History Literature / ThreeWorldsCollide

* {{Irony}}: Upon encountering the aliens, Akon obsessively hopes that they are aware of the PrisonersDilemma, as fighting them or being destroyed himself are the last thing he wants. [[spoiler:At the end, Akon has an opportunity to pick the "good" solution, destroying the system they are in, and allowing all races to continue unchanged. Instead, the crew (with Akon indisposed to weigh in), end up picking the "evil" solution - keep humanity safe, but throw Babyeaters under the bus[[labelnote:*]]It's a pretty nice bus, with lots of sex. They also throw a few billion humans under a [[EarthShatteringKaboom much worse bus]][[/labelnote]]. ]]
* JustInTime: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed.]] [[spoiler:Some of the ships that are evacuating as many people as they can don't leave in time and get fried by the supernova. They kill ten billion people because of the unknown risk that the aliens might otherwise show up in time, which there is little real basis to think would happen. Waiting six hours would have saved them. The author presents this as the correct decision.]]

* MultipleEndings: Including interactivity - the author announced at the split point that the true ending would be determined by whether anyone came up with the correct solution in the comments to the post before the critical update.

* ValuesDissonance: InUniverse -- the plot is "Future Humans" (as different from us as a typical alien race from more typical scifi) make first contact with two utterly alien species at the same time. Then the Human command crew spend twenty-four hours discussing ValuesDissonance.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Ironically reversed in regards to humanity and the Superhappies - it's the humans who have to ask "What is 'untranslatable 2'?"

* YouAreWhatYouHate: The Confessor was once vehemently opposed to society's loosening standards on the concept of consensual sex but later admits he was a violent rapist as a teenager.

* CultureClash: A clash between humans and two other species of StarfishAliens, the babyeaters and the superhappies, with each race having a morality at complete tangents to the other two, with the babyeaters doing [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the obvious]] and the superhappies being completely hedonistic. Oh, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance plus future humans to most present humans, since they think rape is enjoyable for both parties.]]

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: An updated version of the Aliens as Communists vs. Aliens as Nazis dichotomy for the internet age. The Babyeaters, with their rather extreme malthusian take on reproduction, inflexibly moralistic and often essentialistic culture and technological inferiority compared to the capitalistic humans ([[spoiler:with one very important exception]]), not to mention their [[BugWar insectoid appearance]] echoing Creator/RobertAHeinlein's earlier likening of [[Literature/StarshipTroopers leftists to insects]], read like an unflattering caricature of the modern American "SJW" Left. The hedonistic, over-sexualized and amorally utilitarian Superhappies, meanwhile, represent Yudkowsky and his followers' own extropian, techno-libertarian philosophy cranked up to eleven.

* ShoutOut: "The aliens will consider this one of their great historical works of literature, like ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' or ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''..." The Superhappies also have a ship officer with the rank "kiritsugu" which is the given name of a major character from ''LightNovel/FateZero'' who had a background role in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''.

* CrapsackOnlyByComparison: The Superhappies are absolutely horrified at the idea of an advanced civilisation that allows its citizens to feel any form of unhappiness instead, considering that a dystopia so terrible that it must be conquered and rebuilt according to Superhappy principles for its own good.

* CultureClash: a clash between humans and two other species of StarfishAliens, the babyeaters and the superhappies, with each race having a morality at complete tangents to the other two, with the babyeaters doing [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the obvious]] and the superhappies being completely hedonistic. Oh, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance plus future humans to most present humans, since they think rape is enjoyable for both parties.]]

* GroinAttack: [[spoiler:PlayedForLaughs. In the final chapter, the Lady Sensory knees the Lord Pilot in the groin after he grabs her breast. This after the Lady Sensory admits she often fantaszied about doing such a thing.]]

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: An updated version of the Aliens as Communists vs. Aliens as Nazis dichotomy for the internet age. The Babyeaters, with their rather extreme malthusian take on reproduction, inflexibly moralistic and often essentialistic culture and technological inferiority compared to the capitalistic humans ([[spoiler:with one very important exception]]), not to mention their [[BugWar insectoid appearance]] echoing Creator/RobertAHeinlein's earlier likening of [[Literature/StarshipTroopers leftists to insects]], read like an unflattering caricature of the modern American "SJW" Left. The hedonistic, over-sexualized and amorally utilitarian Superhappies, meanwhile, represent Yudkowsky and his followers' own extropian, techno-libertarian philosophy cranked UpToEleven.