Classpect Analysis: The Page Class

Out of the classes, pages are often the ones overlooked and stereotyped in meta analyses and fandom, with characterizations of pages either falling into perceptions of Tavros (whose character is overshadowed by Vriska) or Jake English (overshadowed by Dirk and Aranea). Whatever has been said about pages, especially by Aranea and Vriska, must be taken with a grain of salt, as by virtue of who they are, will not provide a clear and concise view of pages without their biases.

James Roach, a member of Andrew Hussie's writing team, said, "The exact wording [of the page class] is 'one who fights to preserve.'" Dirk described the class as, "...[having] a lot of untapped potential." and Aranea, "...for a page, the journey to reach his full potential is longer than it is for any other class[...] 8ut once that journey is over, how fearsome he 8ecomes!" With this all in mind, the image of the page is one akin to a game that requires a player to level up a certain amount before being able to access cooler powers and items, one that takes a considerable amount of time. It is a class of "limitless potential", with the challenge being that of unlocking that potential.

The three pages of Homestuck are Tavros Nitram, page of breath; Jake English, page of hope; and Horuss Zahak, page of void. While Horuss gets little attention, the focus of the page characters turns to Tavros and Jake. Both characters suffer from insecurity, from low self esteem, with Tavros' being related to his disability at the hands of Vriska, and Jake's inability to read other people's emotions which leads to quarrels in his friend group. This insecurity leads to conflicts on both parts but in different ways; Tavros, in an attempt to overcome his "block", fights Vriska and loses; Jake instead manages to slowly overcome his through crafting a version of Dirk in his mind that, all things considered, is able to be closer to the real Dirk than the AI of his brain Dirk himself crafted. Aranea, too, helps Jake by directly removing his insecurities via her sylph powers and allowing him to access his full potential (though for her selfish gains).

Due to his death, both on Prospit and in the 'real' world, Tavros was never able to complete his quest and access his potential, but as a breath player, would likely have developed similar powers to June Egbert such as flying (his ultimate wish), control over the wind and even possibly some retcon abilities, though not in the intuitive sense that June had. However, in death Tavros did eventually overcome the block preventing him from accessing the power of flight, thus furthering his player quest in a round about way, even if unable to be completed!

On the other hand, Jake was not able to overcome his block completely by himself, instead having the process expedited by Aranea in a gambit to steal the ring of life from June. During this, his version of Ghost Dirk behaves as a block in an attempt to prevent him from accessing his potential, though Aranea had removed it without Jake's consent. His access to unbridled Hope does buy Roxy and June time to attempt to retcon the doomed timeline with Vriska and Terezi's help, thus fulfilling his role as a Hope player by providing Hope to the new players in his initially doomed session.

It's debated whether or not the Page class is one of activity or passivity, with the MSPA fandom wikia calling it an active class, though that's taken with a grain of salt. It's gender too is assigned a masculine one. Both pages depicted call or attempt to be "men of action", but their roles are that of supporters, Tavros as a Rufio-like character to Vriska and Jake behaving as a distraction to by his team's leader and a more active heroine time to turn the tides against Lord English. Thus, it can be extrapolated that pages are a more passive class. The 'gender' of the class appears more concrete, with all three pages depicted in Homestuck being masculine figures or having a masculine gender. Again though, this information can be innacurate, as Calliope called Heirs a masculine class while failing to consider June Egbert as a woman, and Knights themselves not being committed to one gender.

Pages are the underdogs of SBURB/SGRUB, being relegated to passive and supportive roles in game, acting as the Robin Hood to another class' Batman. This position is forcing the player to confront the blocks that actually relegate them to that role, often being insecurity, whether due to a disability or crippling self-doubt in relationships. The page class attempts to make the player confront and overcome these insecurities, rewarding the player with more access to their aspects. Basically: