Inkscape Help - layers interacting poorly

Hey Inkscape gurus!

Need help with something. I was playing around with an image that was working fine until I removed a drop shadow I had added at some point.

After removing the drop shadow, they objects aren’t playing well with each other anymore. Basically the colors are interfering with each other. (red text goes to purple)
Untitled

I’ve tried all the normal things:
Moved to separate layers
Layer alpha to 100% (and switched from 0-100)
object paint alpha to 100%
Changed layer stacking

When I turn off the layer with the blue, the text looks OK… but for whatever reason, the layers are still interacting with each other even though they should be overlapping and not doing anything???

Anyone have any ideas for me to try?