Well I dug into the function I wrote a bit more and realize the flexibility of the customization I had. So I was able to achieve the above by writing the php this way:
if (!function_exists('pagination')){
function pagination($pages="", $range = 2){
$showitems = ($range * 2)+1;
global $paged;
if(empty($paged)) $paged = 1;
if($pages == ''){
global $wp_query;
$pages = $wp_query->max_num_pages;
if(!$pages){
$pages = 1;
}
}
if(1 != $pages){
echo '<ul>';
//The Below Line of Code Takes effect if there are more than 5 pages of posts and the code renders a single left arrow "<"
//if($paged > 2 && $paged > $range+1 && $showitems < $pages) echo '<li><a href="'.get_pagenum_link(1).'" class="tbutton"><span>«</span></a></li>';
//The Below Line of Code Takes effect if there are more than 5 pages of posts and the code renders a double left arrow "<<"
//if($paged > 1 && $showitems < $pages) echo '<li><a href="'.get_pagenum_link($paged - 1).'"><span>‹</span></a></li>';
for ($i=1; $i <= $pages; $i++){
if (1 != $pages &&( !($i >= $paged+$range+1 || $i <= $paged-$range-1) || $pages <= $showitems )){
echo ($paged == $i)? '<li><span class="deactive">'.$i.'</span></li>':'<li><a href="'.get_pagenum_link($i).'" class="tbutton">'.$i.'</a></li>';
}
}
//The Below Line of Code Takes effect if there are more than 5 pages of posts and the code renders a single right arrow ">"
//if ($paged < $pages && $showitems < $pages) echo '<li><a href="'.get_pagenum_link($paged + 1).'">›</a></li>';
//The Below Line of Code Takes effect if there are more than 5 pages of posts and the code can render a double right arrow ">>" with the html encode of "»"
//However instead the code is rendering three dots "..." and the last page number
if ($paged < $pages-1 && $paged+$range-1 < $pages && $showitems < $pages) echo '<li><li><span class="deactive">...</span></li><a href="'.get_pagenum_link($pages).'" class="tbutton">'.$pages.'</a></li>';
echo '</ul>';
}
}
}
I also added comments. I got this function from HOW TO BUILD A WORDPRESS POST PAGINATION WITHOUT PLUGIN