#snipeshooter

The first scene I could find of Bumlets and a Little Newsie was this little moment in the lodging house washroom with him and Boots in the background. It's not much but I thought it was cute and I think it sets a precedent.

Another more "big brother" moment I found was this one with him and Flipper. The most likely explanation was that Dominic Lucero was casually adjusting the blocking of the scene but as a big sister, that just screams "older sibling" energy to me.

The next scene is the opening of "Seize the Day (Chorale Version)," where Bumlets stands with his hand on Flipper's shoulder. This is a well-known moment and one that a lot of people took as confirmation of sorts that they're close, including me.

The next one is a very "blink and you'll miss it" moment but when the carriage horse comes charging at the group of newsies after the song, Bumlets sort of pushes Flipper in front of him until they're both clear. It's not the easiest thing to see on a TV screen so when I did notice it, I squeaked a little (partly because "getting run over by a carriage horse" is how I killed Bumlets's dad in my world building).

The next moment is a little moment with Les at the end of KONY. I like to call this the "Bumlets steals Les from David" moment because, well, look at it! It's such a cute thing and a dynamic I want to write about a little bit. Maybe Bumlets teaches Les how to fence like he does and they give David a heart attack.

The next moment we have is a Bumlets and Boots moment at the rally. When the bulls raid the rally to start arresting the newsies, you can see Bumlets once again take on a protector role and try and move Boots away from the incoming cops. It's not the best gif I have but you can see Bumlets grab him and start pushing and you can just barely see Boots grab his shoulder. I like to joke that Bumlets and Jack share custody of Boots and this is one of the scenes that highlights that for me.

The next scenes we get of Bumlets with a Little is also him and Boots! In the end, when all of the working kids show up to support the newsies, Bumlets lifts Boots up onto his shoulders! It's so sweet and it's definitely one of my favorite little moments in the movie.

This is another hard to see moment but if you know where to find Bumlets in the crowd when Jack tells everyone that they won the strike, you can see him pick up Boots again! He actually does it twice but the other time was so hard to see that I didn't bother giffing it. Even here it's pretty hard but you can see Bumlets's hair a little through the crowd of arms and Boots going up into the air. It's very cute.

The last two moments are between him and Snipeshooter at the end of the movie. The first is when Bumlets wraps an arm around him and pats him on the chest and the second is him tugging on the back of Snipeshooter's suspenders and then patting him on the shoulders. It's another one of those playful big brother moments that I love and I think it really showcases the relationship he has with Snipeshooter.

All of these moments put together tell me that Bumlets both loves the younger boys and is very protective of them. My headcanon that he takes over the lodging house as an adult just seems to me like a natural progression of how we see him interact with the boys on screen. And if you follow the idea that Bumlets is an orphan like I do, then you can think of it as him staying back to protect the family he has left.