Retrospective on the Antlion Mines

Yes, I am writing about Half-Life 2 for the third time in a row. I promise this will be the last time for now. Also [insert "Valve can't count to three" joke here].
Yesterday I achieved the Little Rocket Man achievement in Episode Two and I wrote about it, and before that I also wrote a bit about the Get Some Grub achievement, which requires going through the Victory Mine, which is infested by Antlions.
While playing through that section for the first time I wasn't really a fan of it, and especially not after playing it for the Get Some Grub achievement, which requires to squish every single grub in the game. However, when I had to play it for the third time, without having to worry about the grubs or anything and just being able to replay it again, I ended up liking it a lot more.
Honestly I think the only reason I wasn't a big fan of it was that the grubs just generally unsettled me, and it didn't help that I kinda had to focus on them. But after I got the achievement for squishing them all and didn't have to think about them anymore, I enjoyed the area a lot!
It's very similar to what happened to me with Ravenholm, where at first I was scared and occasionally confused when going through it, but now after completing it plus its achievements, I adore it!
Due to me not having to worry about the grubs I could also appreciate its design more! The (Acid) Antlion Workers are a very challenging but fun enemy to fight, as they are very agile compared to the standard Antlion Soldiers. However, my favourite part of the entire section was definitely the Antlion Guardian, which chases you around the mines and you have to actively avoid, which I'm pretty sure is the only enemy of this kind in the whole game (except maybe the Snipers but those you are kinda meant to kill eventually).
In the end, this was a section of the game which upon replaying in a much more free way, I've actually become a lot more of a fan of! And although I still dislike the achievement tied to this part of the game, I definitely don't share those feelings with the mine itself.