Fate's actions do not make sense *MAJOR SPOILERS*

[WanderingHero]

So Fate either wants to end humanity, freeing himself of his duties, or he wants to just die.

But Fate scolds you for randomly killing people or intentionally murdering too many people even though this would help his end goal, and praises you for following proper procedure, even thought his messes up his plans.

Shouldn't he actually be encouraging you to play the game as a bloodthirsty edgelord, thereby ensuring his goals? Shouldn't he try harder to stop his servant if he single handily ruins his plans? It would be interesting if the Good path had you struggling to avoid being erased by Fate as he tries to look for a reason to get rid of, but can't because you're a model employee.

Also if Fate just wanted to die, why not just order his reaper to kill him right of fthe bat?

[Cari0]

Long post incoming. Speculation and possible spoilers abound.

Think of it this way. He wants to fade away, right? If his upper management colleagues noticed that one of Fate's reapers was acting completely out of control and Fate was doing nothing to reign them in, Fate would be fired and the Reaper themselves would definitely be either relocated to a place where they can do no harm or be completely destroyed. Also keep in mind, once Fate was fired, the powers he has to make reapers and anything else magical he could do would likely be stripped from him. Which might actually lead to the reapers he created ceasing to exist since the magic that created them no longer does. Sadly, we dont know enough about how his powers work to determine this. Either way, Fate would no longer have a means within the office to destroy the world. On top of that, it's very unlikely Fate himself would be destroyed. Death would be seen as too kind a punishment. He'd more likely be left to wander, a nihilistic immortal with no way to die for eternity and now nothing to distract him from this fact. That would surely be a better punishment and would likely be the punishment he is given for his betrayal.

On the other hand, in this game it is clear that the only way to kill anyone is through marking the profile connected to them with the Pen of Death. In the game, Fate does have a profile at one point. However, if you read the letter that accompanies it, it is quite obvious that Fate was not the one who sent you that profile. Besides that, the profiles for other immortals, including his own, likely wouldn't be accessible to him. That's not his department, for one. Secondly, it's quite possible immortals like Fate aren't supposed to have profiles in the first place. Fate may be in charge of distributing the human profiles he receives but based on notes from other employees found on some profiles in the game it is clear that his department is not in charge of writing or reviewing them. Someone else likely made Fate's profile and sent it over via the machine without it likely even passing by Fate's desk. In any case, it's highly doubtable based on what we currently know from the game that Fate can be the one responsible for the red profiles or his own profile ending up on your desk.

But who knows? At this point, we don't really know enough to be certain. We do know based on certain dialogue that he is certainly being monitored by the rest of higher management which would play into why he would take a subtler route in destroying the world. But we can only speculate about whether he would have access to or even have a profile prior to the red profile path. The upcoming patch could help us shine some light on part of this mystery at least.

[Cari0]

As an added note, keep in mind that based on certain dialogue it is clear that he doesn't believe that the humans themselves or that his Reaper Spawns have any ability to pernamently affect the equilibrium in any way. That's why he always ends up sucked into his novel and ignores what you're doing, no matter how you've played up to that point. He has complete confidence that his plan will play out because he believes he is the one who holds all of the cards. It's his ignorance about how the system actually works and the ego he gains from his percieved power that is his downfall in the end. It's only after he is toppled that he realizes things don't quite work the way he thought.

[Oak]

Cari0 already brings out most of the points I would've :D

I'll just specify a little bit.

Fate is still limited by the framework he is in, and the rules you get, well.. someone or something also makes the rules by which Fate gives you out rules. So you can't start arm-wrestling the system till it breaks, but rather tip it over enough so that it collapses on its own, otherwise you just get terminated and this takes precedence in the Office, and since you're Fate's ultimate pawn... that's not what he *wants* to happen. He has a very specific plan and it has its own prerequisites.