These family roles can also change as the family landscape changes. I was the hero child- oldest daughter, perfect grades and behavior, totally obedient, ultimate people pleaser and caretaker for a long time. Then my dad remarried. His new wife has a daughter just a year older. Since she lived with them full time and I was just a weekend interloper and my "evil" mother's daughter, new daughter took the place of hero child and I got to be the scapegoat during my visits. Everything that went wrong was now my fault, anything I did or liked or admired became laughable and unworthy. I was human garbage and they let me know at every opportunity. At 12 this abrupt transition was horribly painful and confusing. I honestly believed that there was something wrong with _me_, that some fatal flaw I possessed had caused all of this and _made_ my dad suddenly act this way. I had always felt I had to "earn" love by being perfect, and I suddenly couldn't do anything right.
What has really helped me to process that, and all of my other ACA issues, has been to enter into my own recovery. Yes, the initial knowledge helped me to understand that I needed some kind of help, but the endless analysis kept me stuck. As a child I had no choice in my environment and relationships. But the things I carried over as an adult are my responsibility to analyze and fix. So hero vs. scapegoat, victim vs. volunteer, whatever. None of that is as important as the power I have now to shape my own destiny, to define my own role(s) in life.