I can't speak for the secret makers? But I genuinely didn't like the guy when he was around. He was an idiot and annoyed the HELL out of me.

Once he died and you learned about more who he was? How his bravado was a front and Simon was just as much his inspiration as Kamina was Simon's? Then I really started to like the guy. He's not my favorite by any means (I love the entire cast not named Nia, really XD; ) but he's up there, and I really do like him.

But when he was THERE, I couldn't stand him.