Pure Evils with Cooling-off Periods

Pure Evil villains who have significant periods in their character history where they are not a major threat to the heroes. These villains have "cool-off" moments where they are not an active threat to the heroes or anyone as they were when they were the main threat in their main story arc.

After their defeat where they have not died or have not been seen again, the villain appears where they are no longer an immediate threat to the heroes or anyone. These villains may only appear to speak or to do a task that another character tells them to do. As these villains are temporarily not a major threat, they appear to serve another role in the story.

Some cases include:

1. The villain's superpowers were stripped and the villain can no longer be a major threat either permanently or only for a certain amount of time (e.g. Ozai, Morgoth, The Lich, The Ink Demon and Ke-Pa).
2. The villain has become subservient to another character or other forces for whatever reason (e.g. lost their legal authority, or were cursed) after their defeat (e.g. Odalia Blight, Hugo Strange, Red Skull and Orb).
3. The villain temporarily allies with the heroes to fight against a threat bigger than them or assisting them in something important for reluctant or pragmatic reasons, they can also help the public or neutral characters on something (like rebuilding a town, etc.) (e.g. Frieza, Evolt, Andross, Volo, Shang Tsung, Agent 23, Slade, God, Doctor Doom and Ridley).
4. The villain spends a significant amount of time being imprisoned or taken as a hostage on-screen (e.g. Takeshi Asakura, Muscular, Porky Minch, Shadow Queen, Solomon Lane, John Doe, William Wharton and Dr. Henry Miller)/In some cases, they are trying to break free (e.g. Retak'ka, the Scarlet King, Zhan Tiri, The End, Invictus, and Scarlet Spiker) or they are just doing something admirable so they can be free of punishment later (e.g. Judge Claude Frollo).
5. The story moves onto other villains/arcs or takes a break from the drama and the villain is no longer the main or immediate focus to the heroes (e.g. Micah Bell, Evil Buzz Lightyear, Donald Love, the Coachman, Eddie Kim, and Dick Hardly).
6. The villain is left alive or active after suffering a major defeat that either left them in a permanently different condition or handicapped. In some cases, the villain works for another character (e.g. Chucky, Dio Brando, the Animated Megatron, Sentinel Prime, Darkrai, Vilgax, Cipher, Shan Yu and Lord Commander).
7. The villain is exposed to toxins or forces that brought out lighter qualities or something even better for a short amount of time. The villains under these instances were either possessed, purification, or brainwashing from an external source (e.g. Carnage, who temporarily had his best qualities brought out by a spell from Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch; Light Yagami and Junko Enoshima, who became amnesiac during a period of time).
8. The villain's true colors are exposed to the public, and thus they are no longer a threat anymore or is currently hiding or on the run (e.g. Andy Evans, Lotso, and Dick Hardly).
9. The villain spends a significant chunk of the story hiding from the heroes instead of going into action (e.g. Vladimir Makarov, David Griffin, Junichi Shimura, Junko Enoshima, Marian Mallon, Leonard Wright, Dr. James Sheridan, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Takayuki Kujou and Bill Cipher).
10. The villain, for whatever reason, can only attack and commit evil at certain times and spends the rest of the time doing nothing (e.g. It who only attacks the town of Derry every 27 years, Michael Myers who only kills on Halloween, The Creeper who feeds for 23 days after hibernating for 23 years, Calendar Man who only kills people on holidays, Gatanozoa who went into slumber for a thousand years, William Afton who primarily attacks during the night, Professor Kindly who lures victims to his lab and cuts their brains and keeps their brains in jars, and the Tao Tei Queen who attacks every 60 years).
11. Similar to above, Traitorous Weak Psychopaths who are always surrounded by normal people and can only commit evil whenever they are alone by themselves or with their victim, and spend the rest of their time being very fake kind to people and helping them UNLESS they are only non-violently manipulating their subject, which does not count as a cooling off period (Light Yagami, Henry Evans, and Emma Grossman).
12. The villain intentionally takes a break from their crimes just because it would benefit them to wait for a different time to attack (e.g. Gary Smith, Father, Horde Prime, Belzeus, Emperor Belos, and Steve Cobs).

It is important to note that these villains do not have any redeeming qualities and have not expressed any remorse for their past actions. These villains are only serving others for their own self-interests. They may still antagonize the heroes or commit minor crimes during the time where they are not the main threat. The moments for these villains may go on for a single story arc to multiple story arcs. In some cases, the story could end with them not coming back up to be the main threat to the heroes (e.g. Arba). However, these moments are usually temporary until the villain returns to being a major threat to the heroes.

In the best case, the Pure Evil may, completely by accident, do something that is worthy of a Goodness Zone or even outdo a Pure Good hero, but they never intended it and it is not redeeming at all.

Some of these villains can qualify as Karma Houdinis especially if they got off scot-free during their "cooling-off" period (e.g. Evolt and Frieza).

This category only applies to Pure Evil villains who are not a major threat for a significant amount of time in the story, even if it's only one time (the plural "cooling off periods" doesn't mean it must be more than once).

One-Shot villains may not fall under this category as this is for villains who appeared across multiple episodes or chapters throughout a show, story or any other media.

Revived villains would not qualify for having a cooling-off period. Since these villains were dead, they were not active to do anything to show that they were not a major threat for a period of time (such as allying with the heroes, being imprisoned on-screen, being subservient to other characters, etc). Only exceptions to revived villains qualifying would be if they displayed any of the aforementioned moments in the list above before or after their death(s), while they were reanimated as an undead or while the villain is shown on-screen and active in an afterlife (e.g. Frieza).

Be careful with Non-Action Master Manipulators because they are still a threat when they are manipulating people, and that doesn't count as a cooling off period unless it's unrelated to their evil plans.

It is important to note that these villains are either unapologetic after their cooling-off moments or they learn from their actions, with the exception of mild or well-reasoned cases which aren't positive at all. After these moments, these villains also reflect and learn from their actions and make necessary steps towards becoming worse individuals for those around them.

This is the opposite to Pure Goods with Heating-up Periods.

They are considered the darker counterpart to On & Off villains who cannot qualify as Pure Evil due to their anti-villainous attributes. However, the thing that gets these ones here is how they are more than willing to pick the side of evil and have a moral agency and have no redeeming qualities and if they have had any back then they likely have shedded their redeeming qualities away and corrupted themselves like Fallen Heroes or Wholly Debased.