Luceno obviously didn't like the idea of Sidious killing Plagueis in his sleep for some reason (because Sith Lords would never stoop so low), so he decided to do a compromise version where Plagueis just got sloppy drunk so he could be awake while Sids monologued him to death. Honestly, I usually like Luceno, but if he had just stuck to what was established and written a scene where Palps coldly sneaks up on his sleeping master and literally stabs him in the back without a second thought that ending would have been far less goofy. Bonus points if he was sleeping in the first place because he had just expended a whole lot of energy bringing Palps back from the brink of death ("he could even keep the ones he cared about....from dying").* *I think this idea came from someone who posts here. I forget who, but it was a good idea. Much better than the Sith Roofie Attack we got.
That and the fact that Plagueis never slept, he must've been the Star Wars Universe's biggest grouch.
I thought Palpatine got Plagueis drunk because that was literally the only way Plagueis would sleep. So what Palpatine told Anakin was true...from a certain point of view. Which is too bad because the real version would have been hilarious and made that Squid Lake scene better. "He saved others, but was too wasted to save himself. His apprentice, on the other hand, saved him from a Death-Star-sized headache and a morning trip to Dex's for sliders. Sad really, because as powerful as he was, he just couldn't hold his liquor."
I gotta wonder how much Lucas knows about Plagueis's fate in the novel. Surely someone must have crossed the alcohol scenario by him before the book was published.
I don't know, I honestly don't think they would have thought to have bothered. They even didn't have to run it by George to give Luke a kid, did they? Yeah, but it's not really killing someone in their sleep if they're awake long enough for their attacker to brag at length about how great he is before finishing the job. I mean, I guess the way it stands now, Palpatine was just stretching the truth, but it makes no sense for him to stretch the truth in that way. I'd let it slide, but that scene was just so goofy when it could have been so cold-blooded and ruthless instead. It's a pretty important scene to get right.... edit: The aftermath was pretty good, at least.
