Republic; they're the enemy."

The ideologies behind the entire war are truly fascinating, and admittedly, they weren't discussed that well in the PT films either. Fortunately, some of the EU has addressed some of these issues. But TCW really could have hit it out of the park if only they would have tried to. Count Dooku is a fascinating individual, yet his character was downright offensively portrayed in the TV series. We're talking about an entire Galactic Civil War here. Billions upon billions of individuals, countless planets, citizens, corporations, governments, and so forth. Many planets and people willingly chose to succeed from the Republic and join the CIS, because they viewed it as a better governing option. It was a way to fight and tear down the obscenely bloated, inefficient and corrupt Republic. It seems like in the series any planet that's part of the CIS was basically forced to join or fooled into joining.

There's another thread somewhere titled something along the lines of how the traditional "villains" are grossly misrepresented in TCW, and I completely agree. When this series first entered production, I was really hopeful and eager to see how the show would depict what AOTC's opening crawl told us, that there are, believe it or not, "heroes on both sides."

 

This scene tells you all you should know about the 2003 show. It isn't something you should take too seriously. It may have been fun to watch but the 2008 show is the much more serious show and the one that Lucas intended for the The war to be about.

 

Like the micro series better

Goes with the movies better. It doesn't pull things out of left field: Ahsoka (no offense) and go ruin a bunch of EU

Shows important things like Anakin's knighthood and his final trial. Nice foreshadowing in it.

I love his duel with Ventress.

He and Obi-Wan don't duel and meet up with Dooku on a weekly basis. Grevious is what I feel he should have been in the ROTS. He seems like the cyborg that's killed that many Jedi and not completely weak. Same with Dooku, I feel TCW made Dooku pretty weak also

We got more insight into Anakin and Padme's marriage I felt than we ever got in TCW

Threepio's gold plating is revealed and R2 is presented to Anakin

 

Very good discussion about why one series is better than the other. I hope my WoT had the intent of encouraging folks to go more in-depth in their criticisms and support. Whether you liked the micro-series more or TCW more, the bottom line is that neither is perfect but each has its own unique appeal.

So perhaps we can entertain the discussion further by speculating on what would make a good (if not better) animated television series, based on the compliments and critiques we've given TCW and CW in this thread. So based on what you liked and didn't like about CW and TCW, how would you improve upon them and incorporate these elements to the upcoming animated TV series?

Personally, depending on the era that Disney/LFL chooses to focus the new show on, I'd want it to tie tightly into the main plotline of that particular era (much like the micro-series tied AotC and RotS together rather neatly). For example, if the new series take place some years after the end of RotJ, you want it to introduce character facets and potential plotlines that would be revisited and expanded upon in the upcoming ST. It needs to be a good setup, and depending on the length of the show, avoid spending time off tangents while still giving us different types of stories exploring the many themes endemic to Star Wars. Give us that sense of scale and wonder; exploring many different planets, showing us beautiful and varied landscapes. Introduce many side characters that may or may not appear in the upcoming trilogy or spinoffs; much like TCW focused on different characters outside the Big Three, including villains like Asajj Ventress (who of course becomes more gray). Delve into the motivations of the characters; their dreams, desires, and fears. Give us plentiful action sequences, with badass duelists like in CW and awesome space battles like in TCW. Like how it was mostly done in TCW, discretely throw in a few PT, ST, and even EU references as a nod to longtime fans. Although this shouldn't be too much of a problem, don't contradict EU of the period that's already established (there may be a separate Disney continuity now). In tying into a potential new plot for the ST, you can even include some foreshadowing of events to come in the ST/spinoffs.

I imagine that the new animated show will be stylized like both the micro-series and TCW. They probably will do a detailed 2D animation since it's cheaper than the 3D used by TCW, which while beautiful and breathtaking at times, can be restrictive due to the lack of enough character models, backgrounds, etc. Ultimately I would love the new show to incorporate elements of its two predecessors; LFA really set the bar in animation with TCW, and it would be a shame if there was a significant regression in animation quality.

If they can incorporate even half of these elements into the new animated show, then I will have high hopes for its success.

 

I voted for TCW 2008, I prefered it because of the involvement of Lucas, the stories are well-written, the animation is great and it feels real and it fits perfectly in my point of view with AOTC and ROTS.
The Tartakovsky's clone wars is not in my book, I didn't like it, it didn't feel real and I don't like Tartakovsky style.

