#his sole motivation for cheating was giving lucy gray a chance to survive

[farosdaughter]

“Coryo only cared about Lucy Gray’s survival for his own selfish reasons”

Coryo thinking about Lucy Gray’s survival:

Before any thought of his own well-being or the incumbent threat of his family’s imminent homelessness, comes Coryo’s desire to help Lucy Gray survive the Games. Those worries don’t negate the sincerity of his intentions towards Lucy Gray, just like Katniss cared both about the survival of her family and keeping Peeta alive. Personal, ‘selfish’ needs can and do coexist with altruistic ones in most people. Not to mention that Snow being willing to do anything to ensure his and his family’s survival doesn’t scream villainous mastermind. He’s an underdog whose only concern is staving off hunger and doing a good enough job to achieve some sense of security.

His determination to keep Lucy Gray alive is born out of gratitude, honor as well as selfless love. Coryo’s motivation here is entirely altruistic: he risks everything he has at stake (his reputation, his chance to save his family from ignominy and hunger, his entire future) to give Lucy Gray a bigger chance at survival.

If it had only been a matter of getting the Plinth money, he would’ve focused all his efforts on endearing himself to the Plinths (as he ends up doing at the end of the story). On the contrary, violating the Academy rules and basically challenging the purpose of the Hunger Games could only result in Coryo’s fall from grace.

It’s not the cheating itself, but the circumstance that he did so for the love of one of the tributes that lands Coryo in exile. If he’d cheated simply to show off or for any other selfish reason, you can bet his punishment wouldn’t have been as extreme. Dr Gaul sees how having a soft spot for Lucy Gray will eventually compromise his allegiance to the Capitol: it’s one mistake that cannot be tolerated in the future elite of Panem.