Am I the only one who doesn’t like captive arcs in stories?

In general, I generally don't dislike general things.

Silly dad joke aside, that's the truth. I've read books where I am bored to tears when the main character (or his/her friends/love interest) are captured, imprisoned, and/or enslaved and I've read books where these moments are extremely suspenseful and gripping. When I think about the moments that were the most gripping and upsetting, the captivity has been the result of an extreme power imbalance. For example, near the end of Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, (warning for spoiler, but while this is a spoiler, it is for a fairly minor character) a young boy is captured and cruelly disarmed by a sorcerer who is using him for a ritual in which the boy must willingly accept his own death and it is extremely creepy and upsetting - which, considering what is happening, is clearly the author's intent. Alternatively, when a hero who is fully empowered and would normally defeat a foe in a stand-up fight, but they are the victim of an ambush (or one of their loved ones or the fate for the world or whatever is used as leverage against them) and their gear and/or powers are stripped by whatever means, I'm not that entertained because we all know the hero will figure something out. Having said that, if someone is willing to write enough characters who are all likeable and then kill some of those likeable characters off (and they do so in a grand fashion that isn't trite but instead propels the narrative and the themes of the narrative), then they can manage to get me to fear for everyone - even the heroes - which is what made Game of Thrones so amazing (and I was very upset by numerous captivity moments in those novels), but I've never read anything else like that.

Having said that, I enjoyed the specific example in your post (though I'd like to know what book or web series it is from) and your sharing your reasons for disliking the capture arc in that specific book/web series.

/r/litrpg Thread