//I mean you can make the argument that Hela inherited AND learned Odin’s ruthless, power-lusting, Machiavellian qualities, and Loki ONLY learned them, with different genes on his side, and Frigga as a mother to curb his darkest impulses (if in fact Frigga was not Hela’s mother, since the movie fails utterly to give us serious time developing Hela’s background).  And in that line of reasoning you can say maybe Loki was gonna end up just like Hela if things for him had been even worse. And yeah the two are obviously similar in certain ways: they’re both moody, jealous, sneaky, vicious, ambitious, pale, skinny and dark-haired, lol.  

But I’m gonna say, not exactly the same potential, from my POV, for a couple of reasons.

–Hela was a unilaterally privileged character, neither LGBT (that we know of) nor a person of color from a conquered imperialist territory of the nation in which she was raised.  Loki on the other hand is both of these things, and while they don’t EXCUSE his inferiority complex and his vast anxiety to prove himself “worthy,” they make it a hell of a lot more sympathetic, and understandable, than Hela’s “I just like killin people and the rush of power it gives me lulzies then dad locked me up because he freaked out at my power and couldn’t stop me” outlook. Which frankly, MIGHT NOT BE ALL HELA IS ABOUT, but again, the movie fails to demonstrate, so we just don’t KNOW. 

–When given the comparable power that Hela has, in the Tesseract + the Mind Gem, in Avengers Assemble, Loki strikes me as a more frantic character. Frantic is the word, and maybe that’s as much Tom Hiddleston’s really good acting as anything, but Cate Blanchett is also a brilliant actor, so I boil it down to writing, too.  But Loki always seems like he’s working under duress, and not just because he’s rightly terrified of Thanos, who tortured and coerced him, but also because the whole violent mad dictator thing doesn’t suit Loki as well as it does Hela.  Hela shows unilateral delight in carnage; “I’ve missed this,” she effuses at one point, whereas Loki, given the opportunity by Thor to defect to the Avengers, tearfully whispers, “It’s too late to stop it.” Worlds of diference, given very analogous opportunities at despot-level acts, and a similar body count. 

–Notice when Loki is given the chance to rule without the influence of Infinity Stones or violent coercion by a higher-up, he is actually a non-interventionist and a pacifist. By nature. Not so with Hela.   

–On that line of thought, Hela also kills HER OWN PEOPLE, from Valkyries to peasant citizens of Asgard, and INDISCRIMINATELY, whereas Loki would never dream to do so, in fact is very fond of his homeland (despite frequent incidents of bullying and ostracizing) and when he attacks and kills people on Earth, it’s to invade and patronize a foreign land.  Which does not make him kind, but does make him less indiscriminately ruthless than his older sister.  

–Hela further shows no normative emotional attachments, though again, she may have had them, but Loki is proven to have been very fond of Odin, Frigga, and Thor, both protective of and affectionate towards them, many times in his narrative.  

–Loki is also capable of self-sacrifice and of altruism, by nature, and Hela…I don’t think so.  

So I dunno. We’ve already seen Loki at rock bottom in Avengers and he still wasn’t as shitty and evil as Hela, But who knows, I would need more data on MCU Hela to be sure.  Also introducing a WORSE villain to make a current villain look less evil is a huge literary trope and they are totally doing that for Loki’s benefit both in TDW and Ragnarok.  So yeah.