There is also Ahoshta.

I've actually thought about the above suggestion. We need to have a more sympathetic Calormene population. Heck, in the books, even the Tisroc is a more reasonable person than Rabadash himself. Unfortunately, HHB is still years away.

wolfloversk, if you reread the list of the characters of Calormenes in HBB, only Aravis was depicted in a positive light. Yes, Lasaraleen was a fine character, but as a person, she was still negatively portrayed. She's interesting but only because she's annoyingly so.

The reason that the Telmarines did not get as much flap for racism was probably because their people weren't depicted as murderous pagans. In both the book and movie, the Telmarines were not depicted as utterly evil with the exception of Miraz and his cohorts. In the movie, Goezelle placed the Telamarines in a more sympathetic light showing that they weren't all just blood-thirsty killers. In the book, we see Telmarines actually joining the Narnian ranks. Compare that with the Calormenes in HBB, where most are depicted as implicitly hateful/evil.

Savber100, Well one could also make the argument that there were quite a few aspects about Aravis that were annoying as well. I think Lasaraleen's personality was more of a result of her being born in to royalty and a rich lifestyle. And she did help the others escape.

I agree though that they need to make some of the Calormenes sympathetic, otherwise there will definitely be issues.

Can someone post a list of the Calormenes in HHB and LB: at least the major ones? I left my book at home.

Aravis, Arsheesh, Rabadash, The Tisroc, Ahoshta, Anradin(Bree's owner), Lasaraleen, Emeth and Rishda. Other names are mentioned, but don't have any part in the stories.
Did I miss any?

I think the Calormenes' religion remind me more of the polytheistic of early Mesopotamia (that may just be because thats what I'm studying in history right now. )

Having the second main character a Calormen will show that it is the culture not the people themselves that are the problem.

The major gripe I have against this is that throughout HHB, Aravis is the only Calormene that is not cruel, illogical, overly pompous, and arrogant. To prove this point, name a single, likable side-character in Calormen in HBB. If you're a Calormene, you're instantly a dislikable, evil person until you redeem yourself and go to Narnia. Can't say I blame people for saying it sounds a bit racist.
Maybe I'm taking up too much of a moderate's stance here, but I think it's important that the filmmakers make a point that the populace themselves are still human and not all are mindless, devil-worshiping, back-stabbing fanatics. Doing this will take the edge out of the so-called "racist" accusations.
Is it really such a stretch to to switch the focus onto the creators of this 'evil' society (e.g Tash, the Tisroc, Rabadash), while creating a more sympathetic Calormene populace?

Yes there are single, likeable side-characters in Calormen. Lazaraleen has already been mentioned. She might have her vanities and high-society, party-going ways, but she comes through to help Aravis. Then there are Aravis' brother (died in the wars) and father. Specifically Aravis blames her step mother for wanting to marry her off to Ahoshta, not her father. Then there is Aravis' maid. We don't know whether she is a nice person or not, only she got the blame, and the whipping, for Aravis' running away. What about the personal secretary to Aravis' father? Wasn't he the one who wrote her letter for her?

Watching BBC VDT the other night, I didn't find that particular Caspian a particularly likeable character. He bossed everyone around too much, especially Eustace. I thought that particular Caspian a contrast from the previous Prince Caspian who was a bit more humble. If you don't find any of the other Calormenes particularly likeable could it be for similar reasons? Because the Calormenes had the national attitude that anyone more important than you has the right of way over you? Especially their rulers, the only ones we see much of? There is limited space in a short novel to describe everyone in a particular society anyway.

Arsheesh might be an ignorant peasant, but he did save Shasta's life, even though he only thought of the bottom dollar. Plenty of people like that in all nations, and being uneducated, poor and downtrodden doesn't help. Anradin, one of Rabadash's cronies was only the sort of privileged person who thought such privilege was his due. At least he valued his horses.

But what makes these two characters distasteful is not that they are Calormenes, but that they and their society are acquiescent in the slave trade and in their idea that some people are more important than others. These days the mere existence of slavery does point to a Middle Eastern or African sort of culture, the last ones where slavery has not been completely outlawed. But there are those in Western Society who would also participate in such a society as well, if they think they can get away with it. What is HHB telling us about how we view other people in society anyway?

Ahosta was deliberately made to look horrible. C.S.Lewis was also making a point about marrying off young girls to older men in arranged marriages, which happens even in Western Society I hear. Fiftyish men might not look or behave as horribly as Ahoshta, generally. But the whole idea of a forced marriage of a young girl to someone old enough to be her father or grandfather is horrible anyway. The Tisroc is the ruler of Calormen. Why should the ruler of an openly slave-owning society be a nice person? Same with Rabadash, his son, who is not as well-regarded as he likes to consider himself.

Calormenes in HHB include the Tisroc, Rabadash, his tarkaans, of whom Anradin was one, but evidently not Aravis' father. Aravis, her father, and her other relatives plus their servants, Lazaraleen, her grooms and other servants, the crowds in Tashbaan, the soldiers and the slaves. Then there was Arsheesh and his local comrades, who also might have noticed that Shasta looked different from anyone else.

Calormenes in LB included Rishda Tarkaan and his men, but Rishda was only the leader of the enemy invited in by Shift the Ape and the likes of Ginger the cat. You have to remember that Rishda's men included Emeth, who was there to do what he believed was his duty to Tash, and that even Griffle's dwarves also included Poggin, who sided with Tirian.

Unfortunately, Valiant, although I agree with you about the early Mesopotamian religions, they, too, were Middle Eastern. It was the Middle East which has done more to shape our religious views worldwide than any other part of the world.

