mars

we have to remember, palpatine's end goal with anakin, what he wants from anakin and why he engages with anakin at all, isn't to get a spoiled egomaniac with god powers. what palpatine wants is a perpetually terrifying second-in-command, a butcher on tap, a guy who listens to palpatine and only to palpatine and will do explicitly and only palpatine's will. spoiled egomaniac is the neophyte stage of the personality palpatine is invested in installing his sith apprentice project with. palpatine's self-appointed job probably imcludes shit like:

intentionally sabotaging anakin's relationship with obi-wan, sharing "stories he's heard" of obi-wan saying things about anakin that are negative, stories that never happened. subtly questioning anakin's faith in obi-wan, constantly implying or outright saying that obi-wan doesn't understand or care for anakin the way that palpatine does. when anakin vents about something obi-wan did, trying to understand why, palpatine takes an opportunity to paint obi-wan's motivations as cold and negative.

the above, but with the entire jedi council. emphasis on stuff like "no one understands you like i do" because it is part of palpatine's end goal that anakin trusts him despite all evidence that he shouldn't and that anakin, successfully corralled into Evil, will do whatever palpatine wants him to do. because that's what palpatine wants him for.

virtue signaling, in the sense that anakin as a child had clear goals about helping people, and a key to this is that palpatine can't just have anakin's trust, he has to have anakin's loyalty. palpatine has to Deep Sigh and Navel Gaze about how it sometimes feels like he's the only one trying to get anything positive done, how the world is on his shoulders. political moves palpatine makes that anakin disagrees with, palpatine either convinces anakin it wasn't actually up to him (it was), or that it's the first step to something better - if anakin questions too much, palpatine turns the tables, and starts acting hurt that he has extended so much trust and empathy to someone who will give him none, and then anakin ages nine to twenty three is an apologetic mess. easy to skip over any actual disagreement by creating a situation to pin the blame on the other person.

controlling both what anakin says about palpatine to anyone else - whether it's through something like the above, feigning hurt that anakin would discuss private conversation, and thus guilting anakin into behaving the way that benefits palpatine, or if it's by implying that if anyone knew about how much better palpatine is for anakin than they are, they would move to terminate the relationship. anakin doesn't want that, because it's an important source of emotional validation for him. it's excellent leverage to keep a kid quiet, if you're absolutely fucking evil.

convincing anakin that palpatine himself is frail and in need of defense, because palpatine is a public figure making public decisions that people around anakin are going to question. palpatine doesn't want that. the earlier tactic of Deep Sighing About How He Is The Last Good Politician is only one way, but i bet another way is playing up his age, alluding constantly to health problems that don't exist so anakin's in a heightened state of thinking of palpatine as just a gentle, suffering old man that people are unnecessarily harsh on. so even if anakin somewhat agrees with obi-wan saying "palpatine did [x] shitty thing" he is never going to agree with the concept of disagreeing with palpatine. palpatine as a guy in desperate need of anakin's protection is a really attractive angle for him, because again, what he wants is a devotee who follows his commands alone.

and also a whole bunch of other really shady shit that comes with attending the sith apprentice build-a-darth

He starts this when Anakin is a Padawan and Obi-Wan has to go on a mission without him. He records himself telling Ani how proud he is of him and that he thinks that he'll be a wonderful Jedi.

Then every few years he makes a new video; he never throws the older ones out, instead he collects them and hides them in a box under his bed.

At the beginning of the war he makes a new video; it's right after Anakin's knighting ceremony - Obi-Wan is sent off world the next day, so he won't have a chance to film it later - so he's more emotional than usual. This is the first video where he tells Anakin he loves him. And then, because he doesn't think Anakin will ever see this or care, he confesses he's in love with Anakin.

And then he also cries a bit about not receiving Anakin's Padawan braid, something he'd been looking forward to. He tells Anakin he had this silly fantasy where they would exchange braids (Obi-Wan kept his own all these years) because it would only be fitting, since Anakin has taught him just as much as Obi-Wan taught him.

Then, during the war, he makes another video. He tells Anakin how very proud he is of him, that Anakin is his pride and joy, that he's a wonderful Jedi and Master to Ahsoka; that he loves him more than anything, and only wishes for Anakin to be happy, even if it isn't with him.

At the end of that last video, he adds a rushed addition - shortly before the Rako Hardeen mission, he records himself again to tell Anakin what's going on. He says he's sorry he couldn't tell him sooner, but his initial reaction had to be genuine; he tells Anakin he loves him and that he'll be home soon.

While Obi-Wan is pretending to be Rako Hardeen, Anakin finds the recordings. He watches the most recent one first but he doesn't watch it to the end. It's too difficult to see his Master talking about how much he loves Anakin, and he can't take that right now. So he never sees the part where Obi-Wan tells him about the mission, and thinks his Master is truly gone.

Over the duration of the mission, Anakin obsessively watches the recordings, all the way to the first one. He doesn't know what to do with the love confession - of course he's always loved his Master, but Obi-Wan always felt unreachable. And even now, when Obi-Wan fucking confesses to him, he is still out of Anakin's reach, and there is no way to ever get him back.

So Anakin tries not to think about that part. Instead, he gets fixated on the Padawan braids. He pauses the video and turns Obi-Wan's apartment (where he practically moved in; he only wears Obi-Wan's clothes) upside down in order to find his braid, and when he finally has it he ties it around his wrist. Then he goes out to ask Padmé for his own braid back (which he ofc does in a very calm and reasonable manner where he explains the situation to her. He totally doesn't just storm in and demand it back. Nope. Anakin would never). Anyway, as soon as he's back home (Obi-Wan's apartment) he ties their braids together.

maybe 3po is at the temple with them (for some reason) and in front of other jedi refers to anakin as “master skywalker-kenobi” bc anakin reprogrammed 3po to refer to him & obi as that.

So glad you asked @whispersofroses and I wil expand.