There is so much going on in/around Oldtown as we head into TWOW. At first for this post, I wanted to do a "current status of the Oldtown" plotline, but it got messy due to numerous factors. Instead I decided to focus on Sam at the Citadel and a potential plotline and then decided to narrow it even further to what could happen on the Isle of Ravens.

The Isle of Ravens

It seems like Sam studying at the Citadel potentially became a causality of the 5 year gap, as instead of spending 5 years going through novice/acolyte as he earns his links, he instead will likely have a much shorter plotline in the Citadel.

Background

The Isle of Ravens is the oldest building at the Citadel:

"Not far. The Isle of Ravens."

They did not need a boat to reach the Isle of Ravens; a weathered wooden drawbridge linked it to the eastern bank. "The Ravenry is the oldest building at the Citadel," Alleras told him, as they crossed over the slow-flowing waters of the Honeywine. "In the Age of Heroes it was supposedly the stronghold of a pirate lord who sat here robbing ships as they came down the river."

Moss and creeping vines covered the walls, Sam saw, and ravens walked its battlements in place of archers. The drawbridge had not been raised in living memory. -AFFC, Samwell V

North Tower

Archmaester Marwyn's chambers (glass candle and all) are above the black raven rookery/weirwood:

It was cool and dim inside the castle walls. An ancient weirwood filled the yard, as it had since these stones had first been raised. The carved face on its trunk was grown over by the same purple moss that hung heavy from the tree's pale limbs. Half of the branches seemed dead, but elsewhere a few red leaves still rustled, and it was there the ravens liked to perch. The tree was full of them, and there were more in the arched windows overhead, all around the yard. The ground was speckled by their droppings. As they crossed the yard, one flapped overhead and he heard the others quorking to each other.

and:

"He has good days and bad ones," said Alleras, "but it is not Walgrave you're going to see." He opened the door to the north tower and began to climb. Sam clambered up the steps behind him. There were flutterings and mutterings from above, and here and there an angry scream, as the ravens complained of being woken.

If interested: Accessible Weirwood/Heart Trees

West Tower

Archmaester Walgrave's chambers are below the white raven rookery:

Archmaester Walgrave has his chambers in the west tower, below the white rookery," Alleras told him.

As always its interesting to note:

"The white ravens and the black ones quarrel like Dornishmen and Marchers, so they keep them apart." -AFFC, Samwell V

If interested: White Wings, Dark Words

Previous Events (AFFC)

Sam arrives at the Citadel aboard the Cinnamon Wind (which Marwyn later takes to Slavers Bay), where he meets Marwyn as well as some acolytes/novices that the reader originally meets in the AFFC, Prologue

If interested: The Citadel is not what it was, they will take anything these days"

Note: We also find out that the Faceless Men have infiltrated the Citadel (Pate, like the pig boy) and are potentially after the Death of Dragons.

In The Winds of Winter

Note: I don't expect Jorah to show up or Gilly to discover Jon Snow's parentage lol

Note II: GRRM indicated we would get a Sam chapter:

I am spending the days in Westeros with my pals Mel and Sam and Vic and  Ty.    And that girl with no name, over there in Braavos. -SSM, Back in Westeros: 15 August 2000

Most of the theories I read about Sam in TWOW center on either Sam getting captured by Euron or fleeing to Horn Hill, etc. before Euron arrives in the Citadel.

I would like to propose an alternate idea.. Sam (and several others) hide out on the Isle of Ravens.

How would this happen?

As Oldtown is attacked, they retreat to Marwyn's quarters and protect themselves by:

Moss and creeping vines covered the walls, Sam saw, and ravens walked its battlements in place of archers. The drawbridge had not been raised in living memory. -AFFC, Samwell V

I think them hiding out there could add so much to the plotline.

• Glass Candles (if Euron has one, they could communicate with him)
• **Weirwood (**Bran/Bloodraven could interfere)
• The Ravens (The Crow is the raven's poor cousin)
• Something magical could happen: Animals Screaming During "Magical" Events
• Lookout if the ravens say anyone's name
• If someone is about to die and Sam (or someone) "saves" them, Pate (likely Jaqen) will owe deaths to whichever "god" (similar to Arya)
• The situation could be as simple as Wex Pyke hiding at Winterfell/Bran and company hiding at Queenscrown

Not that it means anything but it should also be noted that the island was potentially a pirate den previously:

In the Age of Heroes it was supposedly the stronghold of a pirate lord who sat here robbing ships as they came down the river."

TLDR: Samwell (and friends) could hide on the Isle of Ravens if/when Euron and the Ironborn sack Oldtown.