The visuals clearly flash to the meaning of each one as they happen. When she says "to the west", it shows what is likely a Greyjoy ship.

Just to be clear, it's two truncated final seasons. This isn't the last one; after this year's seven episodes, there's one more next year with six. 13 more in total.

Well, remember, we see Ned Stark die two times. Once on the steps of Baelor, and once inside Talisa's womb

Steven's character and voice both get significantly better as the show goes on. If you're starting to warm up to it after only episode 13, stick with it.

well SU getting ~20 episodes in 4 weeks (the event is over now) was to make up for an extremely unbearable hiatus period as well - between September and May, there was only one batch of 5 episodes in January.