So I've been looking into why the pagination isn't working, but I just can't find anything. When it goes to page 2, it just shows the same as the first page. Any other ideas?

    <?php  global $paged; get_template_part( 'template-parts/header'); 
    if ( $total > 1 )  {
         // get the current page
         if ( !$current_page = get_query_var('paged') )
              $current_page = 1;
         // structure of "format" depends on whether we're using pretty permalinks
         if( get_option('permalink_structure') ) {
             $format = '?paged=%#%';
         }
         }
     ?>
<div class="blog-inner">
      <div class="grid-container">
        <div class="grid-x">
          <div class="large-8 column">
            <?php
              if ( get_query_var('paged') ) {
                 $paged = get_query_var('paged');
                } elseif ( get_query_var('page') ) {
                 $paged = get_query_var('page');
                } else {
                 $paged = 1;
                }

              $blogs = array(
                'post_type'      => 'post',
                'order'      => 'DESC',
                'posts_per_page' =>  3,
                'paged'      => $paged
              );

              $blog_posts = new WP_Query($blogs); ?>
            <?php if ( $blog_posts->have_posts() ) : while ( $blog_posts->have_posts() ) : $blog_posts->the_post(); ?>
              <div class="blog-post">
                <h4><?php the_title(); ?></h4>
                <div class="byline">
                  
                <p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
                
                  ?>
                </div>
                <div class="read-all">
                  <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>" class="">Read The Post</a>
                </div>
              </div>
            <?php endwhile; ?>
            <div class="pagination">
              <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
                  <?php 
                      echo paginate_links( array(
                          'base'         => str_replace( 999999999, '%#%', esc_url( get_pagenum_link( 999999999 ) ) ),
                          'total'        => $blog_posts->max_num_pages,
                          'current'      => max( 1, get_query_var( 'paged' ) ),
                          'format'       => '?paged=%#%',
                          'show_all'     => false,
                          'type'         => 'plain',
                          'end_size'     => 2,
                          'mid_size'     => 1,
                          'prev_next'    => true,
                          'prev_text'    => sprintf( '<i></i> %1$s', __( 'Newer Posts', 'text-domain' ) ),
                          'next_text'    => sprintf( '%1$s <i></i>', __( 'Older Posts', 'text-domain' ) ),
                          'add_args'     => false,
                          'add_fragment' => '',
                      ) );
                  ?>
              </div>
             
            <?php endif; ?>
          </div>
                </div>
                <?php endwhile; ?>
              </div>
            <?php endif; ?>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

[some html-taken out, so some divs might not match up]

More Info: it is currently set as the index.php page, even though it's not the home page. if you get to it through misspelling a url, it works