No, not exactly. Paper tape is embedded in the compound — first you run a knife’s width of mud on the joint, then embed the tape, swipe with firm pressure to get excess mud out, then you mud over top of the tape. Altogether, the tape becomes encased in the mud not unlike rebar in concrete — serving a similar function, it prevents cracks from forming in dry mud.

If you just leave tape on top of the mud, once everything dries, you can peel the tape off without much resistance.

You know what would go a long way in communicating the context & details of your problem?

A picture.

Apollo all the way. It’s like you’re trudging knee-deep in mud while you could be walking on pavement.

The official Reddit app is hot garbage. Imgur is the canonical way, it’s not that hard to learn how to use it.