Well here's the thing - about the whole "one true love" or "the love of my life" bit? Whedon is making fun of it. I honestly don't think he puts much store in "wild passionate hearts and flowers romantic love".
There's a lot of evidence of this in the Riley One Shot, as well as the Willow One-Shot for that matter. But it is also an on-going comedy act throughout the comics.
1. Long Journey Home - Amy's spell which puts Buffy into a sleep-like coma (hints of Sleeping Beauty here - complete with fairy castle, evil witch, and zombies keeping anyone from rescuing them, while the Witch sits in front of the sleeping princess in her turet room and tells her friends that it must be "true love's kiss" that wakes her.) Turns out? True Love's kiss isn't Buffy's true love necessarily, but someone who trusts, loves, and respects Buffy unconditionally and has gotten to know her - Satsu. While Buffy is in said coma - she is visited by Ethan who basically makes fun of her romantic fantasies, sexual and otherwise. He shows up first as Angel - "My love" and she responds, "I just vomited in my mouth a little", then the first dream she falls into is nurse Buffy between Angel and Spike. Her earlier attempt to seduce Xander, costs him his head and she falls into the darkness, the mouth of a demon.
2. Dawn's tale - it's all about Dawn's stupid love affair with Kenny, who she cheated on with his punkish, rock singer, bad boy roommate. So as a result he put a spell on her - in which she picks the forms she turns into subconsciously - Giant slut, Horse (Ridden hard, put away wet), and Living Doll (protect you from the world and keep you to myself). (Ring any bells? Buffy - becomes superpowered, acts like a giant slut, gets ridden hard by Angel, and becomes his living doll - tucked away in a new reality where she can be his forever (a la Bluebeard, yet another fairy tale) until Xander (as he did in the Dawn scenario) screams out to her and she flies back down to rescue her friends. When Xander and Dawn chat - it is revealed that she slept with the other guy, because she didn't trust Kenny enough to be with him - she didn't trust Kenny not to break her heart and hurt her. So she slept with his roommate as a way to break up with Kenny and avoid that pain. (Again TRUST is the main bit here.)
3. Willow's tale - she is given a choice between Tara and Saksu as her guide. Tara she realizes is not real, and if she were - she'd be selfishly taking Tara away from where Tara has gone for her own need of Tara - that is a betrayal of their love and trust. When asked by Saksu if she trusts her, Willow responds in an interesting way - she says I trust that you will always lie to me. That you will always try to manipulate and mislead me. At least with you - I know I can trust myself to know these things. With Tara as a guide - I would delude myself, and be unable to trust me. (Again emphasis on what you can and can't trust).
4. Xander's tale is about Buffy - he trusts Buffy and Buffy keeps letting him down. First it's with Renee - who Buffy inadvertently get's killed via her plan in Wolves at the Gates. Next, he trusts Buffy regarding her plan in Tibet - people die. He trusts Buffy with his love for Dawn - Buffy retorts by asking what about how I feel for you, which he waves aside. Because hello? Timing? Buffy gets superpowers (Xander is happy and positive) - but Buffy goes off and shags Angel to kingdom come and brings about chaos...If anything happens to Dawn because of this, I'm guessing Xander may finally snap.
5. Always Darkest...Buffy dreams of Caleb, Spike, Angel, and Warren. At the end of her dream she's getting married to Warren who killed Tara, while Tara stands next to her as maid of honor bleeding - and every demon she ever fought is in the audience. Spike and Angel are making out in the background. That whole dream makes fun of true love - of fairy tale romance - it shows the nighmarish aspects of it.
Remember - Joss Whedon is not a romance writer, he's a horror writer who snarks at romantic tropes.
If Angel is the love of Buffy's life - expect Angel to be turned into a comedic version of Bluebeard.
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There's a lot of evidence of this in the Riley One Shot, as well as the Willow One-Shot for that matter. But it is also an on-going comedy act throughout the comics.
1. Long Journey Home - Amy's spell which puts Buffy into a sleep-like coma (hints of Sleeping Beauty here - complete with fairy castle, evil witch, and zombies keeping anyone from rescuing them, while the Witch sits in front of the sleeping princess in her turet room and tells her friends that it must be "true love's kiss" that wakes her.) Turns out?
True Love's kiss isn't Buffy's true love necessarily, but someone who trusts, loves, and respects Buffy unconditionally and has gotten to know her - Satsu. While Buffy is in said coma - she is visited by Ethan who basically makes fun of her romantic fantasies, sexual and otherwise.
He shows up first as Angel - "My love" and she responds, "I just vomited in my mouth a little", then the first dream she falls into is nurse Buffy between Angel and Spike. Her earlier attempt to seduce Xander, costs him his head and she falls into the darkness, the mouth of a demon.
2. Dawn's tale - it's all about Dawn's stupid love affair with Kenny, who she cheated on with his punkish, rock singer, bad boy roommate.
So as a result he put a spell on her - in which she picks the forms she turns into subconsciously - Giant slut, Horse (Ridden hard, put away wet), and Living Doll (protect you from the world and keep you to myself). (Ring any bells? Buffy - becomes superpowered, acts like a giant slut, gets ridden hard by Angel, and becomes his living doll - tucked away in a new reality where she can be his forever (a la Bluebeard, yet another fairy tale) until Xander (as he did in the Dawn scenario) screams out to her and she flies back down to rescue her friends. When Xander and Dawn chat - it is revealed that she slept with the other guy, because she didn't trust Kenny enough to be with him - she didn't trust Kenny not to break her heart and hurt her. So she slept with his roommate as a way to break up with Kenny and avoid that pain.
(Again TRUST is the main bit here.)
3. Willow's tale - she is given a choice between Tara and Saksu as her guide. Tara she realizes is not real, and if she were - she'd be selfishly taking Tara away from where Tara has gone for her own need of Tara - that is a betrayal of their love and trust. When asked by Saksu if she trusts her, Willow responds in an interesting way - she says I trust that you will always lie to me. That you will always try to manipulate and mislead me. At least with you - I know I can trust myself to know these things. With Tara as a guide - I would delude myself, and be unable to trust me. (Again emphasis on what you can and can't trust).
4. Xander's tale is about Buffy - he trusts Buffy and Buffy keeps letting him down. First it's with Renee - who Buffy inadvertently get's killed via her plan in Wolves at the Gates. Next, he trusts Buffy regarding her plan in Tibet - people die. He trusts Buffy with his love for Dawn - Buffy retorts by asking what about how I feel for you, which he waves aside. Because hello? Timing? Buffy gets superpowers (Xander is happy and positive) - but Buffy goes off and shags Angel to kingdom come and brings about chaos...If anything happens to Dawn because of this, I'm guessing Xander may finally snap.
5. Always Darkest...Buffy dreams of Caleb, Spike, Angel, and Warren.
At the end of her dream she's getting married to Warren who killed Tara, while Tara stands next to her as maid of honor bleeding - and every demon she ever fought is in the audience. Spike and Angel are making out in the background. That whole dream makes fun of true love - of fairy tale romance - it shows the nighmarish aspects of it.
Remember - Joss Whedon is not a romance writer, he's a horror writer who snarks at romantic tropes.
If Angel is the love of Buffy's life - expect Angel to be turned into a comedic version of Bluebeard.