the thing about the whole 'vader is obsessed with obi-wan' idea in any supplementary material, is that it has no basis or any actual, well, reason to be like that. obi-wan is his former master and he mutilated vader in a very brutal way and these are valid reasons to hate someone, but all of this was canon back in a new hope, and yet g-lucas made a choice not to portray darth vader as obsessed with vengeance and obi-wan
in anh vader is mostly apathetic; he gets pushed around by the governors and doesn't particularly approve of the death star, but he still believes in and works for the empire unquestionably, and all his interest begins with his work and ends with the force, with no intermediate; when he tells tarkin about obi-wan being on the station, vader is more concerned about tarkin's apparent lack of faith in the force than anything about kenobi, and their conversation implies that the empire (and thus vader) wasn’t really that concerned about finding all surviving jedi as some additional material would suggests. obi-wan has appeared on their doorstep and the Force Is With Him — this is vader's main concern, not their past personal relationship. they fight a bit, and their dialogue also doesn't imply any obsession with revenge on vader's part, but rather, he simply expected that one day obi-wan would show up and vader would be stronger and defeat him this time, nothing more. obi-wan dies not because vader overpowered him, but because he decides to merge with the force. vader is puzzled by obi-wan's disappearance, but ultimately just kicks his robes and leaves because he has other things to do — g-lucas didn't intend for darth vader to be obsessed with obi-wan kenobi, so when he does so in disney’s kenobi show or other supplementary material, it's simply out of character
for some reason, people find the idea of vader being obsessed with his former master to be a good and interesting one, but i disagree. when i read their explanations, it's always either a vague 'well, obi-wan was his master afterall!!' or a silly 'obi-wan cut off his legs and an arm, it makes sense!!' — the former doesn't really delve into anakin and obi-wan's personalities and their relationship throughout the prequels, simply states that having a master/padawan relationship in the past is reason enough to be obsessed with someone, and the latter is just a stupid cliche. i dislike characters whose obsession with another character is defined by the fact that they were defeated once, it's not realistic or interesting and very boring. this is the reason why i don't really like darth maul in tcw, his obsession with obi-wan has no interesting reason, he's just angry that he was defeated and cut in half — this isn't good writing, fans meme that all the time! if characters don't have an interesting clash of conflicting beliefs and a shared backstory that would explain obsession, then what's the point? watching one-sided relationships where character a hates and builds their identity around character b simply because they once defeated them in battle, while the character b is just dgaf is incredibly boring, period. why are we trying to pull the same stupid trope with darth vader?? just why
but then we get to the point that anakin and obi-wan have a backstory together, and that's where things get complicated: having a backstory together doesn't mean that characters will always be especially important to each other, because sometimes relationships end and you two drift apart like ships at sea — that's exactly what happened with anakin and obi-wan imo
their relationship is kind of important to the saga, obi-wan raised anakin, but at the core they're just two people who didn't really understand each other, especially obi-wan. they don’t have any particularly important, unique only to them conflict of beliefs: vader disagrees with the position of the jedi on the force and other stuff, and disagrees with the alliance to restore the republic, but obi-wan is no different from other jedi in vader's eyes and doesn’t particularly relate to the latter. and these are two things that are significant to vader in relation to his work in the empire, which after mustafar became his life and, in his twisted view, the empire is helping the galaxy become a better place, while the jedi and the rebellion get in the way of this — purely on a motivational level, obsession with obi-wan doesn't really align with vader's primary concern
but there is something else that is important to vader: in the original trilogy, vader is obsessed with luke because luke is his son, because luke is family, and family has always been the core motivation and value in anakin's life. obi-wan doesn’t have that, obi-wan is not family: he is a former master, yes, and that is important too, but he is not a father or a brother, obi-wan is not family. once, while still a padawan, anakin wanted obi-wan to become family for him, to be his father, but obi-wan rejected this idea and anakin didn't press
and yes, obi-wan was important to anakin and is his friend in rots, anakin respected his former master, but anakin doesn't see obi-wan as a father figure anymore. he's come to terms with the fact that obi-wan is the perfect jedi™, and that the council's opinion means more to him than anakin. considering anakin was already planning to leave the order after the war, anakin had already come to terms with the fact that he and obi-wan would soon belong to different worlds and would not see each other like at all (and if you add tcw into this mix, then obi-wan was already dead to anakin, anakin grieved and mourned his death; even though it was fake, it was very real for anakin, it happened). anakin was okay with eventually letting obi-wan go, for anakin, these relationship was already doomed to end soon and he pretty much accepted it. the tragedy is that obi-wan went from someone extremely important in anakin's life to someone who wasn't and whom anakin expected to part with in the future
so when the council once again publicly rejects and humiliates him and obi-wan agrees with them, when obi-wan betrays him and demands he’d spy on palpatine, when he is thrown under the bus, it's certainly offensive and painful, but it's also expected — it doesn't hurt him the way it could have hurt him before. when palpatine issues order66, padme (and the child) is the only person left in anakin's life that he is willing to fight for; obi-wan is no longer there and isn't an important figure for him, he's just another jedi who doesn't care about anakin and his family and apparently the republic, like the rest of the jedi. anakin has some doubts on mustafar, obi-wan is his former master, but ultimately they are both still okay with killing each other. so why should he be obsessed with obi-wan? some other jedi would have done the same, and post-rots anakin is drowning in self-loathing and grief and also has a job — there is simply no room for obsession with kenobi
it makes more sense for vader to not care about obi-wan at all, maybe compare him to sidious from time to time, hate him apathetically and humbly, maybe remember him when he interacts with luke, but not seek to meet him, because what could vader potentially gain from obi-wan? when you are obsessed with someone, you have an end goal with that person. vader was obsessed with luke because he was his son, with whom they could kill the emperor and be a family and rule the galaxy, and he would easily become obsessed with leia for the same reason if he found out that she was his daughter. anakin was obsessed with saving padme because he was in love, because she was the only person who loved him and treated him like a person, because he couldn't get over the guilt of his mother's death and it was eating him up. but what about obi-wan kenobi? no matter what people suggest otherwise, anakin had already had closure with obi-wan long before he fell to the dark side and everything in their lives fell apart. in the kenobi show, vader apparently wanted to set him on fire as a form of revenge, and then, when for some reason it didn't do any damage and he humiliated himself several times by failing the simplest task (seriously, first the writers make a big tragedy out of obi-wan's inability to use the force and fight with a light saber, and then vader fails to kill him several times in a row), he decided to bury him underground, like he was a cat in a litter box or smth — that is ridiculous, that is not a good character motivation or writing, why should anyone respect and agree with such butchering of characters? fuck disney, lmao
anakin wanted to leave the jedi order, and anakin knew obi-wan would judge him and would never follow him when he does so, and anakin accepted it — there are no things to grieve about, there is closure, obi-wan did exactly as anakin expected him to, so vader has no reason to be obsessed with his former master
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