The n64 Zeldas would have been really bleak if they were written just a little worse than they weren't wouldn't they? MM has all those little moments, you think they world is just a doomed place living under the shadow of its destruction, but there are countless little moments. Even Ocarina was about loneliness where you lose the friends Link has wanted his whole life at the start of act 2, and that damned owl really twists the knife about it. But still you unite the peoples of Hyrule, make friends with a scarecrow and mad scientist at a lake, save an avaricious family from a curse, all sorts of things to lighten the tone.