headcanon + self-worth
send me headcanon + a word || ACCEPTING
Zeller's self-worth is like nitroglycerin. It is extremely reactive and can explode at any given moment, leaving potentially massive destruction in its wake. At any given moment, his ego is hanging on by a thread and he will act out if it is threatened or severed. Just one snide comment is enough to send his insecurity into a tailspin and he'll often react angrily out of defense of himself. But really he'll just be hurt and ruminate on it for the rest of that night, if not more following.
He pretends to have solid self-esteem and exudes confidence in how he speaks and carries himself, but this is a façade. He has incredibly low self-esteem and an inferiority complex, where he feels he has to overcompensate any time he feels inferior to someone. This is why he acts like a jerk toward Will or anyone else who he perceives as being just as smart or even smarter than him. His sense of self-worth is rooted in his intellect, so he feels threatened when he feels he isn't the smartest person in the room.
If you ask him whether he thinks he has stable self-worth, he will tell you yes. He is mistaking arrogance for self-esteem. He has plenty of arrogance, but it's a defense mechanism to convince others and himself that he has a healthy sense of pride. His pride is fractured at best, shattered at worst.
