Y'all always think I'm gonna go super dark. Are my stories really all THAT disturbing?

I know that bad things happen from time to time, and there's emotional moments and such, but I'm feeling like every strip, people are forecasting doom and gloom and that's absolutely NOT what I'm intending. Over the past year, I've been getting more and more disturbed by how regularly people are predicting the worst possible thing happening. I don't wanna have to back away from heartbreaking issues (such as young Penny) when they are about real issues, but is this really becoming near cnstant now and I'm honestly not sure what to do. I can't make everything always super conflict free and mega happy, because I don't think that's honest, but I don't like the notion that this strip is becoming a black pit of dispair and hopelessness.

I really don't know what to do about this. I want to create a strip where bad things happen but hope and dignity wins in the end. If that's not the strip that I'm making, I have to really think seriously about what this strip is, and if it's become the opposite of what I've intended.  If I cannot deliver anything but horror and gloom, than this is not the strip I need to be making.

Do you REALLY think I'm about to show a town of elves being murdered?!?!! Where have I gone wrong?