Am I the last to get this link? Quoting the prophecies:
"Fortune rides like the sun on high with the fox that makes the ravens fly."

So, um, do you suppose RJ always meant, from way back in The Great Hunt, when Tuon's name is first mentioned, that when she became Empress she'd take the name Fortuona, as in Fortune rides with Mr. Fox Medallion? Tuon = Lady Luck? Anyway, I like the line.

As for Tuon, I like her somewhat more since the scene between her and Beslan. She proved a fair, and remarkably just ruler in that scene. Before that, I'll admit that I was so disgusted with the slavery aspects of Seanchan culture (forget damane, which is almost understandable, given the Seanchan people's experiences with Aes Sedai; but the whole da'covale thing...removing all sense of dignity from people, and convincing the average servant that suicide is the only response when their 'owner' dies...that is a lot harder for me to swallow) that I had a hard time separating my dislike for Seanchan from any other feelings towards Tuon.

Her treatment of Mat was as arrogant and annoying as most other women in the book (and I'm no great fan of Mat, although I do like the character, but what a nightmare she's been), so that didn't win any favorable marks in my book either, but then again, it just made her typical.

However, upon later reflection, following reading the Beslan scene, a critical, short piece of dialog between Mat and Thom made me begin to reexamine her character. In KOD, Tuon insists on going to the hell, and Thom suggests Mat take her to an inn. Mat thinks she'll never fall for it, but Thom sagely suggests that she's a lot more sheltered than Mat realizes, for all her stern magistrate exterior. Like someone said above, she never had a childhod. The concept of love between Empress and husband is foreign. She's all about duty. She is nothing if not pious, and she is as stern and strict with herself as she is with others (wearing the veil because she feels she shamed herself in how she reacted to Lydia's foretelling). So, in that sense, she is a woman of honest, deep conviction. Perhaps some of her convictions are way, way off, but she doesn't change her mind to suit alien societies' whims. She aims to be as eternal and devoted as the Empire itself, and forget about political correctness.

Frankly, I both admire the character for her strength of conviction (it helped her not only withstand Semirhage and Rand, but also bring some semblance of order back to Randland), and pity her for it. Despite withstanding Semirhage and establishing some local order, she has simultaneously played very neatly into the Shadow's hands in terms of sowing chaos and battle, thanks to her blind devotion to her belief in the purity of her people's prophecies.

Tuon the person was dead before she ever really lived. As others have said, I guess that's what Mat brings her--a sense of personhood/Tuonhood separate from Fortuona the Empress. I hope she continues to become more human.