When it comes to MK's story, it was in a pretty big lose-lose situation where the series had gone on for long enough that it appeared to be becoming more and more difficult to write characters, specifically the oldest ones, in new and interesting ways. If you want to tell a good story, then it's going to need structure and closure, so there's only so much you can do with the characters before they start going in circles, powercreeping themselves, or becoming unrecognizable. This goes doubly so for characters that die and defeated villains.
I actually liked the idea behind MK9 where they would retell the original games, but things would be slightly different. It let them keep all of the characters and main story beats, but add changes and twists to keep things fresh. Unfortunately, they immediately went off the rails with it and wrote themselves into a corner that only a reboot could save.
Unfortunately, there will now never be closure for old characters and stories as their threads have all been suddenly cut. As a fan of the old stories, which had their issues for sure, I just have zero investment in any story moving forward in MK. Those characters are all dead in another universe, and the story being told is an "original" one with a Mortal Kombat coat of paint splashed on it. It's one of those said realities that comes with indefinite franchising. You really only have two options: try to keep a single story going on forever with no closure or finality, or occasionally reboot things and constantly retell old stories over and over again.
Now, to be fair, even though I referred to this as a lose-lose situation, I do believe that either decision could work with the help of excellent writing. A stellar writing team with good long-term planning and foundation-setting could really keep a good story going and feeling fresh. Likewise, a talented writer could also reboot a series in a fresh and interesting way that captures a new audience while simultaneously holding the interest of old fans. The unfortunate reality is that the story mode is just a gimmick for selling copies, and not a priority for the developers/publishers. I do hope that one day we can get a reboot of the series with a focus on good storytelling because I really believe there are great stories that can be told in the MK universe, but for now we have to endure this watered-down Marvel dumpster fire.
