Regarding chapter 5 page 6, on which Ed denies that common sense applies to him as someone "who's constantly being denied the most fundamental human experiences":
I'm curious to what fundamental human experiences he's talking about. Can't be the sex thing… he's denying himself that.
Yes and no; it IS "the sex thing", just not ANY kind of sex. He's not denying himself any kind of sex, just certain kinds - the kinds he doesn't want, obviously.
I don't think the sex he wants is a part of one of the most fundamental human experiences. I guess that he's built up an almost impossible idea in his mind as such says a lot about him though. No wonder he's so grumpy, he must think something is really wrong with himself since he can't do something as simple as the improbable fantasy he has for sex.This might be a weak defense on my part, but I'd like to point out that the whole scenario is still mainly about projection. I believe one of Carl Gustav Horn's favorite quotes (Mr Horn is the editor of the US edition of the Evangelion manga) is the following (quoted from my memory, so it's bound to be inaccurate): Evangelion is an animé about a boy who's constantly whining about how much his life sucks while the hottest girls in animé history are parading around him.
Well yes, that's true. But while pointing out this fact about Evangelion is rather funny, it's missing the point. Because Evangelion is a psychological projection, possibly by (a) someone who's not being paraded around by the hottest women in existence, and/or (b) targeted at an audience that is not being paraded around by the hottest women in existence.
In that sense: Don't take the fact that signifikat's protagonist could have had sex if he hadn't denied it too seriously.
I did contemplate giving a sort of pragmatic explanation of why the sex he was offered would have differed from the sex he wanted (and thus had to deny it). But this would have been just a pragmatic explanation - meaning I'd simply have twisted the facts given in the storyline. This ties into the fact that from the very beginning I've asked myself what status the events shown in the comic would have, and how real they would be. If you take a look at the raw (abandoned) script for chapter 1, you'll see how it points out that Ed and Sunhra meet in something akin to a virtual environment. I abandoned all of this because I didn't want to devalue the story by saying that nothing of it is real. Still, the question remains about how real the story can be, given that it's unfolding in a quite surreal environment. I hope to resolve some of these issues in chapter 6.
For now, I think the one central thing I can say - which is (1) coherent, (2) not devaluing the story and (3) true - is the following: What kind of sex would he want which he wasn't offered? Well, sex in the past, obviously. Any sex in the present doesn't satisfy his craving for sex in the past. This may sound sophistic, but it does tie into one of the core themes which is present from the very beginning and which is expanded on later on: That things which were kept from Ed in the past are keeping him from enjoying them in the present.
But of course all of this leaves open the question what kind of "improbable fantasy he has for sex".