Death in Xena: Warrior Princess or the dead walk the earth

Hades is not a revolving door. Hear that? Mortal Beloved was out for that reason and so was Death in Chains, thou more for hijinks with Gods reason. Quite a few others had to be adjusted. This made recurring villainy problematic. First, Xena is permanent with her sword more often than not. Second, if I see another instance of the villain defeating a hero and then sparing his life for whatever reason, so they can fight again at a later time, only to repeat the cycle ad nauseam, the writer of said masterpiece richly deserves lashings. In 2.0, if a bad guy has a shot, they will take it, unless the heroes stop him. No one is safe. There are invulnerable (not immortal, very important) heroes like Achilles running around but that just brings up a gory vision of Xena going Ash on the offender, a la Army of Darkness.
Within the constraints of the Xenaverse, as set forth so far, there are ways, logical ones I might add, to keep the villain from expiring. It will just take a whole lot more than plot devices or cheating to accomplish that. At the same time, I have to observe proper canon. It is a challenge. Discuss in FORUMS.