Weighing Teslyn and Joline... - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 11/07/2010 04:22:57 PM
made a series of events unfold that ended with Mat and Tuon marrying.
That may well be the resolution of the dream, or it was a red herring.
It may be a red herring, and the reason I see is that Egwene made a point of describing the balance scale as HUGE (unlike her other dreams of balance scales), and the outcome of Mat's choice felt very momenteous to her, that perhaps the world rests on this choice. She said something vast depended on his choice. Marrying Tuon was very important but fated to happen too. If not through choosing Teslyn over Joline, then the Pattern would have engineered something else to make it happen. There's always many ways in which what must happen can happen. Not going back for Teslyn was very unlikely to have meant Mat would not in the end married Tuon. Mat didn't really weighed Joline and Teslyn either. He was convinced Joline was the one, asked a trick question to be sure and thus learned it was Teslyn. No weighing, no hesitation - he felt bound to save Teslyn after that.
Egwene also had a previous dream of Mat with a balance scale (in this one, he was placing his left eye on the balance) and my intuition is that the two dreams have to be tied somehow, and with Teslyn/Joline it's not the case, while with events related to the ToG it may well be.
So it looks like a distinct possibility one of the two AS on the huge balance is rather Moiraine, and going to Ghenjei. As we know, without Moiraine Rand will almost certainly fail, which has the sort of dramatic momentum Egwene's dream suggested. Mat will be in Caemlyn where a lot of us expect the big climax of TOM to take place (a huge battle launching TG). Right now, Thom wants to save Moiraine, and Mat agreed to, but none but Min know this is important. The AS who doesn't want Mat and Thom to go to Ghenjei, or at least argues they can't risk that before TG (she'd have a perfectly defendable motive: if Mat gets himself trapped there but doesn't die, the world might lose the power of the Horn at TG) could well be Elayne.
An another alternative is the fact the gholam is following Mat, and he knows it wants Elayne as much as it wants him. If there's any sign the gholam has caught Elayne's trail again, Mat won't be so hot about leaving Caemlyn, especially not once he knows Elayne is pregnant with Rand's kids. It may get worse still, if Mat develops a feeling something really bad might be about to happen in the city (for instance, tension has built up a lot between Elayne and Taim, etc.) The choice he would have to make then would be stay to protect Elayne or leave it to go save Moiraine.
The other option is that the second AS is Verin. Her instructions to Mat might force him to make a choice between two promises (that to Verin, and that to Thom to go to Ghenjei). It may be a very difficult choice, if Verin's instructions concern the Horn or somethign as pressing as that. Mat doesn't know, and won't unless he meets Min and Min learns from him Moiraine is alive, that rescuing Moiraine has to happen before TG. Min's with Rand during this timeline, so it's very unlikely Mat learns the importance of the rescue before he goes to Ghenjei. He might hesitate to postpone fulfilling Verin's request to go to Ghenjei first. Of the two, Verin's instructions might seem the most urgent.
That may well be the resolution of the dream, or it was a red herring.
It may be a red herring, and the reason I see is that Egwene made a point of describing the balance scale as HUGE (unlike her other dreams of balance scales), and the outcome of Mat's choice felt very momenteous to her, that perhaps the world rests on this choice. She said something vast depended on his choice. Marrying Tuon was very important but fated to happen too. If not through choosing Teslyn over Joline, then the Pattern would have engineered something else to make it happen. There's always many ways in which what must happen can happen. Not going back for Teslyn was very unlikely to have meant Mat would not in the end married Tuon. Mat didn't really weighed Joline and Teslyn either. He was convinced Joline was the one, asked a trick question to be sure and thus learned it was Teslyn. No weighing, no hesitation - he felt bound to save Teslyn after that.
Egwene also had a previous dream of Mat with a balance scale (in this one, he was placing his left eye on the balance) and my intuition is that the two dreams have to be tied somehow, and with Teslyn/Joline it's not the case, while with events related to the ToG it may well be.
So it looks like a distinct possibility one of the two AS on the huge balance is rather Moiraine, and going to Ghenjei. As we know, without Moiraine Rand will almost certainly fail, which has the sort of dramatic momentum Egwene's dream suggested. Mat will be in Caemlyn where a lot of us expect the big climax of TOM to take place (a huge battle launching TG). Right now, Thom wants to save Moiraine, and Mat agreed to, but none but Min know this is important. The AS who doesn't want Mat and Thom to go to Ghenjei, or at least argues they can't risk that before TG (she'd have a perfectly defendable motive: if Mat gets himself trapped there but doesn't die, the world might lose the power of the Horn at TG) could well be Elayne.
An another alternative is the fact the gholam is following Mat, and he knows it wants Elayne as much as it wants him. If there's any sign the gholam has caught Elayne's trail again, Mat won't be so hot about leaving Caemlyn, especially not once he knows Elayne is pregnant with Rand's kids. It may get worse still, if Mat develops a feeling something really bad might be about to happen in the city (for instance, tension has built up a lot between Elayne and Taim, etc.) The choice he would have to make then would be stay to protect Elayne or leave it to go save Moiraine.
The other option is that the second AS is Verin. Her instructions to Mat might force him to make a choice between two promises (that to Verin, and that to Thom to go to Ghenjei). It may be a very difficult choice, if Verin's instructions concern the Horn or somethign as pressing as that. Mat doesn't know, and won't unless he meets Min and Min learns from him Moiraine is alive, that rescuing Moiraine has to happen before TG. Min's with Rand during this timeline, so it's very unlikely Mat learns the importance of the rescue before he goes to Ghenjei. He might hesitate to postpone fulfilling Verin's request to go to Ghenjei first. Of the two, Verin's instructions might seem the most urgent.