The other side of it, is that clearly there are people here who have been able to parse what the author's been doing with the story. So saying "only the author can know" is, frankly, not quite the truth either.
And yet there are several very loud persistent voices who seem either unable or unwilling to grasp that, and then turn around and call it "poor writing". That starts becoming less of a difference of opinion and more of a seemingly insistent refusal to actually consider that, just maybe, they've had it objectively wrong this whole time.
This isn't saying the author's writing a 10/10 story from an objective, unassailable standpoint. But actually getting details incorrect, building a faulty argument off those errors, then arguing that the author can't write as an extrapolation from there, is imbecilic.
That is not what I meant by "only the author knows."
Readers can interpret the story, obviously. I already gave my interpretation above, and I think it's actually fairly close to yours: Karina might believe revenge will somehow fix the actual wound underneath, even when she doesn't really understand what the wound is herself.
The interview also supports that Karina hides feelings even from herself, so this interpretation is not coming from nowhere. But it still doesn't tell us exactly what those hidden, or not understood, feeling are. It doesn't directly say that Karina never wanted revenge, or that what she truly wants is to repair her relationship with Aurora. That is still an interpretation.
And that is my point. Someone can see the same hints and still not be convinced that Karina's revenge was only hiding some deeper wish to make up with Aurora. That doesn't automatically means they objectively misread the story.
There is also difference between what the author intended and how clearly it was communicated.
We see young Karina being warm to Aurora and giving her the toy, which was hers. Then Karina is called cold, almost everyone hates her, saying she's hard to deal with, her relationship with Aurora is basically dead, and revenge becomes the thing keeping her going. But something between those states feels missing.
Did years of bullying make her cold? Was she actually cold, cruel, or was she only formal because she was trying to be the proper future queen? Why did everyone around her see her that way? Maybe it will be explained later. Maybe this ambiguity is intentional. But right now, it still feels like a part of the setup is missing.
That doesn't mean the whole story is bad. It might still become clear later. But saying that the storytelling didn't establish something well is not the same as refusing to engage with the story.
And several people agreeing with one interpretation doesn't suddenly make it objective fact. Unless you are secretly Akiko Kanawo, telepathy is not part of critical reading. You have an interpretation, same as the rest of us.
