Here's your periodic reminder that the reason Kirk (tos-flavor) got a commendation for his solution to the Kobayashi Maru is because his "cheating" was his answer. Kirk's answer to the question of, "What do you do in a no-win scenario?" is "I break the rules until it isn't a no-win scenario. I don't give up on my crew, and I do whatever I can to save as many lives as possible."
And here's your periodic reminder—or first-time FYI, depending—that according to certain apocrypha, Nog similarly "beat" the Kobayashi Maru by relentlessly demanding to barter with the enemy until the simulation crashed. Like a true Ferengi, his answer to "What would you do in a no-win scenario?" is "Renegotiate the terms of the scenario. Rule of Acquisition #98: Everyone has their price."
THIS IS WHY I HATED HOW THE KOBAYASHI MARU TEST WAS PORTRAYED IN STAR TREK 2009.
Kirk cheating on the Kobayashi Maru wasn't him thumbing the nose at the test, it was him giving his answer to the impossible scenario. And unlike Star Trek 2009, which uses it as a way to prove how cool and rebellious Kirk is, the original context for the Kobayashi Maru was so much deeper.
Spoilers for Star Trek II by the way:
People also forget that Kirk was a genocide survivor before he ever joined Starfleet Academy.
When he was thirteen years old, he was living on Tarsus IV when a fungal plague wiped out most of the food supply, prompting the planetary administrator, Kodos, to try and pull an MCU Thanos by murdering a huge chunk of the population to make supplies last. James Tiberius Kirk was one of the ones who survived, but he witnessed friends, neighbors, and people close enough to be family be murdered by the regime. When Starfleet relief ships arrived a month later, Kodos was horrified (he genuinely didn't know help was coming). He faked his own death and took up a fake identity, but bore the guilt for the rest of his life. And so did Kirk, who would eventually catch up with Kodos as Captain of the Enterprise.
But this is hugely important because Kirk HAS faced death. He HAS faced a no-win scenario at least as big as anything a Starfleet Captain might, and only survived because random chance put him in the survivor's pool that day.
This is why he can't stand losing. This is why he refused to accept the test's condition. This is why his policy is to damn what's possible and change the rules until he can win.
That's why Starfleet Academy gave him the Commendation for Original Thinking.
Because he lost once, in a bigger way than he will ever fully accept. In a way nobody ever should lose. And he resolved to never let it happen again. He even died twice making sure it wouldn't.























