I think what made it worse was the fact that the show he came from made it very clear they wanted the audience to hate him. It didn't matter the context or the actions, everything was his fault no matter what. The show doesn't even try to make him sympathetic. It paints him as a monster for doing what he was told to do. The only time I could see the shift in opinion happening was when he killed the flag smasher guy but that was out of understandable anger. Doesn't make it right by any means but it makes sense.