This is very true. Additionally, the Jedi council had already asked Anakin to spy on the chancellor, so when the chancellor told Anakin “they’re planning to betray me,” it sounded perfectly plausible (and that was what I think palpatine WANTED them to do when he put Anakin on the council—it was both a show of his own trust in Anakin and a way to get the Jedi to reveal their justified distrust in a way that would look bad to Anakin). And yes, Obi-Wan was very explicit that he wasn’t the one who wanted to put him in that position, even saying “the COUNCIL is asking” rather than himself, he also had said things like “be careful of your friend the chancellor,” and like you pointed out, once Anakin knows Palpatine lied to him their whole friendship, he’s more susceptible to wondering the same about Obi-Wan.
It makes a lot of sense in light of the fact that I think Anakin’s split second decision to kill Mace Windu was impacted by him having said “he’s too dangerous to be left alive” which is almost WORD FOR WORD what the chancellor said about Dooku after Anakin said it’s “not the Jedi way” to kill him. Anakin says the same to Windu and Windu responds with the same words as Palpatine. And yes the context is so different and we know that, but I think at that point everything kind of looked equally corrupted to Anakin.
“Equally corrupted” I think is where the crux of it ultimately lies. Padmé, who Anakin loves and trusts so so much, had even questioned the republic, which upset Anakin in light of having fought and lost so many for the republic’s cause. The one person he would never ever think anything ill of (almost to a fault) had questioned the very system she was a part of, and that the Jedi were meant to be aligned with, AND that Palpatine was in charge of. When he tells her she sounds like a separatist, he’s sort of getting at the fact that she’s questioning both the Jedi order and the republic simultaneously for the side they’ve fought for, and that’s not really what’s going through Padmé’s head when she says that, but being a Jedi general and friend of the chancellor I think that passes through Anakin’s head a little. The Jedi have alienated Anakin in small ways and Palpatine is constantly emphasizing those things and making Anakin feel like he’s the person to go to, and the Jedi asking him to spy on the chancellor (again something I think was part of palpatine’s plan and influenced the timing of that request) also felt somewhat like a betrayal, so Anakin isn’t sure if he can trust them—(toss in some tcw2008 for fun and we can throw their lack of belief in Ahsoka Tano into the mix)—and then Palpatine reveals himself to be a Sith Lord and Anakin also feels betrayed by him, draws his weapon on him, doesn’t kill him but reports him to the Jedi, and when he rushes off to see the chancellor finds them in a position where Palpatine is feigning weakness and Windu is about to kill him. And then Windu says to Anakin about Palpatine the same thing Palpatine said about Dooku and I think in that moment, everyone looked equally corrupted. (Except Padmé, and ohhh boy this whole analysis isn’t even CONSIDERING that added element and the whole “you have visions that always come true… I could keep her alive” thing).
Anakin’s faith is shaken in everyone in this moment. It’s nearly all the same to him. Except Padmé. He loves and trusts her above all else and has reason to believe she’s in danger and one of these two people offered to save her life. And if it’s all the same, if there is no “good,” no true “heroic,” then the only thing left that matters to him is her, and he saves the chancellor from Palpatine. He’s super torn up in the scene where he pledges himself to Palpatine’s teachings but at this point he’s just hanging onto his will to live by the thread that is a hope of being with Padmé and raising their children. And as he does what Palpatine asks to become “strong enough in the dark side to save Padmé” he gets slowly more and more corrupted, which is what we’re supposed to see when he force chokes her—no greater sign that he’s gone off the deep end til the moment where he considers that she “turned against him” too like everyone else, and he can’t find it in himself to blame her so he just turns to the nearest person and blames him (Obi-Wan).
When Anakin says “from my point of view the Jedi are evil” he’s not saying his sense of good/evil flipped and that he believes he’s doing the morally right thing (which is how I think a lot of people take that scene). He’s saying the Jedi are no better. He’s saying Obi-Wan can say “Palpatine is evil” all he wants but can’t prove there’s any truly better option. That’s Anakin’s faulty epiphany that characterizes a lot of his anger and apathy and misery as the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Honestly even the movie ROTS has all these elements but the novelization not only adds more elements, but fleshes out these ones and draws attention to them, whereas on a first watch of the movie, the takeaway for why Anakin turned to the dark side is probably going to be “so he could save Padmé” because that’s what the attention is drawn to in the film. Matthew Stover did a fantastic job of weaving that element in with all the other elements that were also instrumental in the downfall of Anakin Skywalker.
And… whoa sorry for going off on this massive tangent on your post but I got very excited about talking about Palpatine as a master manipulator in ROTS. In any case, good post 👍 and I hope you don’t mind that I lost control of my word count 😅