Two Obi ANH lines I've never understood

"If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

I LOVE this line. It's cool. It's powerful. It's quotable.
I have no idea what it means.
What power did Obi-Wan acquire? To be dead? To lose a lot of weight? The only "power" he gets, it seems, is being able to appear to Luke whenever he wants. How does this help Luke out? What does Obi-Wan have to say to him that can't be said in person or over the comlink?


"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"
Is he making fun of Han for getting involved with this crazy adventure, these 'fools', all over a few credits? Or what? I've never quite figured this out.


A thought?


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Adam, Kenobi's transformation into a spirit gives him, apparently, the ability to appear whenever and wherever Luke needs his guidance: the Death Star, Hoth, Dagobah, and Endor.

In the Trench Run, Ben would have seriously undermined his message about "using the Force" if he had called that suggestion in on a communicator, a piece of hard wired technology. Don't you think?

On Hoth, Ben would not have been able to reach Luke at all to tell him to go to Dagobah, except perhaps by holographic message, from a distant planet to which he had retired, either before or after Luke's Wampa experience. But that wouldn't serve the mystical purposes of the story--which require a vision on the verge of death!

On Dagobah, Obi-Wan would not have been able to intercede and convince Yoda to take Luke on as his apprentice, unless Kenobi arrived in some mundane way like a spaceship, or another holograph ... but those things just don't feel right, do they?

Throughout, Ben's apparition is a figure of mystery and power, just like the Force itself, and so represents the Force in a way that is perceptible to the audience.

EDIT: In this way, Ben becomes far more powerful than a living person, and not limited by the constraints and vagaries of travel and communications.

 

"If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Obi-Wan joins the Force and, like Zen masters believe, his skills and knowledge are dispersed into the Force and thus passed on to all subsequent followers of the Force. Also, if Obi-Wan is dead, he can't exactly use a comlink, so he is able to communicate through the Force and let Luke know that he is not alone, that he still has a source of guidance and knowledge in the galazy.

"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

A person who follows a fool when he knows that person is a fool in the first place is most certainly a fool. Hence, yes, Obi-Wan is poking fun at Han in his profound Jedi manner. This line is also quite symbolic and profound in correlation to the rest of the movie and its own right. For example, look at the people who follow Vader: they see others getting killed for their own mistakes, but they remain loyal to the Empire anyway, looking for a chance to better their station under Vader's command. In real life, it speaks against conformity: if all of your friends jump off a bridge, will you jump as well?

 

Obi-Wan just likes to baffle people with words.
Though Lucas said the first phrase would be explained in episode III.
We'll see.

 

I think in Episode III, Qui-Gon's gonna tell Obi-Wan, "When you're in trouble, tell your enemy that if he strikes you down you'll become more powerful than he can possibly imagine. It might work! He might not kill ya! Seriously, it's worth a shot!"



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To which Obi-Wan will respond: "Who is the more foolish ... the fool, or the fool that agrees to do everything the fool tells him to do?"