Why doesn't Jorah just cut off his own arm?

[Arya_Stormborn]

Wouldn't this solve his problem? Just wondering.

[Mr. Greenhands]

According to the story, that only works part of the time.  As a fighter, he probably looks at his arms as the most valuable thing he has.  He would probably rather die than lose it.

[Dolorous Gabe]

I guess he has just accepted his fate but thinks he can do something helpful for Dany before the end and depart contented.

[The Killer Snark]

It's because if he cut his arm off, it would screw around with D and D's intentions for the show.

[Ludo Kressh]

Yeah, and Daario would wonder why Jorah is cutting off his arm since no one but Jorah knows he has greyscale. But the real question to me is how is no one else getting infected since a bunch of people have touched stuff that Jorah has touched. Maybe his greyscale isn't infectious yet?

[mzso]

6 hours ago, Arya_Stormborn said:

Wouldn't this solve his problem? Just wondering.

Or you know... Just cut out that tiny part of skin that was infected initially...

[Back in Black-Snow]

He is spreading this. He had his hands all over Dany in the last episode of last season, when the Sons of the Harpy attacked. Maybe a Red Priest/ess heals him similar to how it happens to what's his name in the books.

[Arya_Stormborn]

1 hour ago, Mr. Greenhands said:

According to the story, that only works part of the time.  As a fighter, he probably looks at his arms as the most valuable thing he has.  He would probably rather die than lose it.

But it's his left arm. He'd still be better off than Jaime Lannister.

[Ingelheim]

1-It's not that easy to cut one's arm. I mean, it must be extremly difficult, not only painful, but difficult. He could ask Daario, but then he'd know he has greyscale.

2-He has accepted his fate, in a same manner as JonCon on the books. He just wants to find Dany and die happily.

3-It doesn't have to work, also. He may cut it and find later that he still has greyscale. 

[Masha]

In the books, JonCon didn't want to cut off his finger - 1 Finger! There were a lot of overthinking in his POV, and the basic "hope for the best" or "it doesn't always work" basically rationalization and refusal to do what was necessary. I would think that cutting off a finger is much easier than cutting off his arm, so I can't say I blame Jonah here. Plus the show didn't even bother introducing "cutting off" the disease storyline.

[Xarkar]

Shireen had Greyscale.  People touched her all the time and did not catch it.

She was apparently healed.  Perhaps not all greyscale is contagious?

[The Dames do Moan]

I feel like he isn't spreading I get because it's not on his hands. His hands aren't infected so I don't see why they'd infect someone else. People don't seem to have touched the actual greyscale yet which is what I think would spread it until his hands start to show signs of infection.

[the red god]

5 hours ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

I guess he has just accepted his fate but thinks he can do something helpful for Dany before the end and depart contented.

i think his conversation with daarios was pretty telling of his circumstance. he has accepted several fates. he is going to die, dany will never love him, and he has already lived longer than most warriors in the world. greyscale or not, he only has a few more years left to be of any applicable use to his queen before getting too old and weak to serve her. he has wisdom, but not nearly as much political foresight as tyrion has. not to mention that being a cripple, even for highbornes like jaime, really sucks in medieval times. he'd rather die with dignity.

[Masha]

2 hours ago, Xarkar said:

Shireen had Greyscale.  People touched her all the time and did not catch it.

She was apparently healed.  Perhaps not all greyscale is contagious?

From what I could understand her Greyscale was inactive. Like an inactive virus, so it wasn't infective. However, back in season 5, Stannis said when he gave her a doll that he didn't know was infected with live Greyscale virus, she touched it to her face and immediately got infected. All ACTIVE Greyscale is infected, but inactive is supposedly not. Furthermore, only chance of Greyscale to become inactive is IF you are little child, all adults get infected and die.

However, in the books, Val is very concerned because apparently inactive Greyscale in a child can become active and infectious again.

[Woman of War]

Wait!

Didn't  he have greyscale on his left arm and and a black fingernail on his right hand already? I remember to have seen this when he held Dany's ring.

In that case  everything would be too late.

[Lady Kitty Heartless]

28 minutes ago, Woman of War said:

Wait!

Didn't  he have greyscale on his left arm and and a black fingernail on his right hand already? I remember to have seen this when he held Dany's ring.

In that case  everything would be too late.

Phew, at least someone spotted that little detail. Already thought none didn't.

But indeed. Jorah ish a goner.

[chasing the dragons]

could be that greyscale is a virus and is spread throughout his body via the bloodstream. Cutting out the visible portion would be akin to someone with herpes cutting their lips off. They still would have herpes.

 

[RhaenysBee]

I don't know about greyscale, but the reason why Jorah doesn't cut his arm off is psychology. It is completely obvious that any human being with a healthy state of mind would be extremely reluctant to do self harm. This has absolutely nothing to do with D&D or their plans with Jorah. The human body and mind are designed for self defense and self sustainment and survival, the polar opposite of willingly cutting one's limbs off. That's why we still exist. 

Yes, there are cases when the key to long term self sustainment and survival is cutting off a limb, but it is extremely difficult to overcome the psychological barrier. There's the example of Doctor House who was willing to submit himself to a lifetime of pain instead of losing a leg. Now of course Jorah would be choosing death over an arm, not only pain, so let's take another example. Torstein in Vikings got wounded on his forearm. The wound clearly festered, and yet he lay in pain for days before he stepped over the psychological barrier and the pain was greater than his attachment to his arm. He did ask for an amputation, but by this time it was too late and he died of infection and fever anyways. I reckon the same would go down in Jorah's mind and by the time he would make up is mind to part with his hand, it would be too late. 

With greyscale it's also important to note that Jorah probably knows even less of the potential courses of the disease than the audience that(as this thread proves) also has no idea about whether a potential amputation would solve the problem or not. And giving up an arm for no guarantee and unknown odds is not a deal anybody would leap to make. 

Jorah is an exile with no family and his only purpose in life is to serve Daenerys, I believe he wants to do that as long as he can and die aiding her cause. He has no reason to hope for her to return his feelings either. In this situation, it is not unrealistic to put up with his fate live out his remaining days serving Daenerys as best as he can. 

[Lord Friendzone]

I was under impression that greyscale is not the end for Jorah but it might be. My theory was that Red Priestess might cure him and earn favour with her new Queen and Daeny will more be inclined to listen to her if she saves him. Or it might be that greyscale plague will in Meereen or Westeros to decimate people. But the idea of Jorah simply accepting his fate, seeing Daeny on IT and dying. Would be poetic. Pretty much he's doing what JonCon is doing. He wants to see Aegon on the Irone Throne.

[nickdt]

I have a feeling Jorah spreads Greyscale in Meereen, as an equivalant of the Pale Mare in the books and brings it to Westeros (Or infects one close to Dany with it to bring it to Westeros).