^ I agree most certainly! However, what I meant to say is that most people think Lewis was taking a stab at Islam, which I wouldn't say is true and I'm glad it isn't.

I think that the movies can show a more sympathetic side to the Calormenes. As waggawerewolf27, said, there are many chances to do so (Aravis' father and brother, her maid, etc.)

I don't think Lewis believed that all Calormenes were bad. Anyways, Narnians could be evil as well.

Waggawerewolf27, you make a great point mentioning the personal secretary and Aravis' maid. However, as seen in the book, they weren't deliberated much on and instead the only view we have on a normal Calormene was Arsheesh, who was depicted as an oaf that beats Shasta and was all too willing to sell him away to earn a quick buck. Yes, I know he's poor but that doesn't take away or change the callousness of his actions.

As for Lasaraleen, I acknowledge that she aided Aravis in the end, but as the only person that helped Aravis during their foray in Tashbaan, she was constantly depicted as lazy, apathetic, and even cruel with almost no redeeming value (saving Aravis was the exception). Sure it's probably the result of her culture, but we can hardly say that Lewis wanted us to view her positively with the way he kept describing her. As for your example on Caspian, he's a flawed character that matures and grows from his experience. We don't see that happening with Lasaraleen in the book.

In the end, my point is not saying that filmmakers should make Calormen a more "politically correct" country but instead needs to create a more gray dynamic between the Calormen government and their people. Let the filmmakers expound more on Aravis' family, the kind secretary, or even her brother to show that not all Calormenes are like the Tisroc and Rabadash. If anything, criticize their government, religion, and social caste system, but don't depict it in a way that makes Calormenes=evil incarnate.

As for your example on Caspian, he's a flawed character that matures and grows from his experience. We don't see that happening with Lasaraleen in the book.

Yes, Caspian is a flawed character who grows over two or three books. He was helped immensely by his actual friendship with the Pevensies and, in particular, his relationship with Aslan. But he suffered immensely when he lost first his Queen then his son.

Lasaraleen is still only a young woman when she and Aravis part ways in the Tisroc's palace. We have no knowledge of what happens to her, only that she had better not, for her own sake, say anything about what she did to allow Aravis escape. I don't see her as particularly cruel. She only talks and does as does everyone else who is high-born in that society, to an almost comical degree. After all, one can only die once, so to be beaten to death, burned alive and then to be kept on bread and water for six weeks is downright impossible. Lasaraleen clearly isn't really thinking about what she is saying. And that is the point about her.

And so I do see her as thoughtless, though I agree that thoughtless people are often unintentionally cruel, whatever their nationality or background. Lasaraleen and Aravis have had a past association and she is fond of Aravis which is what makes me rather like her. She is like so many other young women barely out of their teens who have lucked into a relatively well-to-do background who is too busy enjoying parties, nice clothes and lovely trappings to think about deeper matters, let alone question the society she was born into.

I expect Laz has been married off to someone or other at the ripe old age of 14, like was to happen to Aravis. But maybe her husband wasn't such a bad choice or someone who would go out of his way to be nasty to her in any way. Frankly she sees Aravis as being a bit strange about her marriage, which was only the custom in Calormen. Ahoshta, after all, was very rich, and Aravis would have enjoyed much the same lifestyle as Lasaraleen, that is, if she stayed on the right side of Ahoshta, who with any luck, would be too busy with affairs of state to see much of her.

In some ways she is a subtle reminder of LB's Queen Susan, though it is interesting that Lasaraleen, who fancies Prince Rabadash, doesn't think much of Susan. I wonder how they would have got along if they had ever met. Probably like a house on fire.

To understand C.S.Lewis' books better it is sometimes a good idea to read the Harry Potter books and to see if you can recognise the various parallel characters. Lasaraleen is not unlike Lavender Brown, a HP character who seems frivolous but who fights for the right side nonetheless. You will find Lavender Browns and Lasaraleens everywhere in the world, in my opinion.

I'm sure it would be possible to portray Calormen in a more sympathetic grey light. But I don't really see Calormen as so black and white in the first place.

I think that Lewis meant Lasaraleen to be more of a comical character than an outright evil person. Her quirks make her funny. I think she is undevelopped to make her more comical. She also serves as a foil to Aravis.

I don't think that she was evil or bad, but she gives a lot of good opportunities for Lewis to add a laugh into the story. Many Narnian characters serve in a similar role (like the Bulgy Bears.)

Valid points, but my original point is still a concern. Even if Lasaraleen is more or less a silly comic relief, she's not a character that gives us a good impression of the Calormenes. With the exception of Aravis and Emeth, the other characters just fuels the general negative impression of the Calormenes as an overly pompous, arrogant, evil race. Sure, there are some Narnians that are like that (the proud, traitorous dwarves, Shift) but they never were portrayed as the overall consensus. While I concede there are some interesting Calormene characters like the secretary and Aravis' brother, they were only given a brief mention and were not greatly expounded on since the focus was mostly on the "evil" Calormenes like Rabadash etc etc

Well, there was the secretary and the general of the chariots that Bree spoke about who was kind to him. though I don't think either will make it into the movie.

I don't know if Lewis meant for the Calormenes to be depicted in a racist way, but I can see why people think that. Even I'm confused sometimes and I can see the general public be even more inclined to believe the movie is racist. Thats why I think it is important to show more positive Calormenes. I think that there must be more good Calormenes than seen in the book, its just that Lewis didn't include them in the story.

No, Lewis didn't mean for it to be racist, most of the time people living farther south are darker skinned. As it is in Africa, South America and Australia and India.