I've been having a bunch of conversations in private / on discord etc. about why Bolaire body sharing with people consensually has simply not been remotely feasible, and probably still is not feasible, even though it is theoretically possible as demonstrated by Tyranny wearing him in episode 29. So I thought I'd post this explanation publicly, because a bunch of people seem to think that Bolaire could have been sharing bodies consensually this whole time and simply chooses not to because he likes torturing people.
Obligatory disclaimer: Bolaire has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and I explicitly morally condone every choice he has ever made. You should go ask your best friend to homoerotically stab you right now so you can follow in his excellent example. Hope that clears up my stance on the matter!
The number one reason this option for Bolaire is not feasible is that he has a draining effect on the life force of people who wear him, and the longer they wear him, the worse it gets. It is a common misconception that Bolaire's hosts die due to starvation, but this is not the case. In episode 4, Taliesin describes the condition Bolaire's previous host: gray skin, eyeballs so flaccid and desiccated the eyesockets appear empty, and chunks of flesh missing around the mouth so you can see the teeth beneath. These are not symptoms of starvation. What's more, one of the soldiers in the episode 13 cold open said that wearing Bolaire for even one day "wreaks havoc on the body."
Given that Bolaire drains his hosts like this, the only way he could get people to voluntarily agree to wear him would be to exploit mentally ill people who wish to self-harm (which is not really any morally better than just straight up body snatching), or to find a group of people who are willing to pass him around, as we saw in the episode 13 flashback with the soldiers. Which brings me to my second point.
Let's say Bolaire approaches someone for some consensual body-sharing and they say no, or they say yes but then later change their mind and back out. What happens then? Can Bolaire trust them?
The thing is, as I explained in this post, some of the options on the table for Bolaire are fates worse than death, not just for him but for the world at large. Imagine someone turns Bolaire down and then thinks, "Hey, I wonder what House Tachonis would pay me for the knowledge of a secret god-killing weapon that I now have." What do you think would happen if Bolaire were in the hands of an Ethrand? The Tachonis would find some horrific use for him that would cause far more death and destruction than anything Bolaire has ever done personally. Bolaire is a murderer, but he does not want to cause the mass systemic suffering that the Sundered Houses do; indeed, he ideologically opposes it. It's clear that Bolaire has thought about this possibility, because in episode 22, he begged Hal that if he didn't want to put Bolaire on a new body, that he not leave Bolaire to be found. After all, Bolaire was used as a weapon of war, effectively as a slave, for decades before he saw a fateful play and struck out on his own, so he has a pretty clear idea of how bad it could get.
It isn't exactly easy for Bolaire to find someone to approach for potential body-sharing who he trusts enough not to sell him out to a fate worse than death. Of course, he does now have some allies that he does trust that much. But that brings me to my third point.
Even if Bolaire were to, for example, be rotated among his current allies the way he once was shared out among the soldiers in the Falconers' Rebellion, such that he trusted everyone involved and he wasn't draining any one person's life force too much, this still isn't much of a life, either for Bolaire or the people in the group who are wearing him. He could ride along with their lives as an observer or a peanut gallery, but he could not make his own life choices or maintain a consistent persona for the world to interact with. He could not be Bolaire Lathalia, because if he rotated among all these people with a consistent identity, then his nature would become obvious, and then he would be probably be hunted by the Sundered Houses to be used as a tactical nuke.
And on the host side of the equation, how long could any of them keep up with letting Bolaire "wreak havoc on the body" for a day every X days, having him observe their every action and thought? Could they really do that for years on end?
Where does this leave Bolaire?
Well, it leaves him a totally dogshit situation where his only actually feasible choices are to body-snatch and murder people, or to try to find a way to be destroyed or flung to the bottom of the sea forever, if that's even possible. Maybe the latter is the only option that is morally defensible. Maybe that's how this campaign will end for him. I don't know!
