So you mentioned Tavros’s symbolism. Could you elaborate on that?
Depends how you want to look at it! You can look at it through his classpect, which is where I look mainly, or through what his character shows as a whole. I'm not great at pulling symbolism from characters, but I am good at analyzing Tavros. Either you can see it as he shows what happens to someone who isn't given the time or resources to do what they need, the perfect example of the world's fool. He never got the chance to really prove himself during their session, and when he was finally given the chance in the afterlife, it's shown as a joke, 'how could someone so useless do this?' and it's explained that it's 'because they felt bad for him'. (both points that make my blood boil), but this makes sense for a page, he's kind of the best example of what pages are. Someone who was never given the chance.
To fully answer and delve into this I'm gonna focus on my theorized relationship between breath players and light players, since I haven't seen anyone mention it before! I believe that breath players and light players were made to balance each other out, they must interact, they must work together, supporting classes basically. My evidence of this being the relationship between Tavros and Vriska, Vriska and June, and June and Rose. (I would also mention Rufioh and Aranea but I don't know much about the dancestor's story off the top of my head).
The balance of Freedom and Knowledge is hard, one living in a sort of blissful ignorance and go with the flow attitude and the other driven to the ends of the world in the search of knowledge and will fight anything or anyone in their way. June and Rose are an example of a good light/breath balance, they help each other and share knowledge, another thing to mention is June being there when Rose went grimdark. Another example of a good light/breath relationship is June and Vriska, she helps her with coming to terms with everything that's happened, and she admits that she thinks very highly of her opinion of her. She wants June to like her, and June tells her not to stress. She listens to her in a way that not many other people have, they lean on each other, Freedom telling Knowledge not to worry so much, and that everything is going to work out. But. uh. now we have to talk about it, not, being that.
An example of the oppisite side of this, is Tavros and Vriska, which is where I see a lot of people completely missing the symbolism there. This relationship is Knowledge killing Freedom. It's Knowledge making sure that Freedom has no where to go, and it's really dark. Like I mentioned earlier, Tavros is the perfect example of what a page is, someone who starts out weak with nothing in common with their aspect, but through the course of confidence building and support players, reaches his potential and goes god-tier. Except he didn't get to do that, because Vriska physically stopped him. The light aspect is overbearing, burning down on all around it and whoever tries to stop it. I believe that the light/breath balance can be tipped very easily, and when it is tipped, it's dark and very hard to get out of. Vriska knew who Tavros was, she knew who he was going to be, and wanted to push him to be better, to become strong in the way she did, but it didn't work. It broke him, making him question himself and believe that he wasn't capable of what he always has been. He never had Freedom, no matter what, he was never truly free. His ascension as a page was stopped from the very start. Even in the afterlife he couldn't escape her, he was stuck with her, and once he got away he just feel to the bidding of another person.
There's a really good section to help this idea! And it's pages 3103-3127. He finds Vriska bleeding out, and goes to kiss her to revive her. When he does this, the breath symbol/particles appear. This is the moment where he proves himself, this is it, this is where he rises to the challenge. But she stops him. She strangles him to stop him. This is a perfect example of her character being the reason why he doesn't achieve what he was supposed to! And it only gets worse! She physically prevents him from becoming who he needs to be in this moment to further her becoming who she is supposed to be. After this, she instructs him to take her to her quest bed where she instructs him to kill her. And he can't do it. He cannot bring himself to kill her, even after everything that she's done to him, he doesn't have the willpower to do it, solidifying his fate in never achieving his goal. He leaves her to bleed to death, fleeing while covered in blood and crying. She god-tiers and he never does because of this moment. Freedom is tainted with the blood of Knowledge.
Later on, it's revealed that after this, he just slept. He went to sleep and didn't wake up, even once they get on the meteor he spends all of his time sleeping, escaping into the dream world where he's free and isn't living in fear. He escapes the truth of the world and spends his days floating around, never to meet his potential. And his death also shows the symbolism in her stopping him from becoming who he needs to be, Knowledge killing Freedom. He decides he's had enough and is going to stop her once and for all, but once he finally is fighting her, she distracts him and kills him with his own weapon. It was an unfair fight, because she knew what he was capable of, and he was finally starting to. He is the perfect example of a Page who never got the support he needed and a Breath player who was on the bad end of the Light balance. Light players and Breath players need to balance each other out, one looks to the future while the other keeps them grounded, but the balance can be easily abused, which is seen perfectly in Tavros and Vriska.
Tavros' character is the perfect symbol for lost potential and Freedom being trapped by Knowledge.
