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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 8178962" data-attributes="member: 67">I’m sure next year’s judges will figure something out.Oh, boy, there’s a lot here.First of all, I don’t think multiple manifestations of an ingredient are always bad. Sometimes, they are necessary to set up a strong thematic component. Those are my favorite.Usually, they don’t. Understand, my aversion is based on a lot of experience as a judge. Most of the time, they really do indicate that no single usage is good enough. It is so reliable an indicator, that it stands out as a red flag. Not a given, but definitely a warning.An ingredient’s manifestation should be like the answer to a well-written riddle: It could be no other thing.The reason you can use different manifestations when setting up a theme (and probably will need to), is because the theme is the ingredient!Without that extra effort, the author is basically saying, “pick one.” To which, my response is, “no, that’s you’re job.”I’ll read them as many times as it takes, I’ll analyze them until I’m fatigued, and I’ll judge them independent of my own preferences, but I’m not going to edit them, too. Discipline!</blockquote>