It's Crazy How Few People Talk About How Clearly Codependent Anakin & Obi-wan Were - They Were Two Halves

it's crazy how few people talk about how clearly codependent anakin & obi-wan were - they were two halves of the same whole, so without anakin, obi-wan cannot exist as a complete person, and without obi-wan, anakin cannot exist as a whole person either, because in order for him to be himself he needs obi-wan as, again, they are part of eachother. their two identites are so comingled they cannot be separted and be how they were, because a huge part of who they were was eachother. obi-wan will always be anakin's and anakin will always be obi-wan's so they both had to become someone new. because jedis' relationships, on a deep level, are practically nonexitent they had to be everything for eachother, neither of them had anyone else to fill the roles of their lives. obi-wan was - had to be, wanted to be - anakin's master, his teacher, his father, his brother, his best friend. i mean, they are even potrayed as light/dark, and we both now the light cannot be without the dark, and vice versa. they even failed to excavate eachother from their focus as reformed individuals - vader obsessed over obi-wan, was only able to show glimmers of his past self when in his presence, obi-wan was so dedicated and devestated by anakin's change/fall/perceived death that he literally locked himself in a desert simply to watch over what remained of anakin (his children), thought about him 24-7, at least in the novels, and actually hallucinated him as some twisted manifestation of guilt, love, grief. obi-wan, the perfect jedi, forsaked his vow to form no attachments simply because he loved anakin too much to do otherwise, his one flaw was always and will always be anakin, and his pure, simple, unadultered love for him, despite everything. anakin latched onto obi-wan and obi-wan never found the strength to pull him off. the loss of eachother destroyed the both of them (though of course anakin was also destroyed by padme, in his mind). even before the betrayal anakin would always want obi-wan to simply stay when he had to go on missions, and obi-wan could not act the same and constently thought about anakin when away - he even in a novel offhandedly mentioned that it was super strange to not have anakin fighting with him, like he forgot he needed both hands. their bond, affection, was deep enough that even after anakin was knighted they stayed close, became closer than brothers, even after death they both sought eachother out. obi-wan gave his life and death to anakin, and anakin the same. obi-wan's death belonged to vader, as the last part of anakin that he needed to kill, and anakin's entire life was centered around obi-wan. this is PURE MADNESS.

Maybe the most devastating element of the prequels

Obi-Wan & Anakin | My Brother Outside the House in Hell — Dustin Pearson

The first thing about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that he’s not about sticking to the rules for their own sake, but because he believes in the benefits of overall structure and guidance. This is why he’s willing, at more than one point, to entirely leave the Jedi Order, because it’s not about the letter of the law for him, but about the spirit of it. He’s perfectly willing to step away from the “rules” if he believes there is a greater good.  Most of the time he does believe in the structure of the Order and their rules, he upholds them because they work. The second thing about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that he has a massive blind spot by the name of Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan is a smart guy, we see this over and over in the various canon installments, yet he entirely misses the things that are going wrong with Anakin–why?  How in the GALAXY can someone even reasonably intelligent miss that Anakin has all these problems?  Because Obi-Wan sort of does and sort of doesn’t.  He knows that Anakin has feelings for Padme, is probably having an affair with her, he’d have to be entirely dim not to notice! But he doesn’t say anything because he believes that the Jedi Order is still the best place for Anakin, the best structure for someone who desperately needs that in his life. He doesn’t say anything because it makes Anakin happy and Obi-Wan loves Anakin and wants him to be happy. He doesn’t say anything because Obi-Wan is not beholden to the letter of the law, when the spirit of the law is more important. He doesn’t say anything because the entire reason that Obi-Wan misses Anakin’s flaws is because he loves Anakin and is entirely biased about him, he cannot see that Anakin is falling further than Obi-Wan thinks he is because Obi-Wan believes in him, because Obi-Wan cares so much about him that he can’t be objective about him. So much of what’s obvious to the audience about Anakin’s fall entirely passes Obi-Wan by (despite that he is a smart character) because Anakin is Obi-Wan’s weakness, he’s the one person that Obi-Wan lets his feelings (his hopes, his wants, his love) get the better of him over.  Anakin is the one that Obi-Wan always made allowances for because Anakin was special. And that’s the tragedy of it, that Obi-Wan loved Anakin too much to be objective about him.

My favorite thing about Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling on Mustafar is that they even fight like brothers.

EWAN MCGREGOR | Vanity Fair | 2024