I have quite a choosy request here. I am looking for drama within the usual enemies-to-lovers tropes, but falling a specific sub-trope. Namely, I am looking for a powerful villain/antagonist who is obsessed with a seemingly less-powerful protagonist, and tries to do everything he can to "enslave" and or break her. The important thing is that there is an external power imbalance between the pair but they are equals in terms of intelligence, willpower and other internal factors.

The reason why I love these pairings is that they give wonderful opportunities for cat-and-mouse games and prove that even with greater resources, the more materially powerful character can't really break a mentally and spiritually strong person. Typical example is that one character is a aristocratic type like a ruler/king/president, and the other character a working type, like an agent/policeman/lawyer or whatever. Often they are on opposite sides of the ideological scales.

Also, very important, this HAS TO BE A SLOW BURN! This scenario will not work if they have an insta-love moment. This has to be a long, arduous battle fought over every patch of the land with passion and intense emotions. Swoon!

EXAMPLES: 

- Princess Weiyoung (okay, not between the ML and FL but SML and FL)
- King's woman (very good example)
- Empress Ki
- Siege in Fog (noit the best example, but you get the picture) 

Thank you very much in advance! 

  • Story of Yanxi Palace - Very slow burn. I didn't realize the ML was interested in the FL (he was in denial) or that he was the ML rather than the villain until half way through the drama.
  • Before We Get Married - ML's attraction is pretty instant, but the transition from wreckless, callous and aggressive desire to love / care / devotion is slow and it's actually such a slow burn that they don't get together during the drama, despite having loads of chemistry and sexual tension. It's only very strongly implied that they will get together shortly after the drama ends. This gifset (spoiler warning) made me decide to watch it. There are factors that give the ML some power over the FL at first, but then the power dynamic evens out a bit and arguably its more in the FL's favor later on.
  • Anti-hero male protagonist 
    • Bridal Mask
    • The Devil / Lucifer
    • Maou - japanese remake of the Devil
    • Cruel city
  •  villain obsessed with FL
    • Bridal mask - its a double whammy for the FL where he gets the villainbobessed with him and she thinks the ML is one of the villains
    • Meloholic 
    • Nobody knows
    • Sensory couple
  • Reverse scenario - female viklain obsessed with ML
    • Less than evil

Thank you for the recs, I will check them out!