I know some people make aus where Tyler and narrator don't share a body but like, to me, them being alters adds a whole layer to their relationship. I'm paraphrasing bc I cant find an actual transcript but Tyler says 'I will get us through this I always do' and 'Haven't I always taken care of you?' Kissing his forehead and calling him champ right before leaves. And when chemical burning him he tries to get nameless to be there and not dissosiate away from unpleasant situations like he 'always' does and yeah yeah hes maybe just using a hyperbole but what if he's known the narrator longer than just the year the narrator has known him? What did he mean by always? How long has he been getting him through things and what other things? What other things has the narrator dissociated away from? When nameless asks Tyler who he'd fight if he could fight anyone Tyler says his dad right off the bat. But the narrator 'barely even remembers' his dad. There's a very real possibility Tyler remembers something about their father that the narrator doesn't. 'Our fathers were a model for God' -> 'God hates you' -> 'This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don't need him. ' Tyler's a straw nihilist yes but also his philosophy wasn't really developed to save the world. It was developed to save his alter first.
Like he is horrible. And he does want plenty of things for himself (like Marla) but he is also shaped by the responsibilities he was born into, as everyone is. His responsibility, initially, was to save the narrators life. To care for him, to provide him catharsis, to give him a better reason to live than collecting furniture, to teach him to stick up for himself, to provide companionship all of these things being to the end of saving him.
But Tyler needed to be at the center of it, like any other selfish caregiver. The narrator was on his way to finding some of these things on his own. He was finding catharsis through the support groups and companionship through Marla. But that was too far out of his control. So he steps in and Tylerizes everything. Ruins any chance of a relationship with Marla, destroys his apartment so he has no place else to go, shows him catharsis through violence, turns the support group environment into the cult environment (surrounds himself and the narrator with people too brainwashed to reject them), keeps moving the goalposts to 'enlightenment'. And he ends up unintentionally succeeding a little too hard on teaching nameless to stick up for himself. I don't need my father -> I don't need God -> I don't need Tyler Durden either.
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