"Exosquad" had a very serious approach to the plot with several intertwined narrative threads and a number of characters displaying a full spectrum of human emotions, relationships and experiences, such as friendship, love, hatred, personal tragedies, treachery and taking responsibility for others. Michael Edens, the story writer and editor in the second season, credited the show's realism for much of its success. Prejudice and racism are recurring themes in the series, as both Terrans and Neosapiens are shown to harbor hatred and a sense of superiority towards each other. Interplanetary politics and space war typical for military science fiction were presented with an assumption of the fictional future history of the Solar System up to that point. The Able Squad's duties became more spread out as the second season unfolded, and there were separate story arcs on Mars, Venus, Earth, and in space. Espionage and intrigue were often featured instead of straightforward battles.