Which if he was a duty bound Book Worm he would have never cheated on the Kobashi Maru cause that isn't a by the book solution.
Not at all...
The line from Gary Mitchell was that Kirk was "positively grim" and a "stack of books with legs" and that Mitchell steered Kirk towards that "little blond lab tech" who Kirk almost married (the line that led to the creation of Carol Marcus) in order to get him to lighten up a little bit.
It never said that Kirk was a "by the book" sort of guy... that's not the same as being "grim and too serious."
In my experience, the people who are too grim, too serious... they're the ones who are MOST likely to cheat when they feel threatened. They'll cheat, backstab, bully... anything... in order to avoid whatever they fear. And they can justify it all to themselves.
It's the person who learns that there are more important things in life who finds it easier to accept misfortune (even perceived misfortune... like not being able to pass a test which, unbeknownst to himself, he wasn't supposed to be able to pass anyway!)
It's time to forget the twisted canon of Star Trek so we can begin to tell exciting stories.
The two are totally unrelated ideas.
You can tell incredibly exciting stories in the unaltered, canonical Trek universe.
And you can just as easily tell abject CRAP stories while simultaneously flushing all canon.
If you find canon too restrictive... move into an as-yet-unexplored corner of the "Trek universe." There are infinite numbers of stories you can tell in our own real world, today... how many more should there be in an entire GALAXY, with "a thousand worlds and spreading out" to cover?
Plus since everyone knew he cheated at the Kobiashi Maru wouldn't he have been EXPELLED From Starfleet.
Nope. Remember, the Kobayashi Maru test was a "test of character," and there's no way to win. So, had he simply cheated... and remained defiant afterwards... sulking and being pouty... yeah, they'd have expelled him. If he'd failed and taken it personally but not done anything... but been sulky and whiney... that would have almost certainly precluded him from the "Command Track."
So, he cheated... something that is actually a DESIRABLE TRAIT for a military commander in a real-world situation. If the book says "do this" and you find another way to solve the problem, that's not bad, that's GOOD. It's called "outside of the box thinking" and as they said in TWOK, it got him a commendation for original thinking.
He still could have been cashiered out, though. The real issue is "how do you deal with the consequences of your choices." Had he whined and moaned and so forth... he'd have been out. But if he stood up, defended his actions, and made a compelling argument... that would be enough to move him to the front of the class.
Contradictions in the original source do not make for good canon. Period.
True, but that, at least, is no contradiction. This new film, however, may introduce new contradictions, that in that regard I think your point is entirely valid.
