You wished people would reach a conclusion based on non-existent evidence? Can't say I agree.
Alright, I'll give u what made me reach this conclusion. Like heck, i remember reaching this conclusion back in chapter 5!
Based on the comment i quoted:
she never wanted revenge in the first place
Starting with that Karina was never actually evil. Like, i don't know what evil means to you people but to me it means someone despicable and irredeemable. To my understanding, she was/is a kind person because:
- Her whole childhood up to when she arrived at the castle, like to me her being evil in the castle felt more like an act to fit w the "noble princess" role rather than her true personality given how she is described in her childhood. Her being evil is mostly said by other ppl and is highly speculated that Orlando started those rumors to get rid of her. Like, i truly believe she was mean(the act) but ppl just exaggerated how mean she was.
-First on chapter 1 when she decided to help puppy Reshtoka
-Reading to the children back in chapter 3 and doing it bc it remind her of her sister
-And her interactions with Reshtoka up to the end of chapter 4. Even tho she's stating that she will use the wolf tribe for her own means, the manga makes the effort to show her body language showing her true emotions(like when reshtoka showed her the room she made for her)
-This is more a me thing but, besides the mentions of her acting as such, Karina was kinda not shown acting as a villain(besides when she got mad that her sister redecorated her castle) emphasis in shown, i mean like, when a character is plotting something you can usually tell their evil intent from how the panel is depicting them, with Karina she was mostly shown being sad or mad.
-Other people constantly mentioning she is/was kind
from an older comment:
The way these nobles describe Karina doesn't sound like anything we've seen before, So, either her parents installed this behavior onto her, abt "how royalty should and are expected to behave"(most likely) , or she's very good at switching personalities. specially odd bc it's not just one or two people but everyone seemed to say the same.
Why do i believe she was just grieving?
It's been shown(and stated chapter 10 page 5) several times that karina is haunted by her past, is been shown that Karina didn’t want to do the whole princess thing(chapter 3 page 3), something that is revelated on later chapters is that Karina was a perfect daughter a people pleaser(chapter 7 page 6 and most of chap 14) so to my understanding she was happy (knowingly) sacrificing herself for other people's happiness, but now is faced w that no matter how much she gave no one was happy and she even got exiled. Taking in consideration chapter 3 page 3, one would assume this was not the first time she had these kinds of thoughts, so while she was trying to make everyone happy, thoughts like these simmered in the back of her head and i think the broken engagement and exile was the last drop and her anger went to the person that all this scenarios had in common,her sister. (which is kinda funny bc it was mostly her parents and just like Orlando instead of blaming the parents, she blames the next best thing, Aurora.
Also to add, Karina's hatred toward aurora is biased bc not one of the memories(that are supposed to be shaped in her own perception) do we see Aurora acting in a malicious manner, which is possible like in chapter 5 page 19.
so taking this in consideration, she's mad and sad that her sacrifices were in vain and that no matter what she did she ended up alone. very typical behavior when you're hurting is want hurt others as they did you, so this is where the revenge part come from. she thinks that if she does this big thing all her problems will go away, stated on chapt 10 pages 5-6 she's wondering if she truly will be happy after doing so.
She never really stated a solid plan rather than hurt them and "take everything back". So, from my point of view I was never expecting her to do any real damage that's why when she enacted her revenge and only kinda just gave them a scare i wasn't surprised. Now I'll say, i don't know what meaning the ring has for her to take it, but if it's what other ppl have been saying and it's some wedding relic, then in a sense she did exactly what she said. hurt them by stealing her engagement back, altho yeah, the nobles really didn't care.
As to your other point w Orlando, you're right, i kinda don't give too much thought to his actions bc to me he's a jerk and will choose be mean unprompted. Karina's parent weren't an obstacle bc them not wanting to give Aurora up wasn't a known thing to everyone(to my knowledge) so when they offered Karina instead of aurora bc she's sick is not like he could object, also it's not like karina's parents lived at the castle, so we don't know his attitude towards them at the time. however, do you know had to live at the castle 24/7? Karina. Like i said, it's no wonder he pushed his anger towards her.
Look, you can take this however you like, after all is speculation and my reasoning will most likely change when more info and context is revealed, like there are stuff that still don't make sense to me in the story, but saying people reached similar conclusions with zero or made up evidence is wild bc the subtext (and outright text) is there.
(any mistakes are my own, I'm really tired and putting this into words was really tiresome)
Edit: fixed some grammar 😭