The human race as the invaders
The human race is the villain in the narrative who invades another planet distorting their fabric of society. In the story, humans as the antagonists overturn a native society by corrupting their ideals and culture. Earth is not being invaded by extraterrestrial beings intending to exploit their resources but the other way round. In that, the common trope of humankind or Earth being invaded is subverted in the narrative. The author incorporates the green-furred Athsheans as the victims and their resources getting exploited in the process.
The irony of colonization
The narrative integrates the historical forms of imperialism such as the colonization of a native culture. In this universe, humans are scientifically advanced with an interplanetary civilization. Therefore concepts of colonization seem ironical to practice by an advanced human race in the future. It is satirical that slavery and colonization are upheld by the human race on other planets in the story.
Environmental insensitivity
Earth has been exploited to the extent of lacking any natural resources to sustain the human race. The story also emphasizes the corporate greed that fostered environmental exploitation and destruction of the ecosystem. In the narrative, the planet Athshe has vast resources that are deficient on the planet Terra (Earth). Rather than learn from their mistakes and to be ecologically sensitive, humans choose to exploit and destroy the Athsheans resources for logging.
The irony of violence
Initially, the Athsheans are a peaceful race that sustains non-aggressive approaches in their civilization. Therefore on invasion, humans impose mass violence in order to inhabit the planet. The native race chooses to retaliate and unleash violence as well to counter the humans. However, the humans eventually yield and withdraw their violent approaches. The Athsheans fall into the cycle of violence as they commit much more violent acts than the invading humans.
