Karna is snobbish, abrasive, and quick to insult aliens (or anyone for that matter) who are lower than her in social status or whom she feels have not done a proper job of assimilating themselves. She is also constantly and shrilly criticizing other aliens, the government, society at large, fate, and just about anything else that she can think of for the lack of social advancement among aliens. She hates NieA with a deep passion, partly because she feels NieA’s “loafer life-style” is damaging  to the image of aliens everywhere, but mostly because NieA seems to constantly get the better of her in their ongoing battle of egos. To Karna, NieA is the manifestation of all that is keeping aliens from advancing socially with her odd and outright-lazy behavior.

 To borrow a phrase, one might say that Karna protests too much. Karna seems to be a nearly exact polar opposite of NieA; where NieA is eternally defiant of social expectations and almost completely unconcerned about how others view her, Karna is fixated on these issues. She is always upset about her lack of recognition within society and seems to firmly believe that if only others would work as hard as she does, she (and everyone else) would be much better off. One also can’t help but wonder if Karna’s repeating reminders to everyone that she is an “elite” alien might not originate with her not being quite as “elite” as she would like to be: at one point, she complains to her boss at China Miller’s that the Alien Registration Office isn’t processing her application for caste status fast enough. Can it be that Karna is taking advantage of the apparent reorganization of the alien caste system by engaging in a little “social climbing” and that she is concerned others might drag her back down again? Or is her frustrated arrogance born from the fact that she once belonged to the no-longer recognized Over castes and that she is struggling to keep the aliens motivated so they can become a more active part of human society and keep herself from losing anymore stature? (NieA thinks she knows the answer: Karna just wants a state-subsidized apartment and once she gets one, she’ll shut up.) Regardless of the origins of her “elite” status and whether it has been increased or reduced, questioning her devotion to her self-declared crusade to get the same respect and social standing for aliens as that enjoyed by humans, or implying that she is anything less than the hard-working, dedicated “elite” alien she says she is, are two hot-buttons that will make her explode if pushed.

 Regardless of the origins of her defensiveness over her status in society, Karna has a number of problems that may well make her as much an outcast as NieA in the eyes of some of her peers. While she has an impressive antenna, it tends to malfunction and send her into a daze without warning; that can’t be good for someone who wants to be a leader and organizer of her fellows.

 A final bit of quirkiness about Karna is that while she and Mayuko may well have had common ground as far as commiserating about NieA’s bad habits and slothful ways—even if Mayuko would never be as nasty in her criticism as Karna is—the two will probably never be anything but enemies, through no fault of Mayuko. Karna developed a crush on Genzo the moment she laid eyes on him, and she is now intensely jealous of Mayuko.