Wawrinka is in no doubt as to the nature of the obstacle that stands in his way of a second Roland Garros triumph.
Thiem is the only player to defeat Nadal on clay this season, but the fourth seed barely gave his rival a sniff and conceded just nine points in a chastening final set.
Wawrinka, who has won all his previous three Grand Slam finals, will face Rafael Nadal tomorrow. He has only dropped 29 games in his run to the final, though his quarter-final match with Pablo Carreno Busta was curtailed early in the second set, when his compatriot was forced to stop due to injury.
The Swiss has won all three Grand Slam finals in which he has appeared - in 2014 he beat Nadal in Australia and then Novak Djokovic in the 2015 Paris final and again in last year's US Open finale. "He played a very tough match this afternoon, so he will be full of confidence for Sunday", Nadal said.
"But Stan is playing unbelievable, no?"
Third seed Wawrinka's epic battle against Murray had delayed Nadal's appearance until almost 6 p.m. local time and there was a sense of "after the Lord Mayor's show" as the day's second semi-final began.
The best defender in tennis repeatedly threatened to tame Wawrinka's cavalier attacking instincts. Waiting for him will be Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka who outlasted world number one Andy Murray in an epic five-setter.
"With an atmosphere like the one today, you can not help but give your all".
"It's incredible to be back to the finals here again", Wawrinka said. Now, he goes for the hat-trick of 10s at the place where it matters most - to him, his fans and loyal devotees of clay-court tennis. That's what I preferred to do. "So I was expecting her to play well, and she did".
"I just want to enjoy this and make the most of the moment. You need to, keep pushing yourself".
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It was her 50th victor of the match, against 45 errors. "I learned many things during the years, not just after that final". On her part, Ostapenko celebrated her 20th birthday with a 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-3 win over Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky .
Having reached the last four without dropping a set, Wawrinka lost two to Murray who showed battling qualities of his own to come from a break down in both the first and third sets - but the fifth proved a bridge too far for the 30-year-old, who will take heart from his return to form and fitness.
With the match ticking beyond an hour, Murray led 5-4 with a couple of service points to come - but brilliance from Wawrinka brought up the first set point of the match which Murray saved.
Murray said: "I lost a little bit of speed on my serve, which wasn't allowing me to dictate many points".
Nadal has dominated players with one-handed backhands, especially on this surface as his groundstrokes force the ball up high into his opponents backhand, an extremely uncomfortable shot as Roger Federer & Dominic Thiem have now experienced at this venue.
Wawrinka is the oldest man in a French Open title match since 1973.
It worked in Wawrinka's favor (as did his opponent's bad back at the time) when he beat Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final.
Serving for the set, the Swiss choked in unforced errors to reprieve Murray.
Nadal holds a 15-3 edge over Wawrinka in head-to-head meetings - including 5-1 on clay - and is looking for make it 10-for-10 in French Open finals.
But the Scot is also a triple major victor, and despite looking tired, he broke through for the first time since the ninth game of the first set.
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