         }
         else if ((alpha == 1 || alpha == 0) && !blendModeExplicitlySet && value == "auto")
         {
-            if (value != BlendMode.NORMAL)
+            if (_blendMode != BlendMode.NORMAL)
             {
                 _blendMode = BlendMode.NORMAL;
                 blendModeChanged = true;

        // in our implementation, and we don't want those to use our display object to 
        // draw into because there could be something further down the line that has 
        // layer < 0
        return _blendMode == "normal" && (layeringMode == ITEM_ORDERED_LAYERING);
    }
    
    /**

        
        if (alpha > 0 && alpha < 1 && !blendModeExplicitlySet && value == "auto")
        {
            if (_blendMode != BlendMode.LAYER)
            {
                _blendMode = BlendMode.LAYER;
                blendModeChanged = true;