 

CW: This one was great for it's time and it still holds up. I like the stylistic design and it did have the right idea of how to portray the Clone Wars with rather chaotic battles going on on various planets. The first season was rather sporadic and there wasn't a coherent plot but the second season put more weight on the story which was something I liked so overall, the second half was better. While it's a pretty good action series, I feel that it put a slightly too big focus on the battles and a fast pace & had the characterizations and story take a back seat; the short length of the episodes, with, if I recall correctly, 3 minutes per episode in the first season and 12 minutes in the second season didn't help much either. The Jedi were also portrayed as overpowered superheroes and while it is sort of cool, I'm not really a big fan of it, especially now many years after it aired; Grievous was also similarily overpowered and could easily fight off numerous Jedi and clones & kill several of them. On a rewatch I've also noticed that a lot of stuff liked to blow up in big explosions for some reason and a few characters were also portrayed rather cartoony but overall, it's still a good show and not at all a bad one; I'll add that some of the lightsaber duels in it are still really quite good.

TCW: On to the latest show; the Clone Wars is still present and the show presented many conflicts and battles but this time around, more weight was put on the characterizations and the plots themselves than the action. The CGI animation has also been really good; from the start was rather stiff but it evolved and turned really quite impressive, with some great designs and shots presented throughout. We also got introduced to several new characters and several of those have been developed quite well, like Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano & both of those have seen quite a bit of character development. Another thing I liked was that it showed us stuff that happened away from the front lines of the war and also displayed other conflicts, like the Zillo Beast incident and the Trandoshan hunters kidnapping Ahsoka, which were nice changes of pace from the usual stuff that we think of when we think of the Clone Wars; there were also episodes focusing on some side characters, like C-3PO & R2-D2, and that added to the diversity of the show. Not all episodes have been great but the more part of them have and all the episodes where they got it right, they really got it right.

Winner: TCW is the superior show to me. It had a bigger focus on the stories and characterizations and incorporated action scenes really well; I definitely liked that we got several non-Clone Wars battle episodes and even some more political ones that were a nice change of pace and added more diversity to the series; to have a lot of battle-heavy episodes with clones, droids, violence and explosions would have gotten boring. While the animation in CW still holds up, I'm a little more partial to the CGI designs of TCW and the latter half of the series has been really good with those. I wouldn't say either show is perfect, but TCW is definitely more of the Star Wars I love.

 

And how can you take TCW seriously when you have:

Jar Jar pouncing around like a Jedi;
A Sith Lord getting his lightsaber stolen by a monkey;
Fan-favourite characters from the crew getting obvious special treatment (Ahsoka, Plo Koon);
Characters surviving certain death (Trench, Darth Maul);
Tons of inaccuracies (Lightsabers on Florrum, Ventress' lightsabers, clone troopers on Lola Sayu, etc.);
Numerous episodes that have nothing to do with what the show is supposed to be about;
Constant disregard for previously established continuity;
Ziro and Sy Snootles smooching;
Grievous getting his behind handed to him by a few Gungans;
R2 and C-3PO getting kidnapped while going shopping;
R2 and C-3PO's other fairy-tale adventures;
Obi-Wan's ridiculous transformation and quick hair regrowth;
Horrid names (Ima-Gun Di... seriously?);
The whole D-Squad arc fiasco.

 

How is this supposed to be not serious ?
This is serious.
In what a "special treatment" makes something not serious ? They choose to tell more about the story of a character than another, that's a choice and not something ridiculous.
I disagree first with the inaccuracies that actually does not exist.
Then, constant disregard for the EU continuity but not for the Lucas continuity and TCW is in Lucas continuity.
Furthermore, numerous episodes that have nothing to do with the war but have something to do with the period because it happens during the same period.
An army of Gungans VS Grievous, it's normal that Grievous lost the fight, he is not a super hero or invicible so that's quite serious again.
R2 and C-3PO getting kidnapped while shopping, well it can happen to everyone, Bane was watching them and was waiting the good time to capture them, that does make the thing serious.
Ima-Gun Di makes quite a SW-like name.
Hair regrowth very fast and they don't say the period that happens between this arc and the following arc when he see Obi again.

 

lol Anakin eating bugs = micro-series not serious.

 

You always know that they will have the right answers, the very cool moves, etc. over and over and over again. A 16-year-old is being treated as smart and powerful as a Jedi Master.

How do the inaccuracies that I mentioned not exist? Do your research and watch those episodes again before commenting.

Did we really need an episode where Ahsoka lost her lightsaber, did we really need Maul coming back? (As much as I loved his story-line and character).

No, it's not normal. It was pathetic.

I better watch my back next time I go to the shop then.

...

Due to the many episodes in TCW and timeline placement, it couldn't have been long. Not long enough to grow the hair and beard back to how it was before IMO.

 

Why a 16 years old couldn't be smart ?
Yeah they do not exist those inaccuracies, I indeed rewatched the episodes before commenting ( and I know them by heart ) and they are not in the episodes.
We needed Maul coming back, he is was one of the best vilains so he had to come back.
Pathetic ? Grievous is not a hero, he is a coward so how could he kill the entire gungan army ?
Do you know how many people are kidnapped every year ? A lot !
It was probably 2 months and in 2 months it's possible.
After all this is all a point of view and the discussion can never end because each side will always find an argument to protect its view.