In my opinion, this is Armada's shining jewel. The best episode by far, this was their Code of Hero.

Starscream's character arc was the single best thing about Armada. (too bad Energon had to go and undermine it. Thanks Energon) It deconstructed the typical Megatron and Starscream relationship showing what that kind of abuse can have on someone and his connection with Alexis is welcome.

This is up there with one of the greats.

 

I'd certainly say so.

 

I think it’s one of Armada’s best episodes, easily. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t think it quite ranks up there with Code of Hero or some of the others in my top 10. But it is good.

 

It's definitely one of Armada's greatest, but I dunno about in the whole franchise. Starscream's character, yeah, though. But Cramp is only the conclusion of the complex machine that is his arc. Rebellion, Sacrifice, Mars, and Crack are where a lot of the meat is, and there's plenty of small buildup throughout the show in general. Without all the right steps of everything that came before, there is no payoff with Cramp, it's just a bizarre reinterpretation of Starscream with unseen struggles and motivation. It's not independent like Transmutate in Beast Wars where it could be just as good if it were the first episode you saw. Cramp is Starscream's final decision to set aside his anger towards Megatron and his goal of destroying him in order to convince him that the Transformers must unite in order to survive Unicron, and it doesn't have as much impact if you just pick the episode up on its own, even if you've seen it already. But yes, Cramp was a harrowingly poignant episode and a beautiful, perfect ending to Starscream's story.

I love a lot of Armada episodes, and Starscream's are all great, but personally, Rebellion is my favorite. I actually went into depth about it recently here.

 

Shortish answer:

 

A good episode of Armada, no argument, but best of the franchise? No.