Zeronis has the communication skills of a rock, and he's conditioned to exert tyrannical force to get what he wants done (remember his upbringing and his responsibilities and role as Duke). Ripley is still naive and a lil too willing to dive the deep end of doing work. Balance is key in all things. Of course, Zeronis has the right idea of things, but he fails at communication. Though, with Ripley's stubbornness, would she have actually listened to anything other than the (fake) death threat on Sylvia? She hasn't so far, and she's still not listening to Zeronis' requests even now (working through the night).
Zeronis is outright tyrannical and patriarchically suppressive, but in a sense, Ripley is also just as demanding as Zeronis for agreeing to requests and then completely not doing them. Even if Zeronis' threats are in poor taste, at least he's a man of his word and accomplishes what he sets out to accomplish. Ripley may be better at socially behaving but she's being so flaky right now. She literally proposed to Zeronis this time, yet she's not doing her part in the wedding that she agreed to do.
Both of them have to give a little to see their relationship blossom and work in harmony. They're two bullheaded idiots.
Hopefully there's visible progress in this area coming soon ^_^;