A thought on Zelda's writing

One of the main reasons I've noticed that Majora's Mask is way, way darker is because it doesn't have the need to cherry-coat everything. When the girl from the farm gets abducted by aliens, she's broken mentally, completely shattered. When Kafei vanishes, she's devastated. People die, and everyone seems really upset about it.

Meanwhile you look at Ocarina of Time, such as when the Gorons have been herded up to be fed to Volvagia, and they all cower in the prisons. "Please...don't...eat...me..." they whimper, not looking up to realize that you're trying to save them. "If you eat me you'll get a stomachache, and you'll be sorry!"

I understand we're making this an E for Everyone game and I don't take issue with what they did, but it does strike me as one of those surprising moves that Majora's Mask was not doled equally with heaping spoonfuls of sugar. Majora's Mask was really miraculous in several ways, the most specific being that we even got the game as it exists now at all.