The Active Scrawler: Best fictional assassins

Considering how many assassins there are in fiction I thought I should say this is a list of some of the best. I have actually removed most comic assassins as there are enough to create a list of their own, as also occurs with ninja assassins. There's still some anime in the below list but there's a very good reason for that, they are particularly good assassin characters.

Assassins can be good, bad and downright brutal. They can be heroes and villains. They might want to quit or they might be just starting on their way to bloody glory. No matter what, they're fascinating characters as we're all rather intrigued by what it takes to leap over that line and kill a person. Some do it for money, some for politics, others for survival and there are the rare few who do it for pleasure. There's greed, revenge, power, faith, indoctrination and, strangely enough, there's habit. The best of assassins kill for multiple reasons and draw us in with their struggles.