Wow, you've explained what I've been feeling so well.
The implications Mashima promotes are so misogynistic and predatory. And all these things can happen within his story and I will still see so many people saying that he writes female characters so well and that he's not a misogynistic writer, which is obviously bullshit. Just because Mashima creates physically, strong female characters does not mean that he's not misogynistic. The way that he portrays Wendy and Sheila as well as Mest's infatuation with Wendy is a perfect example of his predatory nature.
On that note, I also think that Fairy Tail as a story and it's fandom lets misogynistic characters slide(pretty much what you were saying about Markarov, Macao, and Wakaba). For example Bacchus. Whenever people bring Bacchus up they fail to mention the bet he made in his fight with Elfman(Episode 162). This guy literally threatened to sexually take advantage of both Lisanna and Mirajane, and not only that, by Bacchus placing the bet he's implying that Mirajane and Lisanna are basically Elfman's property. The bet is suggesting that the men that can be intimate with Mirajane and Lisanna are ultimately the decision of Elfman's and that if Bacchus wants to be intimate with either of Elfman's sisters, he has to get Elfman's permission or in this sense beat Elfman in their match. Which is obviously misogynistic because it treats Lisanna and Mirajane as Elfman's property and also treats them like children that can't make decisions for themselves. But I think the worst thing about Bacchus as a character is that his threat is never taken seriously. I rewatched the episode with Elfman and Bacchus's match, and when Bacchus first makes the bet only female characters (except for Happy and Elfman) were openly disgusted by the bet, and that's pretty much the only time it's taken seriously. Throughout the episode, it doesn't feel like the match itself is being taken seriously. For example, halfway through Elfman and Bacchus's match one of the announcers talks about how Mato ,the pumpkin mascot, isn't here to referee today, First of all this interjection feels so out of place pacing wise, but more importantly it undermines the severity of what could happen if Elfman loses this match. Not only that, the bet that Bacchus made never comes up ever again and in a later episode , episode 164, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Plue, and Happy are all celebrating at the bar with Bacchus which is insane because this guy literally threatened your friends. Like why are we acting all buddy buddy with this guy who not only threatened Lisanna and Mirajane, but also sexually assaulted , Cana at the bar by stealing her top the day before the match.
I think how Mashima decided to handle this fight and how he treated Bacchus's character and bet with little to no severity is a perfect example of his misogynistic and predatory writing.
But it's not only Mashima who fails to recognize the disgusting behavior of Bacchus. It's also the fandom, every single time I see people talk about Bacchus(which is very little because he isn't that big of a character) they never truly talk about his actions, and they only mention the fact that they find him attractive or that they ship him with Cana(which is insane considering he sexually assaulted her). However, this isn't a problem only within the Fairy Tail fandom. I have noticed this as a common problem within fandom spaces. When a character is misogynistic and predatory they are only called out when the character is not conventionally attractive, but if the character is conventionally attractive they may get called out for their behavior but not nearly as much as the not conventionally attractive character (E.g. Mineta from my hero academia when compared to Sanji from One Peice).
I think this highlights a bigger problem within not only anime and fandom culture but also Japanese society as a whole. I think that anime normalizes misogynistic, predatory, and pedophilic behavior. You can especially see this with how surprised people are to see young female characters represented in a non-sexual way. (E.g. Witch Hat Atelier) It shouldn't be a breath of fresh air to see children not portrayed in the sexual light, but unfortunately, that is the type of content that is normalized in anime spaces.
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