You have interesting thoughts. One observation re. this one:
After seeing them in the trailer (beside a CGI Chewie!), I thought ugh.
In fact they weren’t shoved in our face too much - I was expecting them to get baby-Groot style adulation - so wasn’t too bothered. Then, I read on the IMDB trivia page for TLJ that they were originally introduced because Skellig Micheal, the Irish island where Luke hides and they originate, is covered with nesting puffins, and they were in all the shots… and apparently it was easier to CGI them into something else than to digitally remove them!
Dunno if that’s quite true, but it made them a little more palatable to me.
Side notes:
- Did anyone else think the “caretaker” Deep One-style aliens on said island looked suspiciously like the big fish that Luke speared on his fishing expedition?
- Peter Mayhew was listed in the credits as “Chewbacca consultant.” Nice.
ETA: I see @agies has already posted the puffin background info, sorry
