This mainly brings to mind "The Last Empress" (Korean drama). The emperor pretends to fall in love with and marries the female lead, Sunny, to protect his secret relationship with one of the female antagonists. Sunny has been a fan of the emperor's for years, but it doesn't take long for her to become aware of how immoral he and his family are. He eventually falls deeply in love with her, and while he's mostly sinister in the beginning, the emperor has a lot of cute, humorous scenes later in the series. Even so, he's still pretty unhinged, so he is indeed creepily obsessive/possessive. He's got an evil streak, but his biggest fault is being easily manipulated by the women in his life. He does die in the end (since you asked for spoilers); the ending is bittersweet but more positive/happy than not.
"The King's Woman" (Chinese drama) also fits the criteria. The emperor falls in love with the female lead, Sun Li, and she agrees to marry him in exchange for an antidote to save her lover's life. Sun Li is a competent fighter and she's headstrong, but she soon falls in love with the emperor as well. They have a good relationship for a while; because she's in love with him, she has something of a blind spot when it comes to some of his actions, but eventually she realizes just how vicious and cruel he can be. The ending is admittedly pretty hard to stomach, or at least it was for me. All of the protagonists die violently and the final scene is of the emperor grieving, remembering a childhood memory he and the two other main characters (Sun Li and her lover) had together. The emperor is extremely possessive of Sun Li, and he can be pretty heartless.
"Ashes of Love" (Chinese drama) - the female lead, Jin Mi, and the second son of the Heavenly Emperor fall in love... however, the male lead's soft-spoken, mild-mannered older brother, Run Yu, also falls in love with her. At the beginning of the drama, Run Yu is kind and unambitious, but as a result of numerous injustices and painful events, he becomes bitter and vindictive. His obsession with Jin Mi gradually becomes more intense over time and does everything he can to keep her with him. Although he eventually has to face the consequences of his actions, there's nothing to dread about this ending. He seems less inherently evil than the other two characters; rather, it seems he becomes temporarily blinded by his rage, resentment, and infatuation.