I'm just after watching sfdebris' latest review, and he brings up a good point about Q's motivation in Q Who. His idea is that Q was so amused by Picard quoting Hamlet non-ironically in Hide and Q that he sent the ship to meet the Borg knowing that this would lead to Picard's eventual assimilation, and his violent outburst in First Contact would prove to Picard that humans aren't as evolved as he would like to think. It seems to me that this is very fitting with Q's character, he seems like the sort of bastard that would set up a chain of events that would only reach its pay off a decade later. I think this idea has some merit.
Seeing as time is probably viewable to the Q as a whole, I don't find this sort of thing implausible. However, I don't think Q ever really thought humanity was grievously savage and such, and was always trying in his own way to champion them and push them towards greatness.
He may not have thought we are savages, but that doesn't mean that Picard quoting that line didn't make his eyes roll. I know mine did. He just wanted to knock Picard and his self-righteousness down a peg, and he thought the best way to achieve it is to force Picard to undergo years of mental torment.
I agree that Q would be capable of setting up such events, Eg Picards assimilation as you said. However i disagree that Q is such an evil 'bastard'. Q seems to genuinely like the crew of the enterprise, particularly Picard and Riker. By the end of the episode 'Deja Q' in season 3, Q seems to have developed a real sense of humanity. He admits to feeling ashamed that he wouldn't have tried to save Data's life and above all other places in the universe Q could have gone to live out his mortality, he chose the Enterprise. If i remeber rightly he evens states that Picard is the closest thing he has to a friend in the galaxy. Perhaps im wrong, perhaps im seeing this in a very one-sided manner being as im a Q fan =]
Oh, I think that Q is definitely capable of doing such things - after all, a few years passed in the continuum in the space of ten minutes in Q2, so it can be inferred that for Q, between each appearance, centuries pass. Q's used to long term planning like that. But I do agree with Lt.Cmdr.LaForge that Q's not quite a bastard, really. I think he sees something in humanity that he likes and the things he does are his little ways of pushing humanity to maybe, just MAYBE, take the step to get to his level - it would certainly shake things up in the Continuum. Really, he's less a bastard, and more like... a master with a beloved pet. *Off looks* It's... just an analogy.
But his interest in humans only seemed to come about around about the time of Deja Q. In the first two episodes he wasn't exactly a nice guy, in the third episode he flung them across the galaxy and allowed 18 redshirts die at the hands of the Borg. It was only after Picard stopped being so arrogant and told Q that he needed him that Q started to respect humans.