If you'd had any other dude roll up and do his job there, any of the other Rebel council leader folks, I wouldn't have thought, "Hey, where's Bail Organa?" You know what I mean?

They chose to make it him because fans know him, or because there's some one-line reference in Star Wars that I'm forgetting where Leia says that her father specifically gave her the plans (which could be the case, I'm open to that).

Again, I'm fine with his inclusion because it was relatively unobtrusive... but if the movie had relegated them to the shadows and/or casual mentions and let the new characters have more time, I think the movie would've benefitted.

But I think I'm just arguing the same point over and over now, lol. As I said above, I know a lot of people won't agree with my take on this, because they loved the film and they loved the connective tissue. And I know the connective tissue is there specifically for the fans who will pick up on it, and I'm not part of that audience since I'm a casual fan, so I know I'm an outsider here.