The scene where she tells Eunie to "cease and desist" is a clever reference to the fact that she is a Nintendo chatacter.

Ino’s quest made me realize why it was so hard to explain how XC2 works to my friends. Thanks, Monolith.

Tora continues to be the most important character in all of Xenoblade

It's criminal that we don't get XC2 battle music when Ino is in the party after completing her ascension quest.

I wish Ino had special dialogue when you go to the room Nia was hanging out in. During Xenoblade 2, Poppi was able to detect and find Lila because they are both artificial blades so Poppi could detect Lila's ether furnace. Since we see that Poppi is in the furnace looking thing in Nia's room and she has dialogue saying she's back when you take her there (seemingly referring to Poppi), it would've been nice if Ino said something even as simple as "huh, I detect an unknown presence" when you take her there as a reference to xenoblade 2's story and Poppi's presence.

It makes perfect sense to me that the Nopon and their relationships are on the same level, to Agnian/Kevesi soldiers, as wild animals like the Armu. We see Noah realise that little Armu grow up into big Armu over time, and even if an Armu learns to talk, you aren't going to suddenly realise you're supposed to be like the weird dinosaur cow unless somebody gives you reason to think otherwise.

If you take Ino out of the party and then talk to her at the caravan, she mentions her trust going up thousands of points because you talk to her. Clever.

Fun fact: Ino is the only character in XC3 that has her blades visible sheathed on her back outside of combat, just like playable characters on XC2 had their weapons always visible. I thought it was a nice little touch.

My takeaway from this video: Nopon know what sex is and refuse to tell soldiers of Keves and Agnus

I like how Ino's design is heavily based on Pyra. Her swords look like Pyra's shoulder tails and she shares her design colours (green and red most prominently with a few golden accents) as well as the black part of Pyra's half of Aion.

18:15 the things that convince me that Ino was built or at least activated in Aionios is that she never mentions anything about having been in another world, and all the knowledge she has of Blades and Drivers seem like things she was told about by Oosoo rather than things she experienced. Plus, him telling her to not associate with humans wouldn't have made sense in Alrest.

As for her having lost power in the past, I figured it was in a previous battle with the Nopon Eater that left her damaged.

18:51 another option is that she simply doesn't know about Poppi. Oosoo told her Ino was the strongest, and she believed him.

It is also to note that The Archsage of definitive edition summons you to a tomb just like the one on Bionis Shoulder.

I believe that Nopon are a species brought on by the conduit as a sort of seeding the universe or colonization. The Conduit might as well be an ark made by Nopon.

The moment that the Xenoblade 2 fight theme started was the moment I heard "Don't forget me." and "Think you can take me?".

For people who were surprised that Noah became Ino’s Driver, remember that she’s mostly red and Noah’s signature color is red.

I think they made another little funny reference with the cutscene of them interacting with the challenge mode portal : both Lanz and Riku get curious and investigate it, leading to the party getting teleported, and funnily enough, it was both Reyn and Tora in XC1 and XC2 that approached the portal first in their own game.
It might not be intentional, but I figured it was a neat ref (although they probably should've picked Manana instead of Riku since she's from Agnus, fitting Tora more)

The other option for Ino saying Drivers and Blades WERE one in body and soul is because Drivers and Blades aren't really a thing anymore, but I like your idea as well!

Three points to make about things:
- I always saw Mio's red-hair braid as a reference to Miyabi, not necessarily her connection to Noah, as her former off-seer partner has a red knot of string (albeit similar to those in the rest of the Agnus off-seer design, and in Nia's outfits in both XC2 and XC3) in the same place in her hair. Also, Mio didn't have her braid in her flashbacks including upto the end of the Colony Omega incident, making it likely Mio took up the practice after the loss of Miyabi to either honour her directly or as the embodiment of the off-seer concept.
- There is another direct reference to romance/marriage before the chapter 5 reveal aside from the one in this DLC, as the Tirkin alliance fail-able quest for Colony Tau has you run into a Tirkin bride and groom to be, while the Tirking (likely father of the bride) disapproves of their union.
- Also in colony Tau are the 3 Nopon "stack" (from colony 30 I believe?) who are listed as brothers, and the NPC nopon mechanic in Colony 9 reluctantly admits to being their sister if you talk to her after you meet them. In this case though, you have to free both Tau and 9 from the flame-clock so restrictions / taboos on revealing such details to soldiers probably have little weight, and the soldiers are free to be curious about these things they normally don't think about.

I do think this dlc actually explains how Blades in 3 work for Ouroboros. They can probably access the data of the people resting in Origin and can essentially become their driver. Kinda crazy

33:23 Ah yes, the kid was "well taken care of"

One funny theory I have is that maybe the reason the nopon caravans have so much freedom is because Z  he's afraid of the nopon Arcsage.